Perspectives on Gender Roles: Snow White and Mirrors

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Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, our lives are a mirror, reflection is a must...” (Lynda Meyers) Disney did a rather good representation on the Grimm brother’s original fairytale. In both stories Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs conveys a message about the mirror representing a sense of self on a superficial and deep emotional level. It reinstates many cultural roles that have been put upon both woman and men. It is a story of self discovery and whether or not the characters are able to develop throughout the story in relation to the affects to a “real life individual”.
A common theme in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for both the Disney film and the 1812 Grimm’s fairytale story is that beauty is pain. Women subject themselves to all sorts of procedures to wane old age and be the fairest of them all. From generation to generation this idea has survived. Mothers have passed this notion down to their daughters. “ Mirror Mirror on the wall who the fairest of them all.” Quoted in both stories and more commonly said today as “I need a mirror I do not know what I look like.” Or a common critiques such as “Did that person not see themselves in the mirror today?” Why the mirror is so important in both stories and further yet why is a mirror still so important to our society today? In our present it signifies an individual’s attractiveness, sexual yearning and disposition. The mirror represents a central symbol in the story. It carries many themes throughout the story and how we human interpret a mirror in our unconscious. Though Snow White is the protagonist of the story one must consider the importance of the wicked Step Mother in the tale. Looking at it from the step mother’s point of view, and bringing it back to the mo...

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...s a person because she is only able to find maturity in marrying a man. The Disney version of Snow White and the seven Dwarfs is not to off in comparison with the Grimm’s brothers fairytale. Therefore, both lack deeper level of personification for their characters which are not many of them. This affects the readers/ viewers of the Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs story because it only allows us to see the superficial messages of gender roles and not reflection of mirroring in it affects to our identity development.

Work Cited

Flynn, S. (2005, May 10). Analysis of snow white and the seven dwarves. Retrieved from http://www.cgjungpage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=677&Itemid=40
Van Den Berg-Cook, N. (n.d.). The magic mirror in snow white. Retrieved from http://www.cgjung-vereniging.nl/Jung/Artikelen/Mythologie-Sprookjes/nancy-artikel-1.shtml

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