Saturday, April 19, 2014

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 

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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

11 comments:

  1. Charlize Theron is a fantastic evil queen (pity about the rest of the movie) - it was the first time I'd seen anyone attempt to give the queen a back story, even if there should have been a whole lot more of it. She was a chaotic, evil being driven by knowing what it meant if she failed.
    Sophie
    Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles - A to Z Ghosts
    Fantasy Boys XXX - A to Z Drabblerotic

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  2. I love that folks blame television for bad behavior by children. But some of these fairy tales we tell them when they are young are pretty damn frightening and children do not always get treated well. And the tales have been around way longer than TV.

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  3. really love these fairy tale posts!
    thinking of evil queens makes me want to write a fairy tale where the queen is the heroine of the story. hmm... getting out notepad!
    happy a to z-ing!

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  4. The other thing about the evil queen in Snow White, is that she was beautiful, warning us that beauty does not necessary mean goodness.

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  5. Won't even ask what the dwarves represent!

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  6. The Queen was beautiful but deadly. Love the fairy tales and always thought she got what she deserved. On the other hand, it kind of states that if a woman is powerful and ambitious she has to be a bitch and if a woman likes to cook and clean and be married off then she is a good lass. I would love to see a fairy tale the other way around and have to seemingly nice gal who is married and all that be a real beaatch and the woman about town who is unmarried and strives to attain her goals be a good girl...I think my women's lib is getting in the way:)

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    1. I would also like to see this fairy tale, Birgit! I know a lot of "real-life" stories featuring such women!

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  7. Queens. Never could understand them. Why be evil when you're already one of the most privileged humans to every live?

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    1. Dammit. That was supposed to be *ever* lived.

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  8. I love Charlize Theron's evil queen as well. "The Fairest of All," Disney's novel telling the backstory of Snow White's evil queen, is also interesting. Although not the best fairy tale retelling, it made me hope there would be a trend of Disney releasing backstories for villains. With the upcoming "Malificent," it seems perhaps we'll continue to see more. Looking forward to it.

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  9. Charlize was brilliant in the SWH. What would these tales be like without the evil queen?

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