So, the next unit in the fairy tales course I'm taking is about Snow White. Click here to read the Grimm's 1857 version, or download the 1810 version below.
snowwhite-1810.pdf |
Ok, so here's my response to the course reading and the professor's lecture. It's a little academic, but here goes:
In interpreting the two Grimm versions of Snow White that I read, it seems clear to me that the Evil Queen figure, whether actual mother or step-mother, is dealing with an unresolved reverse Electra complex of sorts (Jung’s term, which Freud took issue with). Instead of directing her envy toward her own mother, it is directed toward her child/step-child. She seems fearful and jealous of her daughter’s/step-daughter’s beauty and sees her as competition that can threaten her grasp on what little power she has seized in a patriarchal society.
With regard to that power, I tend to want to read the tale from a Lacanian perspective rather than the more sexually-based Freudian perspective. In terms of the Lacanian view of the Oedipal/Electra complex, it’s a much more symbolic issue. For example, the castration fear and accompanying desire to seize the phallus (which Freud tends to interpret literally) are seen symbolically as a fear of losing power and/or a desire to gain power, as represented by the phallus in a patriarchal society (in this case, male power). From this Lacanian view, the Evil Queen merely wants to retain her grasp on power and rid herself of any threats to that power, in this case, Snow White (or presumably any other female who could potentially be identified as more beautiful than she is, as beauty can be read as the female equivalent of social power).
In this way, the father’s rescue and claiming of his daughter’s body isn’t motivated by sexual desire, instead he also becomes competition in his wife’s quest for power because he does, in fact, possess the phallus (here, both literally by virtue of his maleness and symbolically by virtue of his position of power in a patriarchal society). Thus, both Snow White and her father become aligned and can be seen as antagonists in the Evil Queen’s quest for power.
I think it’s also interesting that in the original Grimm, the magic mirror is not assigned a gender. I think readers may tend to assume the voice of the mirror is a male voice, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication of gender explicitly assigned (perhaps in the original German?). If we can’t assume the mirror is male, then perhaps it is the inner voice of the Evil Queen herself – her inner desires and fears made manifest. If that’s the case, then she is her own worst enemy, and she suffers as a result of her inability to reconcile her lack of/eventual loss of power in a patriarchal society.
It’s interesting that in the original versions of the story, Snow White is 7, and she seems to have resolved any id-ego conflict (the sort of conflict that results in the kind of complex her mother/step-mother is clearly in the throes of), so that she becomes ruled by her super-ego, hence her desire to repay the dwarfs for their protection by cleaning and cooking. I honestly don’t see her willingness to help the dwarfs as an anti-feminist choice, especially since the dwarfs’ cottage is already clean and well-kept in the original versions. In the Disney version, where the dwarfs are messy little men with dirty dishes stacked haphazardly in the sink, cobwebs in every corner, and dust piles on the floor, it might be a little more challenging to make the argument that she is holding up her end of the bargain. Along those same lines, in the Grimm versions, the dwarfs rescue her three times (granting her sanctuary, cutting the suffocating laces, removing the poisoned comb), so it seems as though she is much more indebted to them than perhaps she is in the Disney version. Clearly in the Disney version, the dwarfs serve a much different purpose than in the original stories; for Disney, they are comic relief and meant to help characterize Snow White as kind and compassionate (and beautiful) enough to elicit love from strangers. In the original versions, the dwarfs become stand-ins for the absent father figure who is not there to protect his daughter from his wife’s jealous machinations. In any case, I do not under any circumstances see the dwarfs as phalluses themselves.
One last note about the Disney version of the tale (because I’ve probably gone on for long enough), I think young children read the tale didactically as a warning against jealousy and bullying. When my young daughter watched the film, she was frightened of the Evil Queen and understood that the Queen’s choices to be mean to Snow White were wrong – in fact, the Queen gets punished for those bad choices by “falling” off the cliff. Snow White, on the other hand, makes better choices (showing kindness, cleaning up after herself and others) and is rewarded with loyalty and friendship (on the part of the forest animals and dwarfs) and true love (on the part of the prince). Yes, Snow White is passive (she has to be rescued by men and takes very little initiative on her own – aside, perhaps, from negotiating with the huntsman for her life) and gullible (taking the apple – how symbolic!) and trades on her beauty (the thing that saves her from the huntsman, encourages the dwarfs’ kindness, and prompts the prince’s rescuing kiss), but she is still somewhat better than the murderous, jealous, conniving, self-obsessed alternative of the Evil Queen.
