Snow White is a famous fairy tale published in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm. It tells the story of a beautiful young girl named Snow White who is forced to live with seven dwarfs after her jealous stepmother, the queen, tries to have her killed. The queen is threatened by Snow White's beauty and asks her magic mirror who is the "fairest one of all." The mirror says it is Snow White, making the queen envious. She sends a huntsman to kill Snow White but he spares her. Snow White lives with the dwarfs until the queen tricks and poisons her with an apple. She is revived when the dwarfs remove the poisoned apple.

1. Snow White
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2. Snow White
• Published in 1812 by the
Brothers Grimm
• One of the famous fairy
tales worldwide
• In the first edition, the villain
was Snow White’s jealous
mother
• Was changed to step-
mother in later editions to
tone down the story for
children

3. Historical
Occurence
Legendary
Occurence
Mythical
Occurence
Facts
Paramount
Meaning
Paramount
What’s the difference between
legends, myths, and folktales?
Folktales based on
cultural truth

4. A True Story?
• Maria Sophia Margaretha
Catherine von Erthal, born on
June 25, 1729
• “a charitable kind angel,” thought
to be poisoned by her
stepmother, who gave her an
apple laced with belladonna.
• After death of her mother, her
father remarried in 1743.
• Suffered at hands of her ruthless
stepmother. Also suffered from
partial blindness since childhood
• Gift of the “Talking Mirror”

5. Given by Maria Sophia's
father to her stepmother.
Now held in the Spessart
Museum in Germany.
The “Talking Mirror”

6. Spessart Forest in Germany

7. The Seven Dwarfs

8. The Darkness of Fairy Tales

11. What is the
uncanny?

12. The Uncanny
“a sense of
unfamiliarity which
appears at the very
heart of the familiar,
or else a sense of
familiarity which
appears at the very
heart of the
unfamiliar”

13. What are some
examples of the
uncanny?

14. • Repetition
• Odd coincidences
• Animism
• Anthropomorphism
• Automatism
• Being buried alive
• Silence
• Telepathy
• Death
Forms of the Uncanny

15. The Uncanny in Psychoanalysis

16. Freud on the Uncanny
“on the one hand it means what is
familiar and agreeable, and on the other,
what is concealed and kept out of sight.”
“that species of the frightening that goes
back to what was once well known and
had long been familiar”

18. Fairy Tales and
Uncanny Effects

19. She called out a greeting but there was no answer.
Then she went to the bed and drew back the curtains.
Grandmother was lying there with her nightcap pulled
down over her face. She looked very strange.
“Oh, Grandmother, what big ears you have!”
“The better to hear you with.”
“Oh, Grandmother, what big eyes you have!”
“The better to see you with.”
“Oh, Grandmother, what big hands you have!”
“The better to eat you with!”
“Oh Grandmother, what a big, scary mouth you have!”
“The better to eat you with!”
“Little Red Cap”
Brothers Grimm

20. …They lighted their seven little lanterns, and when the cottage
brightened up, they saw that someone had been there, for
some things were not the way they had left them.
The first one asked: “Who’s been sitting on my little chair?”
The second asked: “Who’s been eating from my little plate?”
The third asked: “Who’s been eating my little loaf of bread?”
The fourth asked: “Who’s been eating from my little plate of
vegetables?”
The fifth asked: “Who’s been using my little fork?”
The sixth asked: “Who’s been cutting with my little knife?”
The seventh asked: “Who’s been drinking from my little
cup?”
“Snow White”
Brothers Grimm

21. Snow White

22. Snow White

23. Snow White

24. Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when snow
flakes were falling from the sky like feathers, a queen was
sitting and sewing by a window with a black ebony frame.
While she was sewing and looking out at the snow, she
pricked her finger with a needle, and three drops of blood
fell onto the snow. The red looked so beautiful against the
white snow that she thought to herself: “If only I had a
child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as
the wood of the window frame." Soon thereafter she gave
birth to a little girl, who was as white as snow, as red as
blood, and as black as ebony, and she was called Snow
White. The queen died after the child was born.
The Birth of Snow White
The Opening Passage

25. They said: "We can't possibly lower her into the dark
ground." And so they had a transparent glass coffin
made that allowed Snow White to be seen from all
sides. They put her in it, wrote her name on it in golden
letters, and added that she was the daughter of a king.
They brought the coffin up to the top of a mountain, and
one of them was always there to keep vigil. Animals
also came to mourn Snow White, first an owl, then a
raven, and finally a dove.
Snow White lay in the coffin for a long, long time.
But she did not decay and looked as if she were
sleeping, for she was still white as snow, red as blood,
and with hair as black as ebony.
The Glass Coffin

26. Why is Snow White so easily deceived?

27. The Queen’s Deception

28. “The poor child was left all alone in the vast forest.
She was so frightened that she just stared at all the
leaves on the trees and had no idea what to do
next. She started running and raced over sharp
stones and through thorn bushes” (84).
“Snow White wasn’t the least bit suspicious” (86).
“Poor Snow White suspected nothing and let the
woman go ahead, but no sooner had the comb…”
Snow White: Innocent or Stupid?

29. “This is not a pipe.”

30. The dwarfs told her: "If you will keep house for us,
cook, make the beds, wash, sew, knit, and keep
everything neat and tidy, then you can stay with us, and
we'll give you everything you need."
"Yes, with pleasure," Snow White replied, and she
stayed with them.
She kept house for them. In the morning, they went up
to the mountains in search of minerals and gold. In the
evening, they returned, and dinner had to be ready for
them. Since the girl was by herself during the day, the
good dwarfs gave her a strong warning:
"Beware of your stepmother. She'll know soon enough
that you're here. Don't let anyone in the house."
Domesticating Snow White

32. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

33. A year later the king married another woman. She was a
beautiful lady, but proud and arrogant and could not bear
being second to anyone in beauty. She had a magic mirror,
and when she stood in front of it and looked at herself, she
would say:
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who's the fairest one of all?"
The mirror would reply:
“You, oh queen, are the fairest of all."
Then she was satisfied, for she knew that the mirror
always spoke the truth.
The Magic Mirror

34. “When the Queen heard these words, she trembled
and turned green with envy. From that moment on,
she hated Snow White, and whenever she set eyes
on her, her heart turned as cold as a stone. Envy
and pride grew like weeds in her heart. Day and
night, she never had a moment's peace” (84)
Jealousy, Envy, and Competition
in the World of the Imaginary
[After killing Snow White]
“Her envious heart was finally at peace, as much as
an envious heart can be”

35. Do mirrors speak?

36. – Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization
“…when one is completely
whole and at one with the
world one does not need the
mirror: it is in the period of
psychic disintegration that
the individual personality
turns to the lonely image to
see what in fact is there and
what he can hold on to.”

37. Narcissus

38. the mirror stage

39. fantasy
reality

40. I/eye

41. The wicked women let loose a curse, and she became so
petrified with fear that she didn't know what to do. At first
she didn't want to go to the wedding feast. But she never
had a moment's peace after that and had to go see the
young queen. When she entered, Snow White recognized
her right away. The queen was so terrified that she just
stood there and couldn't budge an inch. Iron slippers had
already been heated up over a fire of coals. They were
brought in with tongs and set right in front of her. She had
to put on the red hot iron shoes and dance in them until
she dropped to the ground dead.
The Queen’s Punishment

43. Why fairy tales?

50. Snow White
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