The Evil Mother

There was a woman that truly desired to have a beautiful daugther. A sweet child with black hair, white skin and red lips. That was her most profound desire. One day she gave birth to a beautiful baby. Her wish had become true. But something happened. The woman wasn’t happy with this situation. She started to resent her daughter. Pervasive thoughts were filling her mind. One day she glanced at her seven year old child and she took a catastrophic resolution: the child had to die.

Fairy tales don’t provide all the information. We usually don’t know in depth the feelings of the characters except for those necessary to give continuity to the story. From the birth of Snow White to her mother’s decision to kill her, we discover she started to be envious of her beautiful child. The story doesn’t provide any more detail about it. We don’t know how the mother treated the child during those 7 years. And for the sake of transparency it is important to stress this detail: the very first Snow White edition from the Grimm Brothers, in 1812 had indeed a murderous mother. The following editions started to suffer several changes and the 1937 Disney adaptation strayed away from the original story. In this vídeo the 1812 edition will be the subject of analysis.

Let’s go back to our first edition, then. Snow White is only 7 years old when her mother decides to kill her.

Snow White grew up and become even more beautiful. When she was seven years old she was as beautiful as the light of the day, even more beautiful than the queen herself. (…)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. 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.

For centuries children had always been regarded as property, with little or no rights, with the ultimate duty of obeying without question to authority. Children were abandoned, left to die, used as free labour and sold. Snow White story is a window to a wider societal problem: the fragility of childhood. Her mother decides she must die for her child is the only thing that prevents her to achieve the status of being the most beautiful woman in the world. Her child has become an inconvenience. The child became an obsctacle to her goals and dreams. Unfortunately, no one stops her. Not even her husband, the king. Likewise the tale of Cinderella, the father figure is absent. He has no agency, no control whatsoever. The father didn’t die. He just stays at the margins of the story, refusing or not being able to interact with their offspring. Although Snow White has both parents she is, indeed, an orphan. Fairy Tales mimic real life. It is common in a abusive household to have one as a perpetrator and the other as the enabler. In real life it is always the weak and the fragile that suffers the most.

However, fairy tales most often provide hints of hope in the person of one or more protectors. Snow White, the 7 year old child needs a protector. In life, just like in fairy tales, a helper, a guardian angel might appear.

The Protector and the Deceiver

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. 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 doesn’t have the courage to kill Snow White. So, he lets her go to the forest, knowing too well she will end up dead. Although he doesn’t kill her, he knows that letting a 7 year old alone in a dark forest full of dangers will take care of the matter in hand. Just like her father, the huntsman doesn’t help her. They don’t take an active action to release her from the evil mother. Both men in the story stand aside and let the violence take its course. Just like NPC’s (non playable characters in video games) they don’t interfere in the main action.

In contrast to greek mythology where more than often humans are severely and unjustly punished by petty reasons, fairy tales always provide a rescuer or a helper to the hero. That is the role of the seven dwarves in the Grimm version. It is possible they might represent the passage of time since Seven has the symbolic value of completion of a cycle.

The dwarves are fae, non-human magical beings, that in exchange to domestic labour, they offer her a secure place to stay as long as she keeps her guard up.

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.

It is interesting to notice they never promised to protect her. How could they? Although she is still a child she is left all alone during the day. The fae assume quite wrongly a seven-year-old is quite capable of staying all alone in a house in the middle of the forest and to resist any outside invitation. It is no wonder that disaster strikes almost immediately.

The Crone

Then she thought, and thought again, how she could kill Snow White (…). At last she thought of something. Coloring her face, she disguised herself as an old peddler (…).

Snow White’s mother knows exactly what she must do to gain her trust. By disguising as an old lady she is clearly trying to convey the image of a caring and innocent old woman. The first attempt is a success.

Snow-White peered out the window, “What do you have?”

“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.

The dwarves save the little girl by removing the lace and she recovers conscience. Then she is tricked a second and a third time. Although the dwarves tell Snow White to not let anyone enter in the house, still Snow White keeps talking and accepting gifts from the different old ladies that appear at her doorstep. Is she that naive that she can’t understand those ladies are in fact her mother?

My personal opinion is that she knows the truth. But she desires so much the love and affection of her mother that she keeps running to her arms. Even knowing she is at danger she keeps being compelled to ignore the faes’ warnings and to put herself at the mercy of her cruel mother. Psychology explains this as trauma bonding. The attachment between Snow White and her mother is full of inconsistencies. The mother tries to kill her and now she is offering her a chance of a little bit of companionship in an isolated house and some beautiful gifts. Snow White is so desperate for her mother’s attention that she is willing to risk it all in order to grab a sensation of security and love. People usually tend to return back to what is familiar. Snow White is used to violence and evil. No wonder she doesn’t seem to pay attention to the dwarves well-intended warnings.

