A Psychoanalytical Review Into Brothers Grimm's Snow White

A psychoanalytical review into Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White”, reveals a different story than what we as children were familiar with. Child abuse, sexuality, and subconscious meanings are a reflection of what’s occurring with the stepmother and Snow White herself. Snow White was a young woman who had not yet hit maturity or adulthood. She was seven years old and the signs of her adolescence are shown throughout the story as she is a young child who is scared and naïve. Snow White was an abused child that was shunned from her childhood and forced into mature adulthood. The fairy tale begins as having the biological mother wish for “a child that was as white as snow, red as blood, and as black as the wood on the window frame.”(83). Soon thereafter,

The replies from that magical mirror suggest that she, in fact, is still alive. The stepmother consciously decides to try to kill her stepchild herself by taking various deadly approaches. Being so young, Snow White is naïve in welcoming the offers of the disguised stepmother. Her final offer was for Snow White to take a bite out of the apple, which was poisoned. The image of the apple throughout history relates to the biblical Adam and Eve story where Eve was lured by temptation to eat the apple from the Tree but was warned not to. The red apple reflects temptation and luring. Snow White was warned by the dwarfs but did not listen, and, like Eve, she was lured by temptation. Snow White took a bite out of the only part of the apple that was poisoned, the red part. Red is known to reflect sexuality, blood, menstruation, and lust. At this time Snow White “dies” only to be awakened from her coffin at a later time by a man, the Prince. This could depict her adult sexuality and maturity, but one could not firmly say. Granted, the red in the apple represents blood, lust and menstruation ,one could not say that Snow White was fully mature after she awakened. Girls begin their menstruation at young ages and though we can’t depict on how long she was in the coffin for, she still seems to be a