Semiotic Adaptation Post: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) + Once Upon a Time (2011-2018)

 Semiotic Adaptation Post: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938) + Once Upon a Time (2011-2018)

Origin: 

The original story was called “Little Snow-White,” and featured a 7-year-old Snow White, making the entire premise rather morbid. In the Grimm version, after the child is questionably announced to be the "fairest", the Queen orders a huntsman to kill her, bringing back her lungs and liver. He ends up bringing back the organs of a boar instead, which the Queen boils in salt and eats. The Queen tricks Snow White three separate times in the Grimm version, first making her try on a tight corset, causing her to pass out. The second time, she sells Snow White a poisonous comb, which the dwarves remove from her hair. The third time the Queen tricks her with the same poisonous apple we see in the Snow White in the Seven Dwarfs. But, in the original story Snow White spits out the apple while being carried into her coffin and is immediately revived, without the Prince's kiss. In the movie and in folklore, Snow White and the Prince fall in love and get married but, in the Grimm story, the Queen attends their wedding where she is given a punishment of dancing to her death. They put a pair of iron shoes into burning coals and she was forced to step into the red-hot shoes and dance until she fell down dead.

161385360554578. (2021, May 5). What happens in Snow White original story - including The kiss scene? The US Sun. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/2828288/snow-white-original-story/

Thesis:

Throughout the past decades, as a society we have come to see the progression of women in film, art, and history. Specifically in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, we see the vision of women in film towards the paternal perspective of being the ideal submissive housewife towards a modern take of Snow White in Once Upon a Time where Snow is more autonomous and independent. Even with the progress of the women perspective, most women in film end up being compressed by the patriarchal viewpoint that men have upon women in society.

Differences:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

In the movie, Snow White in the Seven Dwarfs, the film corresponds to the Grimm's Tale except that in the movie the Evil Queen gets crushed by a bolder through a run in with dwarfs after she gave Snow White the poisoned apple instead of being dying from dancing in hot stoned shoes.  Including that the poisoned apple was the Evil Queen's actual fourth attempt to kill her with the selfish intent on wanting to be 'the fairest of them all' in the Grimm's Tale. The age in the film she is 14, whereas in the Grimm's Tale she was 7 years old. 

Once Upon a Time (2011-2018)

In the show, Once Upon a Time, Snow White is exactly like Disney's story besides the fact that Snow's origin story is different. In her origin story, Snow's biological mother, Eva, ends up getting killed by her soon-to-be stepmother, Cora. Since that day, Regina, who eventually becomes the Evil Queen, becomes her step-sister. Regina told Snow a secret for her to keep and for that promise to have been broken and result in something disheartening caused massive resentment of Snow from Regina. As time goes on and their father passes, Regina takes over the throne and becomes the Evil Queen. Just like the Disney film, she ends up running away due to the Huntsman except this time she knows about it beforehand, and this results in her becoming a bandit and meeting preach charming this way. In the series, you can also tell she not the whimsical, damsel-in-distress type of princess/character either.