The
Snow Child is a short story by Angela Carter. The elements of the narrative are
very few: a snowy landscape, the characters of the countess and the count, and
the snow child.
The
setting
The setting is a snowy
landscape, described in a very concise manner. Few words (“invincible,
immaculate”) connote a certain expectation. In this landscape “fresh snow fell
on snow already fallen”, the scenario shows different layers like the story
itself.
The
girl
The girl appears suddenly
and is also described in a few and precise words: “white skin”, “red mouth”,
black hair” and completely naked.
This description suggests
an almost unreal image, pure and at the same time with certain erotic connotations.
The image is a general
one. The description is very brief.
The Countess
The countess is described
through the elements she wears, which reflect her social position and her
character: she rides a black mare, the clothes she wears have also erotic
references. She is “wrapped in the glittering pelts of black foxes”, she wears
black shinning boots with scarlet heels and spurs.
The color black is in almost all the elements
and has two connotations: one associated with death and the other erotic.
Death and eroticism are
associated in this story.
The
Count
Compared to that of the
Countess, the description of the Count shows just one element: we only know
that he rides a gray mare. We will know
more about him as the action progresses, then he will show himself to be
lustful and heartless.
The
conflict of the story
The conflict of the story
lies in the Count's desire to have a girl who responds to the stimuli suggested
to him by what he sees along the ride: the snow, a hole with blood and a raven.
Then, he says that he wants a girl with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood
and hair as black as a raven's feathers. As readers we do not know the nature
of his desire, which is revealed as a sexual one.
As soon as the Count
finds the girl object of his desire the Countess´s jealousy is triggered, which
leads to the denouement.
Climax and
plot of the story
The climax of the story
is the death of the girl after pricking her finger with the thorn of a rose she
had picked up to give to the countess.
That is the turning point
of the tale.
The main characters (the Countess
and the Count) ride in a snowy landscape. In these circumstances the Count
expresses his desire to have a girl with skin as white as snow, lips as red as
blood and hair as black as a raven's feathers.
The girl suddenly appears
in the path.
As soon as this happens
the Countess hates the girl, thinks how to get rid of her and tries to do it in
different ways, but she is unable to achieve her goal due to the Count's
intervention.
Those actions intended to
keep the girl away fail, and after each one the Countess's clothes pass to the
girl until the Countess is completely naked.
Finally the Countess asks
the girl to give her a rose and in doing what is asking her she is pricked by a
thorn and dies.
After that the Count has
a brief sexual intercourse with the girl's corpse in front of the Countess;
then, the body of the girl begins to melt until, except a feather, nothing of
her remains.
The Count offers her the
rose and when she touches it she says that the rose bites.
An
unrealistic story
The story is not
realistic because it does not depict either the real world or real characters.
The conception of the
story is based on the use of elements of the fairy tale, but on twisted use of fantastic
elements: there is neither a moral in the story, nor a purpose that tends
towards the realization of good.
Both, the setting and the
characters are introduced to the narrative with the least possible use of words,
and each presence in the text has a symbolic purpose: the raven -a sinister and
ominous bird-, the blood and the inhospitable landscape have a symbolic charge.
The prevailing feelings
are lust and hatred, the opposite of any expected moral of the traditional
tale.
The only thing in common
with the marvelous tale, as we know it, is the revelation of the existence of
something that governs the real and the characters. In the case of the
traditional tale it is the presence of good that finally triumphs, but in this
case it is cruelty and selfishness that prevails over everything else.
The importance
of colors
There are four colors in
the story. The use of such a reduced palette has a precise purpose: it is part
of the narrative economy.
According to their
importance in the story we can establish a hierarchy of colors: white, black,
red and gray.
White is the basis of the
narrated world: the color of snow and purity. It is also the space of cold and
desolation where nothing can survive, a space that can only be traversed but in
which it is not possible to dwell. It is only a transit scenario destined for
something to happen in it.
Black is the opposite of
white, it represents attributes of power -skin, boots, the mare- and eroticism.
If white is pure, black is not, and appears linked to the subjugation of pureness,
it is also associated with nudity because it is the black garments that go from
one body to the other, uncovering one to cover the other.
Red also has a double
association: it is the color of blood and sensual lips. It is linked to the
association between death and eroticism or cruelty and pleasure.
The gray, which
corresponds to the color of the mare that the count rides, is as secondary an
element as the Count's clothes, whose color is not even mentioned.
Transformation
and suddenness
The suddenness in the
story lies in the presence of the elements that support it: a hole with blood,
a crow perched on a thick tree branch and the naked girl.
The transformation, as a
resource, lies in the fact that once the girl is dead, her body melts the
scarce elements of the landscape are taken as symbolic ones.
The use
and transformation of the elements of the fairy tale
There are elements of the
traditional tale that are maintained: the prick with a thorn that produces
death or a long and deep sleep, the sudden change of a character or a
situation, and the expectation of something that will magically happen.
However, the final
resolution reveals not the good but something dark and inexplicable, while the
setting is treated in a symbolic way: for example, the snow layers, which, in
the action, are linked to the girl and the Countess. The firm, stable snow is
overlaid with other layers of freshly fallen snow.
If in the traditional tale
the end is closed and univocal, in this case the end is open to different
meanings. All of them have to do with the predominant feelings: wickedness and
selfishness.
Traditional tales are agreeable.
The presence of ugly elements and evil
is just a contrast and we know –due to the fact that the convention establishes
it- that evil will be defeated at the end, and beauty, stability and generosity
will prevail and the world will recover the balance evil had affected. There is
a clear opposition of this pattern in this story: it is precisely evil which
prevails over the goodness.
The beginning and the end
are also different from those of traditional tales: Instead of “Once upon a
time” and “They were happy forever” Angela Carter places us in a text where
nothing begins and ends, which suddenly appears and then vanishes leaving only
a bitter and desolate feeling. In this sense, her story is precisely the
opposite of the traditional tale.
The ending is open as the
whole story is, we can interpret the biting rose as a kind of small revenge of
the spirit of the sullied girl through the rose, a useless revenge that does
not change anything (evil always triumphs).
The end shows us that
nothing is what it seems to be, and that the unexpected
installs an unanswered question.
