Conscious and Unconscious Concerns in Snow White

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Myths and fairy tales reflect the concerns of both their readers and tellers,
reproducing and modifying attitudes on conscious and unconscious levels. In this
essay I will explore a few key differences between three versions of Snow Whites
tale: that of the brothers Grimm, Disney, and Anne Sexton, and seek to explain
these differences in terms of each versions conditions of production and ideological
stance. To begin I will lay a theoretical foundation in psychoanalytic and
sociohistorical approaches to fairy tale interpretation, and consider the Grimms
fairy tales in light of the brothers motivations. I will then contrast narrative voice in
the Grimm and Sexton versions, and its role in establishing attitudes to the
princess plight and the queens jealousy. Next, I will consider Snow Whites
experience of the woods between being released by the hunter and being taken into
the dwarfs care as an indication of the worlds fundamental disposition towards
humanity, and a consequent reflection on the nature of evil.

According to psychoanalytic theory, fairy tales communicate with their

audience at a profound unconscious level about processes of personal and social
development (Teverson 2013, 118). Bettelheim argues that this is due to their
engagement with essential forms, achieved by eliminating unnecessary details and
acting out existential concerns briefly and pointedly through characters which are
typical rather than unique, thus simplifying all situations (1976, 8). By this
simplicity, Bettelheim claims, fairy tales permit us to draw our own conclusions
(1976, 201), allowing the reader (typically a child reader) to vicariously navigate the

path from parental dependence to independence, during which they engage with
their own unconscious in a productive way and thus are equipped for the business
of growing up.
This approach mythifies and essentializes fairy tales. It is the inscription
phase in Barthes concept of myth as a collective representation that is socially
determined and then inscribed so as not to appear as a cultural artefact (Zipes
1989, 148). Bettelheim claims that the true meaning and impact of a fairy tale can
be appreciated (...) only from the story in its original form (1976, 15), but neglects
to explain what constitutes an original tale.
Original fairy tales are impossible to locate. Stories passed down through oral
tradition continuously underwent a motivated process of revision, reordering, and
refinement by their tellers, finally being hardened into script, Christian and
patriarchal by a bourgeoisie which refuses to be named, denies involvement, as
it must for the fairy tale to proliferate an ideology which appears natural, eternal,
ahistorical, therapeutic (Zipes 1989, 150), and insuperable as a consequence. The
Grimms compared multiple versions of candidate tales, and assembled final
versions which were more proper and prudent for bourgeois audiences (Zipes
1989, 13). These changes reflected their goal of producing an educational manual
for German folk identity, and was a raging success, with the Grimms tales
incorporated into Prussian and other Germanic states teaching curriculums by the
1870s (Zipes 1989, 15). This was partly born of a concern with resisting French
colonial aspirations (Zipes 1989, 78), and the dominance of French fairy tale forms,
as previously collected and proliferated throughout the 17th and 18th centuries
(Teverson 2013, 61-62). They considered their work part of a cultural unification to

the end of producing a defiant German identity rooted in a long past with a
coherent linguistic and cultural identity in the present (Teverson 2013, 63).
Individual tellings of fairy tales are, therefore, pieces of narrative ideology
which communicate particular responses to particular predicaments. With this in
mind, psychoanalytic approaches become not a means of unlocking timeless
realities of identity, but instead a means of understanding the ways in which the
dominant narratives of a culture work to construct identity (Teverson 2013, 136). In
this way, psychoanalytic interpretation is still a useful tool in understanding the
function of fairy tales in shaping their readers and reflecting their tellers.

The location of the narrative voice profoundly changes the readers

experience of any story, as Bettelheim agrees when he notes that Grimms Little
Snow-White consistently occludes the queens experience (1976, 525). The Grimm
telling presents an authoritative, neutral voice, implying with clear statements of
characters motivations that they are simple and unquestionable. The queens
attitude towards the girl is simply envy, the hunters simply pity (Grimm &
Grimm 2005). Sextons narrative voice, however, is laced with the queens
bitterness. The narrators sceptical attitude toward Snow White is established
immediately as her features are described with contemporary imagery of decadent
consumption (cigarette paper, wine and expensive porcelain), rather than the
Grimms pure and natural snow, blood and wood (Grimm & Grimm 2005). Snow
White is a dumb bunny (Sexton 2001, 8), rather than simplyunsuspecting
(Grimm & Grimm 2005). This bitterness is shown to be caused by the narrators
knowledge of the end. Sextons narrator addresses the reader directly, early in the
piece, with foresight, knowing that oh my friends, in the end // you will dance the

