It was intriguing to read Bruno Bettleheims comparison of Snow White to Oedipus, but it makes complete sense. It’s interesting how the events of both stories are set into motion by parents who are jealous of their children, one being biological (King Laius Oedipus father) the other being Snow Whites stepmother (The Queen). In the end this becomes the undoing of both. That same narcissism that brings forth the King and Queen of their respective stories’ demises; It also is the obstacle that kills Oedipus and almost kills Snow White as well…Twice! With Oedipus it comes from his disbelief in his fulfillment of the prophecy. Snow Whites narcissism is shown when she opens the door not once but twice after the first time, she is nearly killed by her stepmother and being explicitly forbade from letting anyone in by the Dwarves. It’s interesting that this same narcissism is the driving force in “Where are you going, where have you been?” Connie (The protagonist) Is vain and narcissistic, we know this because she compares her sister to herself by calling her older sister “plain looking” in comparison, she only looks into the eyes of others to see her own reflection. This Ironically is her undoing as well. Connie is set upon by Arnold Friend because of how she looks. Noticeably she tries to make herself look more “mature” when she goes to the teen diner and is spotted by Arnold. When he appears at her house instead of instinctively going into her home and calling for help when Arnold appears at her home, she instead entertains his presence until it’s too late and the threat of danger becomes more eminent. Snow White does the same. Despite being poisoned the first time she fails to recognize the danger by falling into the […]
Daily Archives: November 25, 2022
The story of Snow White is a story we all know very well. From a young age, we are exposed to this story of a beautiful young lady living out in a hut with dwarves. Following them as the story goes along the dwarves take her in as a part of their own. The story till I read Bettleheim’s psychologically oriented reading of the story was the innocent and rather light-hearted story. One of the best examples that Bettleheim talks about in the beginning is “Here the problems the story sets out to solve are intimated: sexual innocence, whiteness, is contrasted with sexual desire, symbolized by the red blood. Fairy tales prepare the child to accept what is otherwise a most upsetting event: sexual bleeding, as in menstruation”. I had never thought about Snow White in such a way where sexual innuendos would come to mind. As a kid, I did not have that active of imagination but as people get older and learn of these things I can see how these stories become significantly less innocent.
Renown psychologist Bruno Bettelheim has implied that Disney’s work is nothing more than, “empty minded entertainment” , and fully expresses that “children now meet fairy tales only in prettified and simplified versions which subdue their meaning and rob them of deeper significance”. Bettelheim is very adamant that fairy tales are nothing short of quintessential for a child’s development. However, despite Disney’s vast array of fairy tale interpretations, Bettelheim argues that the only way for these stories to truly inspire a child’s imagination it must be told from the direct source: “The true meaning and impact of a fairy tale can be appreciated, its enchantment can be experienced, only from the story in its original form”. In Bettleheim’s psychologically oriented reading of the story and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” By Joyce Carol Oates both stories have the similarities which is quite noticeable. For example in both stories the authors empathize on parental complexes and how it affects the main characters. One of the most interesting thing I noticed between those stories is how the role of father is entirely cut from the story and they don’t hold any power.
The observation in Bettleheim’s psychologically oriented reading I find insightful and relevant to “Littie Snow White” was “before a child can come to grips with reality, he must have some frame of reference to evaluate it” this is relevant because Snow White didn’t have that frame of reference to evaluate before coming to grips with reality which made her have a lack of sense of danger. This led to snow white continously falling for her stepmother traps.
What specific observations in Bettleheim’s psychologically oriented reading of the story strike you as insightful and relevant to “Little Snow White,” “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, or the poem “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Anne Sexton? In Bettleheim’s psychologically oriented reading of the story and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” By Joyce Carol Oates both stories touch on parental complexes and how they affect the main protagonist in both stories. In Bettleheim’s psychological reading of Snow White, he touches on the Oedipus complex the stepmom imagines is going on between Snow White and her father which creates this jealousy and motive to get rid of Snow White. The father does nothing even though traditionally and culturally the father is supposed to be the head of the household and is supposed to protect their children, especially their little girls. Snow White’s father is nowhere to be found and very absent in all the cruel things that are happening to Snow White, just like with Connie in “Where are you going, where have you been?” where Connie’s father chooses to be absent and Connie’s mother is jealous of Connie’s looks perhaps also a nod to an Oedipus complex where Connie’s mother thinks if Connie is too attractive it might attract her husband as well.
