The Symbolism of Snow White

Fairy tales have deep symbolic meanings that shed light on the culture that originated the tale. This paper will look at the symbols common, and uncommon, found in the various versions of the tale of Snow White from a few different perspectives to uncover all the morals and themes found in the current Disney version of Snow White and the Grimm's version. Different sources were used in this paper to gather versions of the story, to look at the symbols of Snow White, and to look into different perspectives to better understand those symbols. To further explore the symbols in Snow White, this paper will also look at sociological definitions of some of the symbols.

While there is a lot of literature on the story of Snow White, there is none that combines different theories on the symbols found in the tale. This paper will fill that hole by providing an analysis of the numerous symbols found in the basic form of Snow White. The symbolic meanings of the elements of the tale will help to further explain the story and understand the tale's history and hidden meanings. The story of Snow White fits most of the characteristic of a fairy tale. Snow White is a magic fairy tale, or Zaubermarchen, similar to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (Zipes 74).

Literature Review