UNIT 4: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves"- Anne Sexton

Since I’m a sucker for uniqueness and the delicate balance between classical and contemporary, I chose to symbolistically analyze this tale type through the lens of Anne Sexton’s “Snow White and The Seven Dwarves”. While noticeably more modern in comparison to other versions of the tale, Sexton’s poetic rendition breathes truth into the theme of both the maturation process and hubristic vanity. This version is true to its tale type as it portrays the social perception of beauty as the crux of each bidirectional fluctuation of the plot. This version of the tale type begins by the admiration of social conditions of worth for women: virginity (symbolized by every aspect of Snow White) and beauty (which is something that the evil stepmother is losing by the day). The envious stepmother consults with her mirror every day as if it were a daily ritual of affirmation and becomes reliant upon her responses to continuously invalidate her deepest insecurity- that she is no longer the “fairest” of them all. The second that the mirror truthfully threatens this false sense of confirmation on account of the natural aging process is the moment in which the themes of both vanity and maturation scream through the lines of the poem. Firstly, Sexton paints the stepmothers use of this mirror to be something like how one would watch the forecast everyday before leaving the house, which reinforces the association of a unidirectional dependence that the stepmother shares for the mirror. Secondly, the frequency that Sexton employs this association and how seriously the stepmother takes her opinion implies its significance for both the plot and the tale’s major themes. Thirdly, the mirror being the object through which the hag realizes her deepest fear infers a fact about reality that makes this tale type relevant today. It emphasizes the relationship between a woman and “her mirror” which serves as a metaphorical relationship that the institution of feminism discusses today but couldn't when this tale type was conceived hundreds of years ago. I would even go so far as to propose that the mirror is a symbol for a woman’s self perception influenced by socially imposed pressures of desirability. In terms of the tale, I almost consider the mirror an accomplice that mentally and emotionally assists her attempted murders. The mirror did feed the pride of the stepmother and aided her evil emotional evolution from mildly vain to severely preoccupied with aesthetic appearances. Also, Sexton interestingly interjects that the stepmother was a ”Beauty in her own right/though eaten, of course, by age,/would hear of no beauty surpassing her own”(Tatar, 96/18-20). This interjection allows us to understand that the stepmother is well aware of her beauty and the extent to which beauty is a condition of worth for her and allows us to make a parallel between herself and society. However more so than physical allure, I am certain that the stepmother coveted her innocence and prized virginity, for Snow White’s juvenescent purity is a trait that her stepmother could never possess again. Age and experience had already made her pay this nonrefundable expense. The mirror merely plants a seed and waits for it to grow with every new sign of age that the stepmother exhibits. The mirror assaults her already fragile achilles heel. In this way, we can compare the mirror's assistance to how a woman's self-perception is influenced by what society considers desirable. After this realization, the stepmother’s hubris of superficial vanity and subsequent envy drives her to actively conspire against her thirteen year old, virgin step daughter multiple times, making Snow White the victim of her psychosis. A victim that is eventually locked dead inside of a glass casket on the tip of a mountain on display for all to admire. Until Sexton throws a monkey wrench in the gears of our expectations and allows an infatuated prince to take her away to be on display in his castle. The chain of reactions from a rock in the road allows Snow White to clear her throat and resuscitate herself. She then, of course, marries the prince and has a feast to which she invites her stepmother. There, the stepmother dies slithering and writhing like an animal in a live-cremation dance fueled by burning iron shoes. Abruptly Sexton concludes with an image of Snow White nonchalantly looking about with her china-blue doll eyes and, “sometimes referring to her mirror/ as women do”(100/164-165). Perhaps Sexton is satirically suggesting that Snow Whites museum-like burial in the name of beauty illustrates the social worth of beauty and virginity. But all of her undertones of condescension finally melt into fruition when she illuminates the theme of maturation by creating a continuum that Snow White ultimately perpetuates in the end. What a splendidly pessimistic and dreadful ending.