The Truth Behind Fairy Tales

What are fairy tales? They’re usually stories told to children and are seen in a very innocent or light hearted way. There’s a clear distinction between good and evil with a feel good happy ending with some moral to wrap things up. However, when taking a closer look at these tales, we realize that these stories aren’t all sunshine and rainbows. Instead there’s a much deeper and darker meaning in the history of these stories. An example of this can be seen in the Grimm Brothers variation of Snow White. The structure of the story stays the same with Snow White being our main character hiding away from the evil Queen trying to get rid of her, the way the queen decides to go about this is different. This version of the story instills many elements and fear and horror into the story. This can be seen through the characters actions and the setting in which the story takes place. We still see the queen slowly fall into insanity as a result of her obsession for beauty. This eventually corrupts her mind and this obsession would become the driving force for her wanting to kill Snow White. In addition the queen’s use of magic in the form of the poison apple and comb definitely highlight this as well. Also the setting which most of the story takes place in, the woods, is a universal symbol for terror in stories. By having snow white go into the unknown woods, it definitely creates fear by you never knowing what’s in there. She would eventually meet the dwarfs that would shelter and protect her from the Queen. Overall, By examining Evil or villainous figures, symbolism and macabre it is clear that the Grimms Brothers Snow white is part of the dark fairy tale genre..

When taking a closer look at the symbolism within this version we see a much darker  story. As I have previously mentioned, the forest or woods is a big symbol within the dark fairy tale genre. The woods have been used throughout the years as a source of terror for stories. When first being told to go into the woods, they say snow white was left in the “vast forest” with “wild beasts” around her. The story depicts the forest as something that she should be afraid of while never explicitly stating it. Through the author's choice of words it helps create a sense of fear of the environment surrounding the character leaving the reader not knowing what can happen next. Another symbol we see in the text is the color black. While it isn’t mentioned too much throughout the story, it still plays a major role as it’s a defining characteristic of Snow white. Snow white can be described as a girl “who was white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony.” While the other colors have their own significance, the color black specifically represents death in this story. This can represent the deaths that she goes through throughout the story, as in the many attempts the queen had on taking Snow white’s life. While being a pretty common hair color, black itself does represent death in many stories. Being told this from the start can definitely allude to and foreshadow her death later on in the story.

In addition, death played a big role in the story.  Through the actions of the queen we see death happen many times throughout the story. At first this comes in the form of the queen getting a hunter to kill Snow white which would only result in the hunter letting her go and killing another animal instead. After finding out that she didn’t die and the hunter lied, it would lead her to go on her own to try and take her life. Through these attempts we see her die not once but twice. The first time being the poison comb that she uses to brush Snow White’s hair and the second time being the poison apple that she eats when offered by the Queen in disguise. But, the biggest example of where we see death and the most gruesome one would have to be the death of the queen herself. After failing to kill Snow white time after time again, a prince eventually finds Snow white to get married. However, in this version of the story the queen didn’t get banished or sent away, instead she was invited to the wedding but had to endure the biggest punishment for her actions. When she arrived at the party she was presented with a pair of iron slippers that had been heated up over a fire. She was forced to put those shoes on and “dance in them until she dropped to the ground dead.” This is probably the biggest change and show of death in the story. Despite all the bad the queen did she was the one who suffered the worst death. The author chose not to simply kill her but instead had her dance till she dropped dead, essentially torturing her until death. This act of violence and this death really shows the macabre within the story and extremes the author decided to go to within this story. With all the death that was portrayed within the story it’s easy to see how this would fit the dark fairytale genre.

Lastly, the antagonist or queen had a big significance on the story and how it fits within the dark fairy tale genre. The Queen is the most wicked and dark out of all the characters. The mirror acts as a way for her to fuel her vanity. The queen herself is a symbol for greed and envy. The basis of her character is built upon her obsession not only with her looks but her obsession to be the best looking one too. She would live for so long being the prettiest one of all for snow white to come in and ruin that. This is where the queen’s greed and envy start to kick in. While it wasn’t  in the form of money it came in the form of preserving the fact that she was still number one. The way that she chose to do this was a path that contained a lot of violence. Instead of just trying to kill her, she orders that the hunter bring back her heart and liver. Not only does she use this as evidence that Snow White was actually killed but instead she chooses to eat those body parts introducing an element of cannibalism into the story. While she ended up not eating Snow White’s heart and liver she ate that one of the animals believing it was Snow White’s, she still ate it without any hesitation. When she found out that she was lied to and that Snow white was still alive, all that did was push her crazier and deeper into her obsession. She decided to take matters into her own hands with 2 separate attempts to kill Snow White, with the last one semi-succeeding. Even up to the end of the story she didn’t change. This obsession turned into insanity and lasted throughout the whole tale. She ended up going to the wedding of the princess, Snow white, who was the prettiest in the land. However, with this choice of hers as we know would end up with her demise. By analyzing the queen's behavior we can see that based on her choices that Snow Whtie falls within the dark fairytale genre.