History Literature / SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs

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->''"I will never buy an apple from peddlers plying their craft in remote places where the customer base could not possibly support a full-time merchant."''
-->-- No. 23 of ''[[http://www.thalia.org/truelove.html The True Love List]]'', ''JustForFun/TheUniversalGenreSavvyGuide''

Once upon a time, a little girl was born that was exceptionally beautiful. Due to jealousy, a wicked witch wanted her dead. She ended up being raised in fosterage in the forest by magical dwarfs, but eventually the queen found a way to poison her and put her in a coma resistant to aging. Eventually, Prince Charming showed up, kissed the girl and woke her up, and slew the evil witch.

But then, this article isn't about "Literature/SleepingBeauty"...

A queen wishes for a child with lips as red as blood, [[RavenHairIvorySkin hair as black as ebony, and skin as white as snow]]. She gets her wish and names the child Snow White, but promptly dies and is replaced by a WickedStepmother who prides herself on her great beauty. Every day the stepmother asks her magic mirror:

->''"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,\\
Who's the {{fairest of them all}}?"''

And every day the mirror assures the queen that she was the most beautiful.

Snow White is a beautiful child, however, and when she turns seven, the mirror replies that she, and not the queen, is the fairest. The queen isn't having any of that, so she orders her faithful huntsman to cut out Snow White's heart and give it to her to eat. The huntsman has some trouble with this, so he lets Snow White go and gives the queen the heart of a boar instead.

After some time wandering in the woods, Snow White falls in with a bunch of dwarfs, who let her stay with them in exchange for doing the housework. The mirror tips the queen off to Snow White's continued existence, however, so she disguises herself as a peddler and makes three assassination attempts; firstly by pulling Snow White's corset-laces too tight, secondly by selling her a poisoned comb, and thirdly with a poisoned apple. After each attempt, the dwarfs come home to find Snow White unconscious. While they succeed in reviving her the first two times, the third has more sticking power, and they have to admit that she's dead for good.

She is too beautiful for them to bury her in good conscience, though, so they build a glass coffin and take turns keeping guard. Fortunately for everyone involved, she [[FauxDeath does not decay]], but remains so fresh and beautiful that a passing prince [[{{Squick}} just has to have her]]. The dwarfs are reluctant at first, but eventually let him take the glass coffin. Thanks to a clumsy servant, the coffin is jolted, dislodging the piece of apple and reviving Snow White. Apparently the prince likes her almost as much when she's awake, and they marry. Hopefully, she's a bit older than seven by now, but you never know.

The evil queen comes to their wedding and [[PayEvilUntoEvil is forced to dance to death]] [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment in red-hot iron shoes]]. Everyone else lives HappilyEverAfter.

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is one of the best known of [[Creator/TheBrothersGrimm the Grimms']] stories, although it existed in numerous countries before being compiled into their ''Children's and Household Tales''. It was one of the early victims of their {{bowdleris|e}}ing edits; they changed the antagonist from Snow White's biological mother to a WickedStepmother.

Because of Snow White's rather [[{{Goth}} unusual]] [[EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette appearance]] and the disturbing psychological issues in the story, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is frequently subject to {{Grimmification}} or DarkerAndEdgier treatment. One such example is a [[Film/SnowWhiteATaleofTerror 1997 horror version]] with Creator/SigourneyWeaver as the queen. There's also a 2001 version subtitled [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0255605/ Fairest of Them All]] with Miranda Richardson as the queen and Creator/KristinKreuk as Snow White, and [[RainbowMotif rainbow dwarves]], named after the days of the week. Finally, let's not forget Creator/NeilGaiman's short story "[[https://web.archive.org/web/20130616104947/http://thedreaming.holycow.com/1999/10/10/snow-glass-apples/ Snow, Glass, Apples]]", where we have a perspective flip that takes some of the more eerie parts of the story, and makes them much much worse.

By far the most well-known adaptation of this story is Creator/{{Disney}}'s first full-length animated feature, ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''.

