Editing Evil Queen (section)

==Brothers Grimm tale==

===Story===

[[File:Magic_mirror.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The queen with her mirror in [[Jennie Harbour]]'s illustration for ''My Favorite Book of Fairy Tales'' (1921)]]

The Evil Queen is described as a "proud and arrogant" woman with exceptional beauty who marries the King following the death of his first wife, Snow White's mother.<ref name="sites.pitt.edu" /> Obsessed with her own beauty, the Queen stands before a magic mirror every morning to confirm that she is the most beautiful, thus validating her vanity. One morning, the mirror informs her that her stepdaughter, the seven-year-old Princess Snow White, has surpassed her in beauty "a thousand times".<ref name="sites.pitt.edu">{{Cite web|title=Grimm 053: Little Snow-White|url=https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm053.html|access-date=2025-01-16|website=sites.pitt.edu}}</ref> Furious, the Queen formulates a plan to kill Snow White. The Queen orders her [[Huntsman (Snow White)|Huntsman]] to lure Snow White into the forest to murder her. The Queen tells him to bring back the child's lungs and liver as proof that the princess is dead. However, the Huntsman takes pity on Snow White and instead, he brings the Queen the lungs and liver of a wild boar. The Queen or (in some retellings) a cook prepares the lungs and liver, believing them to be Snow White's organs, and the Queen eats them.

[[File:Schneewitchen_(1).jpg|thumb|upright|The Queen in disguise offers lace to Snow White in a late 19th-century German illustration]]

After questioning her mirror again, the Queen discovers that Snow White has survived and found sanctuary with the [[Seven Dwarfs]]. Intending to kill Snow White herself, she takes on the disguise of an old [[peddler]] woman. Under this guise, she visits the dwarfs' house and sells Snow White laces for a corset. The Queen intentionally laces the corset too tight in an attempt to suffocate Snow White. When this fails, the Queen returns again, this time as a comb seller, and tricks Snow White into using a poisoned comb created through the art of witchcraft. When the comb also fails to kill Snow White, the Queen proclaims, "Snow White shall die . . . even if it costs me my life!" She again visits Snow White, disguised as a farmer's wife, and gives her half of a red, beautiful apple that had been poisoned, which places Snow White in a deep sleep. However, Snow White is awakened by a kiss from a [[Prince Charming|Prince]] from another kingdom and they invite the Queen to their wedding. Although she fears what will happen, the Queen's jealousy drives her to attend. At the celebration, she is forced to put on red-hot iron shoes and dance until she drops dead.<ref>{{cite book|author=Brothers Grimm|title=The Complete Fairy Tales|publisher=[[Routledge|Routledge Classics]]|isbn=0-415-28596-8|chapter=Little Snow White|year=2002}}</ref>

===Origins and evolution===

[[File:Zofia Plewińska-Smidowiczowa - Lustereczko.jpg|thumb|left|A Polish illustration by Zofia Plewińska-Smidowiczowa]]

In the first print edition of the Brothers Grimm story from their 1812/1815 collection [[Grimms' Fairy Tales|''Kinder- und Hausmärchen'' ("Children's and Household Tales")]], the Queen is Snow White's biological mother. At the beginning of the story, she is sewing at an open window when she pricks her finger with her needle, causing three drops of red blood to drip onto the white snow on the black ebony windowsill. She then wishes to have a daughter with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony, and she later gives birth to Snow White (Snow Drop{{sfn|Purkiss|1996|p=278}}). In subsequent versions after 1819,<ref name="windling"/> this was changed; the text was added to include that Snow White's mother died and the King remarried.{{sfn|Purkiss|1996|p=278}}<ref>Cay Dollerup, ''Tales and Translation: The Grimm Tales from Pan-Germanic Narratives to Shared International Fairytales'', page 339.</ref> According to [[Jack Zipes]], that change was made because the Grimms "held motherhood sacred".<ref>{{cite news |author=Adam Uren |title=Miserably ever after: U of M professor's fairy tales translation reveals Grimm side |url=http://bringmethenews.com/2014/11/14/miserably-ever-after-u-of-m-professors-fairy-tales-translation-reveals-grimm-side/ |access-date=8 December 2014 |work=Rick Kupchella's - BringMeTheNews.com}}</ref> According to Cashdan, a "cardinal rule of fairy tales" mandates that the "heroes and heroines are allowed to kill witches, sorceresses, even stepmothers, but never their own mothers".<ref name="witch2"/> Zipes' 2014 collection of Grimm fairy tales in their original forms reinstated the Queen as Snow White's mother.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Today's Fairy Tales Started Out (Even More) Dark and Harrowing |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/11/16/364089661/todays-fairy-tales-started-out-even-more-dark-and-harrowing |website=NPR.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=14 November 2014 |title=English Translation of the First Edition of the Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales Now Available - Dread Central |url=https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/78921/english-translation-first-edition-grimm-brothers-fairy-tales-now-available/ |access-date=8 December 2014 |work=Dread Central}}</ref> This revision was likely the work of Wilhelm Grimm.{{sfn|Schwabe|2019|p=94}} In the Brothers' original (unpublished) Ölenberg Manuscript (1810), the Queen herself abandons Snow White in a forest after taking her there to pick flowers, and ends up being punished by the returning King after he revives their daughter.<ref>Stone, Kay. "Three Transformation of Snow White". ''The Brothers Grimm and Folktale''. Ed. James M. McGlathery, with Larry W. Danielson, Ruth E. Lorbe, and Selma K. Richardson. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1988.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYUJifSmp_YC&pg=PA66|title=Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion|first=Jack|last=Zipes|date=May 7, 2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-21029-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

