The Symbolism of Snow White

Fairy tales have deep symbolic meanings that shed light on the culture that originated the tale. This paper will look at the symbols common, and uncommon, found in the various versions of the tale of Snow White from a few different perspectives to uncover all the morals and themes found in the current Disney version of Snow White and the Grimm's version. Different sources were used in this paper to gather versions of the story, to look at the symbols of Snow White, and to look into different perspectives to better understand those symbols. To further explore the symbols in Snow White, this paper will also look at sociological definitions of some of the symbols.

While there is a lot of literature on the story of Snow White, there is none that combines different theories on the symbols found in the tale. This paper will fill that hole by providing an analysis of the numerous symbols found in the basic form of Snow White. The symbolic meanings of the elements of the tale will help to further explain the story and understand the tale's history and hidden meanings. The story of Snow White fits most of the characteristic of a fairy tale. Snow White is a magic fairy tale, or Zaubermarchen, similar to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (Zipes 74).

Literature Review

The versions of Snow White analyzed in this paper include "Little Snow-White" found in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Household Tales, Walt Disney's movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Scotland's tale "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree" (reprinted by SurLaLane Fairy Tales), Italy's tale "The Young Slave" (reprinted by SurLaLane Fairy Tales), Italy's tale "Maria, the Wicked Stepmother, and the Seven Robbers" (reprinted by SurLaLane Fairy Tales), and Italy's "The Crystal Casket" (reprinted by SurLaLane Fairy Tales). During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, literary fairy tales flourished in Italy, that is why so many of the versions of Snow White are found in Italy. Italian cities had great commercial centers and high literacy rate making cultural activity high. There was a great deal of foreign influence, as well as a strong native oral tradition, influencingstorytelling (Zipes 11).

Bruno Bettelheim is a child psychologist who looked at the psychological meaning of fairy tales for children (Bettelheim 3-19). Bettelheim wrote the highly acclaimed book (Tatar xvii), The Uses of Enchantment, "to help adults, and most especially those with children in their care, to become more fully aware of the importance of [fairy] tales" (Bettelheim 19). In his book, Bettelheim analyzes the Grimm's version of Snow White, comparing it to the story of Oedipus and discussing the psychoanalytical implications of the symbols found in the story. He also looks at the animal-groom cycle and the process of becoming a Queen, which Snow White does at the end of the story (Bettelheim). Bettelheim explained the symbols found in the classic Snow White story and interpreted the morals found in the fairy tale.

Jack Zipes, in When Dreams Came True, looks at the tradition of the classic fairy tale. Zipes focuses "on the role the literary fairy tale has assumed in the civilizing process by impairing values, norms, and aesthetic taste to children and adults" (Zipes x). He discusses the history of the fairy tale, fairy tales from different countries, the Grimm brothers' collection, Hans Christian Anderson, Oscar Wilde, Frank Stockton, and L. Frank Baum (Zipes). Zipes' interpreted Snow White and provided a time line of the tale.

N. J Girardot's journal article, "Initiation and Meaning in the Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," discusses the initiatory process and its parallels in myth and fairy tales. Girardot suggests that fairy tales offer different levels of initiatory themes, a series of ordeals, deaths, and regulations; the individual level and the symbolic level. He looks specifically at the underlying structure of the tale of Snow White. In his article, Girardot describes the story of Snow White in phases, phases that parallel a girl's maturation. , These phases include a prologue, then a phase of separation, followed by a phase of liminality, and then a phase of reincorporation (Girardot). Girardot's notion of the symbolic theme of maturation and his theory agrees with Bettelheim's and Zipes's theories.

Maria Tartar's Off With Their Heads! focuses on the conception of fairy tales and how the ideological premise each reader brings changes the meaning of the tale. Most of Tatar's book is written in disagreement with Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment. Tatar believes that our society has projected our own culture onto fairy tales. She particularly talks about Disney's adaptation of Snow White, in Snow Whiteand the Seven Dwarfs and about cultures affect on the tale and vise versa (Tartar). Tartar's over all theory will be useful in this analysis of Snow White.

