Headscratchers / Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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The "Body" is Still Intact

• If the 7 Dwarfs didn't bury Snow White for months when she was believed to be dead, then how did they not suspect she was actually alive since her body was still fresh after such long time?
  • People weren't as educated about decomposition back then.
    • Actually, no matter what time period people had a pretty good understanding of decomposition; anyone around a dead body would understand rotting within days. The ancient Egyptians actually tried to stop it, hence mummies. The situation with Snow White seems to be more along the lines of the dwarfs not really noticing due to grief or just thinking Snow White was special for some reason (lack of decay but no actual signs of life probably convinced them she was dead). They may have even thought magic was involved thanks to the queen and simply not questioned how it worked. Come to think of it, the whole glass coffin thing might have been in part due to a very slight doubt that she was actually dead along with the film's stated reason (not having the heart to bury her).
  • Grumpy says of the Queen "she's an old witch!" - so the dwarfs definitely know or suspect that the Queen knows magic. And since she was disguised as an old beggar woman, they could have guessed that what happened to Snow White was an enchantment of some sort. And they kept her in the glass coffin in the vain hope that they could somehow break the spell.
    • It also paints Florian kissing her in the end in a much better light than how it's usually regarded.
  • The movie never suggests that the dwarfs don't suspect that Snow White is still alive.

Where is the Prince From?

• What is the Prince in this film the prince of? It can't be Snow White's kingdom, because that'd just be weird. And it wouldn't make sense for him to visiting from another kingdom, would it, with how evil and wicked the Queen is? What was he even doing at the castle?
  • In the comic book adaptation, it's said he arrived because he heard of Snow White's beauty.
  • Quite possible he was visiting the castle to make Snow White an offer of marriage. After all, even though she's been forced to work as a servant, it's still known that she's a princess. And she's just come of the marrying age (Disney confirms she's fourteen, which is marrying age in medieval Europe)
  • the film is actually set in the 16th century, which would place it in the Renaissance era.

Why the Lock?

• Why do the dwarves lock the door to their vault, only to leave the key hanging right next to it? What's the point of having a lock, then?
  • That's part of the dwarf's childlike behavior. They aren't really adults, just pretending to be adults; they play being adults, so since adults have a lock they play having a lock. But getting the key with them? What's the use? Wouldn't it be handier for the game if the key's next to the place where they will use it?
  • Their mine is also located way out in the middle of nowhere. They might figure it's more convenient to keep the key next to the vault when there's such little risk of anyone just happening across it.
  • That's the joke.
  • There are plenty of real-life people who keep a key to their own house under the welcome mat even though a thief would be able to find it easily. But if you think the risk of thieves is really low, then the convenience is worth the risk. Likewise with the dwarfs. If they ever heard news about robbers in the area, they'd take the key home with them instead of leaving it by the door. But they haven't heard of any robbers in a long time, so they've gotten complacent. (In the meantime, the lock still keeps wild animals out of their stash.)

