Each and every part of the fairy tale has its own significant meaning, which makes the story even more unique in the reader’s imagination and brings deeper symbolism into the perception of the tale. One of such elements is the forest, where the little Snow White has found dwarfs. This element has various explanations, depending on the way the reader perceives and understands the tale. The forest may symbolize the dark period of life – the period of decline, depression, loss of hope, etc. It may also symbolize a time of issues, problems represented through the trees and grass, and stones on the way. The wild animals that were passing the Snow White by but didn’t touch her – may symbolize evil people, we meet during our lifetime. The fact that they haven’t hurt her – is the luck. Plus, in case with the Grimm’s version of the tale, the forest may also symbolize a hiding place – some sort of shelter; the inner personal world, where the one looks for the rescuing from the gloomy reality, full of danger. ("Snow White.")
The symbolical filling of the tale gets more emotionally diverse thorough the motifs present in the plot of the story. At this point it is worth mentioning that the motifs, as well as the elements, may also have a number of various meanings. For example, the motif of death of the beautiful woman in the end of the fairytale: this part of the plot – the final scene and the logical ending of the story – has a few explanations. The death of the beautiful woman means the victory of the revenge; the victory of good and the loss of the bad; the light that takes over the darkness. However, usually the motif of death itself does not contain any positive aspects of this concept, the situation with this particular fairytale proves the fact that it all depends on the context the motif of death has been put into. In this case the death does not mean the mooring, but rather celebration. Indeed the woman was beautiful, but taking to the consideration all the evil she represented and embodied – the author didn’t leave the reader any possibility to think of her death as of something horrible, but rather something obligatory and worth happening. ("Snow White.")
At this point, it is important to get deeper into the discovering of the fairytale through the analysis of the stepmother’s and daughter’s conflict. First of all, it is based on the evident envy. The new – made queen desired to be the fairest one in the whole world, but the girl’s beauty was undeniable. The desire of being the first pushed the queen to commit the murder. Here, in this case, a quote of wisdom comes to mind: blowing out someone else's candle does not make yours shine any brighter. The queen is a perfect example of envy person, who no matter what tries to get what she wants by all means. This conflict between the queen and the Snow White represents those moments in life when somebody tries to put a spoke in someone’s wheel. Second of all, the conflict is based on power and strong ambitions to rule the world, to become a dictator. From the psychological point of view this may be understood as the replacement the emotional inferiority or the absence of some particular emotions by the actions that may provide the emotional experience, equivalent by level of strength. The traction to control overtaking demolishes the sense of morality, while the person blindly follows the one’s desires. So, according to the information, mentioned above, it is logically to assume that the conflict between the Snow White and the queen may interpreted in two ways, however both are complementary and in the case with the fairytale, the beauty is the penetrating line of both issues. ("Snow White.")
The concept of beauty is also the leading motif of the fairytale. Moreover, it is the basis of the plot. The Grimm brothers have shown it from the various perspectives – as medal has two sides. The beauty is represented as a gift from nature – the appreciation, the admiration, the light – something that brings joy and love. At the same time, the beauty is represented as something that leads to pride and selfishness, to anger and envy. Basically, it leads to vanity, which may be evidently seen though the image of the queen. The authors have shown that the vanity is tightly connected to the beauty, representing it to the reader as an irreplaceable part of it. It can be interpreted through the relations between the drug and drug addict: ones somebody has become addicted – the one needs more and more of it on the daily basis. Same has happened with the queen – once she felt the benefit from her beauty, she has put the meaning of her own death in its loss. Such strong psychological bond has led to horrible consequences of self – ruination. On this regard, it is also important to mention another meaning of the beauty – the sin. The Grimm brothers have shown it as something that provokes others on immoral actions; something forbidden and because of it so desirable and the vanity – as a logical consequence of malversation. ("Snow White.")
