A Literary View of Snow White and Cinderella

 Gabriel Larson

2/19/2015

A Literary view of Snow White and Cinderella

Charles Perrault’s “Cinderella” and The Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White” are both fairytales revolving around two beautiful girls that are at the mercy of their cruel step-mothers.  Though in the end of these stories both girls find their way into the hearts of a prince and live happily ever after as princesses.  Though Cinderella and Snow White have similar plots and characters the overall tone of these tales is what sets them apart.  

        In both “Cinderella” and “Snow White” the two girls are oppressed by an evil step-mother.  In Snow White, the step-mother is overly obsessed with her own beauty, so much so that she consults a magic looking glass as to who the most beautiful woman in the land is.(16)  After the looking glass names Snow White the fairest in the land envy and pride grew in the queen’s heart like ill weeds. (17).  Her hatred and envy of Snow White grows so much that she goes as far as to try and kill Snow-white.  On four separate occasions the queen tries to kill Snow White but in the end she cannot successfully dispose of her step-child.   In Cinderella we are told at the beginning of the story that her step-mother is a very proud and possibly the haughtiest woman that was ever known (202).  The mother could not bear the good qualities of the very pretty Cinderella because they made her own daughters so much more hated and despised (202).  The stepmother often leaves Cinderella to the meanest work of the household while she spoils her own two daughters.  We see Cinderella is often left to clean up after her two step sisters who live in luxury while she herself must reside on a straw bed in the attic of the house.(202)

        In Cinderella and Snow-white, the two girls are both lucky enough to have a mythical creature to help them out in their times of need.  Cinderella has a fairy godmother who is able to use magic to make Cinderella’s dream of going to the prince’s ball a reality.  She uses her magic to make Cinderella a beautiful coach with six beautiful horses all from a pompion and six mice.(203)  The fairy godmother was also able to change Cinderella’s nasty clothes into a beautiful dress with gold and silver cloth all with a touch of her magic wand(203).  In Snow White we see that she is helped by seven dwarves who live in the forest.  The dwarves take in Snow White after she was led to their house by her animal friends and collapsed onto one of their beds, exhausted form running from her evil step mother.  The dwarves make great efforts to keep Snow White safe from her step mother by telling her not to let anybody into the house while they are away at work (18).  The dwarves are able to bring Snow White back to life two times after her step mother poisoned her, but inevitably could not save the girl from her own naïve nature.  Even when she is poisoned and presumed dead by the step mother’s apple they refuse to hide her away in the ground, and instead build a coffin made completely out of glass for her lifeless body to rest in.(21)