Snow, Glass, Apples: Neil Gaiman. Illustrations by Colleen Doran

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I did not see it. Let us imagine though, the girl returning, frustrated and hungry, to her cave, and finding my fallen basket on the ground.

The short story “Snow, Glass, Apples” is retold from the point of view of the princess’ stepmother who reminisces about the time she has known the princess as she is slowly dying in a kiln. It could be said that the traditional roles of the heroine and the villainess are reversed in this version. The traditional versions of the story present a simple dichotomy in the form of the two main female characters: “the one sweet, ignorant, passive, the other both artful and active; the one a sort of angel, the other an undeniable witch” (Gilbert and Gubar 36). This dichotomy no longer applies in Gaiman’s rewriting. Instead of a villain who tries to murder the princess out of jealousy, the queen is actually presented as a “wise” (Gaiman “Snow, Glass, Apples”) ruler, who is merely trying to protect the kingdom from the mercilessness of her stepdaughter. The princess, on the other hand, is a murderous vampire who drinks blood and ultimately takes the lives of people to satisfy her needs. The princess thus challenges the limits of the role that has been allotted to her in the traditional tale. She is no longer a helpless child that is persecuted by a cruel stepmother for being more beautiful than her. Instead, the princess herself is the threat, she is the one who poses a danger to the people in the kingdom, because of her need for blood. This challenges the widespread fairy tale notion that any woman who does not behave passively is automatically evil. The queen is actually shown to be a caring and wise woman whose unwillingness to take the life of a dangerous and homicidal child when she has the chance, causes her eventual downfall.His daughter was only a child: no more than five years of age when I came to the palace. A portrait of her dead mother hung in the princess’s tower room; a tall woman, hair the colour of dark wood, eyes nut-brown. She was of a different blood to her pale daughter. Cold Iron: After the first time Snow White bites her, the queen has a smith forge iron bars and hammer them over her window and door to keep her stepdaughter out. Gaiman’s most drastic and immediate change in his overhaul of the Snow White tradition is a shift in narrative perspective. While the Grimms’ tale is written from a third-person omniscient point of view, Gaiman transmits his variant retrospectively through the “wise” Queen’s first-person viewpoint (106). Gaiman highlights the Queen’s role of storyteller early on, situating her in the domestic sphere of her private chamber, where she partakes in the practice of embroidering (107). This passage draws upon the metaphor of weaving as storytelling, whilst functioning as metafiction. Indeed, Gaiman is actively threading together his modern version of “Snow White” while the Queen is interlacing her subjective narrative, and mediating the dissemination of the account that readers encounter. Use of the first-person perspective facilitates introspective insight into the Queen’s interior life, allowing for intrigue and horror to be accrued in the incremental introduction of her stepdaughter. This level of depth and complexity is in direct contrast to the archetypal representation of characters in traditional tales. The Queen takes advantage of her narrative voice, framing the mutiny involved in her capture and usurpation as a witch-hunt in both senses of the term: the first alludes to the Salem witch trials, as Gaiman’s version ends with the Queen who is about to be burned alive (116). The second meaning of witch-hunt in this story is that there is no proper basis for the Queen’s punishment, and that her people have been indoctrinated against her: “they have told the people bad things about me; a little truth to add savor to the dish, but mixed with many lies” (Gaiman 115). The Queen employs language attesting to this witch-hunt, victimizing herself as she constantly mentions hearsay which she categorically denies: “(…) they say that, and they are wrong” (Gaiman 108). The Brothers Grimms’ publication of “Snow White” spawned a lasting legacy that spans across multiple generations of narrative re-invention. This may be surprising, as the tale’s titular character is dull; however, a strong cast of secondary characters has played a large role in the story’s continued dissemination. The Grimms’ version relies heavily on Snow White’s dysfunctional relationship with her villainous stepmother as a foundation of its intrigue. Neil Gaiman’s “Snow, Glass, Apples” reimagines the tale through a shift to the Queen’s point-of-view, including a series of fundamental reversals invoking a more compelling Princess who commands attention from her family and readers alike. Overall, Neil Gaiman’s rendition of “Snow White” is a more sexually oriented tale that breathes life into an otherwise one-dimensional character, allotting Snow an unprecedented form of agency through her status of “undead predator.”

