Alternative fates

The Queen arrives at Snow White's wedding in a 1905 German illustration

In the classic ending of "Snow White", the Evil Queen is put to death by torture. This is often considered to be too dark and potentially horrifying for children in modern society. In fact, already the first English translation of the Grimms' tale, written by Edgar Taylor in 1823, has the Queen choke on her own envy upon the sight of Snow White alive. Another early (1871) English translation by Susannah Mary Paull "replaces the Queen's death by cruel physical punishment with death by self-inflicted pain and self-destruction" when it was her own shoes that became hot due to her anger.^[2] Other alternative endings can have the Queen just instantly drop dead "of anger" at the wedding^[3] or in front of her mirror upon learning about it,^[4] die from her own designs going awry (such as from touching her own poisoned rose^[5]) or by nature (such as falling into quicksands while crossing a swamp on her way back to the castle after poisoning Snow White^[6]), be killed by the dwarfs during a chase,^[7] be destroyed by her own mirror,^[8] run away into the forest never to be seen again,^[9] or simply being banished from the kingdom forever.^[10] As Sara Maitland wrote, "we do not tell this part of the story any more; we say it is too cruel and will break children's soft hearts."^[11]

Therefore, many (especially modern) revisions of the fairy tale often change the gruesome classic ending in order to make it seem less violent. In some versions instead of dying, the Queen is merely prevented from committing further wrongdoings. Fawzia Gilani-Williams' Snow White: An Islamic Tale, for instance, has Snow White forgive her evil witch stepmother entirely, making her repent and redeem herself, as part of the book's religious lessons for children.^[12] However, in the same 2014 nationwide UK poll that considered the Queen from "Snow White" the scariest fairy tale character of all time (as cited by 32.21% of responding adults), around two-thirds opined that today's stories are too "sanitised" for children.^[13] Anthony Burgess commented in 1983: "Reading that, how seriously can we take it? It is fairy-tale violence, which is not like real mugging, terrorism and Argentinean torture."^[14]

Sheldon Cashdan, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, argues that, in accordance to the logic of fairy tales, the Queen could not be allowed to flee or merely be locked up in a dungeon or exiled, as the story portrayed her "as a thoroughly despicable creature who deserves the worst conceivable punishment." In his opinion, fairy tale narrative also demands that "if the witch is to die — and remain dead — she must die in a way that makes her return highly unlikely," and so "the reader needs to know that the death of the witch is thorough and complete, even if it means exposing young readers to acts of violence that are extreme by contemporary standards."^[15] Conversely, writers such as Oliver Madox Hueffer have expressed sympathy for the queen,^[16] or, like psychology professor Sharna Olfman, remove the violence when reading the story to children while also acknowledging that verbal storytelling lacks "graphic visual imagery".^[17]

Origins and evolution

A Polish illustration by Zofia Plewińska-Smidowiczowa

In the first edition of the Brothers Grimm story, from their 1812 collection Kinder- und Hausmärchen ("Children's and Household Tales"), the Queen is Snow White's biological mother, and in the beginning sits sewing at an open window when she pricks her finger with her needle, causing three drops of red blood to drip onto the white snow on the black ebony windowsill. She then wishes to have a daughter with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony, later giving birth to Snow White. In subsequent versions after 1819,^[18] this was changed; text was added to include that Snow White's mother died and the king remarried.^[19][20] Jack Zipes said that the change was made because the Grimms "held motherhood sacred."^[21] According to Cashdan, a "cardinal rule of fairy tales" mandates that the "heroes and heroines are allowed to kill witches, sorceresses, even stepmothers, but never their own mothers."^[15] Zipes' 2014 collection of Grimm fairy tales in their original forms reinstated the Queen as Snow White's mother.^[22][23]

However, the wicked stepmother was not unknown in German versions predating the Brothers Grimm's collection. In 1782, Johann Karl August Musäus published a literary fairy tale titled "Richilde" which reimagined the folktale from the villain's point of view.^[24] The main character is Richilde, arrogant Countess of Brabant, who as a child received the gift of a magic mirror invented by her godfather Albertus Magnus. Many elements of the Grimms' Snow White appear in this story, including the wicked stepmother, the magic mirror, the poisoned apple, and the punishment of dancing in red-hot shoes.^[25]