Marina Warner in her book, From The Beast To The Blonde, looks at storytelling and tales, using a few of the most familiar tales as examples. She looks at Jungian archetypes, including absent mothers, wicked stepmothers, runaway girls, and silent fathers (Warner). Warner provides a good analysis of the archetypes found in Snow White and a good explanation what Warner thinks those archetypes portray.

History

When we hear "fairy tales" the first thing that comes to mind are the seemingly simple Disney movies made for children, but fairy tales have a long history and complicated plots and motifs. "... Myths and fairy tales often both state and enforce culture's sentences with greater accuracy then more sophisticated literary texts" (Gilbert 291). Fairy tales are a strong part of our cultural history. Delving into a fair tale can offer clues on societal values and current popular cultural, as well as a historical time line of society and culture. The children's stories that are being passed down generation to generation have a history most are unaware of.

Before they were aimed for kids, fairy tales were intended for adult audiences, having such adult topics as oedipal themes and strong sexual connotations. As the stories were adapted to entertain and teach children they were changed and the strong sexual content of these stories was hidden in the symbols and purposeful language. The same adult anxieties that filled the themes of the original fairy tales and the oral folktales they were derived from are found in a hidden form in current fairy tales. Not only were the stories constantly adapted to fit new audiences, they were also customized to fit our every changing society and to conform to the cultural standards and societal norms of the current group. The fairy tale, as a genre, was born from the oral folk tale; fairy tales differentiated themselves by being longer than the oral folk tale and intended for a new audience, the oral tale was adapted to new standards of literacy to form fairy tales (Zipes).

"Though it is difficult to determine when the first literary fairy tale was conceived and extremely difficult to define exactly what a fairy tale is, we do know that oral folk tales, which contain wondrous and marvelous elements, have existed for thousands of years and were told largely by adults for adults" (Zipes 1-2). It was not until the adults had more entertaining matters that the fairy tale was used to teach and entertain children. The same stories that entertained adults were appropriated, and then used to entertain children. There is no standard form of a fairy tale. A few theorists have offered a few general points and basic structures that most fairy tales fit. Marciade Elliade (reprinted by Girardot), Bruno Bettelheim, and Valdimir Propp (reprinted by Zipes) have all alluded to a few, such as: a happy ending (Girardot; Zipes), "a structural constellation of symbols" (Girardot), encountering a villain and animals (Zipes), the punishment of the villain (Zipes), an imaginative form of healthy human development (Bettelheim), containing a moral lesson (Bettelheim), and containing metamorphosis (Warner).

Introduction to Snow White

Snow White is classified by Zipes as a magic fairy tale. The magic fairy tales were the most popular and acceptable in Europe and America during the nineteenth century- they were the tales that kept with the Protestant ethic and a patriarchal notion of sex roles (Zipes 75). Snow White, like Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, and The Juniper Tree, is a story in which a child is victimized by an adult. Adult anxieties and jealousies cause the adults in the stories to act against the children- the children being the objects of the adult's jealousy.

Snow White is a classic example of a fairy tale with many characteristically fairy tale elements. There are magical elements, a fictional setting, characters with supernatural powers, a happy ending, a heroine, and themes of adult anxieties. Snow White goes through changes from a girl to a woman by the end of the story. In almost every version of Snow White these elements exist. The most current, and the most popular example of a version of Snow White is Disney's 1937 Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. The Disney movie is very similar to the oldest known copy of the tale, the Grimm Brother's 1857 version of "Little Snow-White." The Grimms brothers collected the fairy tales they printed from oral tales; the probable beginning of the story of Snow White exists in an oral tale. There are many other versions of Snow White, found mostly in Italy and all similar to the version the Grimm brothers published. The basic outline, as characterized by Stith Thompson, is tale type 709, a banished wife or maiden tale (Girardot 277).