Good Is Not Soft: The queen thinks about how instead of simply cutting out Snow’s heart or poisoning her, she should have had the girl’s head and hands and arms and legs chopped off and every part of her incinerated until she was reduced to ashes and scattered to the cold winds. She strongly regrets not doing this.

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Charm Person: In addition to being a vampire, Snow White seems to have some level of supernatural ability to bring people under her control by drinking their blood. Even as a little girl, the king is unable to stop her from slowly draining him until he's a lifeless husk, and the queen is similarly unable to stop Snow White from biting her hand (though she has the sense to put iron bars over her windows and door after the first time it happens). Lieberman, Marcia R. “‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’: Female Acculturation through the Fairy Tale.” College English , vol. 34, no. 3, 1972, pp. 383–395. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/375142 . In conclusion, "Snow, Glass, Apples" is a masterful work of fiction that transports readers to a world of dark magic, twisted fairy tales, and supernatural intrigue. Neil Gaiman's use of metaphor and prose is breathtaking, and the story's exploration of complex themes will leave readers pondering its meaning long after they finish reading. Plot Snow, Glass, Applesby Neil Gaiman is a chilling retelling of the old German fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers in 1812. The story became a worldwide phenomenon after the Walt Disney animated movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfsin 1937.

The queen’s attempts to murder her stepdaughter are presented as an effort to protect the people from the danger the princess poses to them rather than mere vanity or a power struggle. Indeed, the idea of a “beauty-contest” (Lieberman 385), which is “a constant and primary device in many of the stories” (Lieberman 385), including that of Snow-White is not present in this version at all. Moreover, beauty is also no longer the trait that allows the princess to prevail. As a vampire, the princess is also less dependent on others for protection. The queen attempts to get rid of the girl several times, with little success. The murderers the queen tasks to kill her stepdaughter do not spare her on purpose like in the traditional version. Instead, “they cut out her heart, and they [leave] her dead” (Gaiman “Snow, Glass, Apples”), however, it turns out that this is not enough. The heart they bring to the queen keeps beating, and the princess lives on even without her heart. There are no implications that the princess needs the help of anyone else to save her life when they leave her in the woods. In 2019 it was adapted by Colleen Doran into a graphic novel published by Dark Horse Comics. [4] The adaptation won the 2020 Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium. [5] [6] The Horror Writers Association also presented the "Snow, Glass, Apples" graphic novel with the Bram Stoker Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel Award. [7] See also [ edit ] Nothing but Skin and Bones: The king is eventually reduced to this state by his daughter Snow White continuously feeding on him. When he dies, he weighs almost nothing, is covered in scars, and his hair is faded and limp. And she stayed cold, and the bloom of death remained on her lips, and his lust was not diminished in any way.Neil Gaiman’s modern “Snow, Glass, Apples” revolutionizes the Snow White tradition. First, Gaiman offers a shift in perspective, fleshing out the Queen’s character in a move that provides insight into the original tale’s most enchanting character. However, rather than making the Queen the focus of the narrative, Gaiman utilizes the Queen as an intermediary through which readers experience the feral Princess’s terror firsthand. Gaiman employs the Grimms’ color palette as a means of transforming the young Princess from victim to predator. Gaiman moves away from the Grimms’ puritanical approach to the representation of sexuality, and instead uses sexual dominance as a means of highlighting the Princess’s complete control over those around her. Moreover, the Princess’s search for a cohesive family unit culminates in the re-animated vampire’s match with a necrophiliac, signaling a perfect perverse match. Finally, Gaiman’s resolution rebels against fairy tale justice: the evil pair is rewarded, allowing for a subversive but appropriate ending wherein, once again, the younger overtakes the older generation. I thought, briefly, about having them killed, but I did not. As long as the heart hung, silent and immobile and cold, from the beam of my chamber, I was safe, and so were the folk of the forest, and, thus, eventually, the folk of the town. Gaiman, Neil. “Snow, Glass, Apples.” The Classic Fairy Tales , edited by Maria Tatar, 2 nd ed., New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2017 , pp. 106–116. Downer Ending: The queen is burned alive in an oven, knowing the kingdom will fall to ruin into Snow's carnivorous rule. Snow, Glass, Apples appears as a benefit book published by Dreamhaven for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund . Proceeds from this book go to CBLDF. The CBLDF is a non-profit charitable tax-exempt protects first amendment rights for comic book creators retailers, artists, publishers, whose works has been censored.