Sending Snow to Safety... or Not

• Why doesn't the Huntsman try going with Snow White to find a place for her to take shelter? It doesn't make much sense that his means of protecting her from the queen is to watch her go running blindly into a dark forest, especially since she's only, what, 14 years old? He could've helped her through the woods to the dwarves' cottage or some place else, perhaps, sparing her all the nightmarish imagery along the way.
  • Due to the fact that the Queen dwelling in Dark Magic was known well among people (as said by Grumpy), the Huntsman probably thought that the longer time he took for the assassination the odds that the Queen find out about him letting Snow White escaped is higher so it's the best to let her run away by herself. Escorting her to townspeople or alike probably wouldn't work, as the Queen could have declared her fugitive and had Snow White arrested/executed.
  • Who says the huntsman cares about Snow White enough to PROTECT her? Sure, killing her with a knife is something he has moral objections to. But sending her into the woods where she only MIGHT get herself killed is not the same. The huntsman obviously doesn't care about what happens to Snow White as long as he's not personally and directly responsible.
  • In a planned ending, the Huntsman was actually going to rally the townspeople to lead an angry mob on the castle to overthrow the Queen (in this ending she burns to death when they set fire to the castle). But I think that leaving Snow to go into the forest was a way of buying her some time. If he disappears with her, the Queen will immediately know something went wrong. If he brings a fake heart to the castle, there's a chance she might not suspect for a while. He didn't buy her much, but she was settled in with the dwarfs by then, so it worked out.
  • In addition to all that's been said, Humbert is the one who escorted Snow to that neck of the woods; he would probably know whether it's safe enough for her to hide out there, especially if he was having second thoughts about killing her the entire time. It's even possible that while scouting around, he came upon the dwarfs' cottage and reasoned she could take shelter inside. As for not telling her specifically to go there, that's likely because he thought she could find it easily enough on her own — since you are apparently able to follow a trail somewhere to get to it — and by not telling her directly, he gave himself some deniability in the event the Queen ever questioned him.
  • Furthermore, the forest isn't THAT dangerous at all. All the scary images (minus the owl and bats she encountered, and those are mostly harmless animals with a scary reputation) were hallucinations of dead tree limbs and log bark in the water from her pre-existing fear. (She has to run for her life at the risk of being all alone. Anyone who lived in a castle their whole life is gonna be horrified under those circumstances.) Once she stopped to calm down, she did befriend the forest animals very quickly. And they led her to the Dwarfs cottage knowing they'd be kind enough to show the princess hospitality.
  • I don't think the Huntsman had any of this planned out in advance. He felt bad about killing her, so he stopped himself, told her to run, and then quickly came up with the "heart of a pig" trick. This wasn't some sort of professional rescue operation.
  • We—and probably the huntsman—don't fully know what Queen Grimhilde can do with her magic exactly. Suppose he leads Snow to safety, only for the queen to use some kind of see-as-I-see spell, or suppose she reads his mind? No, better to just send her off and claim plausible deniability.

Why Not a Normal Murder?

• Why exactly does the queen use this complicated "sleeping death" potion, when she could just use regular poison for the same purpose? For that matter, if giving the poison to Snow White already required the Queen and the princess to be alone together, she also could just have strangled or stabbed her.
  • the problem is that the people of the nation would know. Snow White is their king’s sole child and thus heir to his throne whereas the Queen is merely a placeholder (as she married into the family she can’t inherit it); so if the Princess were to suddenly vanished or die by poison or assassination suspicion would automatically fall on the Queen as the sole person to benefit from Snow White’s absence. Especially if her husband’s still alive.
  • The Queen wanted to prepare a fitting end for Snow White, as she saw her as a rival for her beauty. Strangling her doesn't work because, as a frail, old woman, the queen wouldn't be able to get the jump on Snow White without her running away or screaming, wouldn't be able to match pace with her if she escapes, and if the dwarves get so much as a hint that Snow White is in trouble, they'll come riding back to save her, as is shown moments later. Finally, she may have chosen the sleeping death due to its lack of any real antitodes - it's likely the dwarves would've tried searching for any cure they could find if they'd known it was a poison, so the sleeping death was the queen's best way of ensuring that Snow White would die for good (or at least be buried alive).
  • A lot of the problems with the Queen's plot could be blamed on the fact that she chooses her method of killing Snow after she consumed the old hag potion, which obviously has a detrimental impact on her sanity.
  • The Queen is not only evil; she's extremely vindictive. She's explicitly hoping that the poison will make the dwarfs think Snow is dead and bury her (she excitedly says "she'll be buried alive!") - which is A Fate Worse Than Death (Snow White: A Tale of Terror has the victim aware of everything the whole time). Basically the Queen doesn't want to just kill her stepdaughter; she wants to torture her.
  • There have been many fan fiction theories that the Queen has a very twisted view of " happy endings". She believes that as long as someone enjoys their last moments of life, it's definitely a HAPPY ENDING. She is willing to ensure such for Snow White. (Letting her pick wildflowers with a beautiful dress on isn't the most torturous way to spend your last hours of life). Keep in mind that her incantation with the apple says "Now turn red, to tempt Snow White, and make her hunger for a bite." Enticing Snow White with the apple, and later claiming it will make her dreams come true is the Queen's way to ensure that the kind and fair princess DOES have a "happy ending".

