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Snow White: An Un-Acclaimed Interpretation

 

After some research I found that all of these colors have a different meaning. Purity and tranquility are associated with white. Red is the initiation of Karma, and the obstruction and apathetic part is understood as black. Another example of color usage in Snow White is when the Queen is described as being "yellow and green- with envy (Grimm 1945). Alchemical theory sees the agent of transformation as a solvent for separating human nature and matter (Color Meanings). The concept of transformation is particularly interesting in the case of the Queen considering that the she goes through some sort of transformation throughout the tale. At the beginning of the story she is content with her beauty, but as the story progresses and Snow White matures and surpasses her in beauty, it is evident that the Queen is horrified of the fact that she is aging. .
             Another important symbol in Snow White is that in which the hunter who is ordered to kill Snow White represents. In The Uses of Enchantment the hunter is described as "a male who can be viewed as an unconscious representation of the father- (Bettelheim, 204) Perhaps this is said because of the fact the hunter disobeys the Queen by letting Snow White go, rather than killing the innocent beauty. Who else would go against a Queen's will but the King himself? Bettelheim states that "This is what the oedipal and adolescent girl wishes to believe about her father: that even though he does as a mother bids him, he would side with his daughter if he were free to, tricking the mother as he did so- (205). The fact that this rescuing male figure is cast in the role of a hunter is not only related to the reality that hunting is a masculine sport, but also to the aspect that at one point in time hunting was an aristocratic privilege. Bettelheim explains the importance this male figure being a hunter by saying that:.
             " every child at some time wishes that he were a prince or a princess "and at times, in his unconscious, the child believes he is one, only temporarily degraded by circumstances.


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