The wicked stepmother was not unknown in German versions predating the Brothers Grimm's collection. In 1782, [[Johann Karl August Musäus]] published a [[literary fairy tale]] titled "[[Richilde (fairy tale)|Richilde]]" which reimagined the folktale from the villain's point of view.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kawan |first=Christine Shojaei |date=2005–2006 |title=Innovation, Persistence, and Self-Correction: The Case of Snow White |url=https://sapientia.ualg.pt/bitstream/10400.1/1671/1/11-12-Kawan.pdf |journal=Estudos de Literatura Oral |volume=11–12 |pages=238}}</ref> The main character is Richilde, arrogant Countess of Brabant, who as a child received the gift of a magic mirror invented by her godfather [[Albertus Magnus]]. Many elements of the Grimms' Snow White appear in this story, including the [[wicked stepmother]], the magic mirror, the poisoned apple, and the punishment of dancing in red-hot shoes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beckford |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hFiBeDVvjxkC |title=Popular Tales of the Germans, Volume 1 |publisher=J. Murray |year=1791 |pages=1–73}}</ref> The Grimms knew of ''Snow White'' (1809), a play by their contemporary and rival Albert Ludwig Grimm (no relation to the Brothers Grimm), which according to Zipes "treated the Queen more gently".{{sfn|Zipes|2015|p=262}}

Equivalents to the Evil Queen can be found in Snow White-like tales from around the world. In the Scottish Gaelic oral tale "[[Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree]]", the Queen is named Silver-Tree and is the heroine's biological mother. A talking trout takes the place of the Queen's mirror and the huntsman figure (often her lover in non-Grimm versions)<ref name="windling">{{cite web |title=Snow, Glass, Apples: The Story of Snow White by Terri Windling: Summer 2007, Journal of Mythic Arts, Endicott Studio |url=http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forsga2.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222093926/http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forsga2.html |archive-date=2014-02-22 |access-date=2014-05-04 |publisher=Endicott-studio.com}}</ref> is the princess's own father.<ref>Kay F. Stone, ''Some Day Your Witch Will Come'', page 67.</ref><ref name="evolution">{{cite web |url= http://www.ctzine.com/the-evolution-of-snow-white-magic-mirror-on-the-wall-who-is-the-fairest-one-of-all/ |title= The Evolution of Snow White: 'Magic Mirror, on the Wall, Who Is the Fairest One of All?' &#124; Cultural Transmogrifier Magazine |publisher= Ctzine.com |date= 2012-06-01 |access-date= 2013-07-31 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131021184126/http://www.ctzine.com/the-evolution-of-snow-white-magic-mirror-on-the-wall-who-is-the-fairest-one-of-all/ |archive-date= 2013-10-21 |url-status= dead }}</ref> The villain's relationship with Snow White can also vary, with versions from around the world sometimes featuring wicked sisters, wicked sisters-in-law, or a wicked mother of the prince.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tatar |first=Maria |title=The Fairest of Them All: Snow White and 21 Tales of Mothers and Daughters |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2020}}</ref> One early variation of the tale was [[Giambattista Basile]]'s "[[The Young Slave]]" (1634). In this telling the heroine's mother is unintentionally involved in putting her to sleep. She is then awoken by her cruel and jealous aunt who treats her like a slave. Furthermore, the Evil Queen's tricks also vary from place to place. In Italy, she is found using a toxic comb, a contaminated cake, and a suffocating braid. In France, she is found using a poisoned tomato.<ref name="fae" /> There are many more examples. The Queen demands varying proof from the huntsman. In Spain, Snow White can be found needing to stop a bottle of blood with her toe; in Italy, it is the princess's intestines and blood-soaked shirt.<ref name="hard">Maria Tatar, ''The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales'', pages 233-234.</ref>