fire dance in iron shoes (Sexton 2001, 4). This line also implicates the reader in the
cyclical nature of the tale - the reader who sympathizes with Snow White in Grimms
telling would once have sympathized with the queen, when the queen was young
and naive. The daughter who survives yet gains no knowledge is doomed to repeat
her mothers jealous vanity as the narrative leaves her referring to her mirror, as
women do (Sexton 2001, 9).
While, as seen above, the Grimm brothers sought to establish an
authoritative, apparently neutral set of tales, the narrative voice of Sextons poem is
heavily influenced by her own experiences. In her personal life at the time of
writing, her role was closer to that of the queen than the pure daughter she was
consciously envious of her daughters budding sexuality, highly valuing the intense,
slender beauty that she herself retained, for the moment, but was sure to be
eclipsed (Middlebrook 1991, 347) as she became further eaten, of course, by age
(Sexton 2001, 3). Sexton contemporizes the symbolism and alters the positioning of
the fairy tale to explore her relationship to women in her own life her queen
simultaneously figuring Sextons mother and daughter (Middlebrook 1991, 337),
and her knowledge of Snow Whites place in perpetuating the same cycle. Thus she
produces, if not outright sympathy for the queen, at least an understanding of her
position which complicates the readers understanding of the characters good and
evil, and the meaning of Snow Whites innocent naivety, and thus alters their
understanding of the nature of predicaments like that which Sexton finds herself in.

The nature of the queens actions and emotions are further complicated by
alterations to the natural world they are juxtaposed with. The time between Snow
Whites release from the hunter and her glass-coffined sleep is a period of

adolescent growth (Bettelheim 1976, 201), in which she is free from the influence of
her parents but not yet committed to marital servitude. Prior to reaching the
cottage of the dwarfs, she experiences the world alone, in its wild and unmediated
state, without civilization. Sexton and the Grimms versions present this world as
hostile. The Grimms huntsman, a capable man of the world, assumes Snow White
will be devoured by wild animals before she reaches any kind of safety (Grimm &
Grimm 2005), while Sextons wild is populated with hungry wolves and snakes
hanging like nooses for her sweet white neck (Sexton 2001, 6). This produces a
statement about the fundamental attitude of nature to humanity, and functions as a
warning to the reader not to venture too far beyond the bounds of civilization alone.
Furthermore, this statement implies that hostility, and evil, is natural the rule, not
the exception.
Disneys world, however, stands in stark contrast. Initially afraid, Snow White
stumbles through sinister trees and snapping beasts. As she despairs and
surrenders to her fate in a fit of tears, the angry leering eyes resolve into friendly,
bright, woodland animals. Snow Whites fear of nature is presented as a
misapprehension born of her own fear as she apologizes to the animals, announcing
Im so ashamed of the fuss Ive made and stating her new-found assurance that
everythings going to be alright (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 2009). The
animals proceed to lead her to the safety of the dwarfs cottage, conspiring in her
favor and lending her their local lore. In recasting the natural world as welcoming
(though not sufficient for life Snow White still needs a home), Disney emphasizes
the cruelty of the queen as unnatural, not just in its magical means but by its
opposition to an essential order. This stands in particular contrast to the cruelty of

Sextons queen, which is (as explained above) presented as the perpetuation of a

pre-established pattern, not an exception.

Though all relating a schematically similar tale, differences between the

Grimm, Sexton, and Disney tellings of Snow Whites persecution and salvation
reveal the ideological malleability of fairy tales. Essentializing, mythifying readings
risk missing important, socially influenced variations which reveal the attitudes and
priorities of the culture that created them.

References

Bettelheim, B 1976, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of

Fairy Tales, Thames and Hudson, London.

Grimm, J & Grimm, W 2005, Little Snow White, Trans. D L Alishman, viewed 12th
April 2015, <http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm053.html>

Middlebrook, D W 1991, Anne Sexton: A Biography, Houghton Mifflin Company, New

York.

Sexton, A 2001, Transformations, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 2009, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment,
Florida.

Teverson, A 2013, Fairy Tale, Routledge, New York.

Zipes, J 1989, The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World,
Routledge, New York.