Other adaptations have varied from ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheThreeStooges'' to ''Manga/{{Pretear}}'', which rewrites it as a MagicalGirlWarrior show, the very loose WesternAnimation/BettyBoop adaptation entitled only as ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhite'' and then there's ''WesternAnimation/CoalBlackAndDeSebbenDwarfs'', which would be a side-splitter had not excessive UncleTomfoolery [[ValuesDissonance ruined it]]. It was also one of the tales adapted in ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics''.

In recent years, more ActionGirl-style portrayals of Snow White have come to the fore. ''Sword and Sorceress XXVII'''s introduction contrasted Snow White's portrayal in the Grimm and Disney versions with that of modern versions like ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'', ''Film/MirrorMirror'', and ''Series/OnceUponATime''. Anthology editor Creator/ElizabethWaters says:
--> I suspect that most modern viewers find it easier to identify with a Snow White who fights back. Spending years asleep in a glass coffin waiting to be awakened by "TrueLovesKiss" is hopefully not something that girls today aspire to. We can fight for what we want, and we have a good chance of getting it.

Not related to "Literature/SnowWhiteFireRed" or "Literature/SnowWhiteAndRoseRed".

Note that this specifically refers to the Brothers Grimm version and adaptations thereof, rather than any of the other fairytales of Aarne-Thompson type #709, "Snow White" (such as "Literature/GoldTreeAndSilverTree," in which the Snow White character is married off by her father to get her away from her insane mother, or the memorable version in which Snow White stays with FORTY DRAGONS.)

----
!! "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and variations contain the following tropes:

