Criticism on the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

Feminism

 Women’s lives portrayed in the work

- Snow white, the main female character, portrays a stereotypical representation of women
by doing the household chores like cooking and cleaning. She also portrays a woman’s
goal is only to get married the moment she sings about her dream to be married to the
prince.
- The evil Queen, Snow white’s stepmother, portrays a vain woman and jealous to another
woman’s look. She values beauty over anything else
- The film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” shows how women needed men in order
to be alive as what the scene wherein the Prince needed to kiss Snow white for her to be
alive again.
- One thing to be point out, the mirror itself has a voice of a man and it was whom the
queen was asking for validation about her looks, her beauty to be exact, and it portrays
how women needed to meet the beauty standards of men. It represents patriarchy.

 The influenced of the writer’s gender to the form and content of the work

- The writer of the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” book is a man, the Grimm
Brothers namely Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, so it is most likely for the form and
content of the work be influenced by the writer in terms of gender. The man in the
film/book which is the prince was somehow the savior.

 Male and female characters relating to one another. The relationship between men
and women portrayed.

- The Prince and Snow white was romantically involved with one another but the
appearances of the Prince in the film/book was a bit odd and actually impossible to
develop some deep romantic feeling with the main female character because in the
beginning of the film/book, the Prince actually saw Snow white’s condition as a poor
maid but disappeared again and just reappear at the end without knowing what Snow
white has had experienced throughout the film/book. He was basically the savior of Snow
white from a literal death like a stereotypical role of a man and a woman character
wherein the female lead is a damsel in distress that needs a man to save her from peril or
serious danger.
- The relationship between the seven dwarfs and Snow white was more shown especially
the development with the relationship between Grumpy (one of the 7 dwarfs) and the
female lead that started with Grumpy being grumpy with Snow white’s presence in their
house but gradually, tried to save her at the end of the film/movie. The dwarfs let her stay
in their house with a welcoming atmosphere and it also shows how they have a brother
and sister relationship. It portrays how men can be a genuine friend too to women and
develop platonic friendship between them.
- The evil Queen and Snow white has both the beauty but their relationship as female to
female was some sort of competition, a one-sided competition. The Queen envied Snow
 white because of her beauty and wanted to eliminate her in a form of killing for her to be
the most beautiful woman. Their relationship between each other stayed the same until
the end of the film/book. It shows how envy can do to a woman for another so one can be
on top.

 Defining the male and female roles

- The film/book defined gender roles stereotypically. Snow white is a woman that is in
charge in doing the household chores such as cooking and cleaning the house and also a
sweet, cheerful, gentle, and motherly woman. The dwarfs for male roles did the ‘manly’
job meaning it requires the strength of a male like the job of mining. The prince just
shows stereotypically how man should do the saving for a woman. The film/book also
shows quite how male-dominated it is by relying to the mirror, which has a voice of a
man, about the looks of the Queen and Snow white, the female roles, to meet its beauty
standard to be accepted as beautiful in terms of the look.

 What constitutes masculinity and femininity?

- It is basically the sweetness, gentleness, passivity, and the job inside the house of Snow
white that constitutes femininity while the kind of labor of dwarfs were doing that
requires much strength which is the mining is what constitutes masculinity.

Reader Response

- Snow white was too naïve and easy to give her trust to anyone that resulting her life in
danger like the scene where she gave her full trust on the old woman also known as her
evil stepmother, the Queen, that tried to kill her by fooling her to eat the apple.
- The love between the Prince and Snow white was too rush and shallow to be called “True
Love” because they only met two times in the film, one when they sang together and
second was when the Prince kissed her corpse resulted of her waking up.
- It brings mix emotion to the reader, anger for the Queen’s wickedness, fear for Snow
white’s life in the hands of the evil Queen and grateful for the welcoming seven dwarfs.
- The film/book somehow has a lesson to be learned from for children. Don’t talk or give
full trust to strangers, no one knows what might happen and the dwarfs portrays the role
of giving warning to Snow white to don’t talk to stranger and to not open the door unless
it was the dwarfs.
- Snow white portrays female stereotypes by only performing domestic skills and should
have a man in order for her to be saved from danger.