Hueffer noted that the wicked stepmother with magical powers threatening a young princess is a recurring theme in fairy tales; one similar character is the witch-queen in "The Wild Swans" as told by Hans Christian Andersen.^[16] According to Kenny Klein, the enchantress Ceridwen of the Welsh mythology was "the quintissential evil stepmother, the origin of that character in the two tales of Snow White and Cinderella."^[26]

Equivalents of the Evil Queen can be found in Snow White-like tales from around the world. In the Scottish Gaelic oral tale "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree", the Queen is named Silver-Tree and is the heroine's biological mother. A talking trout takes the place of the Queen's mirror and the huntsman figure is the princess' own father.^[27][28] The villain's relationship with Snow White can also vary, with versions from around the world sometimes featuring wicked sisters or sisters-in-law, or a wicked mother of the prince.^[29] One earlier variation of the tale was Giambattista Basile's "The Young Slave" (1634), where the heroine's mother is unintentionally involved in putting her to sleep, and she is awoken by her cruel and jealous aunt who treats her like a slave.

The Queen's tricks also vary from place to place. In Italy, she uses a toxic comb, a contaminated cake, or a suffocating braid. In France, a local tale features a poisoned tomato.^[26] The Queen's demands of proof from the huntsman (often her lover in non-Grimm versions^[30]) also vary: a bottle of blood stoppered with the princess' toe in Spain, or the princess' intestines and blood-soaked shirt in Italy.^[31]

Rosemary Ellen Guiley suggests that the Queen of the Brothers Grimm tale uses an apple because it recalls the temptation of Eve; this creation story from the Bible led the Christian Church to view apples as a symbol of sin. Many people feared that apples could carry evil spirits, and that witches used them for poisoning.^[32] Robert G. Brown of Duke University also makes a connection with the story of Adam and Eve, seeing the Queen as a representation of the archetype of Lilith.^[33] The symbol of an apple has long had traditional associations with enchantment and witchcraft in some European cultures, as in case of Morgan le Fay's Avalon ("Isle of the Apples").^[34]

The iron shoes being heated in an illustration from an 1852 Icelandic translation of the Grimms' story

Diane Purkiss attributes the Queen's fiery death in the Brothers Grimm tale to "the folkbelief that burning a witch's body ended her power, a belief which subtended (but did not cause) the practice of burning witches in Germany."^[35] The American Folklore Society noted that the use of iron shoes "recalls folk practices of destroying a witch through the magic agency of iron."^[36]

Interpretations

According to some scholars such as Roger Sale and University of Hawaii professor Cristina Bacchilega, the story has ageist undertones vilifying the older woman character, with her envy of Snow White's beauty.^[37][28] Terri Windling wrote that the Queen is "a woman whose power is derived from her beauty; it is this, the tale implies, that provides her place in the castle's hierarchy. If the king’s attention turns from his wife to another, what power is left to an aging woman? Witchcraft, the tale answers. Potions, poisons, and self-protection."^[28]

Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar regard Snow White and her mother/stepmother as two female stereotypes, the angel and the monster.^[38] The fact that the Queen was Snow White's biological mother in the first version of the Grimms' story has led several psychoanalytic critics to interpret "Snow White" as a story about repressed Oedipus complex, or about Snow White's Electra complex and sexual rivalry with the Queen.^[38] According to Bruno Bettelheim, the story's main motif is "the clash of sexual innocence and sexual desire": "whereas Snow White achieves inner harmony, her stepmother fails to do so. Unable to integrate the social and the antisocial aspects of human nature, she remains enslaved to her desires and gets caught up in an Oedipal competition with her daughter from which she cannot extricate herself. This imbalance between her contradictory drives proves to be her undoing."^[39] Cashdan interprets the Queen's motives as "fear that the king will find Snow White more appealing than her."^[15] This struggle is so dominating the psychological landscape of the tale, that Gilber and Gubar even proposed renaming the story "Snow White and Her Wicked Stepmother".^[31][40] Harold Bloom opined that the three "temptations" all "testify to a mutual sexual attraction between Snow White and her stepmother."^[41]

