Viviana Romero

Professor Greg McClure

Writing 39B
October 24, 2016
Snow Glass Apples: The True Princess
In the horror story Snow Glass Apples, Snow White is portrayed as a progressive
princess, based on her feminist characteristics, who in our culture today is still not easily
accepted. Neil Gaiman is able to present her as a monster throughout his twisted story by using
the horror characteristics of Nol Carrolls essay, The Nature of Horror to embody our cultures
view of feminism and amplifies our untraditional norms. Within this essay Ill be looking at how
Gaiman creates Snow White as a horrific creature and seeing how those monstrous traits are
hidden representations of a feministic princess expressed in the article Power to the Princess by
Bridget Whelan. As well as elaborate on Gaimans message on our societys change of devaluing
the traditional norms. Dissecting how our past generations created a typical woman, or
princess, so young girls can idolize and seeing the monstrous Snow White Gaiman created, his
critique on modern society and feminism become evident. His Snow White is a girl who
becomes self-reliant and with her own power rises above, but is still labeled as the monster.
Women have great power, however when they become sexualized this power becomes
insignificant and counterfeited.
To fully demonstrate Gaimans critique of our culture I need to refresh your mind on the
classic Disney version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which is the base Gaiman uses to
create an obvious contrast between the past and present views with his story. In Disneys film a

young princess resorts to living with seven dwarfs after her evil, vain stepmother tried to kill her
for being the purest and beautiful of them all. Soon after being tricked into biting a poisonous
apple, Snow White falls into a death-sleep spell which her prince breaks after kissing her.
Comparing this sweet character to Gaimans story to Snow, Glass, Apples, I can safely assume
that the role of monster has switched. A pure, kind princess is now a hypersexualized young girl
and the evil queen plays as a wise character in Gaimans story. Gaimans use of this reversal
makes a big statement on our culture as a whole and how it has changed its views on the
traditional and its continuous fear of feministic power. He shows a transition of a culture where
we focused heavily on moral purity and other traditional norms to a culture that completely
disregards them based on how he changes the classic Disney tale.
Snow Whites new makeover becomes a big statement on feminism and societies new
and chaotic norms. Looking over at Whelans article she presents the traditional culture by
stating the fact that, through Disney, our society created an archetype for princess which then
trickles down to how we think girls and women should be. These stories have created a
traditional ideal girlhood as well as the position of girls and women in American society
(Whelan, 2012). As a culture we got the idea that a girl is always the one who needs to be
defended, resurrected, protected and treated gently since they are fragile. Making it seem that
the man is the only savior for women. Most girls tend to look up at these Disney characters such
as Snow White at a young age, and learn a deceitful and unhelpful way to grow up, making
Snow White the perfect princess to change into a monster and make a bold statement against the
traditional helpless girl.
Gaiman is able to use Snow White as a vessel for his statements against the ideal princess
and as a representation of our societies abandoned norms by using Carrolls characteristics of

monsters within his story. Carroll states that in order for a monster to be a feared monster and
gain an emotional response from the audience it must be seen as impure. One impurity Gaiman
creates for Snow White is the extreme sexualization to deem her immoral. The first instance is
when the queen describes her sick husband with tiny bite scars, like the one she had on her hand,
all over his body. Though to point specifically, she mentions, There were scars on my love,
her fathers thighs, and on his ballock-pouch, and on his male member, when he died.
(Gaiman, 1994). The way Gaiman uses the word her in this sentence makes sure to show
how obscene the daughter is for going along with such an act and makes sure to alienate
Snow White as inhuman and morally incorrect.
Another sexualized example is when Snow White gets banned into the woods with
her heart gauged out and begins to please a monk for a coin. The scene is made very
explicit to convey how crude and dirty the actions are, especially performed by Snow
White who is only twelve and a monk who is supposed to embody all morally correct
values. Describing her spider like hands as she reaches for the monks manhood, the
monk who closes his eyes as he, fumbl[es] one huge hand under her skirt, and how she
straddles him as she feeds, adds on as evidence of her impurity (Gaiman). To give the
audience a sense of disgust Gaiman adds, As she did so a thin blackish liquid began to
dribble from between her legs, this makes the audience cringe even after feeling
appalled by a young girl falling into sexual acts for survival. Apart from the immoral,
Gaiman makes sure to make a well-rounded monster by giving Snow White the abnormalin-the-normal traits that Carroll mentions is necessary in each monster.
In the world of Snow, Glass, Apples magic is ordinary, but Snow White remains
unordinary which allows Gaiman to claim her as the monster. The people know of the