[[Oliver Madox Hueffer]] noted that the wicked stepmother with magical powers threatening a young princess is a recurring theme in fairy tales; one similar character is the witch-queen in "[[The Wild Swans]]" as told by [[Hans Christian Andersen]].<ref name="book">Oliver Madox Hueffer, ''The Book of Witches''.</ref> According to [[Kenny Klein]], the Celtic enchantress [[Ceridwen]] of the [[Welsh mythology]] was "the quintessential evil stepmother, the origin of that character in the two tales of Snow White and [[Cinderella]]".<ref name="fae">Kenny Klein, ''Through the Faerie Glass'', page 124.</ref>

===Violence and sanitisation ===
[[File:Franz Jüttner Schneewittchen 8.jpg|thumb|left|The Queen arrives at Snow White's wedding in a 1905 German illustration]]

In the classic ending of "Snow White", the Evil Queen is put to death by torture. However, such extreme punishment is often considered inappropriate for children. Already the first English translation of the Grimm's tale, written by [[Edgar Taylor (author)|Edgar Taylor]] in 1823, had the Queen choke on her own envy upon the sight of Snow White alive. An 1871 English translation by [[Susanna Mary Paull]] "replaces the Queen's death by cruel physical punishment with death by self-inflicted pain and self-destruction", as it is instead her own shoes that become hot due to her anger.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anderman|first=Gunilla M.|author-link=|date=|title=Voices in Translation: Bridging Cultural Divides|url=|language=|location=|publisher=|page=140|isbn=}}</ref>Many modern revisions of the fairy tale also change the gruesome classic ending in order to make it less violent. As [[Sara Maitland]] wrote, "We do not tell this part of the story anymore; we say it is too cruel and will break children's soft hearts".<ref>Sara Maitland, ''From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of Our Fairy Tales'', page 195.</ref>

Alternative endings may have the Queen, for example, instantly drop dead "of anger" at the wedding<ref>{{cite book|last=Gikow|first=Louise|author-link=|date=|title=Muppet Babies' Classic Children's Tales|url=|language=|location=|publisher=|page=|isbn=}}</ref> or in front of her mirror upon learning of Snow White's survival,<ref>{{cite book|last=Carruth|first=Jane|author-link=|date=|title=The Best of the Brothers Grimm|url=|language=|location=|publisher=|page=19|isbn=}}</ref> fall victim to her own designs going awry (such as through touching her own poisoned rose<ref>{{cite book|last=Heitman|first=Jane|author-link=|date=|title=Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tales in the Library and Language Arts Classroom|url=|language=|location=|publisher=|page=20|isbn=}}</ref>), die by nature (e.g., falling into quicksand on her way back to the castle after poisoning Snow White<ref>Ruth Solski, ''Fairy Tales Using Bloom's Taxonomy Gr. 3-5'', page 15.</ref>), killed by the dwarfs during a chase,<ref>Van Gool, ''Snow White'', page 39.</ref> destroyed by her own mirror,<ref>Nelson Thornes, ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', page 32.</ref> run away into the forest never to be seen again,<ref>Richard Holliss, ''Bedtime Collection Snow White'', page 82.</ref> or simply banished from the kingdom forever.<ref>Elena Giulemetova, ''Stories'', page 71.</ref> In some versions, the Queen is merely prevented from committing further wrong-doings and does not die, but is banished or disappears; in others, she may die by accident.{{sfn|Zipes|2011|p=116}} [[Fawzia Gilani-Williams]]'s ''Snow White: An Islamic Tale'', for instance, has Snow White forgive her evil witch stepmother entirely, making her repent and redeem herself, as part of the book's religious lessons for children.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Snow White: An Islamic Tale |url=https://www.siraj.co/products/snow-white-an-islamic-tale |access-date=2023-11-24 |website=Siraj Islamic Lifestyle Store}}</ref> 

