Snow White: The Stepmother

In comparing and contrasting the stories of Snow White and The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest, I wanted to focus on the step-mother. In the Three Little Gnomes, the step-mother started out as a normal wife and became a widow. She married the Snow White figure's father by asking the Snow White figure to convince him to do so and by pure chance of a boot filling up with water. In Snow White, the step mother marries and becomes queen. In the Three Little Gnomes, the step-mother is deeply focused on the hatred of her step-daughter while trying very hard to promote her own daughter. This could be the step-mother trying to vicariously live through her daughter or she just really wants to see her daughter happy. This neccesity to see her daughter be better than the snow white figure manifests itself into jealousy and hatred. In Snow White, the step-mother is focused purely on herself. She is the second fairest in the land but has to be number one and it just so happens that snow white is standing in her way of accomplishing that. The queen is focused on physical greed that manifests itself into jealousy and hatred. The step-mothers are similar in the fact that their dealings of jealousy lead to their own death. In the Three Little Gnomes, the step-mother dies because she lied to the king after throwing snow white out of the window. Her punishment is she is rolled down a hill in a barrel that is nailed with the daughter whom she had to see best her stepdaughter. In Snow White, the wicked queen is forced to dance to death. Both stories are similiar in that there is jealousy focused towards the younger person by the older person and the jealous people do not succeed.