Happily Ever After? ~ Snow White and The Prince

And they lived happily ever after. Or so the story says, but did they? 

What makes a good couple? For me, I think a good couple is evenly balanced. And by that I mean that they share the power of the relationship. When I write couples into my stories, I try to make sure that my strong characters are matched with a strong counterpart. If my female MC is a warrior princess, she would tromp all over a weak-willed servant, and the relationship wouldn't work. It would be out of balance. I'm not saying she has to be paired with a prince, but she needs to be paired with someone who equals her strengths or balances her.

In order to see if the characters would be well matched as a couple, I needed some sort of criteria to judge their individual strengths. I thought about what traits believed a strong character would demonstrate and came up with the following criteria to judge:

Decision Making Skills

Respect of Others

Sense of Responsibility

Compassion Towards Others

I assigned points (0-5) for how I thought each character rated in the four areas and then totaled up the values for each character. If the point values ended up close (within 5 points) I'd say that we have a well matched couple. The closer the points, the better the relationship balance.

So, how did Snow White and The Prince fair in my non-scientific and totally subjective test?

By Aida McKenzie 

Snow White: 16/20

Decision Making Skills: 3/5 Snow White made a good decision to run from the Huntsman and to stay with the Seven Dwarfs, but then she started making some pretty bad decisions. Not listening to the dwarfs about dealing with strangers harmed her at least three times in the Grimm brother’s tale, and once in the Disney animation.

Respect of Others: 4/5 Snow White is very respectful of others, in fact, this is part of what gets her in trouble with the disguised evil queen. Snow White doesn’t want to be rude to her elder, and the evil queen plays upon this to achieve her goal of eliminating Snow White from the picture.

Sense of Responsibility: 4/5 Snow White shows a good sense of responsibility. She takes it upon herself to clean the dwarfs home in the movie, and agrees to clean the home in the book. However, she doesn’t seem to have a sense of responsibility toward the people of her kingdom, as she fled for her life and has made no plans on how to return to her kingdom. Granted, she was a princess who would most likely be married off to form an alliance with another kingdom, but there is nothing in the story or movie to show she has any thoughts of returning from hiding.

Compassion Toward Others: 5/5 Snow White takes care of the dwarfs, she is kind to the old woman (evil queen), and is shown in the animated tale as someone the animals love and trust. She even seems worried about the Huntsman who tried to kill her. If that doesn’t show compassion, then I don’t know what does!

The Prince: 8*/20

Decision Making Skills: We do not see enough of The Prince to know how his decision making skills are.

Respect of Others: 4/5 While the Prince is only onscreen for a few minutes, the way he treats the Seven Dwarves and Snow White shows at least some semblance of an upbringing that taught respect for others. He is polite and doesn’t just barge in demanding things, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here and granting him almost perfect at respect.

Sense of Responsibility: We do not see enough of The Prince to know how his decision making skills are.

Compassion Toward Others: 4/5 Given that he stopped in a clearing to see the presumably dead Snow White and offer his respects, I find that shows a sense of compassion.

Overall Assessment: It is difficult to say whether or not Snow White and The Prince are suited for each other. We never learn enough about The Prince to know if there would be a power imbalance. The happily-ever-after ending in both the animated movie and the original tale relies too much on magic and insta-love to give an accurate assessment of the couple. However, if the prince has good decision making skills and at least a moderate sense of responsibility it appears the two would be better suited than what we see now.

What do you think? Are Snow White and The Prince the perfect couple? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

I’ve recently begun to wonder how accurate my view of the role of women in the 1930’s (and other decades) truly is. I’ve always assumed that women were housewives and didn’t work outside the house, yet at the same time I knew that couldn’t be completely true. Women were nurses, and teachers, and librarians, and secretaries. Heck, during WWI and WWII, they worked in the factories while the men went overseas to fight in the war.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints 

I can hear you asking, “But Mary, what does this have to do with Snow White?” Well, let me explain.

When I first came up with the idea for these posts, I thought it would be interesting to see how the role of women in society was reflected (or not) in these classic stories and movies. Did the female MC role development from damsel in distress to savior of the prince/kingdom follow the changing role of women in society? Well, if you go by the dates the stories were written, the answer would be no.  But I’ll talk more about that when we get to Mulan. For now, let’s take a look at Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

"Offterdinger Schneewitchen (2)" by Offterdinger 

In the Disney animation film of 1937, Snow White is portrayed as a domestic worker. She cooks and cleans for the dwarfs in exchange for her room and board. How does that relate to women in the 1930’s? According to the US Census, out of the eleven million working women (24.3% of women 14 and older) almost ⅓ worked in domestic or personal service. Therefore, I find that Snow White is a good reflection of society’s perception of the working woman.