Such revisions have been considered a softening of the original text and many today feel the story has become too "sanitized".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.uk.msn.com/snow-white-favourite-fairy-tale|title=Snow White 'favourite fairy tale'|publisher=News.uk.msn.com|date=2014-05-23|access-date=2014-05-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529103253/http://news.uk.msn.com/snow-white-favourite-fairy-tale|archive-date=2014-05-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Sheldon Cashdan, Professor of Psychology at the [[University of Massachusetts]], argues that in accordance with the logic of fairy tales, the Queen could not be allowed to flee or merely be locked up, as fairy tale narrative demands that "the reader needs to know that the death of the witch is thorough and complete, even if it means exposing young readers to acts of violence that are extreme by contemporary standards".<ref name=witch2/> Conversely, writers such as Hueffer have expressed sympathy for the queen,<ref name="book" /> or, like psychology professor Sharna Olfman, have removed the violence when reading the story to children, while also acknowledging that verbal storytelling lacks "graphic visual imagery".<ref>Sharna Olfman, ''The Sexualization of Childhood'', page 37.</ref>

===Interpretations===

[[File:Illustration at page 210 in Grimm's Household Tales (Edwardes, Bell).png|thumb|upright|left|[[Robert Anning Bell]]'s 1912 illustration]]

According to some scholars, such as [[Roger Sale]] and [[University of Hawaii]] professor Cristina Bacchilega, the story has [[ageism|ageist]] undertones vilifying the older woman character, with her envy of Snow White's beauty.<ref name="chron">{{cite web |last=Berkowitz |first=Lana |date=27 March 2012 |title=Are you Team Snow White or Team Evil Queen? - Houston Chronicle |url=https://www.chron.com/life/article/Are-you-Team-Snow-White-or-Team-Evil-Queen-3438997.php |access-date=2014-01-11 |publisher=Chron.com}}</ref><ref name=evolution/> [[Terri Windling]] wrote that the Queen is "a woman whose power is derived from her beauty; it is this, the tale implies, that provides her place in the castle's hierarchy. If the king’s attention turns from his wife to another, what power is left to an aging woman? Witchcraft, the tale answers. Potions, poisons, and self-protection."<ref name=evolution/> [[Sandra Gilbert]] and [[Susan Gubar]] regard Snow White and her mother/stepmother as two female stereotypes, the angel and the monster.<ref name="greenwood2">Donald Haase, ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales'', pages 777-778, 885.</ref> The fact that the Queen was Snow White's biological mother in the first version of the Grimms' story has led several psychoanalytic critics to interpret "Snow White" as a story about a repressed [[Oedipus complex]], or about Snow White's [[Electra complex]] and sexual rivalry with the Queen.<ref name="greenwood2"/> According to [[Bruno Bettelheim]], the story's main motif is "the clash of sexual innocence and sexual desire": "whereas Snow White achieves inner harmony, her stepmother fails to do so. Unable to integrate the social and the antisocial aspects of human nature, she remains enslaved to her desires and gets caught up in an [[Oedipus|Oedipal]] competition with her daughter from which she cannot extricate herself. This imbalance between her contradictory drives proves to be her undoing."<ref name="theory">Henk De Berg, ''Freud's Theory and Its Use in Literary and Cultural Studies: An Introduction'', pages 102, 105.</ref> Cashdan interprets the Queen's motives as "fear that the king will find Snow White more appealing than her."<ref name="witch2"/> This struggle so dominates the psychological landscape of the tale that Gilber and Gubar even proposed renaming the story "Snow White and Her Wicked Stepmother".<ref name="hard" /><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Tatar |first=Maria |date=8 June 2012 |title=A Brief History of Snow White |url=https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/06/snow-white-and-the-huntsman-and-fairy-tales.html |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=2014-01-11}}</ref> Zipes considered it a story of a "natural" (in a patriarchal society) competition where the Queen "acts on behalf of her genes" as she seeks to both maintain her status as the most beautiful woman and to secure her own progeny.{{sfn|Zipes|2013|p=135-136}} [[Harold Bloom]] opined that the three "temptations" all "testify to a mutual sexual attraction between Snow White and her stepmother."<ref>Roger Sale, ''Fairy Tales and After: From Snow White to E.B. White'', page 40.</ref> [[Trina Schart Hyman]]'s illustrations for her picture book version show the Queen's mental suffering in her descent into madness caused by her jealousy in a psychological interpretation not contradicting the Brothers Grimm story but expanding on it.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OqtkAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA13|title=New Tales for Old: Folktales As Literary Fictions for Young Adults|first1=Anna E.|last1=Altmann|first2=Gail de|last2=Vos|date=October 15, 1999|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-1-56308-447-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

