Snow White

After our wildly successful first look into the lives beyond the fame of cartoon characters, we decided to do a follow up into another part of that first story. Namely, Snow White.

As everyone knows, Snow White ran from her wicked step-mother, the witch, and lived with 7 apparently friendly chaps known as the Dwarves. But not everyone knows what happened to her once the Price came along and took her away to live with him. This is her story.

“At first, it was great. He was all sweetness and light, caring, thoughtful and oh, so romantic. As soon as we got married though, that swiftly changed. He sacked all of the servants in his castle, making me do all the housework, as well as the cooking, cleaning and everything. I know that doesn’t sound too drastic in the modern realm where single mothers do it all the time, but in a 200 roomed castle, miles from anywhere, and with the only company you have being the seemingly endless stream of kids, and a horrible man, it all starts to pile up a little bit.”

At first, our researchers weren’t entirely sure if Snow White was being accurate with her facts. She has become more and more renowned for exaggerating, embellishing or flat out lying about things. Maybe it’s a cry for help, perhaps its God’s honest truth. At this juncture, we couldn’t be too sure. So we pressed on.

“Did the dwarves come to visit me? Sure, at the beginning. Sometimes Doc would pop in, or Dopey. But when things turned sour between them all, the visits became fewer and fewer between. This was a little disheartening. But, I accepted it because Bashful used to send me these beautiful hand written letters, on coloured, scented paper detailing everything that everybody did. I was utterly heartbroken when I heard about Happy. He wasn’t anybody’s favourite dwarf, but he was most definitely in their top 7. But going back to the visits, aside from the dwarves coming at first, I believe the God’s conspired against me to prevent me from seeing anyone. Between the Prince’s complete lack of social skills, and the Witch preventing my family from seeing me, I began to get very lonely. All I really wanted was people to come to see me, to talk to me. I ran ads in the local papers in the nearby villages, but still no-one came. Word had gotten around that I was not to be trusted, and that if I took a disliking to a person whilst in my home, I’d imprison them for a hundred years or more. It took 14 years and 8 months exactly from the day I heard that to the day I discovered that the Prince had told everyone this. I think that was what was most heartbreaking of all.”

The deeper we go into this sad, sad story, the more we hear of a woman being let down by those she loved. Be it through internal fighting by the dwarves, the Witch preventing her family from coming to see her, or the Prince spreading vicious rumours in the neighbouring villages, Snow White has consistently had her hopes of friendship dashed over and over again. Sadly, this led to mental issues for the young lady.

“In the end, I developed something called Stockholm Syndrome, where the captive falls in love with his or her captor. Obviously, I loved the Prince from the beginning, but when I saw almost nothing but him, and our 17 beautiful children, my love for him was absolute. He could do no wrong. When I started to feel unwell, I asked to be taken to a doctor, who asked me about my home life (he’d apparently heard the rumours and didn’t believe them to be true) and then referred me to a psychologist. It was only there, away from the castle, in the comfort of the doctor’s office, that I realised what was happening to me. How I was being abused in a thousand different and tiny ways. There came a time when I decided enough was enough, and I had to leave. So I gathered up the kids and went back to my home. The only home where I’d felt truly safe and wanted in years. I went to the dwarves hut in the woods. And I waited. I waited for hours. Hours which turned to days, then weeks, then months and finally, after more than a year of waiting, and looking after the house for them, there was a rattle of keys. A jingle in the lock and the door burst open. In came Sneezy. Looking a little worse for the wear, but above all, he was ok. And the first friendly face I’d seen properly in years. To say he was shocked to see me is an understatement. The poor fellow nearly had a heart attack there and then, but when I sat him down, explained what happened and introduced him to the herd, he understood. He told me he was the sole proprietor of the hut now, and he only came along when he remembered to just to make sure the roof hadn’t fallen in. He handed me the keys to the door, and told me to look after the place. It was mine. None of the other 6 dwarves ever came up here, too many bad memories, and Sneezy was no different. He only came up for the roof, and even then he did so begrudgingly. He left soon after, claiming that he needed to get back, and that I’d be safe here. And so far, he hasn’t been wrong. It was a crying shame what happened to him though.”

I think it’s fair to say, that after the initial tragedy of Snow White’s early life, and her subsequent time spent at the Prince’s castle, she has done very well for herself. A brood of beautiful children, a lovely home, fresh food at her very whim, and we understand, a new man on the horizon. One with references which check out.

We at Where Are They Now? wish her all the very best in her future endeavours.