Robert Anning Bell's 1912 illustration

Cashdan proposes that the evil queen "embodies narcissism, and the young princess, with whom readers identify, embodies parts of the child struggling to overcome this tendency. Vanquishing the queen represents a triumph of positive forces in the self over vain impulses." As such, "the death of the witch signals a victory of virtue over vice, a sign that positive forces in the self have prevailed." In addition, "the active involvement of heroine in the witch's demise communicates to readers that they must take an active role in overcoming their own errant tendencies."^[15] Similarly, psychologist Betsy Cohen wrote about the perceived symbolism of the act: "In order to avoid becoming a wicked queen herself, Snow White needs to separate from and kill off this destructive force inside of her."^[42] In the words of Bettelheim, "only the death of the jealous queen (the elimination of all outer and inner turbulence) can make for a happy world."^[43]

Regarding the manner of the Queen's execution, scholars such as Cashdan, Sheldon Donald Haase, and John Hanson Saunders argue from psychological and storytelling viewpoints that the Queen's punishment fits her crimes, gives closure to the reader and shows good triumphing over evil.^[15][38][44] Jo Eldridge Carney, Professor of English at The College of New Jersey, wrote: "Again, the fairy tale's system of punishment is horrific but apt: a woman so actively consumed with seeking affirmation from others and with violently undoing her rival is forced to enact her own physical destruction as a public spectacle."^[45] Likewise, Mary Ayers of the Stanford University School of Medicine wrote that the red-hot shoes symbolise that the Queen was "subjected to the effects of her own inflamed, searing hot envy and hatred."^[46] It was also noted that this ending echoes the fairy tale of "The Red Shoes", which similarly "warns of the danger of attachment to appearances."^[47]

Film and television

Queen Brangomar and Witch Hex in an illustration for the play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The 1916 silent film Snow White was based on the 1912 play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the play, written by "Jessie Graham White" (Winthrop Ames), Queen Brangomar is jealous of Prince Florimond's love of Snow White. Brangomar summons Witch Hex (Hexy), a powerful godmother. In the end, Snow White forgives the Queen and, despite objections from the hunter (Berthold) who wants Brangomar dead, lets her go away unharmed. In the 1916 film, Queen Brangomar (played by Dorothy Cumming) and the Witch are two separate characters, and it is the latter who demands to have the heart of Snow White. In the end, Brangomar is punished by being turned into a peacock.^[49] Elements from these versions of "Snow White" inspired Disney's film adaptation.

Snow White (1933) is a Betty Boop series cartoon short in which the Queen resembles Olive Oyl. At one point, her mirror explodes in a puff of magic smoke that changes her into a hideous monster that chases the protagonists until the Queen's own former guard grabs the monster's tongue and turns it inside out.^[49]

An entertainer dressed as the Evil Queen from the 1937 film at the Walt Disney World

