The Snow Child

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The Snow Child
- present tense narrative
  - technique from oral narrative i.e folklore
  - Carter's initial subversion of fairy tale genre
- Count
  - Male power
    - "The Count and his wife"
  - Wants a child - subversion of traditional 'Snow White'
    - Desire
      - Paternal or sexual??
- Countess
  - Femme fatale
  - Jealousy
    - 'evil step mother' true to original tale
- Snowchild
  - Virginal
    - "white skin, red mouth, black hair”
      - White symbol of purity
      - red symbolises his desire
  - innocent
  - Victim
    - "bleeds; screams; falls"
      - death is a sudden surprising turning point
        Given it's own paragraph - shows her isolation
        shift in tone fairy tale surrealism to sexual and disturbing
        Count's morally offensive actions
        "thrust his virile member into the dead girl”
  - Given a lot of physical description
    - Suggests she is an object of visual pleasure
- Rose
  - Symbolic of beauty, but also danger
    - Possibly representing the Countess
    - Or a representation of the Counts love- his desire is dangerous and violent
      - "It bites."
        Final line: concludes his violence towards his wife and 'child'
Introduced first shows dominance
- ''His' suggests her to be his possession
- "The Count and his wife"
invasive
- disturbing
  - Carter's comment/ warning on being a passive female
    - 'Snow child' remains silent
- "thrust his virile member into the dead girl”

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