snow white (the real story) designed by kara gordon
Kara Gordon Š 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. This book is a student work not intended for sale or reproduction. Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. Illustrations reproduced with the kind permission of Laura Barrett Text set in Joanna and Neutraface Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts Washington University in St. Louis One Brookings Drive St. Louis, Missouri 63130 Printed and bound in St. Louis, Missouri
“I guess you think you know this story. You don’t. The real one’s much more gory.” To those who stood by as this story unfolded, And for all who defused me before I exploded: Endless gratitude and many a thank you, It’s because of you that I came through.
introduction The number of modernizations of “classics” that have come out in recent years is overwhelming. Classic fairy tales, Jane Austen’s romantic fiction, literary detectives Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew, comic book heroes—the bread and butter of previous generations’ entertainment—have all been upgraded. Within one year, two film adaptations of Snow White hit theaters on the heels of the television series Once Upon a Time, a conglomerate of fairy and folk tale adaptations whose axis spins on the Snow White story. The Snow White fairy tale especially seems to be one that Hollywood has banked on again and again, even before Walt Disney’s 1937 animated adaptation. These numerous retellings beg the question— whose stories are these, anyway? While this book focuses on the princess that launched what is arguably the top licensed franchise in the world (Disney Princess), it also considers the people who brought these fairy tales to life. Many people don’t realize that over four hundred versions of the Snow White fairy tale have been collected in the last five hundred years. That is almost one version published per year since the earliest known publications of this story in the early sixteenth century. Versions have been set in Germany, Ethiopia, Brazil, Japan, Russia, New York, and many other locations. Some versions are very short and concise whereas other versions take hours to tell; some are told as an adult’s story while others are molded into a child’s fairy tale. Authors have made both subtle and grand changes to the aesthetics of the story and each adaptation of this story carries with it
I guess you think you know this story...
traces of the author(s) point of view and of the culture that produced that particular version. Despite the many changes made to suit different audiences, the story of Snow White remains popular. Such popularity may seem logical to those who only know the Disney version, but for those who are familiar with the early Grimm version, this popularity may seem oddly peculiar. Snow White is one of the darkest and strangest stories to be found in the fairy tale canon—a chilling tale of murderous rivalry, adolescent sexual ripening, poisoned gifts, blood on snow, witchcraft, and ritual cannibalism. In short, not a tale originally intended for children’s tender ears.
You don’t. The real one’s much more gory.
The contemporary idea of the fairy tale can be traced to 1812, when Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published a collection of folk stories called Children’s and Household Tales—now much more commonly known as Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The brothers openly admitted that they were not creating any new fairy tales but rather were capturing German oral tales and preserving them in a literate form to bolster nationalistic pride and heritage. By contemporary standards, the Grimms’ original stories are packed with sex and violence: “The Juniper Tree” features a stepmother killing her stepson and serving him to his father in a stew, and “Darling Roland” features a mother-to-daughter axe murder, to name two of many examples. (No word on a Disney adaptation of these stories yet.) But despite the often-disturbing content of these stories, the Grimms’ primary contribution to fairy tales was making them tamer. The Grimm brothers rewrote the tales so extensively and went so far in the direction of eliminating off-color episodes that the sanitization of folktales can be attributed to them. They paved the way for the process that made them acceptable children’s literature in all cultures. But if the Grimms are credited with the origin of fairy tale sanitation, there’s another man who is recognized for carrying their standard into the twentieth century: Walt Disney. When Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 the first feature-length cartoon by the company, and the tenth highest-grossing film of all time, when adjusted for inflation— it began a genre that would keep the company afloat for
The phoney one, the one you know Was cooked up years and years ago,
decades (and of course, it doesn’t hurt that the vast majority of fairy-tale characters are in the public domain, thereby making them free for anyone to use—that’s how two Snow White movies and the launch of a TV series pivoting around Snow White can occur within the same year). As the Grimm brothers adapted an oral tale to print, Disney took on the task of adapting print to film. In doing so, Disney set the template for the contemporary concept of the fairy tale: a whimsical, animated story appropriate enough for the entire family. In the years that followed, The Walt Disney Company released its sanitized animated versions of Grimm stories like “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty” to significant critical and commercial success. (There’s a reason, after all, that the colloquial term for this type of sanitization is “Disneyfication.”) It is important to note that Disney wanted Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to be his version of the story and no one else’s. While he made no claims that he created the tales or the metanarratives, the final film carries Walt Disney’s name in place of Grimms’. This book examines both of these versions of Snow White, as well as a contemporary (almost) desanitized telling presented by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz in Once Upon a Time, a television series from the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network—presently owned by The Walt Disney Company, which goes to show just how inescapable this name is. The series, which premiered in September 2011, takes a unique look at well-known characters and stories across several fairy tales (Grimm, Anderson, Barrie, pretty much anything that Disney’s touched) and digs deeper, twisting and weaving the stories together into one saying, “Here’s what you didn’t know” and “This is what happened after you closed the book.” Flashing back and forth between the Enchanted Forest in Fairytale Land and Storybrooke, Maine, where the Evil Queen has cursed them all with no recollection of their former selves, the series explores what a modern adaptation of a fairy tale really looks like—Jiminy Cricket is a (human) counselor named Dr. Hopper and Rumplestiltskin becomes the dealmaking pawn shop owner, Mr. Gold. As the show does not follow a linear narrative, this book takes liberties with the
And made to sound all soft and sappy Just to keep the children happy.
ABC narrative, presenting events as they correlate with the Grimm and Disney versions, rather than in the order that they are revealed in the series. While Once Upon a Time manages to stay fairly family-appropriate, the creators have made it clear that they aren’t doing the twelve-year-old kiddie version of these tales and that all of these characters have their own individual, complex stories. By weaving these stories together and allowing them to take shape over the course of the show, extending past the “happily ever after” where the story typically ends, Once Upon a Time takes on a life of its own both distinctly different yet faithful to the heart of the story. With these three tellings, this book looks for each version to find its own identity. Who is the Huntsman anyway? Where did the Mirror come from? Who is in the Mirror? There are seven touchstones in the story that have been iconized by various characters and objects over time. Today, these are what make the Snow White narrative recognizable for audiences, no matter what version they are experiencing. This book brings similarities and differences between the three versions to light, nuancing the ins and outs of what has happened to the story over generations of retelling. It is both the story you think you know and the story you don’t: a story of a story, looking to find the authentic metanarrative. So, what’s the real story?
