True Beauty of Snow White Essay Example

her with a magical kiss, takes her away to marry her, and of course everyone lives happily ever after. As a result of the revised version of the fairy tale, Snow White’s story is known by nearly everyone.

Very few actually know the original tale which is a bit more gruesome and calls for a more mature audience. In this version of the fairy tale, rivalry, intentional murder, and sexual ripening are made more effective. Instead of the evil stepmother attempting to kill her on a number of occasions; it was Snow White's biological mother wanting to kill her because she was more beautiful than the Queen. This alone would be considered scandalous in modern times, but the fact that her biological mother is willingly able to set out to kill her on more than one occasion adds salt to the womb.

Also, in the original tale, the blossoming beauty of Snow White refers to her becoming a woman and the urges that come along with the maturing; not to mention the attention received from the dwarves, servant, and prince. For the most part, agreeably both stories contain the same characters. Each character has a vital role and depiction in the story, meaning there are no actual minor characters. They all majorly contribute to the story. The heroin, Snow White, is a beautiful, 15-year-old princess whose only wish is to be whisked away by a prince and live happily ever after.

This idea of beauty is held on a pedestal and can cause envy, lust, sometimes unwanted attention. On the other hand, the Queen is evil, middle-aged, and powerful. She represents those

willing to do the upmost in order to be accepted and uplifted by the public eye; hence, the envy mentioned above. Meanwhile, all together the seven dwarves and the prince represent the lusting and approving eyes that are blinded by beauty. Those that uplift beauty in this way believe that beauty comes before brains or anything else more prominent or that will take one any further in life and isn’t able to be taken from them.

Aside from the characters, a few key details in Snow White worth mentioning are the symbols and their hidden meanings. The astonishing things about these are that they all relate back to the concept of beauty. The poison apple, for instance, has biblical reference; an apple was offered to Eve by Satan. The Evil Queen also offers an apple with evil intentions. Snow White is told not to answer to strangers by the dwarves just as God warned Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge.

This is an example of blinded beauty; Adam and Eve were living beautifully and angelically but were blind in the perspective of “actuality. On the other hand, innocent beauty was perceived through the colors of red, black, and white. The colors are parts of nature where white represents purity, red represents passion as well as maturity, and black is death. All of which are stages or characteristics pertaining to Snow White. Lastly, the magical mirror is considered to be the voice of the seemingly absent father throughout the fairy tale. The mirror, or this voice, controls the actions of the queen in a way; she feels should be

more important than his daughter.

Disney even went as far as adding a face to the mirror, even though it lacks any defining male or female feature, to portray it as a person. However, the voice is deepened giving the impression that it is a male. If you take the symbols mentioned into consideration, the facets of inner and outer beauty are the presented values. Snow White’s purity and naivety are prime examples of her inner beauty. She is sweet and innocent enough to wander into a stranger’s home and cook and clean before encountering them. Also, she is too naive to realize that answering to strangers, in what seems to be three consistent days, can lead to dangerous outcomes.

Conversely, Snow White’s white skin, rosy red cheeks and lips, and her ebony black hair are the major assets of her alleged outer beauty. The Evil Queen just so happens to only possess outer beauty. Her evil ways are overbearing and her inability to accept being “second-best” causes the conflict in the fairy tale. However, the theme of Snow White is solidifying the vision of women being inferior to men. Even though this theme is represented in most fairy tales, it has a bit of emphasis in Snow White. Snow White is depicted as property for the most part.

Every time she is described in the story, whether the original or revised version, she is compared to objects. Also, the idea that women are not intelligent, or do not think, is produced. For example, Snow White’s decision to continue to open the door for a stranger on more than one occasion even

after suffering the effects doing so previously. Another chauvinistic idea shows through the object of the glass coffin. Here, the thought of women are to be seen and not heard, to only compliment the eye, and to even be an accessory for a man to flaunt.

The fairy tale of Snow White originated in the country of Germany and was published and released in the year 1857. The United States did not note too much of Snow White until the Walt Disney version was released. This soon was considered the “Americanized” version and one of the top-selling movies of all time in the country. Typically, the beautiful princess and the “happily ever after” ending is what ignited the popularity. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves made a surplus of over $24,061,500 (modernized dollars) in total movie ticket sales alone.

Therefore, obviously Snow White is one of the better known characters out of the ten Disney princesses. With the acquired research, an overall analysis would pose that even though Snow White has had very little revision over the years, Americans have settled with a more appeasing version in order for it to be suitable enough for a fairy tale. Mentioned previously, the queen was at first the mother instead of the stepmother, the lust in the eyes of dwarves is originally appointed, and most importantly the magical kiss is what saves Snow White --while originally she is raped by the Prince-- and is whisked away afterwards.

This all shows how things are watered down in order to please the public eye. Comparably, a sizable amount of society possesses the idea that the United

States’ government withholds vital, possibly lethal, information from the citizens of America, such as the cure of HIV/AIDS. On the other hand, according to collected research and data, it can be said that Snow White is a classic fairy tale with a hidden state of immature feminine mentality. If the Disney version is taken into consideration, three women are in the story – the dead mother, the evil step mother, and Snow White.

Therefore, even though the story is told from an omniscient point of view, the aspects of things are still told from a female’s perspective. American revisions have added to the intentional idea of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and has even shown and proved that the idea of ‘Beauty over Mind’ is what modern society uplifts. In contrast, the original version of the fairy tale elaborated more on the theme of ‘Female Inferiority. ’ However, in the least, the grasping of the concept that this childish fairy tale withholds all of these hidden notions that are regularly overlooked is astonishing.