Embedded Files
This page is a transcript of the exhibit video. Images and items featured in this video were donated by the White family.
Necklace sent to Snow by her stepmother. The necklace had been dipped in aconite, a poison also known as wolfsbane.
Opening scene, cut to interview with Snow White.
Snow: No matter what I did, she wouldn't leave me alone. At a certain point it's just like, come on, I can't really be affecting your life this much? You aren't even near me anymore. What is your obsession?
Cut to photolay of young Snow.
Narrator: When Snow was a child, her stepmother became increasingly jealous. As she grew, the jealousy only increased, becoming a true terror for the girl. Eventually, Snow thought her life was endangered and left the home.
Cut to Snow.
Snow: She was just so insistent. She thought I was encroaching on her territory or something. I don't really know or care to understand her reasons behind everything she did. I just got the hell out of there when I could.
Cut to photos of Snow and her father.
Snow: My dad helped me move. He knew I was uncomfortable with her and was fully supportive. Besides, I had graduated high school and wanted to go to college anyway. I just tried to get as far away as possible for her crazy.
Cut to Snow.
Snow: Eventually, I started getting these weird packages from my dad, and of course I trusted them because, ya know, my dad. The first one had some jewelry, which I thought was cute so I wore it.
Cut to image of necklace.
Snow: She had laced the metal with poison. What. The. Hell. First off, how much effort did it take to do that? Second, did she really think that it would kill me before it gave me a rash?
Cut to Snow.
Snow: I started itching around the chain, so I asked my dad what was going on and what metal it was made out of. He, of course, had no idea what I was talking about. It's around that time that we realized that she was actually crazy and he divorced her. That only gave her more time to go after me. Next thing I knew, I had a friend saying someone dropped a care package off for me. I had no idea what was going on, but I assumed it was part of this Secret Santa thing we had going on in the dorm. It was her.
Cut to image of apple.
Snow: Now, I love apples. Everyone knows that my go-to meal is apples and peanut butter. It wasn't that weird that an apple would be in the package. Of course it was poisoned.
Cut to Snow.
Snow: What is her deal with poison? Seriously? I started going into shock or whatever from whatever the hell she put in that thing. Someone called an ambulance and I actually had to be revived on the way to the hospital.
Cut to image of the hospital.
Snow: I guess she finally managed to get it right. I got better though. And the police did this whole investigation thing, and she was caught with the poison in her new place. They sent her to jail for attempted murder... I had left. She wasn't even a part of my life anymore. No matter what I did, she wouldn't leave me alone. At a certain point it's just like, come on, I can't really be affecting your life this much? You aren't even near me anymore. What is your obsession?
The type of apple sent by her stepmother in a package. The apple had been laced with strychnine.
Author's Note: This story comes from Snow-White in Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, translated by Lucy Crane and illustrated by Walter Crane (1886).
For this story, I shifted it into the modern day. Snow White is no longer a princess and the stepmother is no longer a queen. Instead of leaving home, in the original the Queen trying to have her murdered, Snow just goes off to college. She also does not encounter the dwarfs, although I guess that is a little like living in a dorm. I also changed the methods of attempted murder, beginning with the incident that caused her to leave home.
In the original story, The Queen told a Huntsman to take her out to the forest and kill her, and bring back her heart as proof. Then the Queen goes out in disguise to try and trick Snow White. The Queen demonstrated the lace she was selling, and pulled it so tight Snow white fell down in a faint. The Queen gets her again with another ware, this time a poisoned comb. Finally, the Queen gives her a poisoned apple to kill her the final time.
I also cut out the whole prince story line. She is saved by someone in the dorm, not a prince who has her body taken to his castle. He found her glass casket and thought she was so beautiful that he wanted to take her back with him. When he did, the men moving her coffin jostled the poisoned apple loose, making her wake up. Then they got married and had an happily ever after where the Queen danced herself to death at their wedding due to cursed shoes.
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