The Brothers Grimm, who wrote their book as an "educational manual" (''Erziehungsbuch''), may have felt that a brutal punishment for a villain was a necessary element augmenting the happy endings of their tales, as in Snow White's ascent as new queen and triumph over her evil enemy.{{sfn|Schwabe|2019|pp=101-103}} Cashdan proposes that the evil queen "embodies narcissism, and the young princess, with whom readers identify, embodies parts of the child struggling to overcome this tendency. Vanquishing the queen represents a triumph of positive forces in the self over vain impulses." As such, "the death of the witch signals a victory of virtue over vice, a sign that positive forces in the self have prevailed." In addition, "the active involvement of heroin in the witch's demise communicates to readers that they must take an active role in overcoming their own errant tendencies."<ref name="witch2">Sheldon Cashdan, ''The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales'', pages 11, 15, 35-37, 61.</ref> Similarly, psychologist Betsy Cohen wrote about the perceived symbolism of the act: "In order to avoid becoming a wicked queen herself, Snow White needs to separate from and kill off this destructive force inside of her."<ref>Betsy Cohen, ''The Snow White Syndrome: All About Envy'', pages 6, 14.</ref> In the words of Bettelheim, "only the death of the jealous queen (the elimination of all outer and inner turbulence) can make for a happy world."<ref>Bruno Bettelheim, ''The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales''.</ref>

[[File:Snow White Iron Shoes.png|thumb|The iron shoes being heated in an 1852 Icelandic translation of the Grimms' story]]

Regarding the manner of the Queen's execution, scholars such as Cashdan, Sheldon Donald Haase, and John Hanson Saunders argue that from psychological and storytelling perspectives, the Queen's punishment fits her crimes, gives closure to the reader, and shows good triumphing over evil.<ref name="witch2"/><ref name="greenwood2"/><ref>John Hanson Saunders, ''The Evolution of Snow White: A Close Textual Analysis of Three Versions of the Snow White Fairy Tale'', pages 71-71.</ref> Jo Eldridge Carney, Professor of English at [[The College of New Jersey]], wrote: "Again, the fairy tale's system of punishment is horrific but apt: a woman so actively consumed with seeking affirmation from others and with violently undoing her rival is forced to enact her own physical destruction as a public spectacle."<ref>Jo Eldridge Carney, ''Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship'', page 94.</ref> Likewise, Mary Ayers of the [[Stanford University School of Medicine]] wrote that the red-hot shoes symbolize that the Queen was "subjected to the effects of her own inflamed, searing hot envy and hatred."<ref>Mary Ayers, ''Mother-Infant Attachment and Psychoanalysis: The Eyes of Shame'', page 97.</ref> It was also noted that this ending echoes the fairy tale of "[[The Red Shoes (fairy tale)|The Red Shoes]]", which similarly "warns of the danger of attachment to appearances".<ref>Sara Halprin, ''Look at My Ugly Face!: Myths and Musings on Beauty and Other Perilous Obsessions With Women's Appearance'', page 85.</ref> [[Diane Purkiss]] attributes the Queen's fiery death in the Brothers Grimm tale to "the folk belief that burning a witch's body ended her power, a belief which subtended (but did not cause) the practice of [[Witch burning|burning witches]] in Germany."{{sfn|Purkiss|1996|p=285}} The [[American Folklore Society]] noted that the use of iron shoes "recalls folk practices of destroying a witch through [[Iron in folklore|the magic agency of iron]]."<ref>''Journal of American Folklore'', volume 90, page 297.</ref> In other variants of the "Snow White" type tales, the story usually also ends with the punishment of the wicked stepmother through burning, [[immurement]], or decapitation.{{sfn|Zipes|2015|pp=478-479}}

[[Rosemary Ellen Guiley]] suggests that the Queen of the Brothers Grimm tale uses an apple because it recalls the [[Adam and Eve|temptation of Eve]]; this [[creation myth|creation story]] from the Bible led the Christian Church to view apples as a symbol of sin. Many people feared that apples could carry evil spirits and that witches used them for poisoning.<ref>Rosemary Guiley, ''The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy'', page 17.</ref> Robert G. Brown of [[Duke University]] also makes a connection with the story of Adam and Eve, seeing the Queen as a representation of the [[archetype]] of [[Lilith]].<ref>Robert G. Brown, ''The Book of Lilith'', page 214.</ref> The [[Apple (symbolism)|symbol of the apple]] has long had traditional associations with enchantment and witchcraft in some European cultures, as in the case of [[Morgan le Fay]]'s [[Avalon]] ("Isle of the Apples").<ref>Rosemary Guiley, ''The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca'', page 9.</ref>