Why a Hag? Pt. 1 — Beauty

• Given the Queen's obsession with beauty, how could she bear to transform herself into such a hideous old hag? Other disguises would certainly have been possible and no such extreme transformation occurs in the original story. A related question - was the spell to make her look like that meant to be temporary or would she have had to take some kind of antidote to restore her original form had she succeeded in coming back?
  • To the first question, that's the point. It's intentionally ironic that, over the course of her villainous breakdown, the queen becomes so obsessed with killing Snow White over her beauty that she comes to shed every ounce of her own beauty, in return. (For example, note the scene where Snow White eats the apple - after watching her keel over, the queen proudly proclaims, "Now I'll be fairest in the land!", all while under the guise of a hideous old hag.) For the second question, I think she would've had to have whipped up some sort of antidote - I remember hearing about some sort of outside material where the queen survived the fall she took at the end of the film. She tries returning to the castle, but finds that she can't get inside to change herself back because the guards don't recognize her.
  • The Unshaved Mouse has a good interpretation; he found the disguise to be "darkly liberating" for the Queen. It can't be fun keeping up with the pressure of maintaining the greatest beauty in the land, so perhaps that was her way of cutting loose and not having to care about her looks anymore.

Where's Happy?

• As Snow White kisses each of the Seven Dwarfs as they leave for work, for some reason, Happy is not just the only dwarf who doesn't get kissed, but he's nowhere to be seen at all! Where did he go? Did he leave first before the other six?
  • Maybe he headed off to the mine early, for reasons unknown. Or maybe the animators intended for him to get his kiss while offscreen, and they just forgot to include him.

What *Are* Wicked Wiles?

• ...What are wicked wiles?
  • I don't know, but I'm ag'in 'em!
  • Wiles are defined as "devious or cunning stratagems employed in manipulating or persuading someone to do what one wants."

Why Not Make Herself Fairer?

• If the Queen could turn herself into a hideous old hag, then why didn't she just make herself more beautiful than Snow White?
  • It's possible that she had the ability to improve her external beauty, but it's been suggested that Snow White's beauty both inside and out is what made her fairer than the Queen. Also, it's part of her irrational hatred. Her thought process when she finds out someone's beauty has surpassed hers is not "I'd better try and make myself more beautiful than her," but rather "How dare she manage to be more beautiful than me?!"

Planning a Happy Death?

• What was the Queen's reason for giving Snow White a nice dress and sending her out to pick flowers in a peaceful meadow before she died? When viewed a certain way, it might seem like she wanted her stepdaughter to be happy in the final moments before her death, but this seems out-of-character when you consider that the Queen is the one who wanted her dead, for the horrible crime of happening to be prettier than her. Why not just have the Huntsman take her out into the woods in her bedgraddled servant's clothes and kill her quickly?
  • The Queen probably doesn't want her subjects to know how badly she's mistreating Snow White. Given that she's her stepmother and SW's dad is nowhere to be found, she may just be regent until SW comes of age. If Snow White was seen leaving the castle dressed in rags someone could see her and try to find out why the princess is being treated like a servant, putting the Queen's position in jeopardy. If subjects see her in a fancy dress they'll think all is well.
  • Or perhaps the Queen liked the idea of giving Snow a Pet the Dog moment right before she's killed. And having such finery ruined by being cut up and bloodied was probably something she'd get off on.
  • It was likely done in the interest of maintaining the guise that Grimhilde and Humbert were innocent in Snow's disappearance. The Queen probably had a cover story ready detailing how the princess had been killed in some mishap while out in the forest with the huntsman, which preemptively removes any suspicion from herself.
  • The plot depends on Snow White going along with it. Obviously the Queen can't just say "Please go off into the woods so the Hunstman can kill you in a secluded place." So instead she says "I've heard of a lovely clearing with beautiful flowers in it. Could you please go there and pick some flowers for me? The Huntsman will show you the way."