In Disney's 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Queen, usually known as the Evil Queen or the Wicked Queen, is the villain. This version of the character was sometimes referred to as Queen Grimhilde in Disney publications from the 1930s, and was originally voiced by Lucille La Verne. The film's Queen, in the form of an old witch, falls to her death after poisoning Snow White. In the film, similar to the Brothers Grimm story, the Queen is cold, cruel, and extremely vain, and obsessively desires to remain the "fairest in the land". She becomes madly envious of the beauty of her stepdaughter, as well as the attention of the Prince from another land; such a love triangle element is one of Disney's changes to the story. This leads her to plot the death of Snow White and ultimately on the path to her own demise, which in the film is indirectly caused by the Seven Dwarfs. The film's version of the Queen character uses her dark magic powers to actually transform herself into an old woman instead of just taking a disguise like in the Grimms' story; this appearance of hers is commonly referred to as the Wicked Witch or alternatively as the Old Hag or just the Witch. The film's version of the Queen was created by Walt Disney and Joe Grant, and originally animated by Art Babbit and voiced by Lucille La Verne. Inspiration for her design came from several sources, including the characters of Queen Hash-a-Motep from She and Princess Kriemhild from Die Nibelungen, as well as actresses such as Joan Crawford and Gale Sondergaard. The Queen has since been voiced by Eleanor Audley, Louise Chamis and Susanne Blakeslee, and was portrayed live by Anne Francine, Jane Curtin and Olivia Wilde, and in alternative versions, by Lana Parrilla (Once Upon a Time) and Kathy Najimy (Descendants). This interpretation of the classic fairy tale character has been very well received by film critics and the general public, often being considered one of Disney's most iconic and menacing villains. Besides the film, the Evil Queen has made numerous appearances in Disney attractions and productions, including not only those directly related to the tale of Snow White, such as Fantasmic!, The Kingdom Keepers and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, sometimes appearing alongside Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. The film's version of the Queen has also become a popular archetype that influenced a number of artists and non-Disney works. Gal Gadot is set to portray the character in Snow White, Disney's own 2025 live-action film reimagining of their 1937 animated classic.

Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, a controversial^[50] 1943 World War II propaganda cartoon reimagines all the story's characters as African-Americans. The "mean ol' queen" (voiced by Ruby Dandridge and Danny Webb) of the story represents food hoarders at the time of war rationing.

In the 1961 film Snow White and the Three Stooges, the Queen is played by Patricia Medina.^[49] She is a beautiful but evil woman who wants Snow White dead go be the fairest but the princess is protected by the Three Stooges. When the Queen attempts to track down and destroy Snow White by herself, the Stooges spot her flying on a broom and accidentally but happily kill her with a magic wish by making her crash and burn. Her companion in the film, the wizard Oga, is killed when he falls into a pot of boiling tar.^[51]

In the 1962 Mexican children's film, Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White's stepmother^[52] appears as the Queen Witch (Reina Bruja), the mistress of all evil and the queen of all monsters in the world. The Queen looks similar as in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but has a green face like Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. She dies when the Little Red Riding Hood tricks her to fall into a furnace-like shrine of the Devil at her castle.

The 1962 East German film Snow White adapts the fairy tale directly, following the story faithful up to the very end. When the Queen (played by Marianne Christina Schilling) arrives at Snow White's wedding where the Prince offers her a half of a red apple, which she assumes is poisoned. Terrified, the queen flees and is chased out of the country by the Prince.

The Wicked Queen is voiced by Melendy Britt in the 1980 animated television film A Snow White Christmas, set years after the events of the fairy tale. One day, a large ice block melts, freeing the Wicked Queen, who has been encased within it ever since her defeat. Determined to rid of the now ruling queen Snow White and King Charming, as well as their daughter who is also named Snow White, the Queen freezes the entire kingdom. But the young princess escapes alive and enlists the help of the seven friendly giants to stop the Queen again. Each time, Queen's attempts to harm the young Snow White with her evil magic are foiled by the new protectors of the princess. Eventually, the Queen resorts to disguise herself as an old giant woman to trick Snow White into smelling the scent of a poisoned flower. Having found Snow White dead, the enraged giants attack the Queen's castle but she summons seven demons to protect her. Only by a lucky chance one of the giants, Hicker, causes an earthquake that shatters the magic mirror that was the source of the Queen's life and power, and she is finally gone for good as her spells are broken and all of her victims are returned to life.

The 1981 Slovak television musical Let the Princess Stay with Us is a modern reimagination of the fairy tale, devoid of magical motifs. In it, the Queen's figure is represented by the protagonist Katka's biological mother, played by Marie Rottrová.

In the Snow White episode of the 1984 television series Faerie Tale Theatre, the Queen is played by Vanessa Redgrave. In the end, she is punished by a spell that prevents her from ever seeing her reflection again, which drives the Queen to insanity.