contents once upon a time the story begins
mirror, mirror on the wall the Queen becomes jealous of Snow White
the heart of the huntsman the Queen sends the Huntsman to kill Snow White, but he takes pity on her and she escapes into the forest
the seven dwarfs Snow White finds shelter in the dwarfs’ cottage, who accept her into their home
pick your poison realizing that Snow White is still alive, the Queen takes matters into her own hands and kills Snow White herself
someday my prince will come the Prince rides to where the dwarfs have Snow White in a glass coffin and wakes her up
and they lived happily ever after the Snow White and the Prince wed and the Queen suffers
snow white (the real story)
once upon a tim Grimm
How Snow White got her name.
in mid-winter, when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven, a beautiful queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood. As she sewed, she looked up at the snow and pricked her finger with her needle. Three drops of blood fell into the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful, that she thought, “If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as this frame.” Soon afterward she had a little daughter that was as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony wood, and therefore they called her Little Snow-White. Now the queen was the most beautiful woman in all the land, and very proud of her beauty. She had a mirror, which she stood in front of every morning, and asked: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who in this land is fairest of all? And the mirror always said: You, my queen, are fairest of all. And then she knew for certain that no one in the world was more beautiful than she.
Beginning with “Once upon a time,” all three versions acknowledge that what follows is a story. The animation opens with a book, a nod to the adaptation from print to film. In Once Upon a Time, Mary Margaret (Snow White in Storybrooke) gives Henry, Snow White’s grandson who is adopted by Regina during the curse, a book full of fairy tales—including Snow White. This book becomes integral to his discovery that these fairy tales are real and that his hometown, Storybrooke, is cursed.
The mother doesn’t die! In the 1812 edition, the villain is actually the biological mother, probably a remnant of the oral tradition. This thread would change by their second edition in 1819 to the evil stepmother, presumably so children would not fear their natural parents.
me...
It’s the beginning we all know and love but from here, the three versions diverge.
Disney
ABC
Snow White is born in the Enchanted Forest to King Leopold and Queen Eva during a harsh winter. Right before Snow White’s tenth birthday, her mother suddenly dies. Soon after, she leaves with father on a long journey. On the trip, her horse goes awry. Unable to stop the horse as it speeds off onto an estate, she calls for help. A young woman, Regina, pulls Snow White to safety. Informed of Regina’s brave feat, the king is so impressed that he proposes to Regina so his daughter can have a stepmother. there lived a lovely little Princess named Snow White. Her vain and wicked Stepmother the Queen feared that some day Snow White’s beauty would surpass her own. So she dressed the little Princess in rags and forced her to work as a Scullery Maid. Each day the vain Queen consulted her Magic Mirror, “Magic Mirror on the Wall, Who is the fairest one of all?” As long as the Mirror answered, “You are the fairest one of all,” Snow White was safe from the Queen’s cruel jealousy.
Let’s cut to the chase. Disney immediately presents the current relationship between Snow White and her stepmother, never mentioning her birth parents. Another variation is that the Queen fears Snow White’s beauty even before she comes of age, forcing her to work as a maid, dressing her in a way that downplays her beauty and her birthright as a princess.
Snow White walks in on Regina kissing a stable boy and runs to tell her father. Regina chases her to explain that what they have is true love, but her mother, Cora, will never accept it. Snow White is sworn to secrecy, but begins to feel sympathy for Cora, who expresses a desire to make Regina happy. Drawing from her experience in losing her own mother, Snow White doesn’t want Regina to lose Cora, and reveals the truth about the stable boy. Cora rips out the stable boy’s beating heart, crushing it into dust, killing him. During a fitting for Regina’s wedding to the king, Snow White lets it slip that she is the one who told Cora about the stable boy. Shocked, Regina tells her that he ran away, and now she is very happy to marry the king and become her stepmother.
The Evil Queen saved Snow White? Like Grimm, we see the birth of Snow White and the relationship between Snow White and her biological mother. The biggest difference is the amount of backstory, especially of how the Evil Queen came into the family. Surprise— she wasn’t always evil.
mirror, mirror, on Grimm
Now Snow-White grew up, and when she was seven years old, she was so beautiful, that she surpassed even the queen herself. Now when the queen asked her mirror: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who in this land is fairest of all? The mirror said: You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But Little Snow-White is still A thousand times fairer than you.
Come again, she’s how old? By the time she turns eight years old, her mother attempts to murder her several times and exiles her from home, yet she emerges fairly emotionally unscathed. Although children during this time took on adult responsibilities, this is still a lot to live through. The outline written in 1934 for the Disney version stated that she should be drawn to look fourteen years old, aesthetically ready for romantic love. The ABC version, while showing Snow White as a child, centers most of the iconic moments around adulthood—ready, in the eyes of the audience, to forge on her own and fall in love.
the wall... Disney
ABC
queen :
Slave in the magic mirror, come from the farthest space, through wind and darkness I summon thee. Speak! Let me see thy face.
King Leopold marries Regina, but lingering memories of Eva makes him devoted to Snow White who is much like Eva, the fairest one of them all.
mirror : What
Oblivious to Regina’s unhappiness, he finds evidence in her diary of adultery. Furious, he exiles Regina into a room while asking his friend, the Genie of Agrabah to find the man his wife is consorting with, who gave her a mirror as a gift.
wouldst thou know, my Queen?
queen :
Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all? mirror : Famed is thy beauty, Majesty. But hold, a lovely maid I see. Rags cannot hide her gentle grace. Alas, she is more fair than thee. queen : A
lash for her! Reveal her name.
mirror :
Lips red as the rose. Hair black as ebony. Skin white as snow. queen :
Snow White!
But who is she talking to, really? While integral to Snow White’s narrative, the Mirror manifests as a one-dimensional voice of judgment in both the Grimm and Disney versions. The Grimms’ version does not dictate gender; Disney’s is male, suggestive of the absent king.
Remember this line?
Read: Aladdin In Once Upon a Time, it is revealed where the mirror came from and who exactly the Queen is talking to. The Genie falls in love with Regina. She uses him to kill the king, and then tells him that she never loved him. Heartbroken, he uses his last wish to be with her forever and to look upon her face always. He becomes trapped in the mirror and is, as Disney puts it, a slave, from the farthest space.
It really all comes down to the Queen not getting what she wants and throwing a temper tantrum.
When the queen heard the mirror say this, she became pale with envy, and from that hour on, she hated Snow-White. Whenever she looked at her, she thought that Snow-White was to blame that she was no longer the most beautiful woman in the world. This turned her heart around. Her jealousy gave her no peace.