Why a Hag?, Pt. 2 — Trust

• Why did the Queen go with the "hideous hag" disguise? Surely an old woman who looked sweet and grandmotherly would've been a better choice for appearing trustworthy than an Obviously Evil crone.
  • Good question. Maybe she couldn't influence exactly how the potion made her to look, beyond it turning her into an old woman. Maybe she knows of how kind and generous Snow is to everyone she meets (she is her stepmother, after all), and thought a hideous old crone would elicit some sympathy and be more likely to be invited inside.
  • The Queen actually explains this in a throwaway line: "I'll go myself to the dwarfs' cottage, in a disguise so complete, no one will ever suspect!" She goes for an appearance - old, bedraggled, and hideous - that contrasts the beautiful, queenly one her people are used to in every way imaginable, so that even if the dwarfs witness her crime, no one else will ever buy the notion she could be responsible. (This does depend on whether other people know about their Queen's wicked tendencies, like the isolated dwarfs do, but Grimhilde could be so far up above them that she doesn't care what they think as long as there isn't proof.)
    • it might’ve been a way to lower Snow White’s suspicions as this was in a time Europe (especially Germany) were in the throes of persecuting “witches” for committing crimes against humanity by “consorting” or “making pacts” with Satan in exchange for what they had. All too frequently it was people who looked like the disguised queen who were targeted for being “witches” as they weren’t attractive, usually lived alone on the edge of society, had sometimes extensive knowledge of herb-lore as well as the crafting of potions, had a pet that they were frequently seen with, and were nearly ALWAYS women. Everything the queen (in hag form) represents down to her pet bird, as a result Snow White might’ve believed the disguised Queen to be an outcast like herself.

Why Trust the Peddler?

• What I’d like to know is why would Snow White even trust the old peddler? The Dwarfs had warned her to beware of strangers and a hideous old hag is certainly not the kind of person that should be trusted. She never even catches on when her kind animal friends attack the old woman.
  • While it is in Snow White's character to have been a bit too trusting and kind, you could also pin it on her being Wrong Genre Savvy, in this instance. She has heard that the Queen has the power to alter her appearance, and could be anyone or anything at any given time...but if you had that kind of power and were trying to murder someone with it, wouldn't you sooner turn into a dragon and burn the cottage down or make yourself invisible and stab her without being seen? Something a tad more conspicuous than a harmless old woman trying to poison someone with an apple?
  • Also, if you pay attention, you'll notice that Snow isn't completely fine with the idea of being alone with the old woman, as she backs herself against the wall with a look of unease displayed on her face while being pressured to eat the apple. Even if she didn't suspect her of being the queen, my guess is that she could tell the old woman was a little unhinged by that point, and only agreed to taste the apple as a way of humoring her in the hope that she would leave instead of resorting to more crazy behavior.
  • To Snow White's credit, she WAS scared of the old hag. Even after letting her in the cottage, she shows reluctance every time the strange lady talks. The APPLE is what enticed her. The queens incantation said "Now turn red to tempt Snow White, and make her hunger for a bite." The curse on that fruit means just LOOKING at it can brainwash you (slightly, it didn't completely override Snow White's aforementioned insecurities) into sinking your teeth into it.
  • Snow is freaked out by the old woman at first, but she feels sorry for her when the birds attack her, and the Queen makes a bit of a show of being out of breath and thirsty - so Snow's goodness overwrote any fears she had about the old woman, and let her into the house to be polite.
    • It was more than being out of breath and thirsty; Grimhilde started feigning something resembling a heart attack. To expect someone as sheltered as Snow White to be able to ignore that or call her out on the disguise is more than a little unfair. She was raised as a scullery maid; where would she have gotten the experience to muster something like that?

Just Take Her Beauty

• Did the queen never consider the possibility of disfiguring Snow White rather than killing her?
  • Once more...1.) She's being irrational. 2.) "Rags cannot hide her gentle grace." It's implied Snow White being declared the fairest was because of her beauty both inside and out. The Queen couldn't do anything to hide it anymore.
  • 3.) From a more practical vantage, the methods through which Snow could be disfigured without it tracing back to Grimhilde are limited, and part of her goal is to get rid of her stepdaughter without it getting out that she did it. Sending her into the woods and having her huntsman off her would work; Grimhilde could just say that some beast got to her to explain her disappearance. But once Humbert proves he's too soft for the job, there's only so many ways for the Queen to have Snow disfigured short of doing it herself, and no good reason to choose it over killing her.

Who Voiced Dopey's Scream?

