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Woman Hating
snow. Somehow that led her to wish for a child “as white
as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the
embroidery frame.” 1 Soon after, she had a daughter
with “skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and
hair as black as ebony. ” 2 Then, she died.
A year later, the king married again. His new wife
was beautiful, greedy, and proud. She was, in fact,
ambitious and recognized that beauty was coin in the
male realm, that beauty translated directly into power
because it meant male admiration, male alliance, male
devotion.
The new queen had a magic mirror and she would
ask it: “Looking-glass upon the wall, Who is fairest
of us all? ” 3 And inevitably, the queen was the fairest
(had there been anyone fairer we can presume that the
king would have married her).
One day the queen asked her mirror who the fairest
was, and the mirror answered: “Queen, you are full
fair, *tis true, But Snow-white fairer is than you. ” 4
Snow-white was 7 years old.
The queen became “yellow and green with envy,
and from that hour her heart turned against Snow-
white, and she hated her. And envy and pride like ill
weeds grew in her heart higher every day, until she had
no peace.. . . ” 5
Now, we all know what nations will do to achieve
peace, and the queen was no less resourceful (she would
have made an excellent head o f state). She ordered a
huntsman to take Snow-white to the forest, kill her, and
bring back her heart. The huntsman, an uninspired
good guy, could not kill the sweet young thing, so he
turned her loose in the forest, killed a boar, and took its
Onceuponatime: The Roles
37
heart back to the queen. T h e heart was “salted and
cooked, and the wicked woman ate it up, thinking that
there was an end o f Snow-white. ” 6
Snow-white found her way to the home o f the 7
dwarfs, who told her that she could stay with them “if
you will keep our house for us, and cook, and wash, and
make the beds, and sew and knit, and keep everything
tidy and clean. ” 7 T hey simply adored her.
T h e queen, who can now be called with conviction
the