Same line of these concepts’ interpretation has been kept by Rupert Sander in his film “Snow White and the Huntsman”, 2012. However, it is also worth mentioning that general depiction of the fairytale represented in the movie differs from the original story, created by Grimm brothers. In the initial plot, the sequence of events is uninterrupted, in other words, in other words it is a linear plot. Same we may find in the Rupert Sander’s interpretation, however, in this case the fairytale gains a few storylines, apart from the leading or the main one. (Sander, Snow White and the Huntsman) Grimm brothers have built the plot of the story without any aside storylines, so that the reader does not get distracted on the secondary events. ("Snow White.") It gives the fairytale more realism, as it perceives as a story that could have happened before. On the other hand, Rupert Sander has changed the plot, splitting it on three main – the Snow White and the queen, the queen and her brother, the huntsman and the Snow White – and the number of secondary lines that split into one, following in each other at the same time. Basically, he turned the fairytale into the novel or romance with the multileveled story. This main difference, such as the brevity and conciseness of Grimms’ fairytale and the plot’s broadening of the movie’s interpretation, is indicating onto the works’ relation to the cultures and historical periods they were produced. It is known that the original writing was first published in 1812 – a time, when people, despite of the era of romanticism, were still inclining to realism without giving the story too fantastical content. This relates the “Little Snow White” to end of the XVIII – the beginning of the XIX centuries and the European culture, in specific. ("Snow White.") On the other hand, the film “Snow White and the Huntsman” has all the features that allow us relating it to the XXI century and the modern global culture. First of all, the movie is far from realism, as it contains a number of scenes representing magic, such as the scene with the queen, falling apart into many crows and others. Second of all, as it was mentioned previously, the script of the film represents few lines at ones, making the story full and detailed. Third of all, obviously the movies has much more action, which allows the work’s creators grabbing the viewer’s attention and making the one interested till the end of the film, such as the scene with Snow White, running through the forest on the beginning or the battle scene in the end. In other words, these pieces of evidence prove the fact that the famous saying “bread and circuses” is the motto of the XXI century – the era of Media. Consequently, it is logical to assume that the movie is related to the nowadays culture and satisfies the aesthetical desires of the modern viewers, the ones, who seem to have seen everything and who can be hardly surprised. (Sander, Snow White and the Huntsman)
Rupert Sandler decided to catch the new wave of fantasy genre and create his own interpretation of the well – known story. First of all, in order to keep it up – to – date, the creators have managed to transform the fairytale into the representation of the new universe, such as “Lord of the Rings” or “Hobbit”. The realistic fantasy or the fantastical realism – this is how the movie can be described. Nevertheless, Rupert Sander sticks to the original story throughout the whole movie, keeping the main characters, such as the queen, the Snow White and the Huntsman. (Sander, Snow White and the Huntsman) In addition to this, he has kept the historical period of kings and queens, with all the related elements, such as the architecture, the fashion, the lifestyle and others. He has also kept the initial stage of the conflict between the queen and Snow White unchangeable: the Snow White’s living in the tower. ("Snow White.")
However, nonetheless, still there are facts that indicate on the Rupert Sander violating the features, typical of the fairytale genre: the plot has multiple storylines; as the movie is a collective work – it can be hardly named as the one with identifiable author; the world order is complicated: on one hand, there are humans with their kings and queens, towns and cities; on the other hand there are magical creatures with wizards and witches, who rule the world of magic. These two worlds are tightly connected with each other; moreover, they are aware of each other’s existing. Plus, such feature as the flat character has also been transformed – the character of Snow White. (Sander, Snow White and the Huntsman) In the original fairytale the main heroine remains the paragon of kindness and gentleness, as the true princess, the true lady should behave. ("Snow White.") On the contrary, in the movie till the end of the film Snow White turns into the true warrior – fully armed with the sword in her hand, riding the battle horse. (Sander, Snow White and the Huntsman) Such rapid change of character is unusual for any fairytale, as its main feature is, first of all, the simplicity.
As a conclusion, it is important to mention that both interpretations of the same fairytale have great impact into the world of Visual Art and the Art of Word. However, both of them have been created in the different historical periods with a gap of two centuries – they are related to their cultures, as fully satisfy the aesthetical needs of people of both periods. Nevertheless, despite of those metamorphoses, the one crucial moment has been kept: the moral of the fairytale – blowing out someone else's candle does not make yours shine any brighter.
Works cited:
"Snow White." 19th-Century German Stories. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2017. <http://germanstories.vcu.edu/grimm/schneeeng.html>.
Snow White and the huntsman. Dir. Rupert Sander. Perf. Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron. Universal, 2012. Film.
