From Snow White to Snow Night, by Nichola Scholes, 3/6
In order to grasp the ways in which Walker’s reversion changes the representations in the Grimm version, one must know what the Grimm representations are. The contents page of Warner’s From the Beast to the Blonde reads like an A-list of stock fairy tale characters and representations. The following ones apply to “Snow-White”: Absent Mothers, Wicked Stepmothers, The Runaway Girls, The Silence of the Fathers, The Language of Hair, and The Silence of the Daughters [15]. Interestingly, the representation of Reluctant Brides applies to “Snow Night” but not to “Snow-White.” Nonetheless, in accordance with the reversion’s motives, the bride’s reluctance in “Snow Night” is hardly a dutiful assent (like, for example, Beauty’s in Beauty and the Beast), but a strong, absolute physical and verbal resistance, as demonstrated by the following excerpt:
Snow Night screamed and thrashed in a panic, struck him with her fists, and finally kicked him in the crotch. As he curled up gasping for breath, she sprang to her feet and spat at him.
“Never, never come near me again, do you hear, you repellent monster?” she cried. “I hate and despise you, and I always will.” [16] .
This Snow Night can hardly be accused of sending out mixed messages. Her extensive dialogue throughout the narrative gives her agency.
“Snow Night” for the most part accords with “Snow-White” in regards to its inclusion of stock fairy tale characters. In this way, differences between the character portrayals and their interactions explicitly contrast with those made well known via Grimm or Disney. The following table provides a snapshot of the characters in both stories:
|
‘Snow-White’ (Grimm) |
‘Snow Night’ (Walker) |
Female |
Snow White |
Snow Night |
Male |
King (Snow White’s father) |
King (Snow Night’s father) |
In both “Snow-White” and “Snow Night” a Queen has a daughter, the Queen dies and the King remarries. In “Snow-White” however, Snow White brings about the Queen’s death as the Queen dies in childbirth. The narrative opens with the Queen accidentally pricking her finger with a needle, drawing three drops of blood. This has been read as a sexual image of penetration, especially virginal penetration with the breaking of the hymen [17]. As the blood falls on snow, a contrast is made between sexuality and innocence [18]. Yet, as the narrative goes, “the red looked so lovely on the white,”[19] which is fortunate as one will bring about the other, since it is the sexual act that makes a virginal child. The Queen conceives the desire for a child after she has pricked her finger, just as one conceives after sexual penetration.
