Not many know that the fairy tale “Snow White and the seven dwarfs” has a sequel. It is not named “Snow White returns” or “Snow White Part II” but has a darker name. I will get to that in a sometime. The sequel itself is fascinating due to its darker tones. As a matter of fact, it is not a fairy tale at all. As Rob Zombie says, the story is “more human than human”. The sequel is not well known precisely for this reason. Everyone prefers a fairy tale Snow White to a human one. So the most important message of the sequel is lost to all. Unfortunately, I don’t have a link to this sequel nor do I have the scan of the story. So I will try to summarize the story here.
A few years after the ever happy ending of the original story, Snow White discovers the magic mirror in the attic of her palace. She is struck at the clarity of her reflection on the mirror and the beauty of its woodwork surrounding it. She touches the wood work and is amazed by the tingling feeling that starts at her fingertips and makes it way to her head. Unlike the other senses, like pain and heat, this new feeling takes time to reach her brain. She tracks the feeling travel across her arms, through her neck to her head with a feeling of pleasure. She closes her eyes and hears a voice in her head “touch the mirror and ask a question.” Snow White opens her eyes in shock, covers the mirror and starts moving away from the mirror. She takes a few steps, turns around and comes back. She stands in front of the mirror and uncovers it slowly. She touches the mirror tentatively and asks the question “Who am I?” The mirror responds “Oh that’s easy! You are Snow White.” Snow White remembers the evil queen’s question and asks the same to the mirror “Who is the fairest person of all?” The mirror responds instantly “You, Snow White, are the fairest of all.” Snow White feels waves of happiness passing through. From these waves, comes a question, which Snow White throws at the mirror. She asks “Who is the darkest person of all?”
The mirror remains quiet. Snow White waits for some time, grows impatient and repeats the question. The mirror “Give me a moment, Snow White. This is not an easy question.” The mirror remains quiet for some time prior to answering the question. It answers tentatively “Snow White, you are the darkest of all”. Snow White is shocked; she reels away from the mirror and stares at it for a few moments. She comes back touches the mirror and repeats the question. She receives the same response. She feels anger rising through her and shouts “How can I be the darkest, when I am the fairest?” The mirror answers “That is for you to find Snow White.” Snow White feels an urge to smash the mirror but controls it and asks her earlier question differently “Why am I the darkest of all?” The mirror answers “That is for you to find Snow White.”
I was planning to summarize the sequel in two paragraphs but nearly ended up replicating two paragraphs from one of the initial chapters of the book. These are so steeped in mystery and spookiness that I could not help but put them down in detail.
Snow White continues questioning the mirror for a few days but neither does the response change nor the mirror provide her with details. She walks around her palace listlessly, lost in thought. Many in the palace comment on her lack of enthusiasm and joy. One day, she comes across the court jester, who wits
“There was once a person called Snow White
With passing of time, the white went light
Now she seems pale in everyone’s sight
And the wicked call her Snow Pale in delight”
Snow White stops and stares at the jester. She says “That was not a very nice thing to say.” The jester replies in seriousness “You seem very disturbed princess.” “I am” replies Snow White. She asks not particularly to the jester “How can a person be fair and dark at the same time?” The jester responds in a rhyme again
“Fair and dark is the skin of a person
Fair and dark is the heart of a person
Fair and dark are seen by all
Easily when outside
Not so when inside”
The jester leaves Snow White deep in thought. Her mind latches on to the line “fair and dark is the heart of the person”. She starts understanding the mirror’s words from the jester’s rhyme. “Was the mirror hinting that she had the darkest heart of all? How is that possible? I am Snow White. I cannot be dark, inside or out”. She decides to go back to mirror and probe further.
As she takes off the cloth covering the mirror, her fingers brush the mirror and she hears the mirror welcome her...
This account is turning out to be too detailed. As I had mentioned earlier, I was only planning to summarize. This looks nothing like a summary. This is not a replication of the original text either. The original text has many details that I have omitted in this account. It is not this clumsily written either. It flows like a river and uses flowery classical sounding words. For example, at one point, Snow White talks to a maid at the palace, who, if I remember right, says something, like “Oh, the lovely princess of the palace, there exist none in this world whose beauty surpasses ye. And yet, today ye look paler than the clouds that adorn the sky. How has this happened, O lovely princess of this beautiful land?” Neither have I bothered to bring in this detail nor have I used such beauty in my language. So neither is this a reproduction of the original text nor am I summarizing it. This is only a detailed account.