While some of the details of the story may have been changed to fit each culture, the same themes exist in each story, they are just hidden by different symbols. For example, the purpose of the mirror is fulfilled by a trout in Scotland's tale "Gold-tree and Silver-tree" (SurLaLane Fairy Tales). Some of the symbols found in the tale transcends cultural differences and are found in most versions of the story, just in different forms. For example, the number seven is seen in most versions, most commonly it is the number of dwarfs or men that Snow White seeks solace with but in a few stories seven is the age of Snow White when her stepmother first becomes jealous of her or it is the number of coffins she is placed in. The symbols found on the story provide the map for the motifs and morals found in Snow White. The symbols are also used to mask the parts of the story that were originally intended for adult audiences, such as sexual maturity.

The Color Trio

The most common version of the tale and the Grimm's final version is a tale of an innocent and beautiful girl who is abandoned by her father and is the target of her stepmother's jealousy. The girl is banished from her home and finds support from mythical creatures or helpful strangers. While retreated she grows into a woman but is still the target of her stepmother's jealousy. She is tricked by temptation and is almost killed three times by her stepmother in disguise. Finally biting into a poisoned apple, offered by her disguised stepmother, puts her into a deep sleep and she is displayed in a glass coffin because her beauty is too much to hide. She is discovered by a Prince and adored for her beauty. The apple falls out of her mouth freeing her from her stepmother's spell and she and the Prince marry, turning the girl into a future Queen. During the girl's wedding, her stepmother is punished by being forced to wear red hot shoes and dance in them until she falls and dies (Grimm). The story has a magic, a heroine who overcomes a feat, and a happy ending.

In "Little Snow-White," printed in the Grimm's Children's and Household Tale, the story begins:

Once upon a time in midwinter, when the snowflakes were falling like

feathers from heaven, a 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 the needle. Three drops of blood fell into

the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful that she thought to

herself, "If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as

black as the wood in this frame (Grimm).

This descriptive event forecasts the looks and personality of Snow White, the Queen's daughter, and the story of her life. The dichotomy of innocence and passion is seen in the contrast of the white snow and red blood. Bettelheim sees the whiteness as setting Snow White's sexual innocence while the red sets her sexual passion. The three drops of blood represent menstruation, according to Bettelheim, and thus necessary for the birth of a child (Bettelheim). "...the significance of menstrual blood [is] symbolic here of the birth of Snow White and, later, of Snow White's own sexual and social maturation involving a threefold unification of the white, black, and red parts of nature" (Girardot 285). While Snow White is seen as an innocent child throughout the story, it is her sexual passion that threatens her stepmother and leads to her banishment. It is her innocence that the dwarfs later see in her. It is her innocence that encourages the dwarfs to trust her and provide her a home. Her innocence is also the reason she allows her disguised stepmother to take advantage of her but it is her passion that the Prince later sees and draws him to her, later saving her life and turning her into a powerful queen. The snow in the story of Snow White, as well as in Snow White's name represents inertness, as the snow covers the earth all life seems to stop (Bettelheim).

Girardot parallels the story of Snow White to a symbolic story of a girl's maturarion. He sees importance not only in the blood-red color as symbolizing menstruation, but also in the red, white, and black trio. These colors appear together in societies during the situation of initiation (Girardot 283). By initiation, Girardot is describing the changing of man or beginning of a new man (Girardot 285). The three colors of the trio represent the three parts of the life cycle. The black is representative of death or the end of life, white is purification, and red is rebirth when life is started anew (Girardot). A theme seen in the story, as represented by the color trio, as well as the blood-red, is transformation. The story can be seen as a symbolic story of a child maturing into adulthood.

