Snow White Fairy Tales Analysis

Revised fairy tales are becoming increasingly important in today’s world as there is a great need for producers and writers to alter traditional feminine values viewed in these tales. These alterations are needed in order to correspond to the changing demands and tastes of audiences in today’s society. Original fairy tales tend to perpetuate patriarchal values by placing stereotypical traits on both the male and female roles. “Snow White” has been one of the major fairy tales that have been criticized particularly harshly with regards to its very traditional views on women. This essay centres on the stereotypical characteristics portrayed in the Grimm brothers’ (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s) “Little Snow White” as well as the attempt by Rupert

Gilbert and Susan Gubar in “The Queen’s Looking Glass”, “all the motifs introduced in [the] prefatory first paragraph – sewing, snow, blood, enclosure – are all associated with key themes in female lives” (37). Sewing has been – and still is – identified as a feminine task. Thus, the fact that the Queen “[sits] sewing” in the beginning of the Grimm’s story, perpetuates the traditional idea of femininity (Grimm 74). Often, snow can be related to femininity because of its softness and its white colour. Woman are traditionally seen to be fragile and pure (white being the symbol of purity), thus “Little Snow White” does a good job in emphasising this ideology of women. The Queen’s blood being drawn is yet another symbol of the fragility of women, however this idea can be extended to include the image of womanhood through monthly menstruation. Furthermore, as demonstrated in the Grimm Brother’s “Aschenputtel”, Snow White must do “heavy work from morning to night” in order to be allowed to stay at the seven Dwarfs cottage (118). Thus, Snow White must do traditional feminine tasks through keeping house – cooking, cleaning, washing and sewing – in order to earn her place. All of the motifs mentioned above are strongly associated to the view of a female’s