The Mirror embodies Jealousy, which is the crux of the Snow White narrative. The Queen is jealous of Snow White—but what does that mean exactly?
The name of the game is blame. In the Grimms’ version, jealousy is purely aesthetic and vanity-driven.
Meanwhile, Snow White, dressed as a servant, scrubs the steps while singing I’m Wishing. The Prince leaps over the fence, taking Snow White by surprise. Snow White runs into the castle and the Prince begins to sing One Song to her. The Queen spies on them from a high window, infuriated.
The Genie sets a viper to attack King Leopold asleep that night. When the King is found with the viper, native to the Genie’s homeland, the Genie is nowhere to be found. For obvious reasons, the Queen’s looking glass isn’t everyone’s first guess.
...who is the fairest one of all? The Prince is introduced at the beginning of the Disney film and provides Snow White the object of her affection for the entire film. With the King absent from the Disney film, the Prince immediately establishes Snow White’s budding beauty and the Queen’s festering jealousy. Disney makes the Prince more central to the story as a love interest and makes him proactive in waking her. This changes Snow White into a love story that children can watch and enjoy.
Once Upon a Time acknowledges elements of beauty and vanity: little Snow White tells Regina she is the fairest of them all before Regina’s wedding to her father and, in the pilot episode, Snow White tells Prince Charming, “She poisoned an apple because she thought I was prettier than her.” However, as the narrative unfolds, the Evil Queen’s jealousy is rooted in Snow White both stealing her happy ending with the stable boy and is getting a happy ending of her own.
the heart of the Grimm
Finally she summoned a huntsman and said to him, “Take Snow-White out into the woods to a remote spot, and stab her to death. As proof that she is dead bring her lungs and her liver back to me. I shall cook them with salt and eat them.”
Snow White’s organs function as proof of her death and as a trophy for the Queen. In all three versions, the Huntsman fools the Queen by substituting organs of an animal.
WHAT?! Ew... A cultural trace from the story’s oral roots: it was believed that one acquired the powers of the characteristics from what one ate. The Queen wanted Snow White’s beauty, symbolized by her internal organs. Disney and ABC choose to skip this part.
For which we are grateful.
huntsman Disney queen : Take
her far into the forest. Find some secluded glade where she can pick wildflowers. huntsman : Yes,
queen : And
your Majesty.
there, my faithful Huntsman, you will
kill her! huntsman : queen :
But, your majesty, the little princess!
Silence! You know the penalty if you fail.
huntsman : Yes,
your Majesty.
queen :
But to make doubly sure you do not fail, bring back her heart in this.
The Queen hands him a box with a heart and a sword through it as the clasp. Changing the request from the lungs and liver to the heart connotes the romantic twist to the Disney adaptation.
ABC
The Evil Queen watches the Huntsman from the Magic Mirror and decides that he will kill Snow White for her. The Evil Queen’s guards capture the Huntsman and bring him to the Evil Queen, who offers him a proposition. She wants him to kill someone for her, and promises many large rewards in exchange. The Huntsman reveals that he was brought up by wolves, and he wants her to promise him that the wolves would be protected. The Queen agrees, and asks him to kill Snow White and bring back her beating heart as proof of death.
Hearts in Once Upon a Time function differently than they do in our world. Magic is a much more influential factor and a source of power in the series relative to the other two versions. Hearts can be taken without killing the victim, but once taken, it becomes enchanted. Victims are unable to feel any true emotion until the heart is restored. The user of an enchanted heart can crush it and kill the victim (as Cora did to Regina’s stable boy), control the victim’s actions and speech (as Regina will do to the Huntsman), and use the heart to reanimate the victim’s dead body. It’s as creepy and grotesque as it sounds.
The huntsman took pity on her The huntsman took Snow-White into the woods. When he took out his hunting knife to stab her, she began to cry, and begged fervently that he might spare her life, promising to run away into the woods and never return. The huntsman took pity on her because she was so beautiful, and he thought, “The wild animals will soon devour her anyway. I’m glad that I don’t have to kill her.” Just then a young boar came running by. He killed it, cut out its lungs and liver, and took them back to the queen as proof of Snow-White’s death. She cooked them with salt and ate them, supposing that she had eaten Snow-White’s lungs and liver.
The Huntsman is the only character in the Snow White fairy tale who directly disobeys the Queen, although why he does so varies from telling to telling. In all three versions, his primary role is forcing the Queen to accept the responsibility of killing Snow White herself.
The Grimms present the huntsman as a mere soldier. He accepts the order without question and when he releases Snow White, it is almost as if he sees this as less work for him. He is indifferent to Snow White’s life and predicament. Within the oral tradition, his role works because the huntsman serves his purpose for the story, but is easily forgettable. The 1800s audience would not have had to deal with any of his moral objections or obligations.
Talking to birds also occurs to some extent in Once Upon a Time in a manner that pokes fun of Snow White’s naiveté. The television series also opts out of the songs.
She’s kind of a badass.
In the woods, Snow White happily picks flowers and talks to birds. Just as she helps a baby bird find its parents, she sees a shadow coming from behind. The Huntsman stands with a knife, and Snow White begins to scream. The Huntsman takes pity on her.
Disguised as one of the Evil Queen’s men, he walks through the forest with Snow White. However, Snow White sees through him, kicks him, and speeds off into the forest. When the Huntsman finds her, he stops, puzzled, as she writes a farewell letter to her stepmother. She asks him to give the letter to the Queen when she is dead. Reading the letter, the Huntsman is moved to tears. As Snow White prepares herself for death, he fashions a whistle out of a twig for her to use whenever she is in trouble. Letting her go, he takes the heart of a deer for the Queen instead.
huntsman : I can’t! I can’t do it! Forgive me. I beg of your highness, forgive me. snow white :
I don’t understand.
huntsman : She’s mad! Jealous of you! She’ll stop at nothing! snow white :
But—but who?
huntsman : The
queen!
snow white : The
queen?
huntsman : Now, quick, child, run! Run away, hide! Into the woods, anywhere! Never come back!
The Huntsman is characterized by Disney as a much more humane subject of the Queen. The Huntsman protests at first, but acts out of fear of the Queen. Later, Snow White does not have to beg for her life; the Huntsman simply cannot do it, and he tells her to run.