Protas's Dictionary of Symbolism describes the color white as representing faith, joy, gladness, purity, and innocence. Her classification of the color white as purity and innocence agrees with Girardot's description. The white, as emphasized in her name, defines her personality and demeanor as pure and innocent. Snow is seen as a purifying element that covers the world in white and then washes everything away. Blood globally represents life itself, as the element of divine life that functions within the human body (Protas). The blood therefore represents the life or birth of Snow White as well as the body's ability to give life, or menstruation. The color red is closely tied with passion as lips are tied with sexuality (Protas). With her red lips, Snow White displays a sexual passion that contrasts her white skin, her innocence. Black can represent sorrow or mourning and wood represents shelter, the cradle, or the coffin (Protas). The queen wishes for her daughter to be "...as black as the wood in this frame" (Grimm). This could foreshadow her near death experiences and her confinement in a coffin, and/or foreshadow her stepmother's drive to kill her or at least permanently repress her beauty. The color trio shown at the beginning of the story with the wood, snow, and blood shows the Snow White theme of maturity. Here the color trio represents the birth of a child and since the color trio stays with Snow White, it characterizes the story of her life as constantly changing.

The color trio is seen again in the stepmother's attempts on Snow White's life. "In the three ordeals the stepmother sequentially attacks the white (breath), black (hair), and red (apple-blood) elements of Snow White's nature- all three which must be tested and refined if the final union is to be complete" (Girardot 291). The color trio represents the cycle of life or a complete transition. In this case the trio is used to describe the three attempts on Snow White's life. Girardot sees these events a full stage of Snow White's life. In the Disney version, the queen only attempts to poison Snow White once, with the apple. Intended for a younger audience than the Grimm's version, Disney limited the number of death attempts.

The Number Three

The number three is seen in the beginning of the Grimm's version; "three drops of blood fell into the snow" (Grimm). The drops of blood represent the beginning or birth of Snow White. The number three is important because it is the number most often linked with sexual desires in the unconscious (Girardot). Bettelheim mentions a version of Snow White that begins with the repeated imagery of groups of three objects: three mounds of white snow, three holes full of blood, and three black ravens. It is the appearance of those objects that foreshadows the man wanting a child. Immediately after the items in groups of three are seen Snow White appears. Since the number three represents sex, Snow White is the child outcome of that (Bettelheim). If the blood represents menstruation and the number three represents sex, than it makes sense that Snow White would follow three drops of blood, or come from the repeated imagery of groups of three items. Snow White's conception and her mother's pregnancy is symbolized by the drops of blood and the sexual implications are left only to the reader's imagination. In the Disney version, the drops of blood are completely left out and the story starts with Snow White already a child (Disney). Maria Tatar notes that Disney received complaints about the version of Snow White scaring children. It seems that our current society would not approve of the conception of Snow White, symbolic or not, being included in the movie.

The Mother's Death

In the Grimm's "Little Snow-White," just like Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as soon as Snow White was born the mother dies (Grimm; Disney). According to Girardot, the birth mother's death is part of the prologue and building problem before the phase of separation occurs. "The birth of the child requires the death of the mother as the completion of the old, and the start of a new, life cycle" (Girardot 286). Snow White is created by her mother, who the reader does not know, and is prepared to start life where her mother ended. This important contrast at the beginning of Snow White illustrates the theme of life cycle and maturity. Also, the removal of the birth mother makes it possible for storytellers to introduce the archetype of the evil stepmother, an important character in the story.

The Mirror

Soon after the new queen, Snow White's stepmother, is introduced into the story, her magic mirror is brought into it. The stepmother constantly checks her beauty in the mirror and asks the mirror "who in this land is the fairest of all?" When the mirror changes its answer from the stepmother to Snow White, the queen turns green with envy (Grimm). A mirror conventionally symbolizes one's captured imagination, self-realization, or one's own inner voice (Protas). They were first created to pattern after nature. Mirrors were fashioned to reproduce the same kind of reflection a lake or another still body of water produces on a clear day. Mirrors were created so people have a clear frontal view of themselves. Mirrors allow people to see the way others view them. Mirrors can represent the way a person views and evaluates him or herself (Prostas). They are also considered to embody a person's soul and therefore cannot lie to him or her.

