From Snow White to Snow Night, by Nichola Scholes, 5/6
How could a young beautiful princess compete with such poised self-assurance and wisdom, even if she wanted to? Bruno Bettelheim takes an interesting psychological view of this. He argues that it is precisely because children know that they cannot compete with their parents, that they defensively imagine their parents as jealous and competitive [31]. The Queen’s dialogue contrasts heavily with the “Snow-White” Queen’s action of dancing in red-hot shoes until she dies, in a final image of “the middle-aged woman who exhausts herself by insisting on upstaging her daughter and being the life of the party.”[32]
Another major deviation in representation concerns the figure of Lord Hunter, who breaks with the stereotype of the good, faithful huntsman. His conceited arrogance is reminiscent of Disney’s creation of Gaston in the animated film, Beauty and the Beast. Lord Hunter’s bad poems, boring and self-centered monologues and physical repulsiveness shatter any romantic illusions or expectations a reader may hold, as does his “bumping down rather heavily” and “hand on heart” pretentiousness [33]. Female point-of-view and agency is given both to Snow Night and the Queen, as their thoughts reveal their true feelings for Lord Hunter. One particular observation of Snow Night’s is interesting. “Though he was arrogant and fancied himself a very gallant gentleman” she muses, “she found his attentions unwelcome” (my emphasis) [34]. In other words, although he is a typical fairy tale suitor, Snow Night does not like him. Lord Hunter upholds the patriarchal ideology of traditional fairy tales and it is he who tries to preserve the stereotypes. For example, when Snow Night rejects his marriage proposal (a major subversion), he tries to play Snow Night against her stepmother (as occurs in “Snow-White”) confirming yet again how competition between women brings about their powerlessness and assists patriarchy. When he fails in this, Lord Hunter offers to kill Snow Night on the Queen’s authority, just as the huntsman is ordered to in “Snow-White.” He finally seeks to destroy Snow Night himself, for in refusing his offer of marriage she has subverted patriarchy and must be punished so that the old order may be reinstated. Significantly, in “Snow Night” the Queen issues an order to the dwarfs to save Snow Night. A cooperative, supporting sisterhood is also implied by the fact that the queen of Dwarfland owes her a favour.
In summary, “Snow-White” is a tale of reward of beauty and naivety, the dangers of falling prey to the temptations of vanity and narcissism, and the punishment of autonomous, powerful women. Its narrative rewards girls who are beautiful, yet who are not preoccupied with their beauty. Consequently, beautiful girls remain powerless, “ugly” girls are always powerless as they are not valued, and beautiful girls who are aware of their beauty (i.e. their sexuality and personal power) must be punished. It demonstrates that all women are fiercely controlled under patriarchy.
There is still much to be discussed regarding “Snow Night” and its representations. I have not, for instance, looked at the rationale behind the dwarfs’ adherence to their usual stereotypes, the swift turn from love to hate in Lord Hunter’s pursuit of Snow Night, the maid’s succumbing to passivity, the ending, or the Prince Charming figure. For my purposes here, it is sufficient to say that “Snow Night” subverts the patriarchal ideology of its traditional variant, through its portrayal of powerful, autonomous, good, wise women and an unshakeable sisterhood.
From familial spoken story to international literary genre, the folk or fairy tale has amazing staying power. Throughout history it has mirrored and masked the tastes, opinions and intentions of its creators, editors and translators. The story of Snow White has enjoyed astonishing success since its defining symbolism was first written in a seventeenth-century French text. From the pivot of the Grimm Brothers’ 1812 fairy tale collection to the mass-marketing multi-media of Disney, it has retained its popularity amongst the small number of well-known fairy tales. Feminist criticism of the genre during the nineteen-sixties and seventies has led to the creation of new and informed fairy tales, as well as numerous re-workings of traditional material. As an example of the latter, Barbara Walker’s “Snow Night” successfully thwarts stock fairy tale representations to expose the grim misogyny of the Grimm’s version. As a feminist fairy tale it successfully subverts the patriarchal ideology of the tale it reworks.
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Nicola Scholes
Nicola Scholes is researching a PhD on Allen Ginsberg's poetry at The University of Queensland, Australia. Her poems have been published in Beer Swill Romanticism, The Broadkill Review (USA), COLLOQUY text theory critique, Cordite Poetry Review, The Courier-Mail, dotlit, HECATE, holland1945, The Max Harris Poetry Award Anthology (2007), The Mozzie, Social Alternatives, and SpeedPoets. Her drawings and poems for children have been published in Cherububble.