The ABC series devotes an entire episode to the Huntsman’s backstory, “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.” This particular Huntsman holds bargaining power, acts largely on his moral obligations and the consequences of his betrayal are vividly portrayed—Regina takes his heart and enslaves him. Not only does she not beg, Snow White actually prepares to die.
the seven dwarfs Grimm
Read: The Prince and the Pauper The Prince, of course, has his own backstory in Once Upon a Time and, unlike the other versions, the series format allows for development and depth to his relationship with Snow White. Snow White meets Prince Charming (Snow White’s gives him this name sarcastically at first) as a bandit, not as a princess. While Snow White is portrayed as an expert archer and an independent woman, the main focus of the ABC series is her happy ending—her relationship with the Prince.
Snow-White was now all alone in the great forest. She was terribly afraid, and began to run. She ran over sharp stones and through thorns the entire day. Finally, just as the sun was about to set, she came to a little house. The house belonged to seven dwarfs. They were working in a mine, and not at home. Snow-White went inside and found everything to be small, but neat and orderly. There was a little table with seven little plates, seven little spoons, seven little knives and forks, seven little mugs, and against the wall there were seven little beds, all freshly made.
Born as a twin to a peasant family, Rumplestiltskin comes to their farm when David is an infant and tells his parents that the barren king and queen need a child, and they will be paid handsomely if they give one of the twins to them. The parents choose to give away David’s twin, James. Many years later, James dies, and Rumplestiltskin returns to persuade David into taking his brother’s place in exchange for saving their destitute farm. As Prince James, he kills a dragon for King Midas, who is so pleased with the results that he offers his daughter’s hand in marriage. As David moves to reject the offer, King George pulls him aside, threatening to harm the farm and his mother if he does not comply and allow him this advantageous alliance.
All three versions depict the dwarfs as very hard workers, digging for gold, diamonds, and fairy dust in each respective version.
s Disney
ABC
Snow White flees through the dark forest. She collapses and begins to cry. The woods around her begin to lighten up. Animals peer at her. She stops crying and looks up. At first, she scares away the animals, but then she promises not to hurt them. They cheer her up, she sings With a Smile and a Song with them, and they lead her to a cottage for a place to sleep.
Facing charges of treason and the murder of her father, Snow White becomes a bandit and flees into the woods, trying to outrun the Queen’s knights and escaping many attempts on her life. She finds help along the way from some familiar characters such as Little Red Riding Hood, Ariel and, of course, Prince Charming. While on the run, she falls in love with Charming, who is engaged to be married to the daughter of King Midas. Miserable, she seeks out Rumplestiltskin, who gives her a potion to forget Charming in exchange for a lock of her hair.
snow white : Hello? May I come in? Oh! What a cute little chair. Why, there’s seven little chairs! Must be seven little children, and from the look of this table, seven untidy little children…Why, they’ve never swept this room. You’d think their mother would— maybe they have no mother. Then, they’re orphans. That’s too bad. I know. We’ll clean the house and surprise them. Then, maybe they’ll let me stay.
The animals help Snow White clean the cottage, singing Whistle While You Work. Meanwhile, the seven dwarfs are at work, mining for diamonds, singing Dig. Then they leave to go home and sing Heigh Ho.
Disney presents the opposite of what the Grimm version describes. Everything in the entire cottage is filthy and appears abandoned, not lived in. Snow White notices that everything is small and wonders if it is inhabited by motherless children. Her question positions the dwarfs as child-like and non-threatening and this perception gives Snow White something in common with the dwarfs: neither have a mother. The establishment of an absent or deceased mother gives Snow White the opportunity to assume the domestic role that the current society expects of her.
As she prepares to drink the potion, a bird arrives with a letter from Prince Charming in which he declares his feelings for her and asks, if she feels the same, to meet him at the castle so they can run away together. While she enters the castle easily, she is caught and thrown into a dungeon. There, she befriends Grumpy, a dwarf in the next cell. Another dwarf, Stealthy, arrives to free him. As Snow White bids him farewell, Grumpy unlocks her cell. As they work their way out, the guards kill Stealthy. Snow White manages to save Grumpy, who threatens to burn down the castle if Charming’s father, King George, does not let him go.
In the ABC version, Snow White takes longer to get to the dwarfs’ cottage and spends most of her time on the run, taking care of herself.
Snow-White was hungry and thirsty, so she ate a few vegetables and a little bread from each little plate, and from each little glass she drank a drop of wine. Because she was so tired, she wanted to lie down and go to sleep. She tried each of the seven little beds, one after the other, but none felt right until she came to the seventh one, and she lay down in it and fell asleep. When night came, the seven dwarfs returned home from the work. They lit their seven little candles, and saw that someone had been in their house. The first one said, “Who has been sitting in my chair?” The second one, “Who has been eating from my plate?” The third one, “Who has been eating my bread?” The fourth one, “Who has been eating my vegetables?” The fifth one, “Who has been sticking with my fork?” The sixth one, “Who has been cutting with my knife?” The seventh one, “Who has been drinking from my mug?” Then the first one said, “Who stepped on my bed?” The second one, “And someone has been lying in my bed.” And so forth until the seventh one, and when he looked at his bed, he found Snow-White lying there, fast asleep. The seven dwarfs all came running, and they cried out with amazement. They fetched their seven candles and looked at Snow-White. “Good heaven! Good heaven!” they cried. “She is so beautiful!” They liked her very much. They did not wake her up, but let her lie there in the bed. The seventh dwarf had to sleep with his companions, one hour with each one, and then the night was done.
The dwarfs play a pivotal role in the Snow White fairy tale, providing sanctuary and adopting her into their home.
Like the huntsman, the Grimms’ version presents them as serving a specific narrative function and are not given distinct personalities.
Snow White goes upstairs and finds the bedroom. She and the animals fall sleep. As the dwarfs approach their home, they realize that the light’s lit and the door is open. They decide to sneak up on the intruder. doc :
Look! The floor! It’s been swept!
grumpy : happy :
Hah! Chair’s been dusted.
Our window’s been washed.
bashful :
Gosh, our cobwebs are missin.’
doc : Why,
why, why—why the whole place is clean!
They send Dopey upstairs to find the intruder. Dopey finds Snow White and gets scared, thinking she’s a monster asleep in the dark. The rest of the dwarfs go upstairs, planning to attack it, until they realize it’s a girl. bashful :
Snow White is brought before King George, who reveals he knows about the letter Prince Charming sent her since Snow White dropped it when she was captured. He tells Snow White that love is a disease and demands that she tell Prince Charming that she does not love him. If she refuses, he will kill the prince, not her. Snow White heads into Prince Charming’s room and breaks his heart, as well as her own, by affirming she does not love him, and it would be better if he is with someone who could. She leaves the castle in tears as Grumpy and his six brothers, both out of gratitude and pity, take her into their home.