In the Grimm's version of "Snow White," the mirror is a magical instrument owned by the evil queen that symbolizes the absent king's voice and opinions. The queen, after a few years of marriage, can predict the King's thoughts and actions. She has versions of his feelings in her mind which is represented by her magical mirror: "... The woman has internalized the King's rule: his voice resides now in her own mirror, her own mind" (Gilbert 293). The mirror provides a patriarchal voice for the queen and her stepdaughter. It also illustrates the queen's anxieties about Snow White and her jealousy about Snow White's looks. Bettelheim concludes that "the story of Snow White warns of the evil consequences of narcissism for both parent and child" (203). The narcissism of the queen is clearly seen in her obsession with the answers of her magic mirror. In the Grimm's version, the father's voice is pivotal in the stepmother- daughter relationship. "His, surely, is the voice of the looking glass, the patriarchal voice of judgment that rules the queen's- and every other woman's- self-evaluation" (Gilbert 293). The Grimm brothers changed the tale of Snow White, from earlier versions they had printed, in 1819 to make the Snow White's stepmother, not mother, the evil being (Warner 211). The evil stepmother is found to be more believable than an evil mother and more acceptable by children. The stepmother was kept as the evil character in most of the versions following the Grimms' 1819 change.

Bettelheim has a different interpretation of the significance of the mirror. He believes the mirror speaks the voice of Snow White. As the child is young she thinks her mother, or in this case her stepmother, is the most beautiful but as the child grows she begins to see herself as more beautiful (Bettelheim 207). The problem with his interpretation is that a child thinking she is more beautiful than her stepmother does not seem like enough motivation for her stepmother to kill her. The Disney version clearly does not take this interpretation; in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the mirror instructs the queen to kill Snow White to fix her problem (Disney). In the Disney version of "Snow White," the mirror is still used to hold the voice of the absent patriarchal figure, but it now represents the queen's mind and fractured psyche. The queen has internalized the king's voice, which is now portrayed along with the queen's thoughts in her magic mirror. The Disney movie adds a face to the mirror to more clearly show that it represents a person. The face is a mask so the viewer cannot tell if it is male or female because it is both, but the voice is masculine as it is the voice of the king. The mirror in this version not only represents the absent King's judgments, but also represents part of the queen's soul.

The queen feels that she must be the most important person to her husband and is so jealous that her husband may care about Snow White. She also wants to be the fairest one in all the land and has desires to kill anyone who threatens that. Jack Zipes notes that messages of elitism are clear in almost all of Disney's productions, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (27).

Now when the mirror is asked, "... Who is the fairest one of all," it not only replies with either the queen or Snow White, but it also scolds and gives orders to the queen. The mirror tells the queen not to let Snow White live and encourages her to find and kill Snow White (Disney). In "Gold-Tree and Silver Tree," a version of Snow White, Gold-Tree, Silver-tree's mother, uses a trout instead of a mirror. She asks the trout for reassurance, in the same manner the stepmother in the Grimm's version asks the mirror. The trout talks back and provides similar answers to the mirror's answers (SurLaLane Fairy Tales).

The Hunter

The queen is motivated to send her hunter out in to the woods to kill Snow White and bring back her liver and lungs as proof. The hunter is unable to kill Snow White, as he is taken by her beauty and innocent pleas, and instead tells her to run (Grimm). Bettelheim suggests that the hunter is an unconscious representation of the father since he is first taken by the queen's commands but then succumbs to the child (204-205). What hunter, except for a father, would go against the queen's will? Bettelheim's reasoning is that hunting was a male aristocratic privilege, and hunters lend themselves easily to projections due to children's' animal phobias (205). "On a deeper level, he represents the subjugation of the animal, asocial, violent tendencies in man. Since he seeks out, tracks down, and defeats what are viewed as lower aspects of man- the wolf- the hunter is an eminently protective figure who can and does save us from the dangers of our violent emotions and those of others" (Bettelheim 205).