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: Many versions introduce the prince early, in order to make the ending a bit less weird.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Almost everyone gets this many different adaptions:
** In one musical adaption called ''Genealogy of Red, White and Black'' Snow White's birth mother abuses her, which starts Snow White's SanitySlippage, but she completely snaps after Prince "Charming" rapes her, causing her to shed her AllLovingHeroine persona and go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
** An adaption by the band Music/SoundHorizon, has another interesting spin on the girl. Snow White is accidentally awoken by the Necrophiliac Prince who becomes absolutely distraught at the sight of the beautiful "corpse" coming back to life. She then forces him to marry her and tortures the Queen, [[spoiler: who's implied to be her real mother turned abusive, [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness the role of "step-mother" being an imposed image by Snow White]]]], to death while [[LaughingMad cackling like a mad woman]].
* AgeLift: In the 1812 version of ''Snow White'', Snow White is ''seven years old'' when the Queen tries to kill her, and she remains that age for the entire story. In 1819, the second edition of the story had the Grimm Brothers age her up to 14.
* CanonForeigner: ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'' gives Snow a younger childhood friend named Klaus and a nanny.
* DeathFakedForYou: The hunter used the heart of a pig to fool the queen.
* DecompositeCharacter: In the first edition, Snow White's birth mother who wishes for her to have all the traits she is known for (white skin, black hair and red lips) and wicked stepmother were one in the same. When the Grimm brothers decided that the idea of a mom attempting to murder her child was too disturbing, they split the character into these two personas.
* DisappearedDad: Where was the king while the queen was off finding creative ways to kill his daughter? He must have stepped out of the fairytale for a bit.
** The intro to the Walt Disney movie says he died. It was changed presumably to explain that very problem (he apparently is still alive but extraordinarily inattentive in the fairy tale).
** [[HeirClubForMen She's a girl]], why should he care? Also, the Queen gives him sex, while his daughter does not (we ''hope'').
** There is actually a version of the story where he does everything he can to stop his wife, but [[spoiler: it doesn't work]]. Happily, the King in the Grimm version didn't have to live through such a horrible experience.
** The original version does give an explanation: In it, he's the King of England, & his wife's attempts to kill Snow White happen while he's off at war.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Grimm's ''Snow White'' talks about Snow White pricking her finger and three drops of blood falling on virgin white snow. It doesn't take Freud to realize that it's a metaphor for menstruating for the first time.
* DontTouchItYouIdiot: Don't touch it! It might be poison!
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Snow White traditionally has skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony.
* ExtremelyDustyHome: The dwarves home before she cleans it up.
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses
* EvilMatriarch: The queen.
* FairyTale
* FairestOfThemAll: Snow White.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: The evil stepmother is forced to dance in red-hot shoes until she dies.
* FauxDeath: Snow White. She got better.
* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'' portrays Snow as this. She's a very feminine-looking girl who is the TeamMom for the dwarves and has very long black hair with a red hairbow, but is first seen happily getting up trees with her CanonForeigner best friend Klaus to get her beloved apples and being scolded by her nanny for doing such "not-ladylike" things.
* GreenEyedMonster: Spurs the Queen on.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen
* GoodPrincessEvilQueen: In the fairy tale and all adaptations the kind and virtuous princess Snow White is pitted against her WickedStepmother, the evil queen.
* HappilyEverAfter
* HistoricalFiction: Gregory Maguire's version called ''Mirror Mirror'' takes place in Italy, with Lucrezia Borgia as the wicked witch.
* ImAHumanitarian: The queen eats what she thinks is Snow White's heart. Not her fault it was a cheap knockoff.
* {{Irony}}: One animated adaptation had it be the ''mirror'' who finally disposes of the queen. Fed up with her petty grudge, it sucks her into itself and traps her. Throughout the cartoon it's pretty clear that the mirror dislikes the queen for going after Snow White, but why it didn't stop her sooner is never answered.
* LighterAndSofter: Russian version by Creator/AlexanderPushkin removes the most gruesome and squicky aspects of the story. The Queen doesn't want to eat her step-daughter's heart - "just" have her left in the forest to die; the prince doesn't fall in love with a corpse - he was engaged to her even before the kidnapping and when he finds her, he breaks the coffin in grief, and she's revived by the PowerOfLove; and they don't make the Queen dance in red-hot iron shoes (because people don't do such sick stuff in Russia!) and she just dies of spite and envy (or maybe kills herself) after learning that the princess is alive and recovered.
* LoveAtFirstSight: If only she weren't comatose at the time.
* MercifulMinion: The huntsman who refuses to kill Snow White and instead brings back the heart of a deer.
* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: The dwarfs can't bear to bury Snow White, so they put her in a glass coffin (in some versions) or simply leave her lying on the bier (in others).