... The cheery tone of the mirror annoys Snow White. She questions the mirror with annoyance in her voice “Why am I the darkest of all?” The mirror answers “That is for you to find Snow White.” She starts feeling anger rise in her and starts feeling an urge to break the mirror apart. She clenches her teeth and shouts “You better tell me why you call me the darkest of all when you say I am the fairest of all.” The mirror laughs and replies “That is for you to find Snow White.” Snow White loses control of her anger, picks up a vase and throws it at the mirror. The sound of the breaking mirror brings Snow White back to her senses. She looks at the shattered mirror in shock. She picks a piece o the shattered mirror and drops it as soon as she hears it wail “Why has the fair, fair Snow White destroyed me? I only said the truth and yet she hurt me. What is the point of being fair when you are so dark?” Snow White drops the shard and runs away from the attic.
Snow White understands the meaning of the mirror’s words. She thought and everyone said that she is the nicest person alive who said and did good things. Out of nowhere, the mirror puts in a thought in her head and the jester, in some manner, confirms it. As the mirror suggested, her recent actions suggest that she is dark inside. As is usually the at times of distress, she remembers her dwarf friends in the woods and decides to visit them.
When she reached the forest, she finds the dwarf’s house in a dilapidated state. She goes in and finds one of the dwarfs (I don’t remember which) lying sick on his bed. As she approaches he opens his eyes, looks at her for some time and says with a faint smile “Oh it is so nice to see you Snow White. Why have you not visited us for so long?” Unable to speak, Snow White stares at the dwarf for a long time. The dwarf continues “As you can see, things have not been the same since you left. Everyone’s gone and I am very sick. Soon, I will be gone too.” Snow White gets out of her reverie and asks “But what happened? Where did everyone go?” “Oh! They are all gone. Gone forever, never to return again” responds the dwarf’s as he closes his eyes. Snow White tries to talk to him some more but the dwarf does not respond.
Snow White walks inside and outside the house for some time. She finds it in complete disarray. It seems as if the place had not been taken care for years. She realizes that it has been many years since she visited the dwarfs. She did not remember them once she moved to the castle as her life is immersed in love and luxury. The incident with the mirror is the first time she felt disturbed and it is then that she remembered her dwarf friends. She thinks “Do I take my friends for granted? Do I only remember them when I have a need of my own? Did I forsake them at the time of their needs? Oh no! Could this be a part of my darkness?” She decides to look back at her life and remember incidents that pointed at the darkness that lies in her heart. Memories started pouring in, one on top of the other, as if they had no respect for each other. In each case, she starts seeing negatives where earlier she had only seen positives.
The story continues with description for each of these events and the negative associated with it. I don’t remember most of these events but let me recount one as an example.
This happened a few weeks after Snow White moved in with the dwarfs. She finds the dwarfs trudging into the house after a tough morning’s work. They have their soiled work clothes on. She stops them at the door and chastises them for entering the house in such cloths. She goes on to revamp their wardrobe and replaces all their tough clothes with finer ones. The Dwarfs try to reason with her about their type of work and need for tough cloths. But Snow White is adamant and effects the change she desires. She also puts in rules about cleanliness and the need for frequent washes and baths. She does not give ear to their protests but ensure they change their ways. She does not remember the details of their protests and felt ashamed for having enforced her whims without listening to them. “Is it possible that I am adamant? Do I really care for others? Why did I not listen to them? Is this a reason for the darkness in my heart? Yet, I don’t understand why I should be the darkest?”
The sheer volume of the memories overwhelms Snow White. She starts losing track and decides noting them down. An hour passes and she finds herself staring a full page. She moves away from the paper and stares out of the window. “How could she have been so sure of about her goodness? Did she not feel proud about her being Snow White? Did she not want everyone to be the way she wanted them to be? Did she not forget the people who had helped her? Did she not think of herself as the nicest person alive? Is this not enough for the mirror to proclaim that she is the darkest of all? Yet she had destroyed the mirror for having uttered those words.”
Snow White runs down to the attic and looks at the mirror lying shattered on the floor. She picks up the pieces and magically sticks them together. She looks at the complete mirror with satisfaction and touches it. She hears the mirror say in a sad voice “I have always spoken the truth frankly. I did not believe in sugar coating what I said. I thought it helped the recipient to know the truth but I was wrong. Frank and blatant truth only hurt and anger people. Look what happened to the two people to whom I spoke with frankness. One harmed others and the other harmed me. One is considered evil by the world and other innocent. It does not make any difference on the kind of person to whom I speak. My frank words hurt, hurt breeds hate and hate leads to many issues. I realize there is no place in this place for frankness. One should sugar coat or lie or just keep quiet. I am only capable of doing the latter. Mirrors like me will not speak anymore; we will show you as you are and it is up to you to see and understand. I only hope people are at least capable of dealing with self frankly. These are my last words”.
Thus the story ends. The story is named “The mirror’s dilemma”.
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