Internal Organs

In the Grimm's tale, the hunter kills a boar and feeds the liver and lungs of the boar to the queen. The queen eats the organs thinking she is eating her stepdaughter (Grimm). "In primitive thought and custom, one acquires the powers or characteristics of what one eats. The queen, jealous of Snow White's beauty, wanted to incorporate Snow White's attractiveness, as symbolized by her internal organs" (Bettelheim 207). Girardot's analysis of the event is similar; he believes that the cannabilistic ingestion is associated with the absorption of power (290). This symbolic action further drives the point that the queen is desperate to gain Snow White's beauty and possibly therefore gaining attention from her husband. In our current Disney version, the queen keeps Snow White organs in a box (Disney). The scene changes because Disney's intended audience is younger than the Grimm's intended audience and the image of cannibalism is not acceptable in a children's movie. The queen contains Snow White's organs in her own lock box. The box can be seen as the queen's attempt to control Snow White's organs and gain the beauty that comes with them.

The Dwarfs

Next, in the Grimm's version, Snow White finds the house of the dwarfs and rests there (Grimm). For Giradot, this marks the beginning of the liminal period (290). "Snow White has symbolically returned to the beginnings of time, the liminal period of chaos the mysterious gods and ancestral creatures of creation were active" (Girardot 290). The dwarfs, according to Girardot, are the teachers that are necessary to have a successful initiation (290). They teach her adult tasks, such as cleaning and cooking, which encourage independence. The dwarfs warn Snow White of impeding danger that her stepmother brings. Jack Zipes mentions the Protestant ethics being part of the moral taught in Snow White. The ethics he includes are industriousness, honesty, cleanliness, diligence, virtuousness, and male supremacy (21).The dwarfs teach Snow White these values. Snow White is told by the dwarfs that she can seek solace in their house as long as she cleans and cooks and does various other chores (Grimm).In the Disney version, unlike Grimm's tale, the dwarfs are seen as messy and child-like, further emphasizing the need for someone to keep order (Disney; Grimm). The change in the manner of the dwarfs in the Disney movie makes the dwarfs more child-like. Disney's intended audience, young children, is more likely to relate to the child-like dwarfs then the more work-conscious dwarfs found in the Grimm's version of the tale. The dwarfs are good people to teach Snow White because, as Bettelheim points out, dwarfs value hard work (209). Bettelheim goes on to propose that the dwarfs suggest phallic connotations and they parallel the prepubertal child. They have no desire to change and they do not understand the pressures that make it hard for Snow White to resist her evil stepmother (210).

The Number Seven

In the Grimm's, as well as the Disney version of Snow White, there are seven dwarfs (Grimm; Disney). In the Grimm's story, the replication of the number seven mirrors the replication of three in the story of Goldilocks and three bears- seven plates, seven chairs, and seven beds. The number seven has a long history in fairy tales, myths, and literature in general. There are numerous examples of the number seven found in the old testament (Protas). Seven is symbolically important. It is the number of days in a week, based on the planets orbital times. Each of the four phases of the moon lasts seven days, making up a full month (Protas). In many of the tales of Snow White, the child matures at the age of seven; at seven her stepmother starts to resent her. In "The Young Slave," an Italian version of Snow White, her mother keeps the child in seven crystal coffins, one inside the other (SurLaLane Fairy Tales). The number seven represents change for the better and completeness (Protas). In both the Grimm and Disney versions, the seven dwarfs symbolize a period of change for Snow White. According to Girardot, it is the time Snow White secludes from the group and changes from a child to an adult, symbolic of puberty. She learns womanly tasks and learns to become independent and after her time with the dwarfs Snow White is a woman (Girardot). In the Disney version of Snow White, Snow White is shy and bashful before her time in the hut with the dwarfs. She blushes when she first sees the Prince and hides from him. After her stint with the dwarfs, when she meets the prince again she is ready to marry him (Disney). Snow White has matured into an adult woman, ready for marriage.

