Artifact Analysis: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Disney is notoriously known for its beloved princesses, at the start of this influential franchise was the one that began it all, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This film hit theatre in December of 1937, based on the fairy-tale by Brothers Grimm and wasthe first full length animated film [1]. The plot’s centered on Snow White, an innocent, beautiful girl whose evil step mother, the Queen, will stop at nothing to be the ‘fairest in the land’. The Queen’s magic mirror informs her that Snow White’s beauty has surpassed her own, so she orders her huntsman to kill Snow White. Unable to commit the murder, the huntsman advises Snow White to flee into the woods where she finds the cottage of the seven dwarfs. Before long, the Queen’s mirror notifies her that Snow White is still alive. The Queen finds Snow White alone in the cottage, and tricks her into eating a poison causing her to fall into a deathly sleep. As the dwarfs mourn Snow White’s ‘death’, the prince arrives and she awakens with loves kiss, and they lived ‘happily ever after’.
The film ties together animation and singing to produce what is now the classic Disney film. The selective adaptation from the original Brothers Grimm tale affirms ‘expected’ gender roles to young audiences and in doing so, encourages girls to refrain from striving to be more than someone who needs to be saved. The representation Snow White reinforces gender stereotypes and due to the enormous success and impact of the film, these notions transcend in the proceeding Disney films [3]. The film is an element of popular culture that utilizes religious imagery to impart a familiar nature of characters and relay lessons to the audience. These two features work in an overlapping yet contradictory attempt to educate audiences on morality while promoting conformity.
Close Reading
Dressed in all black foreshadowing the death that she is about to cause and even her own, the evil Queen creates the poison apple. She turns the apple red to tempt Snow White. Red, a symbol of danger, is also used to describe Snow White’s lips expressing her loving nature. Snow White’s desire for the apple could therefore imply enthrallment towards her own appearance [4]. This reveals that preoccupations with appearance causes a neglect of reality of the situation. This scene illustrates a parallel of Snow White to Eve in the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden. When Eve eats the ‘fruit of earthly desires’, she becomes aware of her sexuality and brings death and sin into the world. Similarly, Snow White eats the apple with the desire to find her ‘true love’, resulting in her sleeping death and eventually her union with the prince [6]. This is significant as it exposes Snow White’s loss of innocence, and portrays this innocence as ignorance, which she is now free of. Moreover, the Queen is a clear embodiment of what can happen when we allow the deadly sin of envy to take over our thoughts and actions [4]. She also can be compared to the devil as she is the one who tempts Snow White to eat the apple. The way she is represented warns against this harmful emotion and obsessions with appearance.
Although the explicit message to young viewers in these scenes is to be cautious, the implicit implications of this scene are concerning. The Queen finds Snow White in the cottage, all alone, and makes note of the fact that the ‘little men’ are gone and Snow White is cooking. This scenario as a whole enforces gender stereotypes. The men are working while the women remains at home doing house work. What is even more alarming, is that Snow White, herself, offered this deal to sew, cook and clean, and thus voluntarily conforming to gender roles. This ideology not only informed the viewers but was evidently instrumental in the following princess films. It created a trope where the submissive princess’ only interests seem to be finding a prince to rescue her and chores. As Bacchilega puts in her article, “functions are constant, characters are not,” and this means that we see the same gendered tropes depicted in other princesses [5]. More recently, Disney begun to change this portrayal of princesses, however, there has been fluctuation with the use of these stereotypes [3]. The problem here is that children look up to these figures, which has a proven to have a negative impact on their confidence, goals, and overall mental health [7].
Production
The decision to create this film was made by its producer: Walt Disney himself, finding inspiration in a silent film he had scene of this story [1]. Being the first animated feature film, it was increasingly difficult to find funding and/or willing investors of, what could only be described as, a ‘risk’ [8]. In fact, he had borrowed most of the money for its creation [9]. Disney looked to the Bank of America’s Vice president Joseph Rosenberg to get $250 million to finalize the film. Rosenberg took the chance after a Hollywood producer, who expressed his faith of the film, while others remained skeptical. [8] The risk clearly paid off as the film created an empire.
The production cost $1.5 million and took four years to create. It was directed by 5 men; David Hand, Perce Pearce, Larry Morey, William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson and Ben Sharpsteen. Given the time period, it is not surprising that on the list of producers, directors, writers and composers, there is only one female [2]. This clearly male dominated group of creators likely informed the representation of Snow White as this gender stereotyped character. Their bias positionality is clearly represented in the film as it reflect the notions of what these men think society should be like or maybe just what their society was like. While both the original tale and Disney’s adaptation both include the
Christ-like resurrection of Snow White, the original places emphasis on a physician as the real hero which diminishes the need for a prince to come to the rescue [4]. Disney’s decision to emphasize the role of the prince makes Snow White (and other princesses) a role model that shows young girls that need a man. Despite Snow White resemblance to the Christ-like figure, she is clearly unable to achieve this without the prince. This creates a generation of young girls who are encouraged to be submissive and dependent on someone else.