* NamedByTheAdaptation: The [[NoNameGiven nameless]] dwarfs tend to get this:
** Most famously, the Disney animated film named them as Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey.
** The anime series ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'' and a live-action film starring Creator/KristinKreuk and Creator/MirandaRichardson named them after the days of the week from Monday to Sunday.
** ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'' named them after letters of the Old Irish medieval alphabet: Beith, Coll, Duir, Gort, Muir, Nion, and Quert. An eighth dwarf is named Gus.
* NoOntologicalInertia: Everything the queen does to Snow White works this way. Stabbed by a poisoned comb? No problem! Just remove the comb and you'll be fine! Justified in the case of the first attempt, which was a corset. It was tied so tight that she couldn't breathe, thus cutting it off in time saved her.
* OffingTheOffspring: In early versions, the Queen was Snow White's biological mother, yet she was still jealous of her daughter and tried to kill her.
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: The seven dwarfs are short and mine for ore, otherwise there are no other explicitly mentioned traits they seem have in common with dwarfs/dwarves in modern (read: [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium post-Tolkien]]) fantasy literature.
* ParentalAbandonment: Snow White's father is often written as dead while her biological mother is consistently deceased.
* PapaWolf: In some Scottish versions, the Huntsman is Snow White's father. While he can't oppose his lover, he can still send their child away.
* PerspectiveFlip:
** The 2009 novel ''Fairest of All: Literature/ATaleOf the Wicked Queen'' makes the Queen the protagonist, and in the process of giving her a backstory addresses such issues as what happened to Snow White's dad, the origin of the Magic Mirror, etc. [[spoiler:The Queen becomes evil due to a combination of parental abuse that continues from beyond the grave and the death of the King, the only man who ever truly loved her, and it warps her view of Snow's beauty, innocence, and good nature.]]
** There is also a short story ("Red as Blood" by Creator/TanithLee) that gives a different view on the matter: the Queen is actually [[spoiler:a heroine who recognizes that the King's first wife (Snow White's mother) was a vampire. After trying several tests (seeing if Snow will go near a rose bush, look in a mirror, or take communion), the Queen determines that the princess is a vampire as well and sends a hunter with a cross to kill her before she reaches adulthood and goes off to kill people as her mother did. This does not go too well so the Queen disguises herself as a hag and gives Snow the apple (actually from the flesh of Jesus) which puts her into a coma. The "prince" (implied to be Jesus) wakes her up and turns her into a human girl. Oh, and the dwarves are stunted tree spirits in it.]]
** "Snow, Glass, Apples", by Creator/NeilGaiman, is also told from the perspective of the Queen, who came to realize that Snow White's father died because [[spoiler:the little girl was sucking his blood (and [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre other]] [[{{Squick}} parts]] [[ParentalIncest of]] him). The queen eventually succeeds in poisoning Snow White with the apple, but the prince who finds her is explicitly stated to be a necrophiliac who wants her ''because'' she's dead. The two marry and shut the stepmother up in an oven. The queen is narrating the story while being ''roasted alive''.]]
** The ''Twisted Fairy Tales'' collection starts with a take on Snow White. Like the above, it's told mostly from the perspective of the Queen. Unlike the other others here, she ''is'' her mother, like in the first version and is still definitely the villain. However, she remains somewhat pitiful, if only because one sees she was once a good person, before she started to lose her sanity and became an evil VainSorceress.
** "Richilda" retells the story from the stepmother's perspective. The fun part is that it predates Grimms' by decades.
* PrinceCharming: The prince who Snow marries.
* RavenHairIvorySkin: Snow White has "skin as white as snow" and "hair as black as ebony".
* RuleOfThree: The queen makes three assassination attempts in person before they pay off:
** In the Grimm fairy tale, after Snow White's "death" her coffin is visited by three birds: an owl, a raven and a dove. It's an odd little detail, but scholars think they symbolize death and rebirth.
* SelfPoisoningGambit: In some versions of the tale, only one side of the apple is poisoned, and the queen takes a bite out of the other, unpoisoned side to "prove" the apple was safe and get Snow White to eat it.
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Quite possibly the most famous example in fiction, a young girl sentenced to death for the ''crime'' of being beautiful.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: At least one incarnation ends in the queen just giving up on killing Snow White after she marries her PrinceCharming. She realizes the mirror speaks the truth and just never asks it "Who's fairest?" ever again.
* TemptingApple: The queen disguises herself as a peddler in order to kill Snow White, and the third and successful attempt involves a delicious-looking, but poisoned apple.
* TextileWorkIsFeminine: The first queen was sewing when she pricked herself, producing the blood and the famous wish.
* VainSorceress: The queen.
* WickedStepmother: Was added in the Brothers Grimm version. In first editions, it was averted since the queen in those versions was actually Snow White's mother.
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: The queen, and then Snow White.
----