She’s beautiful. Just like an angel.
grumpy :
Angel, hah! She’s a female! And all females is poison! They’re full of wicked wiles! bashful :
What are wicked wiles?
grumpy :
I don’t know, but I’m agin’em.
doc :
Shh! Not so loud. You’ll wake her up.
grumpy :
Aw, let her wake up! She don’t belong here no-how! sneezy :
Look out. She’s movin.’
happy :
She’s wakin’ up.
sneezy : What doc :
do we do?
Hide!
In the Disney version the dwarfs serve as comic relief, as well as guardians. By giving them individual names and personalities, Disney made the dwarfs commercially marketable.
Ah, so that’s why he’s Grumpy. The dwarfs each have distinct personalities in the series, especially Grumpy, and are portrayed as overly protective brothers rather than as ambivalent guardians or children. We learn that Grumpy has had his heart broken—although this does not make him anti-female in the series. In both the Disney and ABC versions, Grumpy actually becomes to closest to Snow White.
When Snow-White woke up, they asked her who she was and how she had found her way to their house. She told them how her mother had tried to kill her, how the huntsman had spared her life, how she had run the entire day, finally coming to their house. The dwarfs pitied her and said, “If you will keep house for us, and cook, sew, make beds, wash, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay here, and you’ll have everything that you want. We come home in the evening, and supper must be ready by then, but we spend the days digging for gold in the mine. You will be alone then. Watch out for the queen, and do not let anyone in.”
In the ABC series, Snow White and the Evil Queen have numerous opportunities to kill each other, Snow White always narrowly escaping but always showing the Queen mercy, believing there must be some good left in her, recalling when she once saved her life. Of course, Snow White never has the chance to directly cause the Queen harm in the other versions, but the Grimm version also presents numerous attempts on Snow White’s life.
Woman, make me a sandwich. The dwarfs’ offer is interesting because even though Snow White is a princess, the dwarfs, being males, still control this situation. Snow White is not in the castle and, therefore, cannot make any demands. The dwarfs, by virtue of being male, give the conditions whereas women had very little control, as would have been common during this time period. Even being a princess, at seven years old, Snow White could not command anything outside of her home.
Snow White wakes up, sees the dwarfs, and guesses their names based on how they look and behave. She tells them that the Queen is trying to kill her. snow white : Oh, she’ll never find me here. And if you let me stay, I’ll keep house for you. I’ll wash and sew and sweep and cook and— dwarfs :
Cook?
doc : Can ya make dapple lumpkins—uh, lumple dapplins—apple dumplings! grumpy doc :
&
sneezy :
Apple dumplings!
Ah, yes! Crapple dumpkins.
snow white : Yes, and plum pudding and gooseberry pie— dwarfs :
Gooseberry pie? Hurray! She stays!
She gets dinner ready and tells the dwarfs to go wash up. They reluctantly wash up and sing BluddleUddle-Um-Dum.
The dwarfs behave like children here and some act like love-sick schoolboys. Snow White makes all of the conditions for her to stay with them. However, Snow White remains in a subservient role by making and serving dinner to the dwarfs, but her beauty and charm also seem to give her some power over the dwarfs. She claims power, but also knows her place among men.
At the dwarfs’ cottage, Snow White tries taking the potion Rumplestiltskin gave her, but Grumpy reasons that the pain is a part of her and promises to help her through it. However, she eventually takes the potion anyway. Grumpy rushes in with news of Prince Charming’s canceled engagement, but Snow White doesn’t remember the man she so desperately loved. The potion not only erases Snow White’s feelings for her prince, but turns her into a callous and cold person with little affection for anything or anyone. Friends stage an intervention with the help of Jiminy Cricket, but instead, Snow White decides to take charge by getting rid of her biggest problem by killing the Evil Queen. Grumpy takes her to Rumplestiltskin, but the potion cannot be undone. She is encouraged when Rumplestiltskin hands her an enchanted bow, famed to never miss a shot, and a map to look for the perfect spot to use it. The prince tries breaking the potion’s effects by giving Snow White a true love’s kiss, to no avail. After knocking him unconscious, she ties Prince Charming up and leaves to continue on her mission. With the Evil Queen traveling on the road below, Snow White readies her aim and fires, except Prince Charming takes the hit. She is surprised by his feat, especially when Prince Charming says he would rather die than see her become evil. Touched, Snow White kisses him, and returns to her normal self. After a brief reunion, King George’s men kidnap Prince Charming, although she promises to rescue him. Returning to the cottage to apologize to the dwarfs for her prior behavior, she announces that Prince Charming was taken by King George. The dwarfs go with her to rescue him.
pick your poison Grimm
The queen thought that she was again the most beautiful woman in the land, and the next morning she stepped before the mirror and asked: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who in this land is fairest of all? The mirror answered once again: You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But Little Snow-White beyond the seven mountains Is a thousand times fairer than you. It startled the queen to hear this, and she knew that she had been deceived, that the huntsman had not killed Snow-White. Because only the seven dwarfs lived in the seven mountains, she knew at once that they must have rescued her. She began to plan immediately how she might kill her, because she would have no peace until the mirror once again said that she was the most beautiful woman in the land.At last she thought of something to do. She disguised herself as an old peddler woman and colored her face, so that no one would recognize her, and went to the dwarfs’ house. Knocking on the door she called out, “Open up. Open up. I’m the old peddler woman with good wares for sale.” Snow-White peered out the window, “What do you have?” Attempt #1
The Queen herself makes three attempts at Snow White’s life in the Grimm version, using bodice laces and a comb. It is noteworthy that both items are used to make women more attractive. Essentially, Snow White is guilty of the same narcissism that drives the Queen’s desire to kill her.
“Bodice laces, dear child,” said the old woman, and held one up. It was braided from yellow, red, and blue silk. “Would you like this one?” “Oh, yes,” said Snow-White, thinking, “I can let the old woman come in. She means well.” She unbolted the door and bargained for the bodice laces. “You are not laced up properly,” said the old woman. “Come here, I’ll do it better.” Snow-White stood before her, and she took hold of the laces and pulled them so tight that Snow-White could not breathe, and she fell down as if she were dead. Then the old woman was satisfied, and she went away.
n Disney
Back at the castle, the Queen holds the box in which lies what she believes to be Snow White’s heart. queen :
Magic Mirror on the wall, who now is the fairest one of all?
mirror : Over the seven jeweled hills, beyond the seventh fall, in the cottage of the seven dwarfs, dwells Snow White, fairest one of all. queen :
Snow White lies dead in the forest. The huntsman has brought me proof. Behold, her heart.
mirror : Snow White still lives, the fairest in the land. ‘Tis the heart of a pig you hold in your hand.