The 1987 musical film Snow White was one of the nine Cannon Movie Tales fairy tale musicals produced in the 1980s. Diana Rigg starred as the Queen.^[49] The plot follows the story of the original fairytale including the three attempts by the Queen to kill Snow White (a tight bodice, a poisoned silver comb and finally the poisoned half of a red and white apple, the white half having no poison in it in order to trick Snow White into thinking the apple is harmless). When she is invited to Snow White's wedding, the Queen damages the mirror in rage, causing her to age rapidly. After arriving at the wedding, she shatters into glassy pieces and disintegrates.^[50]

The Evil Queen is featured in the "Snow White" episode of the 1987 anime series Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, voiced by Arlene Banas in the English dub. While her plans to dispose of her through the Huntsman and the purple laces remain intact in this version, she has no magic powers of her own and the old hag potion and the poison apple are given to her by an old witch who is her ally. As the Queen leaves the Seven Dwarfs' house after Snow White eats the poison apple, she is spotted by Snow White's friend Klaus and the Prince who both chase after her to end her life. But while this version of the Queen lacks in magic, she has surprising physical prowess as she fights off both of them until a pack of good wolves allied with the Seven Dwarfs arrives. The narrator tells that the Queen fought the wolves "like a lionesses" until they finally killed her.

In the 1987-1988 television series The Charmings, Queen Lillian "Lily" White, portrayed by Judy Parfitt, has been thrown into what they thought was a bottomless pit but returns to cast a powerful curse Snow White and her family. This curse banishes them all (including the Queen herself and her Magic Mirror) into the modern world, where they live as the titular Charmings. The name coming from the fact that the prince who rescued Snow White is often called 'Prince Charming.' The Queen is forced to live with her family, while trying to find a way to return herself back to their own world.^[49]

In Happily Ever After, the 1989 (released in 1993) animated sequel to the fairy tales, is the late Queen's brother, the evil wizard Lord Maliss, who arrives in the kingdom to avenge his sister on those responsible for her demise: Snow White and Prince Charming.^[53] Due to pressure by Disney lawyers,^[54][55] the Queen herself does not appear in person and is only shown via a portrait and a bust statue, and the film begins with her monster minions actually partying and celebrating her death. Her brother is eventually destroyed when he is transformed into a dragon and turned into a stone statue.

The 1991 animated film The Magic Riddle combines the story of Snow White with several other fairy tales in which the Queen figure is a widowed stepmother played by Robyn Moore. She The plans to marry her biological daughter, Bertha, to the handsome young Phillipe, but he is in love with her stepdaughter Cindy (a figure combing Snow White with Cinderella) who is aided by her grandmother. Following the advice of her magic mirror, the stepmother puts on a salesman disguise and visits the grandmother in the woods, tricking her into entering a castle from which there is no escape, and where later Phillipe and the dwarfs are trapped too. The stepmother, wearing another disguise devised by her magic mirror, hypnotises Cindy with a magic apple to fall asleep, but in the commotion she accidentally falls into a well. Eventually, Cindy and Phillippe's wedding is held at what used to be her stepmother's house, where she and her daughter are to serve as maids just as Cindy used to.

In the 1994-1995 anime television series The Legend of Snow White, Lady Chrystal (voiced by Mari Yokoo), a woman famed for her beauty and ruler of a small neighbouring kingdom, comes to the Emerald Valley in order to marry King Conrad and raise his daughter, Snow White. As in the fairy tale, she turns out to be an evil and jealous woman who uses the black art of witchcraft to eliminate her rivals and obtain what she desires most: beauty and power. After the king's departure, the evil Queen Chrystal, aided by her bat familiar, makes her first attempt to kill Snow White, but the princess ends up in a house owned by seven dwarves, who protect her from all harm inflicted by her stepmother. Chrystal then tries to take the life of Snow White several times. During the Queen's final attempt, she abandons her goal of killing Snow White and instead puts her hated rival in an enchanted sleep by means of a poisoned apple in order to take over her youthful body for her own. Eventually, the Queen turns out to be merely an unknowing puppet of her own demonic grandmother Lady Helene, a powerful and immortal witch who dwelled inside the Queen's mirror as the Evil Spirit and was the true source of her magic. Twenty years earlier, unable to bear the idea of growing old, Helene had found a way to keep herself forever young and beautiful by taking possession of another body and transfer her soul into it in a planned endless cycle of sacrifices to satisfy her vanity. The first victim of her ambition was her niece Chrystal on her 12th birthday, whose soul became imprisoned in the mirror to allow the evil witch to control the Queen's mind and actions. But Snow White's fiance Prince Richard manages to kill the witch on a desperate fight, saving not only his beloved but also freeing Chrystal from the evil influence.