In interpreting the two Grimm versions of Snow White that I read, it seems clear to me that the Evil Queen figure, whether actual mother or step-mother, is dealing with an unresolved reverse Electra complex of sorts (Jung’s term, which Freud took issue with). Instead of directing her envy toward her own mother, it is directed toward her child/step-child. She seems fearful and jealous of her daughter’s/step-daughter’s beauty and sees her as competition that can threaten her grasp on what little power she has seized in a patriarchal society.
With regard to that power, I tend to want to read the tale from a Lacanian perspective rather than the more sexually-based Freudian perspective. In terms of the Lacanian view of the Oedipal/Electra complex, it’s a much more symbolic issue. For example, the castration fear and accompanying desire to seize the phallus (which Freud tends to interpret literally) are seen symbolically as a fear of losing power and/or a desire to gain power, as represented by the phallus in a patriarchal society (in this case, male power). From this Lacanian view, the Evil Queen merely wants to retain her grasp on power and rid herself of any threats to that power, in this case, Snow White (or presumably any other female who could potentially be identified as more beautiful than she is, as beauty can be read as the female equivalent of social power).
In this way, the father’s rescue and claiming of his daughter’s body isn’t motivated by sexual desire, instead he also becomes competition in his wife’s quest for power because he does, in fact, possess the phallus (here, both literally by virtue of his maleness and symbolically by virtue of his position of power in a patriarchal society). Thus, both Snow White and her father become aligned and can be seen as antagonists in the Evil Queen’s quest for power.
I think it’s also interesting that in the original Grimm, the magic mirror is not assigned a gender. I think readers may tend to assume the voice of the mirror is a male voice, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication of gender explicitly assigned (perhaps in the original German?). If we can’t assume the mirror is male, then perhaps it is the inner voice of the Evil Queen herself – her inner desires and fears made manifest. If that’s the case, then she is her own worst enemy, and she suffers as a result of her inability to reconcile her lack of/eventual loss of power in a patriarchal society.
It’s interesting that in the original versions of the story, Snow White is 7, and she seems to have resolved any id-ego conflict (the sort of conflict that results in the kind of complex her mother/step-mother is clearly in the throes of), so that she becomes ruled by her super-ego, hence her desire to repay the dwarfs for their protection by cleaning and cooking. I honestly don’t see her willingness to help the dwarfs as an anti-feminist choice, especially since the dwarfs’ cottage is already clean and well-kept in the original versions. In the Disney version, where the dwarfs are messy little men with dirty dishes stacked haphazardly in the sink, cobwebs in every corner, and dust piles on the floor, it might be a little more challenging to make the argument that she is holding up her end of the bargain. Along those same lines, in the Grimm versions, the dwarfs rescue her three times (granting her sanctuary, cutting the suffocating laces, removing the poisoned comb), so it seems as though she is much more indebted to them than perhaps she is in the Disney version. Clearly in the Disney version, the dwarfs serve a much different purpose than in the original stories; for Disney, they are comic relief and meant to help characterize Snow White as kind and compassionate (and beautiful) enough to elicit love from strangers. In the original versions, the dwarfs become stand-ins for the absent father figure who is not there to protect his daughter from his wife’s jealous machinations. In any case, I do not under any circumstances see the dwarfs as phalluses themselves.
One last note about the Disney version of the tale (because I’ve probably gone on for long enough), I think young children read the tale didactically as a warning against jealousy and bullying. When my young daughter watched the film, she was frightened of the Evil Queen and understood that the Queen’s choices to be mean to Snow White were wrong – in fact, the Queen gets punished for those bad choices by “falling” off the cliff. Snow White, on the other hand, makes better choices (showing kindness, cleaning up after herself and others) and is rewarded with loyalty and friendship (on the part of the forest animals and dwarfs) and true love (on the part of the prince). Yes, Snow White is passive (she has to be rescued by men and takes very little initiative on her own – aside, perhaps, from negotiating with the huntsman for her life) and gullible (taking the apple – how symbolic!) and trades on her beauty (the thing that saves her from the huntsman, encourages the dwarfs’ kindness, and prompts the prince’s rescuing kiss), but she is still somewhat better than the murderous, jealous, conniving, self-obsessed alternative of the Evil Queen.