ABC
Meanwhile, the Queen discovers the huntsman’s betrayal and that Snow White is still alive when she tries to put the heart into the vault but none of the boxes open. As the Queen searches the Enchanted Forest for Snow White, she realizes the kingdom’s loyalties are with her stepdaughter, and she begins to hate Snow White more and more. When the Queen learns King George captured the prince and intends to execute him, she intervenes and asks he be turned over to her custody instead, promising to make the prince suffer more if he is used to hurt Snow White.
queen : The heart of a pig! Then I’ve been tricked! The heart of a pig! The blundering fool! I’ll go myself to the dwarfs’ cottage in a disguise so complete no one will ever suspect…And now, a special sort of death for one so fair. What shall it be? Ah! A poisoned apple! Sleeping death.
While the Grimms present the Queen as merely disguising herself, Disney exploits the animated medium and turns the transformation into an embellished, macabre metamorphosis.
In a lot of ways, the apple has become the icon for the Snow White fairy tale and references to the apple are sprinkled throughout the ABC series.
Nightfall soon came, and the seven dwarfs returned home. They were horrified to find their dear SnowWhite lying on the ground as if she were dead. They lifted her up and saw that she was laced up too tightly. They cut the bodice laces in two, and then she could breathe, and she came back to life. “It must have been the queen who tried to kill you,” they said. “Take care and do not let anyone in again.” The queen asked her mirror: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who in this land is fairest of all? The mirror answered once again: You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But Little Snow-White with the seven dwarfs Is a thousand times fairer than you. She was so horrified that the blood all ran to her heart, because she knew that Snow-White had come back to life. Then for an entire day and a night she planned how she might catch her. She made a poisoned comb, disguised herself differently, and went out again. She knocked on the door, but Snow-White called out, “I am not allowed to let anyone in.”
Attempt #2
Then she pulled out the comb, and when Snow-White saw how it glistened, and noted that the woman was a complete stranger, she opened the door, and bought the comb from her. “Come, let me comb your hair,” said the peddler woman. She had barely stuck the comb into Snow-White’s hair, before the girl fell down and was dead. “That will keep you lying there,” said the queen. And she went home with a light heart. The dwarfs came home just in time. They saw what had happened and pulled the poisoned comb from her hair. Snow-White opened her eyes and came back to life. She promised the dwarfs not to let anyone in again.
The dwarfs sing and dance with Snow White at night. Before bed, they ask her to tell a true love story. snow white : doc :
Well, once there was a Princess.
Was the Princess you?
snow white : sneezy :
And she fell in love.
Was it hard to do?
snow white : Oh, it was very easy. Anyone could see that the Prince was charming. The only one for me. bashful : happy :
Did he say he loved ya?
Did he steal a kiss?
[ singing ]: He was so romantic. I could not resist. Some day my prince will come, some day we’ll meet again...and away to his castle. We’ll go to be happy forever I know...Some day when spring is here, we’ll find our love anew, and the birds will sing, and wedding bells will ring. Some day when my dreams come true. snow white
Snow White realizes the time and sends the dwarfs to bed. Doc offers her their beds and has the dwarfs sleep downstairs. In the morning, the dwarfs go to work and Snow White kisses each of them goodbye. They warn Snow White that the Queen is full of witchcraft and not to let anyone in the cottage while they are away.
Do not let anyone in
Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Granny, the dwarfs, and numerous fairies stage an attack on King George’s castle. The attack is successful, but when Snow White arrives in the dungeon, she discovers the prince trapped in a mirror. After a tearful exchange, the image changes to the Queen, who asks her to come to “where it all began,” alone and unarmed.
The queen stepped before her mirror: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who in this land is fairest of all? The mirror answered: You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But Little Snow-White with the seven dwarfs Is a thousand times fairer than you. When the queen heard this, she shook and trembled with anger, “Snow-White will die, if it costs me my life!” Then she went into her most secret room—no one else was allowed inside—and she made a poisoned, poisoned apple. From the outside it was red and beautiful, and anyone who saw it would want it. Then she disguised herself as a peasant woman, went to the dwarfs’ house and knocked on the door. Snow-White peeped out and said, “I’m not allowed to let anyone in. The dwarfs have forbidden it most severely.”
Just take a bite Showing the apple halves plays on the concept of duality within this archetypal metaphor. One half of the apple provides sustenance for life, and the other half death. The two halves also bear a cultural trace of the times in that food could not be wasted, especially by the peasant class. Fruit was not commonly available to the lower class, therefore making an apple seem irresistible to Snow White, since she was eating only what the dwarfs had in their possession.
“If you don’t want to, I can’t force you,” said the peasant woman. “I am selling these apples, and I will give you one to taste.” “No, I can’t accept anything. The dwarfs don’t want me to.” “If you are afraid, then I will cut the apple in two and eat half of it. Here, you eat the half with the beautiful red cheek!” Now the apple had been so artfully made that only the red half was poisoned. When Snow-White saw that the peasant woman was eating part of the apple, her desire for it grew stronger, so she finally let the woman hand her the other half through the window. She bit into it, but she barely had the bite in her mouth when she fell to the ground dead.
Meanwhile, the Queen brews a potion and poisons the apple, then turns it red to tempt Snow White. She makes sure nothing is overlooked and looks for the antidote: love’s first kiss, which she is certain she won’t have to worry about, and leaves the castle. Snow White bakes, singing Someday My Prince Will Come. The Queen shows up as an old peddler and offers Snow White an apple. Birds try and stop the Queen, but she fakes a heart problem to get inside the cottage. The animals run off to get the dwarfs. As they drag them towards the cottage, the dwarfs realize that Snow White is in trouble.
Snow White returns to Regina’s old family estate and finds her at the stables. The Queen shows her a grave marker, and reveals what actually happened to the stable boy after Snow White told Cora about him. Snow White tries to settle the war between them since the Queen hurt her, too, by killing her father. The Queen rejects this proposal and gives her an apple infused with a Sleeping Curse. For the curse to work, Snow White must willingly eat the apple, which she does when the Queen promises that her downfall will keep Prince Charming from harm. She quickly passes out after one bite, and is later discovered by her friends.
queen : I’ll share a secret with you. This is no ordinary apple. It’s a magic wishing apple. snow white : queen : Yes!