But, then Prince Charming comes into the picture, and things change. It isn’t a leap to assume that Snow White marries Charming and leaves her working days behind her. And, in the 1930’s, it appears to have been similar for the working woman.

It was frowned upon for married women to hold jobs. Single, working women were seen as “helping out their families”, yet a married, working woman was perceived as “taking a job from a man”. During the Depression, laws were even created to prevent more than one family member from working for the government.

"Franz Jüttner Schneewittchen 2" by Franz Jüttner

In conclusion, it appears that Snow White is a good representation of women in the 1930’s. I also believe that if Snow White was adapted to the screen today, there would be some stark differences in the way the famous Disney Princess would be portrayed. Our movies have moved away from the helpless damsel-in-distress to women who can and do fight for what they want/need. Not that they don't ask for or receive help, but they aren't waiting on the sidelines for the guy to save the day. I think a modern interpretation of Snow White would have a smarter heroine, one who didn't fall so easily for the evil queen's tricks. What do you think?

Snow White: Disney vs. the Grimm brothers

By Walter Zweigle (1859-1904)

I hope you all did your homework and read and/or watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This Disney classic is based on Little Snow-White, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. And, while Disney did cover the basics of the story, there were a few differences to their animated tale.

Here are some of the differences I noticed between the movie and the story:

-In the story, we learn about Snow White’s mother, her death, and the subsequent remarriage of her father. I understand why Disney chose to leave this out. While it was nice to know when reading, it really didn’t move the story along in the animated version and could easily be left out.

-In the animated movie, the queen asks the huntsman to bring back Snow White’s heart, but in the story, she wants her lungs and liver. AND she cooks them and eats them. I’m actually grateful that Disney left that little scene out!

-When Snow White stumbles upon the Seven Dwarfs house, it’s clean with everything in its place. In the movie, however, those Dwarfs are a messy crew.

-In addition, when introduced to the dwarfs home, the story takes on the feel of Goldilocks (at least it did for me) with Snow White eating from each of the plates and trying out all of the beds. Even the dwarfs reactions to finding her are reminiscent of Mama, Papa, and Baby Bear.

-The Disney folks added in a turtle (I believe he was for comedic purposes) that isn’t mentioned in the tale. While as an adult I am tempted to fast forward through the scene of the turtle on the stairs, I’m sure as a kid I was urging him to get to the top!

By William Creswell (c. 1919)

-In the animated film, the queen comes bearing a shiny, poisoned apple. In the story, the queen attempts to get rid of her competition with poisoned lace and a poisoned comb before finally succeeding with the apple. Disney may have cut these extra attempts to keep the film shorter. In both cases, the dwarfs warned her about letting in strangers, yet Snow White didn’t listen. (More on this in the “Are they a good couple” post in a few weeks.)

-In the story, the prince seeks shelter with the dwarfs and then barters for Snow White’s coffin. When his men drop the coffin, it dislodges the apple and Snow White awakens. In the movie, he passes the bier while the dwarfs are mourning their loss and kisses her awake. In both version, they fall instantly in love. (I’ll talk more on this in the “Are they a good couple” post in a few weeks.)

-And now we are at the end of the tale, with yet another difference. In the Grimm story, the evil queen is invited to the wedding, and is afraid to attend. She really should have stayed home, as when she arrives, she is placed in hot, iron shoes and forced to dance to her death.(This reminded me of The Red Shoes, by Hans Christian Andersen.) In the Disney movie, she falls to her death while running from the dwarfs. Either way, she dies at the end of the tale, but I’d rather see the cliff scene than the hot, iron shoes!

All in all, I felt that Disney kept with the theme of the story written by the Grimm brothers, with some minor changes to make it appropriate for all age level and the fit with the time period it was released in.

For a more detailed comparison between the story and the movie, Mari Ness has a wonderful overview of both the written story and the movie, and how the movie is a reflection of the time it was written in. Hop on over to her site and check out her posts here and here! Trust me, you don't want to miss them!

Now it’s your turn. What differences did you notice? Would you have made the changes Disney did? Why (or why not)? Share your thoughts in the comments below.