The Snow Child - Quotes and Context - complete

Question 1

What does the count wish for regarding a girl?

Answer 1

The count says ‘I wish I had a girl as white as snow’

This is followed by finding a hole in the snow filled with blood, which could symbolize menstruation or the sexuality that accompanies pubescence.

Question 2

What does the count wish for after expressing his desire for a girl as white as snow?

Answer 2

The count says ‘I wish I had a girl as red as blood’

This is followed by the appearance of a raven.

Question 3

What does the count wish for in relation to a raven?

Answer 3

The count says ‘I wish I had a girl as black as that bird’s feather’

The object of his desires then appears: ‘white skin, red mouth, black hair and stark naked…the child of his desire’.

Question 4

How does the countess feel about the child?

Answer 4

The countess hates the child.

Question 5

What does the count do with the child?

Answer 5

The count seats the child on his saddle.

Question 6

What items does the countess drop and want the child to fetch?

Answer 6

The countess drops her glove, diamond brooch and wants the child to fetch them for her.

Question 7

What is the count’s response to the countess’s demands?

Answer 7

The count refuses to let the child do the countess’ bidding, and each time the countess demands something, an item of her clothing is taken from her and given to the child until the countess is naked and the child has furs and boots.

Question 8

What does the countess ask the child to do?

Answer 8

The countess asks the child to pick her a rose, and the count says ‘I can’t deny you that’.

Question 9

What happens when the girl picks the rose?

Answer 9

The girl picks the rose, ‘pricks her finger on the thorn; bleeds; screams; falls’.

Question 10

explain how the snow child demonstrates the way in which the patriarchy removes the moral boundaries for men

Answer 10

the Count has control over the surroundings - when he wishes for something it happens
- there is no accountability/moral framework for him as he is protected by the patriarchy

Question 11

how does the count feel about his wife - give a possible explanation for this

Answer 11

‘the count felt sorry for his wife’
- The ‘wife’ is not the same as the Countess (even though he is married to the Countess)
○ There is a duality in his perception of the female characters
○ He can perceive that he feels sorry for his ‘wife’, but he can’t connect that to the real individual of the Countess
○ In this way his dual moral standards operate at two levels: his instinctive emotional responses and his interaction with reality and real people, and there is a disconnect between these two things

Question 12

what story is TSC based on

Answer 12

snow white

Question 13

how is snow white a liminal character

Answer 13

she is given an apple which makes her fall into a deep sleep

Question 14

what was the original title of snow white

Answer 14

little snow white

Question 15

think about the male gaze, virtue and contradictory ideas

analyse the title ‘the snow child’

Answer 15

The snow child’ emphasises the child’s vulnerability/the pedophilia
§ Carter wants to expose the way in which Snow White is a story of obsession with the innocence and sexual lure of a young girls innocence under the male gaze, and the damage done to these young girls as a result of this desire
§ This links to the gothic elements of the taboo, transgression, the forbidden and shock which
○ The word ‘white’ emphasises purity in a way ‘the snow child’ doesn’t
○ The snow child is almost a contradictory idea, as snow is so infertile and barren of life. A child being borne of that snow suggests that the child is somehow unnatural - a freak of nature and out of nature’s order
§ This could show how the ideal of childish innocence and beauty in stories like Snow White are unnatural creations
§ Snow is cold and barren and stifles life
□ The idea of a child being like this shows the ideals of childish innocence trap young women in time, freeze them in time, trying to retain this ideal of childish beauty. This struggle is ultimately futile as snow will inevitably melt
○ Also the idea of a child being made of snow suggests the child is temporary/fragile

Question 16

what is the bloody chamber in this story and what could it symbolise

Answer 16

a ‘hole in the snow’ filled with blood
§ This is perhaps an example of a bloody chamber within the story
§ It might symbolise menstruation and the liminal state of a girl becoming a woman
○ At this stage in development, the state of a girl/woman epitomises male fantasy as they are both innocent and objects of sexual opportunity

Question 16

what are the colours of the horses the count and the countess ride and analyse this

Answer 16

the count rides on a ‘grey mare’ and the countess on a ‘black’ mare

Question 17

what happens when the snow child picks the rose

Answer 17

she ‘bleeds; screams; falls’ (she is killed)

Question 18

what could the rose be an example of in the story

Answer 18

the vagina dentata (fanged vagina)

Question 19

what is the snow child described as, how does the countess feel about her and what does the count do when he sees her appear

Answer 19

• ‘white skin, red mouth, black hair and stark naked…the child of his desire’
  The countess hates the child
  The count seats the child on his saddle

Question 20

what happens after the snow child dies

Answer 20

‘weeping…thrusts his virile member into the dead girl’

Question 20

what happens to the snow child after she dies and is then raped

Answer 20

she ‘melts’ leaving just a bloodstain and the rose she picked

Question 21

what happens at the end of the snow child (after the dead child is raped)?

Answer 21

the count hands his wife the rose and she exclaims that ‘it bites!’

Question 22

what season is the snow child set in

Answer 22

midwinter
‘midwinter - invincible, immaculate’

Question 23

what is the first line of the snow child

Answer 23

‘midwinter - invincible, immaculate’

Question 25

what in the story potentially shows the Count’s dream is completely unnatural?

Answer 25

it is set in midwinter, and the setting is thus barren of life, showing the child emerging from this barren state is an unnatural occurence

Question 26

what does setting the story in winter say about innocence

Answer 26

§ It also shows how the ideals of innocence freeze life in time, and in doing so end life with all its transient, moving, developing and fundamentally temporary nature

Question 27

what kind of connotations does the word ‘immaculate’ in the first line have?

Answer 27

religious connotations

Question 28

why is it possible the countess could be complicit in the sin of the count

Answer 28

§ She is throwing her items away and asking the young girl to fetch them
□ potential other reading= She is trying to attract the young girl to these ideals of a ‘diamond brooch’, hoping that the child, in her search for it, will fail

Question 29

what does the wish ‘i wish i had a girl as white as snow’ say about patriarchal wishes surrounding women

Answer 29

he wants to own her
he wants a ‘girl’ not a woman, the fantasy of a child
he wishes for the ideal of purity

Question 30

what does the wish ‘i wish i had a girl as red as blood’ say about the count’s desires surrounding the snow child?

Answer 30

he wishes for the hypersexual ideal of women

Question 31

what does the wish ‘i wish i had a girl as black as a bird’s feather’ say about the count’s/the patriarchy’s wishes surrounding women

Answer 31

• Perhaps he wishes for the ideal of her death-like subservience and passivity
  
  • Or he wishes to discard her
    Or perhaps this could mean he wants her to be ‘dirty’