Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The queen’s mirror represents the male gaze and its control of female actions. While the queen seemingly operates as the ruler of her kingdom, with the power to cast Snow White out and order her death, in reality she is beholden to the mirror’s opinion of her, and all of her actions are a result of the mirror’s all-powerful declarations of beauty. The queen derives all of her meaning from the mirror’s opinions of her. After hearing it tell her she is the fairest, “pride pumped in her like poison” (Line 33). Physical beauty as the dominant value for women literally kills the queen in the Snow White tale. Because a woman’s physical appearance is the only thing that the men with power in this world value, Snow White also must eventually give in to the mirror at the end of the poem, emphasizing her inability to escape the cycle.

Over the course of the poem, Snow White “revives miraculously” three separate times, all at the hands of men. Each time, Sexton uses the word “miraculously,” and with each repetition, the reader better understands her cultural critique and the ridiculousness of Snow White’s predicament. The speaker’s tongue-in-cheek