Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Feminism)

We believe that the portrayal of the protagonist in this fairytale is unjust. It teaches children that men should be strong, brave and intelligent whereas women should simply be beautiful and submissive. It is also ingrained to the children’s mind that women are helpless and in need of a man. The fairytale suggests that without the mercy of the hunter, Snow White would certainly have died. This gives the message that women cannot fend for themselves and would have to rely on a big strong man to save them, as they have neither the courage nor the strength to do so themselves.  

The dwarves took Snow White in and asked her to stay. If they had not offered her food and shelter, there is no way for her to find it on her own. Each time Snow White falls for her stepmother’s evil plan, the dwarves were there to revive her.

Beauty is important to the female antagonist in fairytales. Beauty is how Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty each find their prince. If they were not beautiful, the prince would never notice them. Snow White is beautiful but this is what gets her into trouble:

Firstly, her stepmother cannot bear someone to be more beautiful than she is, so the queen condemned Snow White to be hacked to death. The queen feels she has to be the most beautiful and this is the only way she can do because she has no other reasons to flaunt. However, not all women are solely concerned about their look, and they should not be judged by their appearance, but what is actually inside.

Secondly, if it is her beauty that gets her into trouble, it is also her beauty that gets her out of trouble. The hunter let her go because she looked so beautiful and innocent. If she did not look so beautiful, the prince would never have looked twice at her and she would remain dead because she is beautiful that the dwarves couldn’t bear to bury her in the ground. It shows that she is only valued because of her beauty and no mention is made to any qualities she may possess.

Thirdly, it is also her beauty that would lead her into her fall down. Snow White will soon become queen and because of this, she will become vain, the mirror would always tell her she is beautiful than the rest then pride will pumped her like a poison, this is why the queen tries to kill her. That is why the “happily ever after” is not realistic because of this cycle. I say this because the gifts from the queen showed that Snow White is subjected to become a vain.

Snow White is beautiful but intelligence is a quality she does not possess. Eventhough the dwarves have warned her of opening the door to stranger, still she opened the door to the evil queen. It shows that women are shallow and thoughtless, not to mention extremely unintelligent, as if they cannot learn from the past mistakes and that quality of Snow White gives all the rest of the women a bad name.

JESSICA SERRANO

JOHN HENRY DELIG

BEEN3