The Hidden Meaning of Snow White (Part III): Narcissism & The Magic Mirror

As mentioned in Part I, Snow White opens with a Queen sewing beside a black window frame:

As she worked, gazing out on the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle and three drops of blood fell upon the snow. Seeing how beautiful the red looked on the white snow, the Queen thought to herself, If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as this frame

Time passed and soon after the Queen had a little daughter, whose skin was as white as snow, cheeks as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony, and therefore she was called Little Snow White.

Great emphasis is put on the red, white and black, but often, the glass element is overlooked. There is the window through which the Queen envisions her dream-child; there is the glass coffin the dwarves make for the comatose Snow White; and of course, the magic mirror through which the wicked stepmother seeks reassurance about her beauty.

“Mirror mirror on the wall,

Who in this land is fairest of them all?”

And the magic mirror always said:

“You, my Queen, are the fairest of all.”