The number seven is one of the symbols that is seen in almost every banished maiden tale. Besides the tales mentioned above, in "Snow-White and Rose-Red" there are also seven dwarfs, in "Maria, the Wicked Stepmother, and the Seven Robbers," Maria lives with seven robbers instead of dwarfs, and in "Death of the Seven Dwarfs" the story focuses on the seven dwarfs. In "The Crystal Casket" the girl is places in seven caskets, similar to the story "The Young Slave." This suggests that the themes associated with the symbol seven have been carried with the story to many societies and cultures through many time periods. The theme of positive change and of the changes in Snow White's life is a prevalent theme. Girardot suggest that this theme is symbolic of puberty, maturation, and changes that occur during the life cycle.

The Step Mother's Disguises

While Snow White is living with the dwarfs, she is tempted three times by her stepmother who is disguised as an old begger woman (Grimm). "As the dwarfs might be said to represent the creative and positive dimension of the chaos condition, the stepmother now directly embodies the negative and destructive dimension of death and decay" (Girardot 291). As disguised as an old beggar woman nearing death herself, the stepmother represents the death she is hopefully bringing to Snow White. Girardot suggests that a theme can be concluded by this symbolism: in the life of the girl the mother plays, at some point, the role of a witch (291).

The Lace and The Comb

In the Grimm tale, Snow White is first tempted by the lace offered by her disguised stepmother (Grimm). Bettelheim suggests that these temptations occurred during a time in Snow White's life where she had to start becoming responsible for herself (210). The dwarfs could not stop Snow White's evil stepmother from getting to her and they could only save her two out of the three times her stepmother tried to poison her. "Snow White and the queen's relations are symbolic of some severe difficulties which may occur between mother and daughter" (Bettelheim 210). Bettelheim's interpretations may be reading too far into the story; however, Snow White does need to overcome the attempts at her life by her stepmother to eventually marry the prince.

The first attempt the stepmother makes to kill Snow White is done with poisoned stay-laces. Being tempted by the beautiful laces, Snow White lets her disguised stepmother into the dwarfs' house. Bettelheim explains this by saying Snow White is now an adolescent tempted by fashion (211). The temptation leads to Snow Whites near death. A moral lesson about not being tempted by beauty is symbolized by the laces. The next attempt at Snow White's life is made by the Queen tempting her with a comb (Grimm). Girardot points out that, like the laces, the comb is a symbol of adult womanhood and Snow White is not ready to accept them, even though she is tempted by them (291). The can both, therefore, be seen as another aspect of the lessons Snow White receives about maturity while living with the dwarfs. Laces and combs can be seen as symbolic of upper class beauty, a beauty Snow White must be tempted by. These temptations and the sin of falling for them do not lead to Snow White's death but they bring her close. Bettelheim points out that since it is Snow White's own vanity that allows her to be laced up and her hair to be combed, she and her stepmother have something in common (212).

The Apple

The third attempt on Snow White's life is with a poisoned apple. The queen makes the apple poisoned on only one side, the red side. The queen, dressed up as a beggar woman, offers Snow White the red side of the apple while she eats the white side (Grimm). The colors of the apple again symbolize purity and innocence by the white side and passion and erotic desire by the red side. It is the passion, the red side of the apple that puts Snow White into a deep sleep- so deep that the dwarfs cannot save her this time. "In many myths the apple stands for love and sex, both its benevolent and its dangerous aspects.... In Snow White mother and daughter share the apple. That which is symbolized by the apple in Snow White is something mother and daughter have in common which runs even deeper than their jealousy of each other- their mature sexual desires" (Bettelheim 213). Girardot sees the apple as symbolizing the fruit of earthly desires which brings death in to the world and as symbolizing the philosopher's stone which is both a deadly poison and the medicine of life (292).

Protas describes the apple as a complex symbol which can represent a woman's breasts or temptation and sin. The apple is seen in the Bible as a symbol temptation and sin. Eve is tempted to taste the forbidden fruit and does so, committing the original sin. The apple also appears repeatedly in Greek mythology. Hera received an apple as a symbol of fertility upon her engagement to Zeus (Protas). As a symbol of fertility, the apple in Snow White could represent Snow White's turning in to a woman. The apple can also mean love, knowledge, wisdom, joy, death, and/or luxury (Protas). The apple is the luxury that tempts Snow White, like she is tempted by the beauty and lavishness of the lace and comb. It is the temptation of luxury and passion that eventually puts Snow White in to a deep sleep.