A wishing apple?
One bite and all your dreams will come true.
snow white :
Really?
queen : Yes, Girlie! Now, make a wish and take a bite. There must be something your little heart desires. Perhaps there’s someone you love. snow white :
Well, there is someone.
queen : I thought so. I thought so. Old Granny knows a young girl’s heart. Now, take the apple, Dearie, and make a wish.
She takes a bite and falls over.
No, you idiot. Just as Grimms’ Snow White is a slave to her own vanity, Disney’s hopeless-romanticism almost costs Snow White her life.
While the Queen isn’t disguised here, she has used disguises in the past, including the peddler and other familiar villains, such as Ursula, when trying to kill Snow White. Given she knows what’s she’s doing.
They fashioned a coffin of glass and gold... The queen was happy, went home, and asked her mirror: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who in this land is fairest of all? And it answered: You, my queen, are fairest of all. “Now I’ll have some peace,” she said, “because once again I’m the most beautiful woman in the land. Snow-White will remain dead this time.” That evening the dwarfs returned home from the mines. Snow-White was lying on the floor, and she was dead. They loosened her laces and looked in her hair for something poisonous, but nothing helped. They could not bring her back to life. They laid her on a bier, and all seven sat next to her and cried and cried for three days. They were going to bury her, but they saw that she remained fresh. She did not look at all like a dead person, and she still had beautiful red cheeks. They had a glass coffin made for her, and laid her inside, so that she could be seen easily. They wrote her name and her ancestry on it in gold letters, and one of them always stayed at home and kept watch over her. Snow-White lay there in the coffin a long, long time, and she did not decay. She was still as white as snow and as red as blood, and if she had been able to open her eyes, they still would have been as black as ebony wood. She lay there as if she were asleep. During this era, dead bodies would either be burned or buried quickly. The dwarfs waited three days for the body to show signs of decay, but since it did not, they built a special transparent coffin for her in order to continue admiring her beauty.
The Queen is leaving just as the dwarfs are returning. The dwarfs chase the Queen, trapping her onto a cliff. As she tries to roll a boulder onto the dwarfs, lightning strikes and the Queen falls off the cliff with the boulder tumbling after her. The dwarfs return home, and mourn the princess.
To honor her in death, the dwarfs build a glass coffin in the woods for Snow White to be laid to rest.
Snow White was so beautiful, even in death, that the dwarfs could not find it in their hearts to bury her. They fashioned a coffin of glass and gold, and kept eternal vigil at her side.
...and kept eternal vigil at her side The Queen dies at her own hands as a result of all of her evil wrong-doings. No other characters in the film can be held responsible for the Queen’s death. This version softens the tale’s psychological impact by transforming the witch’s death into an accident.
someday my pri Grimm
One day a young prince came to the dwarfs’ house and wanted shelter for the night. When he came into their parlor and saw Snow-White lying there in a glass coffin, illuminated so beautifully by seven little candles, he could not get enough of her beauty. He read the golden inscription and saw that she was the daughter of a king. He asked the dwarfs to sell him the coffin with the dead Snow-White, but they would not do this for any amount of gold. Then he asked them to give her to him, for he could not live without being able to see her, and he would keep her, and honor her as his most cherished thing on earth. Then the dwarfs took pity on him and gave him the coffin.
In an earlier unpublished version by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White is awakened by her father who discovers the coffin and then orders his royal physicians to revive her by tying her body to ropes connected to the four corners of a room. The Grimms revised this scene to the prince finding Snow White. In both versions, Snow White is powerless and suspended in eternal death waiting for someone, a man, to bring her back to life.
The prince had it carried to his castle, and had it placed in a room where he sat by it the whole day, never taking his eyes from it. Whenever he had to go out and was unable to see Snow-White, he became sad. And he could not eat a bite, unless the coffin was standing next to him. Now the servants who always had to carry the coffin to and fro became angry about this. One time one of them opened the coffin, lifted Snow-White upright, and said, “We are plagued the whole day long, just because of such a dead girl,” and he hit her in the back with his hand. Then the terrible piece of apple that she had bitten off came out of her throat, and Snow-White came back to life. She walked up to the prince, who was beside himself with joy to see his beloved Snow-White alive. They sat down together at the table and ate with joy.
ince will come Disney
The Prince, who had searched far and wide, heard of the maiden who slept in the glass coffin. He arrives at her coffin singing One Song. The Prince kisses Snow White and she miraculously wakes up.
In Disney, it’s love’s first kiss, in Once Upon a Time it’s true love’s kiss. In the 1812 Grimm version, the prince doesn’t even kiss the princess at all. By changing Snow White’s resurrection from an accident to a romantic event, Disney places her, once again, in a subservient role. She is powerless to awaken herself and needs a man to bring her back to life. The key difference in Once Upon a Time is that Snow White and Prince Charming are constantly saving each other. Their relationship is thus a partnership.
ABC
The dwarfs are paying their respects when Prince Charming rides up to say goodbye. He gives Snow White one last kiss, unintentionally breaking the curse with true love’s kiss. Snow White and Prince Charming wage war against the Evil Queen and King George’s forces. The war ends when the king’s army falls and the Evil Queen is captured with fairy dust. The Evil Queen’s fate is decided by the war council. Snow White is against killing the Evil Queen, but is outnumbered by others who judge death a just punishment. At the execution, Snow White cancels the punishment at the last moment. Prince Charming is adamant Regina is too dangerous and will never change, but Snow White believes there is still some good left in her, recalling when she saved her life as a little girl. Rumplestiltskin enchants a knife that is powerless to harm Snow White or Prince Charming. She tucks the knife on herself and visits Regina in her cell. Snow White provides her an opportunity to leave and change her past ways. Once they are out of the prison, she is choked by Regina, who then takes the knife and attempts to stab her. Sadly, Snow White now has proof Regina has definitely not changed and banishes her from the kingdom. She warns Regina against harming anyone in the kingdom ever again, or death will be the sentence. The pilot episode of Once Upon a Time opens to the scene where Prince Charming rushes to rescue Snow White from her slumber with True Love’s Kiss. Naturally, their backstory is developed throughout the series, but opening with this iconic scene establishes Snow White and Prince Charming as the power couple of the series.