• If Dopey didn't have a voice actor because Disney couldn't find one that fit him, who was it who provided the scream for when he sees Snow White sleeping in the dwarfs' beds?
  • Eddie Collins.
  • To elaborate, Dopey did have an assigned voice actor; they just couldn't find one that fit him in terms of dialogue. Presumably hushing, screaming and other such noises didn't require them to be quite as picky with how his voice sounded.

What's with the Diamonds?

• What on earth would those Dwarfs need with all of those diamonds?! They live way up in the mountains, far, far away from where they could make any use of the stuff!
  • Incidentally, one Wartime Cartoon (obviously not canon) had them use the diamonds to buy Canadian War Bonds. No, really.
  • Perhaps they just liked to use mining as a pasttime. That would explain why the lock the gems in a shed and leave the key right next to the door.
  • They're waiting for an elven caravan...
    • This is a diamond table. All craftsdwarfship is of the finest quality. It is decorated with hanging rings of diamond and menaces with spikes of diamond. On the table is an image of a witch in diamond. The witch is in a fetal position. The artwork relates to the striking by lightning, falling off a cliff and being crushed under a boulder of the witch in Lampthrown in 1273. On the table is an image of clouds in human bone.
  • They say in the song, "But we don't know what we dig them for." They toil endlessly with no purpose in their lives, never stopping to question their fates.
    • The line "But we don't know what we dig them for", along with "It ain't no trick to get rich quick" hints at the typical dwarven greed and industriousness: they work for the sake of working underground and for reveling in their hoard of treasure.
  • Consider the year that this film was made, which was 1937. The Great Depression was still going on then, and though the U.S.A. was recovering, a recession occurred in that year. At that time, people actually wanted to work (Values Dissonance), but were unable to, due to the unavailability of jobs (Does This Remind You of Anything?). In fact, jobs had to be created, which arguably didn't have much purpose other than to give those workers something to do. Real Life Writes the Plot in this case, where the Dwarfs work in mining to give them something to do, even though they know that it doesn't serve much of a purpose beyond that!
  • While we're at it, that mine looks like it's absolutely full to bursting with diamonds, which are jutting right out of the walls. Yet we see the Dwarfs picking at what appears to be empty rock. Wouldn't they collect all the obvious ones before digging for more? Unless the above theory that they don't really need the diamonds and are just killing time is true. Or they are waiting for Minecraft to be invented.
  • A more mundane answer, perhaps, but they likely use at least some of the money to support themselves. They have to get their food and supplies from somewhere, and I doubt enough stuff to support 7 grown men is going to come cheap.

Unconscious, but Still the Fairest

• The Queen's plan to kill Snow White was doomed to fail either way, even without the intervention of the dwarves. First of all, the Sleeping Death isn't a real death; Snowy's still alive. So, even if the Queen's plan succeeded and the Dwarves buried Snow White alive, she'd still be the fairest in the land...just, in a box underground. Suffocation? Seemingly not an issue, since she "sleeps" in that glass coffin in the woods for months and turns out just fine.
  • Even if Snow White could've stayed alive underground, if she had an average burial, she would've had insects and other critters eating away at her until she was nothing but bones. Not too pretty.
  • Also, suffocation would still very much be an issue. Surviving for a few months inside a glass coffin that clearly isn't airtight (going by how easily it can be opened) is not the same thing as spending a much longer time locked in a box buried six feet under.
  • As noted above, the Queen only comes up with her "curse Snow to sleep instead of killing her" plot after she drinks her old hag potion, which clearly has some ill-effects on her sanity considering the drastic change in demeanor after she drinks it. She really was more concerned with vengeance than being in any way pragmatic.
  • And maybe she was looking for a way to rig things so that no one else would be able to take Snow White's place as the fairest in the land.

Why Not Lie?

