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An Analytical Interpretation of “Snow-White”

Throughout the story of Snow-White, Competition is played out in numerous ways. As the famous saying goes-only the strongest survive and to the victor go the spoils. There were a few power struggles going on even under the primary plot. This is one way to describe some of the seemingly bizarre or extreme motivations that push the story to a grisly, but happy ending. The first queen apparently dies in childbirth (but do we really know this for sure? ) and is replaced with a new queen in order to re-establish the king’s dominance over his kingdom.

How can his empire be complete without a queen, considering the king was now a single parent as well? His life as a widower could not last in a time when meeting the status quo was so closely tied to the validity of self. He had to have a wife if he already had a child. Quite possibly, the king was influenced by outside forces to re-marry, or simply did not want to have sole responsibility of raising Snow-White and took another wife to safe face. The battle between Snow-White and her step-mother was demonstrated to extreme ends.

It was contested from both sides. The lack of action on Show-White’s part is an action in itself. Her passivity was an act of rebellion and self-preservation. I believe that Snow-White was far more manipulative than the story gives her credit for. Regardless of the initial chaos in any situation that the girl found herself in, especially those of which were instigated by the queen, Show-White never failed to emit an enigmatic seduction to lure others to act on her behalf to escape utter isolation and death.

In the end, The queen simply wants to exclude Snow-White from the gaze of the mirror and take the title of “The fairest of them all. ” Yet SnowWhite fights just as tenaciously to be included, not only in the mirrors eyes, but her father the kings, the dwarves, and ultimately her own prince. After her intended murder (actual banishment) from the kingdom, Snow-White finds shelter and a means to survive. She finds a new family of seven little surrogate fathers and is content for a time, but still longs to be in her rightful place beside her father.

Thus her fascination and curiosity over the foreign evils of the disguised queen tempt her into trying to gain back some of her former life, which time and again serves only to delay her struggle to return as the true princess that she was. Even after her death from the poisonous apple the dwarves engineer a way to be the sole observers and protectors of Snow-White’s body. However the dwarves relent their hold on her and are compensated for it. The dwarves also have unclean hands in this mess.

For them, Snow-White serves as a symbol of status. She becomes a type of living trophy and testament to their toil and labor during the day and to be their reward to themselves at night. She becomes the domestic mother/daughter figure. At times she dispensed her own wisdom while still doing their household chores. Upon her death, the dwarves still find a way put her on display in a glass coffin, which preserves her outward beauty. Finally, the prince has the last victory in the story.

He works from quite a few assumptions that because he is nobility that Snow-White must automatically fall in love with him. And the queen finally meets her match when she attends their wedding to find that Snow-White is still alive and well. Snow-White won her battle by exacting revenge upon the queen, by making her dance herself to death in red-hot shoes, and assumes a seemingly more subdued role in her marriage to the prince and becomes the vessel of a new royal line.

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