Symbolism And Character Development In Grimm's Snow White

Symbolism and character development in Snow White Grimm’s Snow white is a story of maturation and growth of a young girl from birth to adolescence and finally adulthood. Her development and life is followed by and predestined by symbolism, mostly in a trio of colors; black, white, and red. On a deeper level though the story is also about the feminine aspects of people in general, the Evil queen being the shadow and negative aspects, Snow White’s mother could be considered the earth mother role as she begins the story and starts it with both life, Snow White’s birth, and her mother's own death. Snow White's story begins in mid winter with her mother sitting in an ebony wood chair and pricks her finger with a sewing needle. “The red on …show more content…
Each time is symbolic of one of snow white's favored qualities. First the queen tries to kill her by choking her with a bodice; “The unsuspecting Snow-White stood before her and let her do up the new lace, but the old woman pulled so quickly and so hard that Snow-White could not breathe.”. This is symbolic of the shadow covering up her white skin, her innocence and an internal struggle of maturation and jealousy. The queen's next attempt had her try to poison Snow White with a comb “She had barely stuck the comb into Snow-White's hair when the poison took effect, and the girl fell down unconscious.” Finally the queen tried successfully to kill her through a poisoned apple, one side was red which was symbolic of passion and danger and the other white. The white side was symbolic of innocence and was the only side not poisoned. Snow white had grown more cautious but was still a bit naive and took a bite of the poisoned side of the apple only after the queen took a bite of the unpoisoned side. Snow white was now dead and ready for her last and most important journey into