In the 1997 film Snow White: A Tale of Terror, the character is not a queen, but rather a noblewoman named Lady Claudia Hoffman, played by Sigourney Weaver who was acclaimed for her role.^[50] Claudia marries widower nobleman and tries to befriend his daughter Lilli, but Lilli rejects her. When she is pregnant with a son, but Lilli receiving all of the attention causes her so much stress that the baby is stillborn. Driven mad by grief, she turns to her magic mirror for reassurance, but sees her reflection distorted and deformed. When the mirror blames Lilli for the baby's death, Claudia begins to plot her stepdaughter's assassination and sends her mute, inbred brother to kill her, replacing the Hunter from the fairy tale. When he fails and instead brings Claudia organs of a slain pig, she eats them with cannibalistic relish. When her mirror tells her that her stepdaughter is alive, she uses black magic to murder her brother. Eventually, Lady Claudia learns Lilli's whereabouts thanks to her ravens and attempts to kill her and the seven miners with whom Lilli hides with magic plots original to the film, causing deaths of some of the miners, before she finally tries the familiar poison apple and disguise, placing Lilli in a coma. But when Lilli is healed, she and the remaining miners confront Claudia and fight her. Lilli ultimately kills her stepmother by stabbing her image in the mirror, causing Claudia to rapidly age and catch fire before she is crushed by debris.

The main villain of the 2000 miniseries The 10th Kingdom is Christine White, more commonly referred to as the Evil Queen and portrayed by Dianne Wiest. Two hundred years after the events told in the story of Snow White, the original Evil Queen, who was left to die, uses her mirrors to spy on Earth, where she finds Christine Lewis, a troubled former socialite whose husband Tony lost their fortune through bad investments and whose daughter Virginia was unplanned. After almost killing her daughter in a psychotic break, Christine joins the Queen in the realm of the Nine Kingdoms to be groomed as an apprentice of the original evil queen (now an undead hag known as the Swamp Witch) to be her successor as well as her instrument of revenge. Having repressed the memories of her past, Christine insinuates herself into the House of White, first as the nanny of Snow White's grandson, Prince Wendell White, and later as Wendell's stepmother, after poisoning his mother. Prior to the events of the miniseries, Christine is finally imprisoned for the subsequent murder via poison of Wendell's father. As The 10th Kingdom begins, she escapes to cause further destruction, and at the climax of the series she is killed by the main protagonist, her daughter Virginia.

In the 2001 television film Snow White: The Fairest of Them All, a self-loathing crone named Elspeth (Miranda Richardson), who is part of a race of strange humanoid creatures, is transformed into a beautiful queen by her brother, the Green-Eyed Granter of Wishes. She becomes jealous when the mirror reveals that her stepdaughter Snow White is the fairest in the land, but in this adaptation she is driven more by insecurities than vanity. She also envies the affection that Prince Alfred shows toward her stepdaughter. She disguises herself as Snow White's deceased mother Josephine and succeeds in poisoning her with an apple. At the climax of the film, the Green-Eyed One turns Elspeth into a withered old crone once again and she is throttled to death off-screen by the dwarves whom she had once turn to stone. Josephine is played by Vera Farmiga and the Old Crone form is played by Karin Konoval.

