Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven No matter what life you lead
Dwarfs
the virgin is a lovely number:
By Anne Sexton
cheeks as fragile as cigarette paper,
INTRODUCTION arms and legs made of Limoges,
We’ve all been told the stories of women like Cinderella,

Snow White, and Rapunzel, saved from their wretched lives lips like Vin Du Rhône,
by a gorgeous prince to live faultless lives filled with wealth
and beauty. We all know them because stories like these rolling her china-blue doll eyes
seem to be a necessity in our society. So that when life gets
really rough, as it often does, some part of us can hope for
open and shut.
some form of a gorgeous prince to come and save us from
our own misery. Having hope like that doesn’t seem so
wrong, which is probably why our mothers and Open to say,
grandmothers told us these silly stories over and over again.
Good Day Mama,
In the poetical modern adaptation of Snow White and The
Seven Dwarfs by Anne Sexton, however, Snow White
becomes as vain as her wicked stepmother. Why? Well, and shut for the thrust
because there is the potential for evil in all of us, really.
Nobody fits neatly into either the good or evil category – of the unicorn.
and sometimes the heroines of our own stories are vain or
ignorant and are certainly always flawed.
She is unsoiled.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Anne Sexton.
She is as white as a bonefish.
Once there was a lovely virgin Looking glass upon the wall,
called Snow White. who is fairest of us all?
Say she was thirteen. And the mirror would reply,
Her stepmother, You are the fairest of us all.
a beauty in her own right, Pride pumped in her like poison.
though eaten, of course, by age,
would hear of no beauty surpassing her own. Suddenly one day the mirror replied,
Beauty is a simple passion, Queen, you are full fair, ‘tis true,
but, oh my friends, in the end but Snow White is fairer than you.
you will dance the fire dance in iron shoes. Until that moment Snow White
The stepmother had a mirror to which she referred-- had been no more important
something like the weather forecast-- than a dust mouse under the bed.
a mirror that proclaimed But now the queen saw brown spots on her hand
the one beauty of the land. and four whiskers over her lip
She would ask, so she condemned Snow White

to be hacked to death. talking like pink parrots,
Bring me her heart, she said to the hunter, and the snakes hung down in loops,
and I will salt it and eat it. each a noose for her sweet white neck.
The hunter, however, let his prisoner go On the seventh week
and brought a boar’s heart back to the castle. she came to the seventh mountain
The queen chewed it up like a cube steak. and there she found the dwarf house.
Now I am fairest, she said, It was as droll as a honeymoon cottage
lapping her slim white fingers. and completely equipped with
seven beds, seven chairs, seven forks
Snow White walked in the wildwood and seven chamber pots.
for weeks and weeks. Snow White ate seven chicken livers
At each turn there were twenty doorways and lay down, at last, to sleep.
and at each stood a hungry wolf,
his tongue lolling out like a worm. The dwarfs, those little hot dogs,
The birds called out lewdly, walked three times around Snow White,
the sleeping virgin. They were wise Looking glass upon the wall . . .
and wattled like small czars. The mirror told
Yes. It’s a good omen, and so the queen dressed herself in rags
they said, and will bring us luck. and went out like a peddler to trap Snow White.
They stood on tiptoes to watch She went across seven mountains.
Snow White wake up. She told them She came to the dwarf house
about the mirror and the killer-queen and Snow White opened the door
and they asked her to stay and keep house. and bought a bit of lacing.
Beware of your stepmother, The queen fastened it tightly
they said. around her bodice,
Soon she will know you are here. as tight as an Ace bandage,
While we are away in the mines so tight that Snow White swooned.
during the day, you must not She lay on the floor, a plucked daisy.
open the door. When the dwarfs came home they undid the lace
and she revived miraculously.

She was as full of life as soda pop. Beware, beware, they said,
Beware of your stepmother, but the mirror told,
they said. the queen came,
She will try once more. Snow White, the dumb bunny,
opened the door
Looking glass upon the wall. . . and she bit into a poison apple
Once more the mirror told and fell down for the final time.
and once more the queen dressed in rags When the dwarfs returned
and once more Snow White opened the door. they undid her bodice,
This time she bought a poison comb, they looked for a comb,
a curved eight-inch scorpion, but it did no good.
and put it in her hair and swooned again. Though they washed her with wine
The dwarfs returned and took out the comb and rubbed her with butter
and she revived miraculously. it was to no avail.
She opened her eyes as wide as Orphan Annie. She lay as still as a gold piece.
As the prince’s men carried the coffin
The seven dwarfs could not bring themselves they stumbled and dropped it
to bury her in the black ground and the chunk of apple flew out
so they made a glass coffin of her throat and she woke up miraculously.
and set it upon the seventh mountain
so that all who passed by And thus Snow White became the prince’s bride.
could peek in upon her beauty. The wicked queen was invited to the wedding feast
A prince came one June day and when she arrived there were
and would not budge. red-hot iron shoes,
He stayed so long his hair turned green in the manner of red-hot roller skates,
and still he would not leave. clamped upon her feet.
The dwarfs took pity upon him First your toes will smoke
and gave him the glass Snow White-- and then your heels will turn black
its doll’s eyes shut forever-- and you will fry upward like a frog,
to keep in his far-off castle. she was told.

And so she danced until she was dead,
a subterranean figure,
her tongue flicking in and out
like a gas jet.
Meanwhile Snow White held court,
rolling her china-blue doll eyes open and shut
and sometimes referring to her mirror
as women do.
SOURCE INFORMATION
Author: Anne Sexton
Book: Transformations
ISBN: 978-0618083435
Publisher: Mariner Books
Date (Month/Year): Feb 2001

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Snow White and the Seven No matter what life you lead

INTRODUCTION arms and legs made of Limoges,

We’ve all been told the stories of women like Cinderella,

called Snow White. who is fairest of us all?

Say she was thirteen. And the mirror would reply,

Her stepmother, You are the fairest of us all.

a beauty in her own right, Pride pumped in her like poison.

though eaten, of course, by age,

She would ask, so she condemned Snow White

The hunter, however, let his prisoner go On the seventh week

Now I am fairest, she said, It was as droll as a honeymoon cottage

lapping her slim white fingers. and completely equipped with

seven beds, seven chairs, seven forks

Snow White walked in the wildwood and seven chamber pots.

and at each stood a hungry wolf,

and wattled like small czars. The mirror told

They stood on tiptoes to watch She went across seven mountains.

Beware of your stepmother, The queen fastened it tightly

they said. around her bodice,

and she revived miraculously.

Beware of your stepmother, but the mirror told,

they said. the queen came,

opened the door

a curved eight-inch scorpion, but it did no good.

and she revived miraculously. it was to no avail.

and set it upon the seventh mountain

and would not budge. red-hot iron shoes,

and still he would not leave. clamped upon her feet.

to keep in his far-off castle. she was told.

her tongue flicking in and out

like a gas jet.

Meanwhile Snow White held court,

rolling her china-blue doll eyes open and shut

and sometimes referring to her mirror

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