...and they lived h Grimm
Their wedding was set for the next day, and SnowWhite’s godless mother was invited as well. That morning she stepped before the mirror and said: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who in this land is fairest of all? The mirror answered: You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But the young queen Is a thousand times fairer than you. She was horrified to hear this, and so overtaken with fear that she could not say anything. Still, her jealousy drove her to go to the wedding and see the young queen. When she arrived she saw that it was Snow-White. Then they put a pair of iron shoes into the fire until they glowed, and she had to put them on and dance in them. Her feet were terribly burned, and she could not stop until she had danced herself to death.
The castle is the happilyever-after setting of most fairy tales. Home, family, riches, and an enchanted life all rolled into one— it’s the happy ending that any princess would want.
Most of the published editions by the Brothers Grimm ended this way. The method of the Queen’s death is rather barbaric, but not unrealistic for methods of torture devised during the Middle Ages. The story collectively creates a character for the reader to hate but then removes the source of hate at the end with the Queen’s death. Her death can provide justice and allows the audience to see good triumph over evil.
happily ever after Disney
The dwarfs and animals celebrate. The Prince carries Snow White to his horse. Snow White says goodbye to the dwarfs, and the Prince and Snow White leave for another kingdom. And they lived happily ever after.
ABC
With peace restored, Snow White and Prince Charming begin residing in the castle and hold a formal wedding ceremony as the kingdom’s citizens gather in attendance. The Evil Queen crashes into the room as the couple is joined in matrimony. As she walks up to them, Snow White shows no fear and unsheathes Prince Charming’s sword as a threat. The Evil Queen announces her intent to destroy their happiness. In a few months, Snow White becomes pregnant with her first child. Nearing full term, the Evil Queen’s threat at their wedding still causes worry. Willing to do anything to ease Snow White’s mind, Prince Charming agrees to let her meet with Rumplestiltskin. She makes a deal to gain information about the Evil Queen’s revenge, and he tells her there will be a curse cast by the Evil Queen, and their only hope to break free of it is their unborn child. The curse strikes and the real story begins. There isn’t a happy ending...yet.
“Your prison...all of our prisons, will be time. Time will stop, and we will be trapped. Some place horrible... where everything we hold dear, everything we love, will be ripped from us. Where we suffer for all eternity, while the Queen celebrates, victorious at last! No more happy endings.” —Rumplestiltskin to Snow White and Prince Charming The Prince and Snow White ride off into the sunset towards a castle in the clouds. The Disney version is fundamentally a love story in which evil is completely vanquished.
This designated place, of course, is Storybrooke, Maine, where no one has their memories except for the Queen (and, as it turns out, Rumplestiltskin). Once Upon a Time focuses on what happens after the story as we know it ends.
(maybe)
conclusion With each new audience in time, alterations must be made to the preceding versions of a fairy tale to update and tailor the text to better suit the new audience. While it may seem obvious that contextual changes result in content modification, the Grimms’ and Disney versions especially have been castigated for altering the Snow White tale in order to meet their needs of new expressive forms intended for new audiences. Disney particularly has been vilified over the last fifty years for commercially exploiting the classic fairy tales in order to make a profit. However, recreating and modernizing fairy tales is nothing new. When texts become attached to specific creators, the notion of originality in the dual senses of primacy and uniqueness come into play. As a story is increasingly edited and interpreted by a single author, it becomes more his or her story and less the people’s story. All of the authors of the specific versions presented here worked to make the individual versions their own. In doing so, they impressed more of their culture onto their versions than can be found in other retellings that did not add much to the metanarrative and created story threads that resonated with their contemporary audiences. People are always going to tell stories—not only do stories teach us lessons, they give us hope, as Kitsis and Horowitz like to remind us. The forms, shapes, and messages of folk and fairy tales are determined by the conflicts in cultural fields of production in the public sphere. Any public must show some level of acceptance of a narrative, whether negative or positive, for the narrative to become part of the public dialogue. It is
imperative that an audience can relate to a narrative in order for the story to survive through generations. It’s been this way for centuries—in an oral tradition, where fairy tales really began, storytellers embellished a storyline with details specific to their listeners. Therefore, it is not surprising that Kitsis and Horowitz borrow primarily from Disney spins—it’s what today’s audience knows. The immediate audience must be sold on the story, must have a reason to keep reading, watching, listening. Otherwise, what’s the point? This book has struggled to address this very issue: how do you maintain the integrity of the story while making it your own, and how do you do so while keeping your audience engaged? It’s a delicate balance complicated by the medium of a printed book and the demands of the final audience. This book is in every way, shape, and form a collaborative effort between you, as a reader, the sources and authors whom I’ve drawn from, and the illustrator who so graciously allowed me to use her work. It is a product of my education in design and English literature, my fascination with fairy tales and modernizations as entertainment, and personal struggle to articulate and resolve what it means to be an author, what it means to put your name on something and call it your own. It is my hope that, in reading this book, you realize that stories are entrenched in history and cultures, that they are part of an ongoing conversation that pulls and pushes against canonized literature. Snow White as we know it is a living, breathing story, constantly changing and twisting in what we, as an audience, want it to be. To say that there is a definitive story is simply untrue because there will always be room for interpretation. There is no real story.
acknowledgments This book was designed by Kara Gordon in the spring of 2014 at Washington University in St. Louis. Special thanks to Sarah Birdsall, Scott Gericke, Michael Powell, Laura Barrett, Georgia Binnington, my studiomates and my family for their patience, guidance, and support throughout this project. This would have been impossible without you.
selected bibliography Adalian, Josef. “We Grill Two Former Lost Writers on Their Dark Fairy Tale Pilot.” Vulture. New York Magazine, 14 Feb. 2011. Web. Barrett, Laura. Laura Barrett Freelance Illustrator - Portfolio. Cargo Collective, 2011. Dahl, Roald, and Quentin Blake. Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes. New York: Knopf, 1983. “The Fairytale Adaptation: Once Upon A Time, Snow White and the Huntsman And Beastly!” CURLY. N.p., 9 July 2012. Web. Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Little Snow-White. 1812. Translated byD.L. Ashliman. University of Pittsburgh. 8 June 2013. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. By Walt Disney. Distributed by Buena Vista Film Distribution Co., 1937. Saunders, John Hanson. The Evolution of Snow White: A Close Textual Analysis of Three Versions of the Snow White Fairy Tale. Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University. 2008. “Snow White.” Once Upon a Time Wiki. Web.