Nina Hagen portrayed the Queen in the 2004 German comedy film 7 Dwarves – Men Alone in the Wood and its 2006 sequel 7 Dwarves: The Forest Is Not Enough, in the latter of which the characters is known as the witch after having been dethroned. It is a parody story in which for example the poisoned apple scene is replaced by the one involving the Queen pretending to be a door-to-door salesperson of supposed youth-preserving coffins to trick Snow White, played by Nina Hagen's real life daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen.^[56] The two live-action films were followed by 2014's animated film The Seventh Dwarf, in which her character was gone the name of Dellamorta.^[57] In it, she ends up up accidentally defeated by the eponymous dwarf Bubi and turned into an ice figure.

Monica Bellucci in 2009

In the 2005 historical fantasy film The Brothers Grimm, Monica Bellucci plays the villainous character that will inspire the fairy-tale Evil Queen after the Brothers Grimm themselves face her in the film's version of the Napoleonic-era Germany. Known as the Thuringian Queen or the Mirror Queen, many centuries earlier she was an extremely vain wife of the Frankish king Childeric I, obsessed with preserving her youth and beauty and being the fairest in the land. This led her to dabble in black magic, which backfired on her when she acquired a spell for eternal life that did not grant her eternal youth. Since then, she has been living in a tower, commanding various animals and monsters to abduct young girls so she could use their blood to regain her youth and beauty that otherwise is only preserved in her magic mirror. The Queen is destroyed after Jake Grimm shatters the mirror in the tower, making her werewolf minion transform into the woodsman (the Hunter figure) and destroy the rest of the mirror by jumping out of the tower's window with it.

In the 2007 teen comedy film, Sydney White, Sara Paxton plays Rachel Witchburn, the mean leader of the student council and the head of the sorority that Sydney White wants to attend. Jealous of Sydney, Rachel hires a hacker to destroy Sydney's computer files using a virus called The Poison Apple. Nevertheless, Sydney wins the debate and the election, becoming the new president, while Rachel is stripped of her sisterhood by her sisters because of her cruelty to them.

The Evil Queen, voiced by Susanne Blakeslee, appears in the 2007 animated film Shrek the Third. She joins the team of Prince Charming to take over Far Far Away, but at the ending she turns good and says that she always wanted to start a spa in France. She also appears in the Shrek the Third video game as one of the bosses Shrek and his team have to defeat.

In the 2009 animated film Happily N'Ever After 2: Snow White Another Bite @ the Apple, the would-be Queen is called Lady Vain, voiced by Cindy Robinson. She seduces King Cole in order to rule the kingdom herself and is aided by Rumpelstiltskin. Snow White is a thorn in Lady Vain's side, who wants Snow White to be gone from the kingdom. She does not poison Snow White; instead, she uses magic to compel Snow White to spread vicious gossip so that her friends and everyone in the kingdom will turn against her. Nevertheless, Snow White manages to foil Lady Vain's marriage ceremony and expose her as a witch.

Lana Parrilla in 2012

In all seven seasons of the 2011–2017 American TV series Once Upon a Time, the Queen, also known as Regina Mills, is portrayed by Lana Parrilla. Regina saves Snow White's life when they are younger, leading to Regina's unwilling marriage to Snow's father. When Snow inadvertently causes the death of Regina's true love, Regina grows vengeful and becomes the Evil Queen. After years of failing to kill Snow White, the Evil Queen eventually casts the Dark Curse, provided by her mentor Rumpelstiltskin, sending all the fairytale characters to the real world and erasing their true memories. During the curse, Regina adopts a son, Henry. Later, Regina's curse is broken by Snow White's daughter, Emma (Henry's biological mother), and Regina decides to try and redeem herself for her son. In time, Regina manages to make amends with Snow White, Emma and her other enemies. She also meets her long lost half-sister, Zelena the Wicked Witch, and falls in love with Robin Hood. In the fifth season, following Robin's death, Regina uses Dr. Jekyll's serum to separate herself from the darkness within her, creating the Evil Queen as a separate individual. In the seventh season, set many years later, Regina is crowned the Good Queen when the realms are united.

