Background of the authors/date of publishing

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Carl Grimm (1786–
1859), were Hessian academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who
together collected and published folklore during the 19th century. They were among the first and
best-known collectors of German and European folk tales, and popularized traditional oral tale
types such as "Cinderella" ("Aschenputtel"), "The Frog Prince" ("Der Froschkönig"), "The Goose-
Girl" ("Die Gänsemagd"), "Hansel and Gretel" ("Hänsel und Gretel"), "Rapunzel", "Little Red Riding
Hood" ("Rotkäppchen"), "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats", "Rumpelstiltskin"
("Rumpelstilzchen"), "Sleeping Beauty" ("Dornröschen"), and "Snow White" ("Schneewittchen").
Their classic collection, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), was published
in two volumes—the first in 1812 and the second in 1815.
Characters

 Snow white
 Evil queen
 The prince
 Doc
 The 7 dwarfs

Plot
Snow White is a lonely princess living with her stepmother, a vain Queen. The Queen worries that
Snow White will be more beautiful than her, so she forces Snow White to work as a scullery
maid and asks her Magic Mirror daily "who is the fairest one of all." For years the mirror always
answers that the Queen is, pleasing her.
One day, the Magic Mirror informs the Queen that Snow White is now "the fairest" in the land; on
that same day, Snow White meets and falls in love with a prince who overhears her singing. The
jealous Queen orders her Huntsman to take Snow White into the forest and kill her. She further
demands that the huntsman return with Snow White's heart in a jeweled box as proof of the deed.
However, the Huntsman cannot bring himself to kill Snow White. He tearfully begs for her
forgiveness, revealing the Queen wants her dead and urging her to flee into the woods and never
look back.
Lost and frightened, the princess is befriended by woodland creatures who lead her to a cottage
deep in the woods. Finding seven small chairs in the cottage's dining room, Snow White assumes
the cottage is the untidy home of seven orphaned children. Actually, the cottage belongs to seven
adult dwarfs named Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey, who work in a
nearby mine. Returning home, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean, and suspect that an
intruder has invaded their home. The dwarfs find Snow White upstairs, asleep across three of their
beds. Snow White awakes to find the dwarfs at her bedside and introduces herself, and all of the
dwarfs eventually welcome her into their home after she offers to clean and cook for them. Snow
White keeps house for the dwarfs while they mine for jewels during the day, and at night they all
sing, play music, and dance.
Meanwhile, the Queen discovers Snow White is alive when the mirror again answers that Snow
White is the fairest in the land, and tells her that the heart in the box is that of a pig. Using a potion to
disguise herself as an old hag, the Queen creates a poisoned apple that will put whoever eats it into
the "Sleeping Death". She learns the curse can be broken by "love's first kiss," but is certain Snow
White will be buried alive before this can happen. The Queen goes to the cottage while the dwarfs
are away, but the animals attack her, then rush off to find the dwarfs. Faking heart trouble, the
Queen tricks Snow White into bringing her into the cottage to rest. The Queen fools Snow White into
biting into the poisoned apple under the pretense that it is a magic apple that grants wishes. As
Snow White falls asleep, the Queen proclaims that she is now the fairest of the land. The dwarfs
return with the animals as the Queen leaves the cottage, and give chase, trapping her on a cliff. She
tries to roll a boulder onto them, but lightning strikes the cliff before she can do so, causing her to fall
to her death.
The dwarfs return to their cottage and find Snow White seemingly dead, being kept in a deathlike
slumber by the poison. Unwilling to bury her out of sight in the ground, they instead place her in a
glass coffin trimmed with gold in a clearing in the forest. Together with the woodland creatures, they
keep watch over her. A year later, the prince learns of her eternal sleep and visits her coffin.
Saddened by her apparent death, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her. The
dwarfs and animals all rejoice as the Prince takes Snow White to his castle.

Sequence
A year later, the prince learns of her eternal sleep and visits her coffin. Saddened by her apparent
death, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her. The dwarfs and animals all rejoice as
the Prince takes Snow White to his castle.
Conflict
The Queen wants to kill Snow White because the mirror tells the Queen that Snow White and not
the Queen is the fairest person in the land. Rising Action: The Queen finds out that Snow White has
not been killed so she decides to go kill her herself.
Theme
As to the theme of pride, the queen's pride is what sets the poem's entire plot in motion. The
queen's mirror fueled this pride ("Pride pumped in her like poison"). When the queen is told that
Snow White is fairer, she resolves to eat Snow White.
Application in real life and to self
One of the foremost critical lessons it educates is the peril of conceit. The fiendish ruler needs Snow
White dead since she cannot accept the fact she isn't the foremost wonderful lady within the
kingdom. But it is this pretension that crushes her at the conclusion. The concept of genuine
magnificence is another subject examined in this story.