queens abilities to see secrets and spells are common with someone as the queen which
sets a baseline for the normal. However, the encounter of Snow White is still considered
unordinary based on her inhuman abilities. The first example would be when they
return Sow Whites heart to the Queen. I know it was hers no sows heart or does
would have continued to beat and pulse after it had been cut out, as that one did , a heart
that continues to beat without its owner and especially for a couple of years is very
extraordinary. The other example is when Snow White returns to claim her heart. She
literally opens her old scar, licks her heart to pump blood, and shoves it deep into her
hollow chest. She is given properties of rapid skin generation and Gaiman constantly
emphasizing on her pale, cold skin to make her the complete opposite of normal.
Apart from adding the horror into Snow, Glass, Apples by making Snow White this
obscene, evil creature, Gaiman was able to explicitly show society deranged path from
traditional views. He does this by reversing a characters archetype, such as making a
young Snow White take part in the sexual scenes with a disgusting monk and a psychotic
prince who is into necrophilia. A monk who should represent religion and good values has
fallen into pleasure he was meant to abstain from and the traditional prince who is meant
to be a righteous savior is now a simplistic strange man with a fetish. The values that
Disneys Snow White represented, such as the righteous man, the healthy and pure
modeled young girl like Whelan describes in her article are no longer present in Snow,
Glass, Apples.
As we continue to see these reversals, I cant ignore the queens new role in
Gaimans tale since now she has become a feminist character as well. While Whelans
essay of Power to the Princess refers more to princess it can also now apply to the queen

in the way she rules her kingdom after her husbands death. From the beginning the queen
is a wise woman who fulfills her duty as a caretaker of her land and people. She states I
would personally take it upon myself to make the forest safe once more. I had to,
although she terrified me. I was the queen. She exemplifies Whelans idea of a strong
female character in a princess tale as she takes responsibility as a queen and faces the
danger head on for her people. She remains to be an honorable character throughout the
story as she tries to rid herself of Snow White, but in the end does not prevail. Gaimans
new queen is no longer the villain, but a character the audience wants to triumph. This
reversal compared to the Disney tale shows how the old values are not easily favored or
become insignificant, since no matter how hard she tries she dies a horrific way. The
Queen can also be directly related to how feminist views are not supported or exposed
enough in our modern age.
When talking about feminism there is a common misconception that the movement
is lead by angry women who critique men on a daily basis about small injustices, which
is not true. In a world where the man is designated as the natural leader and credited first,
feminist ideals become dangerous to those who dont like change or see it as a threat to
who they are. As a culture we create norms that we feel must stay in place to keep society
in check. Immediately when we see something different we try to segregate it and
question its credibility. Such as when people try to discredit bisexuality by saying its all
an act. Snow White provides this idea by how her monstrosity is portrayed. She causes
fear as how ideas of feminism create tension in our culture today. While the queen
personifies the feminist movement in its struggles. Feminism continues to increase the
idea of celebrating differences instead of segregating and dissecting them. However,

doing this puts into question a lot about our culture, such as gender roles, which brings us
back to what Whelan argues about ideal girlhood and how Disney Princess have
exerted this influence on young girls (Whelan, 2012).
Although in the story Snow White is the monster she is a representation of a more
progressive princess in an unaccustomed world with the help of Whelans article to helps pave
Gaimans critique on societys non-traditional norms and making the contrast of the classic story
more evident. Weve seen in countless traditional Disney movies where the princess, either
changes herself for the man or is saved by him only. In Disneys Snow White, she falls in her
deep sleep, reawakes with the kiss of her prince and is then brought back into the palace after the
stepmother is killed. In that version she is sweet, pure, kind and very caring for everyone just as
how every other princess has been depicted to be which created a gender-role norm. However, in
Snow, Glass, Apples this vampire Snow White its the complete opposite. She breaks away from
the norms of ideal girlhood created by our culture which makes the statement of our new obscene
culture. She is very vicious, as weve seen when she kills the monk and how her cold hearted
character continues to act throughout the story. In some way she does regain her power for
herself as well, instead of fully relying on her prince to get to the throne. She kills the queen,
who represented the traditional modeled culture, but with patience and surviving on her own
even after being banished into the woods and her heart being taken out. When she arrives to the
castle is was a great comeback for her since she is literally in the queens room and grabs her
own heart while reclaiming her rightful place as the true queen by bloodline.

Work Cited
Caroll, Nol, The Nature of Horror. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
46.1(1978); 51-56. JSTOR. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
Gaiman, Neil. Snow, Glass, Apples. The Dreaming. N.p., 10 Oct. 1999. Web. 06 Nov.
2016.
Whelan Bridget. Power to the Princess: Disney and the Creation of the TwentiethCentury Princess Narrative. Kidding Around: The Child Film and the Medium
(n.d.):n. pag. Web. 06 Nov. 2016