Consumption and Reception
The film grossed $8 million upon release. To understand this enormity, consider that this was during the great depression. The film lies 10thon the all-time box-office charts, with an adjusted gross upwards of $984 million [2]. Consumers were so fascinated with the film that about every decade after its original release date, it was re-released into theatres with the most recent re-release being in America in 2016 [10]. Subsequently, its impact extended far beyond the original viewers. The religious parallels in the film likely helped resonate with the audience, especially because America was predominately Christian in the 1930s. Over 80 years later, Snow White has become an emblem of American popular culture and paved the way for the development of animated films.
Disney strategically adapted the story and remove the gory details of the original warranting G-rating; allowing it to reach all audiences with no regulations. The film is enjoyed by people of all ages and it transcends through time because it has incorporated itself into popular culture. It is almost assumed that everyone has seen this film, as it is part of their childhood.
The reception of this film was greater than anyone imagined, not only by the public but also by experts. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best musical score in 1938 and in 1939 Walt Disney was given an honorary Academy Award for this film recognizing it ‘as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field’ [11]. This expresses sheer magnitude of this film and what it has done for the industry. Nevertheless, the vast amount of people that it has reached is all more reason that the gender roles entrenched within it may be so impactful. Perhaps, the focus on its success prevented people from recognizing the impressionability that this film had on its young audience.
Conclusion
Snow White and the Seven Dwarf’s is a monumental film and continues to be recognized as such. The film is an excellent example of religion in popular culture. The parallels drawn between the characters and religious figures/ideology (ie. The Queen as a manifestation of the deadly sin of envy) clearly communicates to the viewers the lessons of morality. Regardless of their religion, most people know the parable of Adam and Eve, and by using a well-known ‘analogy’, they were able convey meaning.
Incorporation of the religious ideas into the film may have helped with its enormous success. With that success, comes the responsibility and influence over a large impressionable audience. We have seen the scrutiny that Disney has been under in the past for continuing to create these submissive female characters. Because of the brand name ‘Disney’ behind it, the film was even more dynamic. The box office success and plethora of awards hid the negative effect that this film has had through its reinforcement of stereotypes. Perhaps, if there were more female directors or writers at the time the film was made, the portrayal of the princess would have been different and could have advanced the role of women instead of setting it back.
Bibliography:
[3] England, Dawn, Lara Descartes, and Melissa Collier-Meek. “Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses.” Sex Roles 64.7–8 (2011): 555–67.
[4] Murphy, G. Ronald. The Owl, the Raven, and the Dove. Oxford University Press, (2000): 136–157.
[5] Bacchilega, Cristina. “Cracking the Mirror Three Re-Visions of ‘Snow White.’” Boundary 2, 15/16, 1988, pp. 1–25. JSTOR,www.jstor.org/stable/303243.
[6] Girardot, N. J. “Initiation and Meaning in the Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 90, no. 357, 1977, pp. 274–300. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/539520.
[7] Golden, J.C. & Jacoby, J.W. Sex Roles (2018) 79: 299. https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1007/s11199-017-0773-8
All Sources:
- Pfeiffer, Lee. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 18 July 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/Snow-White-and-the-Seven-Dwarfs-film-1937.
2. “All Time Box Office Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation.” Box Office Mojo, www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm.
3. England, Dawn, Lara Descartes, and Melissa Collier-Meek. “Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses.” Sex Roles 64.7–8 (2011): 555–67. https://journals-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/pdf/03600025/v64i7-8/555_grpatdp.xml
4. Murphy, G. Ronald. The Owl, the Raven, and the Dove. Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp. 136–157. https://books-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto
5. Bacchilega, Cristina. “Cracking the Mirror Three Re-Visions of ‘Snow White.’” Boundary 2, 15/16, 1988, pp. 1–25. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/303243.
https://www-jstor-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/303243?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
6. Girardot, N. J. “Initiation and Meaning in the Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 90, no. 357, 1977, pp. 274–300. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/539520.
7. Golden, J.C. & Jacoby, J.W. Sex Roles (2018) 79: 299. https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1007/s11199-017-0773-8
8. “Disney’s Snow White: The Risk That Changed Filmmaking Forever.” Den of Geek, 8 Feb. 2019, www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/snow-white/241629/disneys-snow-white-the-risk-that-changed-filmmaking-forever.
9. “Disney Releases Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/disney-releases-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs.
10. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt0029583/releaseinfo.
11. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt0029583/awards.
12. Image: https://www.sweetyhigh.com/read/snow-white-truths-011117
13. Gif: https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/magic-mirror
16. Image: https://twitter.com/mainstartcorner/status/967050052337254400
17. Image: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/disney-princess/images/35798178/title/snow-white-eve-darn-apples-photo
18. Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/10202505@N05/4126227489