The psychoanalytic view on this story plainly addresses the dangers of narcissism not only in children, but adults as well. This was one of the more prominent themes between both Snow White (Grimm’s Fairytale Version) and Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment. The paragraph that stood out to me as a theme between the two follows as: “The story of Snow White warns of the evil consequences of narcissism for both parent and child. Snow White’s narcissism nearly undoes her as she gives in twice to the disguised queen’s enticements to make her look more beautiful, while the queen is destroyed by her own narcissism” In this quote, Bettelheim connects the queen’s successful attempt to entice Snow White to the fact that Snow White fell for it because she was blinded by her own narcissism.
Bettelheim states, “The answer to the puzzle may be found in the fact that psychoanalysis also revealed the child’s ambivalent feelings about his parents. It is perturbing to parents to realize that the child’s mind is filled not only with deep love but also with a strong hatred of his parents. Wishing to be loved by their child, parents shrink from exposing him to tales which might encourage him to think of parents as bad or rejecting.” I want to compare Bettelheim’s quote to Connie in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, the tension between Connie and her mother. Although Connie’s mother tried to look out for her, she also insulted Connie in ways that distanced each other instead of building a friendly relationship. Connie’s mother saying, “Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you’re so pretty?” is showing the mother’s jealousy towards her own child and Connie knows this so she tries to distance herself from her mother in order to be independent and do what she pleases. Connie completely ignores her mother’s criticism but importantly ignores her mother trying to protect her from getting into trouble with boys at such a young age. Connie doesn’t realize the reality and she lives in her own fantasy based on her attitude if she had just listened to her mother, her turnout wouldn’t have happened.
I found the following observation by Bruno Bettelheim interesting and relatable for both “Snow White” and specifically “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates : “A weak father is as little use to Snow White as he was to Hansel and Gretel. The frequent appearance of such figures in fairy tales suggests that wife-dominated husbands are not exactly new to this world. More to the point, it is such fathers who either create unmanageable difficulties in the child or fail to help him solve them.This is another example of the important messages fairy tales contain for parents.” (207). I think it’s a very relatable issue for Connie’s upbringing and how she practically had no father figure growing up. It was made pretty clear that her father chose to stay out of her life for the most part and just ask mechanical questions. He neither was genuinely interested in his daughter’s life nor was he involved in educating her and sharing his wisdom as a parent. From the story we get a sense that he was just living under the same roof and being a breadwinner, leaving it up to his wife to be the educator. Unfortunately for Connie her mother’s character has a strong resemblance with the Quinn’s narcissistic tendencies, where as a parent she showed a clear preference to Connie’s older sister who was less pretty. Which in itself is very odd as no parent should differentiate the amount of love they have for their children.
There were many observations that I found insightful to “Little Snow White” but the ones that I thought were very insightful were the use of the colors red and white and what the animals who visit snow white when she is in the coffin represent Although, I know that white is usually put hand in hand with innocence I didn’t know what red was supposed to symbolize. So when I saw that red represented Snow White and her sexual desire I didn’t believe it until I read more. The step mother showing how she eats specifically the white part of the apple had new meaning to me and it showed the step mother taking away Snow Whites innocence. This can be taken further with the animals who visit and the order they do so, The owl being wisdom then the raven being a consciousness that is mature and finally the dove being love. With Snow White eating the red part of the apple and awakening her sexual desire the animals showed how Snow White while in the coffin was maturing by becoming smarter, then having a more mature mindset, and finally she was ready for love which would not be possible in the romantic sense if innocence was still around.