In the Grimm brother's story, after Snow White eats the apple and is put into a deep sleep, the dwarfs come home and find her. They assume she is dead because she is not breathing and they place her in a clear coffin. Three birds- an owl, a raven, and a dove come to her grave (Grimm). Again the symbol three appears, this time representing transformation (Girardot). The owl brings the omen of death and darkness, the raven is likewise an omen of death, and the dove suggests the completion of a process, similar to the way the story of Noah uses the symbol of the dove (Girardot 295). According to Bettelheim, the owl symbolizes wisdom, the raven symbolizes mature consciousness, and the dove symbolizes love (213). Bettelheim believes that the combination of these symbols suggests that Snow White's time in the casket is a period of gestation before her upcoming adulthood (Bettelheim 213). A relationship with or control over animals is also seen as a characteristic of fairy tales. In the Disney version, Snow White masters the birds by singing to them in the woods before she even reaches the Dwarfs' house (Disney). As Snow White sings the birds flock to her (Disney), this is suggestive of fairy tale magic.

The Glass Coffin

After a period of time spent in the clear coffin, Snow White is saved. A prince is given the coffin containing Snow White by the dwarfs who pity him. As the prince's servants carry away the coffin they knock it and knock out the poisonous apple. The prince tells the awakened Snow White that they should get married and Snow White loves him forever (Grimm). The ending in Disney of the Prince kissing Snow White to wake her up is borrowed from Sleeping Beauty (Tatar 235). "...what may seem like a period of deathlike passivity at the end of childhood is nothing but a time of quiet growth and preparation, from which the person will awake mature, ready for sexual union" (Bettelheim 232). Maria Tatar points out how the glass coffin puts Snow White's beauty on display (139). The marriage of the prince and Snow White is Snow White's final step into adulthood. "She is a whole person now, complete in her sexuality, womanhood, and socialization" (Girardot 297).

Snow White's Independence

During Snow White's marriage, the queen as punishment is forced to wear red hot shoes and dance until she falls down dead (Grimm). The red shoes symbolize her uncontrollable passion which leads to her demise (Bettelheim 214). The death of the jealous queen is seen in the story as occurring parallel to Snow White's wedding. Tatar mentions a version of Snow White that ends with the phrase "revenge can be as sweet as love" (175). Completing the cycle and providing Snow White with independence is the death of the jealous Queen and the wedding of Snow White to her new husband. Snow White, by marrying a prince, becomes a Queen. According to Bettelheim, becoming a queen at the end of a tale symbolizes true independence (127). The wedding also allows the fairy tale to end in hope (Warner 219).

Conclusion

The symbols in the story of Snow White are used to convey morals, illustrate themes, and adapt stories to cultural and societal norms. Some symbols and archetypes, such as the evil stepmother, the white-black-red trio, the apple, birds, and the marriage remain virtually the same in all versions because they communicate theme. Symbols such as the mirror, hunter, lace, and comb are only present in certain versions because their meanings are time and culturally specific. Overall, understanding the symbolic language and imagery found in the story helps distinguish the message and motifs of Snow White. Once the meaning of the symbol is understood, different theories and values can change the interpretation of the symbolic meanings.

Works Cited

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. Random House, 1976.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Household Tales. Margaret Hunt, translator. London: George Bell, 1884.

Initiation and Meaning in the Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. N.J. Girardot. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 90, No. 357. (Jul-Sep., 1977), pp. 274 300.

Protas, Allison. Online Distionary of Symbolism, (26 November 2004)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney. The Walt Disney Company, 1937./

SurLaLune Faiy Tales, (26 November 2004).

Tatar, Maria. Off With Their Heads!: Fairytales And The Culture Of Childhood. Princeton University Press,1992.

Warner, Marina. From The Beast To The Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. Chatto & Windus, 1995.

Zipes, Jack. When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition. Routledge, 1999.