Welcome to day three of The Horror of Fairytales Week here at White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings.   Today’s post is what I am calling Snow White Sunday, as I am going to be examining the horror of envy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs!   The story of Snow White is full of horror elements, but I will focus on the horror of envy, as it is the envy of the Evil Queen that caused all of the horrors in the tale.

The Evil Queen was the stepmother of Snow White, who became increasingly jealous of the young girl as she came into her beauty.   The Evil Queen is a classic example of a woman who is fearful of the fact that she is aging, as she has put all of her self-worth into her external beauty!   The outward focus on her external beauty leads not only to vanity but also to jealousy of those younger than her.   It must be noted that the Grimm Brothers Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a far more brutal and horrific version of the tale than what we saw in Disney.   This is not a surprising fact, given that Disney famously sanitizes fairytales.   Moreover, in the earliest Grimm version, the Evil Queen is Snow White’s mother, not her stepmother, but it was decided that a mother doing this to her own daughter was much too upsetting.   That is why it was changed to stepmother by the Grimm Brothers themselves in later versions!

The Evil Queen is irate when she learns that Snow White is currently deemed ‘the fairest of them all.’   That is why she sends the young girl off into the woods with the Huntsman, whom she had instructed to bring back the girl’s heart and liver.   She had intended to eat the heart and liver to extend her own beauty.   That is why the Huntsman brought her animal organs, which she consumed instead.    This consuming of the organs is a horror element, given that the Evil Queen thinks she is committing cannibalism.   Beyond the simple act of cannibalism, the Evil Queen may be attempting to use this act as a sort of magick to intake Snow White’s beauty as her own in the most barbaric of ways!    

After being in the woods for a short amount of time, Snow White found a place to live in the woods with the dwarves.  The Evil Queen learned that Snow White was not dead because her Magic Mirror still stated that Snow White was ‘the fairest one of all.’   At that point, the Evil Queen orchestrated a plan to kill the girl herself.   She disguised herself as an old haggard peddler woman to sell the girl items.   In the Grimms version, it is not just a poisoned apple.   The Evil Queen tried to use both a corset (with which she intended to suffocate the girl) and a poisoned comb (with which she intended to poison the girl’s scalp) on the first two days.   Both of those attempts on Snow White’s life are thwarted by the dwarves.   However, on the final day, Snow White gets a piece of poisoned apple stuck in her throat, and when she cannot be revived, the dwarves place her in a glass coffin!

    That is when the Prince finds Snow White and becomes obsessed with her.   When the dwarves agree to allow the Prince to take her coffin to his palace, his men drop the coffin, which dislodges the piece of poisoned apple from her throat.   That is how Snow White awakens originally, not from a kiss, only from the poisoned apple being removed!   The Prince and Snow White marry, and the Evil Queen is invited.   She was invited so that she could be punished, as at the wedding reception, the Evil Queen is forced to wear red hot iron slippers.   This meant that the Evil Queen literally danced until she died in recompense for her wickedness and vanity!   This is an extreme and very brutal ending, which is why this story makes such a good horror tale.

I hope you have enjoyed this short post about the Horrors of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.   What is your favorite horror aspect of the tale?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is the Evil Queen as the peddler woman putting the corset on Snow White.   I found the illustration at http://www.judgmentofparis.com/forums/forum1/messages/1382.html.

LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: https://patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

Further Reading

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by The Grimm Brothers