Q is for Queen

Well, we've made it to the letter "Q", and what could be a more obvious topic than fairy tale Queens? They typically fall into one of two categories: the mother of our princess heroines (often dead by the beginning of the tale), or the wicked villain intent on our protagonist's demise. 

For today's post I'd like to talk just about the second category of queens (the far more interesting, wouldn't you say?), and more specifically, the Queen from Snow White. 

She is the quintessential queen -- the archetype of the genre. She embodies everything we've come to come to associate with villainess in fairy tales. She's a stepmother, and a queen. She's evil and obsessed with power. Not to mention wise in the way of the dark arts. 

She warns us against narcissism and power-mongering. In the original tales she is murdered in the ugliest of all ways -- forces to wear red-hot shoes, and "dance" until her death, thus assuring us that power stolen through unnatural means will be punished violently. It's a warning, one not taken lightly. 

Analysis of the tale leads literary theorists to surmise that the relationship between Snow White and her stepmother the Queen represents the two archetypal female roles -- the angel and the monster (something we see over and over again in literature, such as Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre). Snow White is passive and nurturing where the Queen is power hungry and threatening. Her demise demonstrates the patriarchal hierarchy being restored with the formidable and mystical Queen's death and Snow White safely married away to the prince. 

My favorite version:

Charlize Theron in Snow White and the Hunstman 

_________________________________________________________________________________

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme (in case you didn't already guess) is Fairy Tales. Stay tuned for the rest of the alphabet, and if you'd like to check out the other participants, simply click here.