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Grimm's ''Snow White'' talks about Snow White pricking her finger and three drops of blood falling on her white cloth. It doesn't take Freud to realize that it's a metaphor for menstruating for the first time.

* DamselInDistress: Snow White.

* RavenHairIvorySkin: Snow White has "skin a white as snow" and "hair as black as ebony".

* DecompositeCharacter: In the first edition, Snow White's birth mother who wishes for her to have all the traits she is known for (white skin, black hair and red lips) and wicked stepmother were one in the same. When the Grimm brothers decided that the idea of a mom attempting to murder child was too disturbing, they split the character into these two personas.

--> I suspect that most modern viewers find it easier to identify with a Snow White who fights back. Spending years asleep in a glass coffin waiting to be awakend by "TrueLovesKiss" is hopefully not something that girls today aspire to. We can fight for what we want, and we have a good chance of getting it.

Note that this specifically refers to the Brothers Grimm version and adaptations thereof, rather than any of the other fairytales of Aarne-Thompson type #709, "Snow White" (such as "Gold Tree and Silver Tree," in which the Snow White character is married off by her father to get her away from her insane mother, or the memorable version in which Snow White stays with FORTY DRAGONS.)

CanonForeigner: ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'' gives Snow a younger childhood friend named Klaus and a nanny.

Because of Snow White's rather [[{{Goth}} unusual]] [[EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette appearance]] and the disturbing psychological issues in the story, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is frequently subject to {{Grimmification}} or DarkerAndEdgier treatment. One such example is a [[Film/SnowWhiteATaleofTerror 1997 horror version]] with Creator/SigourneyWeaver as the queen. There's also a 2001 version subtitled [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0255605/ Fairest of Them All]] with Miranda Richardson as the queen and Kristin Kreuk as Snow White, and [[RainbowMotif rainbow dwarves]], named after the days of the week. Finally, let's not forget Creator/NeilGaiman's short story "[[https://web.archive.org/web/20130616104947/http://thedreaming.holycow.com/1999/10/10/snow-glass-apples/ Snow, Glass, Apples]]", where we have a perspective flip that takes some of the more eerie parts of the story, and makes them much much worse.

* OffingTheOffspring: In early versions, the Queen was Snow White's biological mother, yet she was still jealousof her daughter and tried to kill her.

* AgeLift: In the 1812 version of Snow White. Snow White was ''seven years old'' when the Queen try to kill her, and remain that age for the entire story. In 1819, the second edition of the story had the Grimm Brothers aged her up to 14.

* CanonForeigner: ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'' gives Snow a younger childhood friend named Klaus and a nanny.

* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Although, the [[{{Squick}} prince actually thought she was dead]]. In the original tale, he doesn't kiss her. Instead, he falls in love with her beautiful corpse and takes it home. During the journey, the bit of apple in her throat is dislodged and she wakes up. There isn't the squick of him kissing someone he thought was dead, but it still raises some questions.

In recent years, more ActionGirl-style portrayals of Snow White have come to the fore. ''Sword and Sorceress XXVII'''s introduction contrasted Snow White's portrayal in the Grimm and Disney versions with that of modern versions like ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'', ''Film/MirrorMirror'', and ''Series/OnceUponATime''. Anthology editor ElizabethWaters says:

* AdaptationalVillainy: Almost everyone gets this many different adaptions.

* FairestOfThemAll

* NamedByTheAdaptation: The [[NoNameGiven nameless]] dwarfs tend to get this.

* NoOntologicalInertia: Everything the queen does to Snow White works this way. Stabbed by a poisoned comb? No problem! Just remove the comb and you'll be fine!
** Justified in the case of the first attempt, which was a corset. It was tied so tight that she couldn't breathe, thus cutting it off in time saved her.
* OffingTheOffspring:

* ParentalAbandonment

** The 2009 novel ''Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen'' makes the Queen the protagonist, and in the process of giving her a backstory addresses such issues as what happened to Snow White's dad, the origin of the Magic Mirror, etc. [[spoiler:The Queen becomes evil due to a combination of parental abuse that continues from beyond the grave and the death of the King, the only man who ever truly loved her, and it warps her view of Snow's beauty, innocence, and good nature.]]

* PrinceCharming

* RuleOfThree: The queen makes three assassination attempts in person before they pay off.

** A live-action film starring Creator/KristinKreuk and Creator/MirandaRichardson named them after the days of the week.
** ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'' named them after letters of the Old Irish medieval alphabet.