Once again they warned her to be on guard and not to open the door to anyone.

It is possible to assume she chooses to erase the memory of the evil her mother did to her in order to survive, mentally and emotionally, in a world that is too terrible to her. After all, she is a child and she needs her mum. She wants to be loved and she is willing to risk it all just to receive some attention and a little bit of love. Snow White is indeed a victim of the most cruel crime: not being loved by her parents. One is actively pursuing her death and the other stands aside. It is no wonder that the third gift sends her to a deep sleep: a poisoned apple.

The abyss and ressurrection

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.

At last her mother succeeds. Snow White falls into a deep sleep and lays inside the glass coffin for a long time. She is not dead. Her deep sleep conveys a deep symbolic meaning. She is going through the process of mourning and dealing with all the pain and suffering of not being loved. When the pain is too intense people tend to shut down and to stop feeling. When the pain is too deep we tend to run, to ignore, to pretend and to shut down our souls in order to get through the darkness. Snow White is every single one of us that has faced dire and tragic events. The child refuses to dive into the pain. It is easier to retreat into the security of a glass coffin and to stay there, asleep and safe. So the dwarves keep watching over her. It is none of their business and their deal has no effect now, but they still keep guarding her.

The power of having a name

Snow White doesn’t lie there nameless. The fae make sure that it is engraved in the coffin her name and who she is. They pursue to give her an identity even though she no longer seems to be engaged with the world around her. She didn’t lose her identity. She is still Snow White, a princess and her ancestry is also written in the coffin. They don’t fear to make sure everyone knows whom is she daughter. Although the absence of her father and the evil of her mother has made her fall into a deep sleep, the fae seem to acknowledge that running from certain facts of life is useless.

Her identity is tied up to her ancestry and it is in her hands to trace her future. Her identity and her future, although linked to her parents, aren’t carved in stone. She still has the power to trace her own destiny. The conscious knowledge of being hated by her mother leads to her emotional death, thus the deep sleep. But the sleep can be a time of healing and transformation. Once in the abyss it is possible to defeat our biggest fear and to rise like a phoenix. However, healing takes time. For her it took a very long time until the season to wake up arrived.

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.

The dwarves give the coffin to a prince, which could have had terrible consequences for Snow White. They kept guarding her for quite a long time but their fae nature compells them to the hidden treasures of the mines. They can’t change or evolve. They are like children, still remaining in their little world with no need to personal growth or transformation.

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.

Someone rages at sleeping Snow White. Someone lifts her and causes her to throw out the piece of apple. Life usually finds a way to forces us to wake up and to abandon our sleep. Snow White was forced to spit out all the poison that she was carrying with her. She is forced to abandon the safety of her coffin, the safety of her dreamland to face the evil her mother has done to her and the pain. And her first step is to vomit the poison. The symbolic meaning behind this is obvious: the poison is so strong that she rather stays asleep than to face the reality. However, one day someone decides it is enough and confronts her and gives her the opportunity to wake up.

She is left with two choices: to ignore the angry servant and remain asleep or to gain ownership of herself and to rise up back to her life. Although she chose to wake up, her mother is still an evil woman and her father keeps being absent. Nothing has changed. She has gotten older, for she stayed in her slumber for a long time. She is no longer a child. It is possible that she might be 21 years old (due to the symbolic meaning of the 7 dwarves plus the 7 candles).The text emphasises she stayed in the coffin for a long time so it is impossible that she still could be a child.

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.

Their wedding was set for the next day, and Snow-White’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.

Evil is always punished in these tales, providing some hope for justice. The hope that one day all things will be better, that the dawn will appear in the horizon. However, the most striking thing about Snow White story is the way pain, trauma and healing are conveyed. Those who lived through the dark realisation of never having being loved by their parents might find a solace in this tale. It is a story for all unloved and abused child. That even through the most darkest valley it is possible to leave the darkness behind and to gain ownership.

Infancy and childhood are the most fragile times of a human being. The lack of loving parents can cause immense damage. And that damage may push someone to a deep sleep. It is easier to forget, to pretend nothing has happened for the pain is too intense to deal with. But there comes a time when something or someone bumps into your glass coffin and whispers to you:

WAKE UP!

You can read Snow White’s 1812 version here.