• Why did Snow White think it was safe to tell the dwarves who she was when they first met? They could've turned her over to the Queen, for all she knew!
  • It'd be more surprised that the dwarfs did know that much about the queen, let alone that she was an evil witch. They live out in the middle of the forest — what would make Snow think they were that concerned with the goings-on of her kingdom? And they obviously don't know Grimhilde is trying to kill Snow until after Snow tells them, which is only after Grumpy insists that they throw her out anyway. (And after she's had enough of a conversation with them to surmise that they're all good and kind people who won't likely turn an innocent girl over to be killed.)
  • Also, when Snow wakes up, she's obviously more occupied with meeting these funny little men she's been cleaning up after all day than worrying about whether the Queen is going to find her. It's pretty evident that being careful wasn't one of her priorities right then.
  • And according to Word of God, Snow is only fourteen. So she's still a child (albeit of marrying age by medieval standards) and an incredibly sheltered one at that. She's never been taught cunning or duplicity, so she doesn't think to pretend to be someone else.

Why Don't the Animals Stay?

• After the Queen arrived at the dwarfs' cottage, the animals all ran off to warn the dwarfs. At one point, the birds attacked the old woman as she was offering the poisoned apple to Snow White. A problem, though: all the animals left the cottage. Why didn't some of them stay? That would have been more thoughtful. There were so many that some could have stayed at the cottage with Snow White to make sure nothing went wrong while the rest left to get the dwarfs.
  • The more animals go to collect the dwarfs, the faster they can get them back to the cottage. But there's only so much the animals can do to hold off the old woman, especially since they don't know what her actual goal is and were already shooed away for attacking her once before. Odds are they wouldn't be able to stall for very long before Snow shuts the window to keep them outside. And then what do they do?
  • The movie also repeatedly shows that the animal companions are not terribly smart. It's almost a deconstruction of the trope, in that regard, as they repeatedly react to new situations according to normal animal instincts or whatever would seem to be the obvious choice. Snow White indicates a tone of surprise at something? Quick, run and hide! Snow White asks the animals to help clean the dishes? Just lick them clean and put them away in the cupboard! There's this person who may be harmful toward Snow White? Attack! Attack Attack! ... Any other ideas? Well, let's go get the dwarfs to help, that's all we can do on our own!

How Did She Know it Was Snow White?

• How did the Queen immediately peg Snow White as the "fairest"? (Granted, the Mirror does identify who she is later on) Are there no other women in the land with red lips, black hair and white skin?
  • Perhaps there aren't any...
  • Women with those features and beautiful enough to rival the queen would be very few in number. The pale skin alone would pretty much require her to be nobility as otherwise she'd have a tan from being out in the sun working.
  • In addition, in the original fairy tale, Snow White's name came from a wish her mother made before she was born — she wanted a child with "lips red as blood, hair black as ebony, skin white as snow". If we assume that's still the case in this version, it's certainly plausible that Snow's father explained the meaning behind her name to Grimhilde after he married her, and thus, she recognized who the mirror was referring to when it used [most of] those exact words.

What Happened to the Kingdom?

• What happened to Snow White's original kingdom after she left with the Prince to marry him? Due the Queen's recent death she should be the successor to the throne as the King died long time ago, but she leaves with the Prince in the end to marry him, so what happened to the castle where she used to live? It's still her property or she just left it abandoned?
  • As to the kingdom, I assumed that it and Florian's kingdom became united once he and Snow were married, essentially like what happens in Sleeping Beauty. As to the castle, I recall there being an alternate ending or something where Humbert (the huntsman) rallies the people to storm the Queen's castle and it ends up being destroyed somehow. Even if it remained standing, I don't think it's unusual for a kingdom to have more than one castle within its borders. Snow and Florian could just use it as a summer home or something if they'd like to continue using it.

Where Was the Pig's Heart From?

• Where did the Huntsman get the pig's heart that he gave to the Queen in place of Snow's? Did he kill a pig from a farm without getting caught by the farmer? Also, why we don't get to see the pig heart when the Queen shows it to the Magic Mirror?
  • In the original story, it was specifically the heart of a wild boar that was given to the Queen; Humbert went and killed one after Snow had run off. It wasn't shown due to it not being necessary, and also a bit too grisly to subject movie-going audiences to on the fly.
  • If there was a butcher in the village, he could have just bought one there too.

How do the animals know where the dwarves' mine is?

• How do the animals know where the dwarves' mine is? When the animals try to go to the dwarves' mine to warn them. And also why do the dwarves (eventually) trust the animals' warning (only because Sleepy thought about the Queen)
  • Presumably the same way they knew where the dwarves' cottage was.

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