Little Snow-White Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm PDF

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Blanchard 1

Justine Blanchard Ms. Raveenthiran ENG4U1-08 5 July 2021 The Not so Fairy-Tale, Little Snow-White Upon examining Little Snow White from a feminist perspective, the fairytale does not live up to the magical story we all heard as kids. It is however, a direct result of the dogmatic views men had and have in our society painting demeaning images of women. By judging the roles the female characters play, the constant objectification they face, and the way they are perceived as weak or helpless; in other words their “need” for a man to save them, it's hard to believe this is Disney’s second most reused fairy-tale (Randall 1). It’s no lie, gender roles are prevalent throughout this story. Through the queen, chores such as sewing are completed, as well as constantly looking into the mirror; said differently, reinforcing gender “normalities.” Narrowing furthermore the gender views the narrators portray, "If you will keep house for us, and cook, make beds, wash, sew, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay with us"(Grimm 3). Fundamentally, Snow-White is allowed to stay with the seven dwarfs if she “holds up her end of the bargain” which relies on her being female. Also present throughout the story, is the over-objectification of the female characters. The Grimm brothers write about Snow-Whites beauty as if it was her only attribute. In other words, as if women cannot or should not seek other characteristics like intelligence, or the ability to think for themselves. For example, the prince “bartes” for Snow-White literally as if she was an

Blanchard 2 object up for auction, and then claims her, “You shall become my wife”(Grimm 6). Moreover, Snow-White does not fight this, but simply agrees. Lastly, is the portrayal of a weak, helpless female, by illustrating that a man shall make all women's decisions; as if they cannot think for themselves. This is first seen when Snow-white is crying helplessly at the hands of the Huntsman, as-though she is not capable of anything else; manipulation, fight, just to name a few. Even worse, Snow-White only lived because of her beauty, “Because she was so beautiful the huntsman took pity on her”, aligning with unequal gender role beliefs (Grimm 1). The story also presents seemingly easy decisions for men that women just can't seem to make. For example, when Snow-White encounters an old woman -- the Queen -- she nearly dies. After this experience the dwarves announce not to let anyone in; again like she is incapable of putting two and two together. She is then presented with the same situation another two times. Instead of learning from her previous experiences, in addition to being told by men not to let anyone in, she does, nearly dying both times. It is also worth noting how Snow-White mentioned, “I am not allowed to let anyone in'', as if she didn't have the intelligence equal to a man to figure this out, just as the dwarves did (Grimm 5).

Blanchard 3 Works Cited Randall, Sean. “Feminisney: ‘Snow White’ - First and Worst.” Medium, CineNation, 4 May 2017, medium.com/cinenation-show/feminisney-snow-white-first-and-wors t-9103 ed335a3c....