In the 2012 comedy fantasy film Mirror Mirror, Julia Roberts plays Queen Clementianna,^[50] a vain, insecure woman who married the king and magicked him into a savage beast using a special necklace. The Queen spends her time by organizing lavish parties in the palace and buying expensive dresses, while neglecting the kingdom which has caused the people to struggle to survive in harsh weather and poverty due to high taxes by her. She often uses her magic to do her bidding but it often backfires with unintended consequences. She uses a magic mirror to talk to a much younger reflection of herself (played by Lisa Roberts Gillan), and the reflection often warns her not to use her magic for selfish short-sighted purposes. In her attempts to kill Snow White, she creates two giant wooden puppets to attack the dwarfs' home, and she also commands the Beast to attack. Once Snow destroys the Beast's necklace, the Queen begins to age as her reflection states that she must pay the price for her use of magic, and she eats her own poisoned apple offscreen at Snow White's wedding.

Maribel Verdú in 2011

Maribel Verdú plays Encarna, the evil stepmother of Carmen Villalta also known as Snow White in the 2012 Spanish silent art film Blancanieves that transplants the story to the 1920s Andalusia and stripping it off any magic. Encarna eventually poisons Snow White at a bull fighting ring, and is herself killed by the dwarf bull fighters when they lock her with a bull.

2012 also saw the release of Snow White: A Deadly Summer, a modern-day reimagination of the story as a slasher horror film. In it, Maureen McCormick plays Eve, the psychopathic woman who hates her stepdaughter because she wants Snow's father all for herself.

In a more straightforward 2012 adaptation, the fantasy film Grimm's Snow White, the evil queen's name is Queen Gwendolyn and she is played by Jane March. Gwendolyn plans to marry Prince Alexander and so, using elf magic, she plots to kill her stepdaughter Snow White who loves him. But when she attempts a forced marriage between herself and Alexander, Snow White manages to break free and decapitate her evil stepmother before the ceremony can be finished.

Charlize Theron in 2015

In another 2012 film retelling, Snow White and the Huntsman, Charlize Theron played the character of Queen Ravenna.^[58] The Queen is depicted as vain, scheming, and power-hungry. On their wedding night, she kills the King, and fears that Snow White will challenge her rule over the kingdom. The Queen's obsession with power and beauty stems from childhood trauma, when her mother told her that beauty is a weapon to be used for protection. Additionally, the strength of her powers seems to correlate to her appearance, and both begin to fade as Snow White comes into her own. Her Magic Mirror assures her that the only way to render her powers and her youth permanent is to consume Snow White's heart, but she is ultimately killed by Snow White. Director Rupert Sanders said: "It was very important that we didn’t have a terrible cut-out villain. We had someone who was doing evil things from a fear and weakness. I think it is important that you do sympathize with her to a degree, but also really understand why she is the person she’s become because she wasn’t born evil. It was a journey for her to become evil, and I think it was very important to myself and Charlize Theron to play a realistic version of the queen."^[59] Theron said about the character: "At first, I didn't really understand why she was evil or losing her mind, but once I understood that it wasn't just the fact that her mortality relied upon finding Snow White, and that knowing that and not being able to do anything and being stuck in a castle. Well, I think that would be maddening for somebody like her. It reminded me a lot of Jack Nicholson's character in The Shining—that idea that you're stuck in this place and you can't escape it, that cabin fever."^[60] Theron reprises her role in the film's 2016 sequel, The Huntsman: Winter's War, in which she was revealed to have hidden part of herself in the Mirror, allowing her to be restored to life by her sister, the Snow Queen Freya.

Gina Gershon voiced Queen Regina in the English version of the 2019 Korean animated film Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs. In it, Regina was brought to King White's castle accused of being a witch for punishment, but the king became bewitched by her beauty and fell for her. After Regina married the king and became the new queen, people started to disappear. After King White had found out that Queen Regina was indeed an evil witch, she forced him to eat an apple that turned him into a giant wooden bunny. When Snow White steals the red shoes that grant immortality and eternal beauty to Regina and escapes the castle, Regina is furious and tries to find her, using the Magic Mirror and her ally Prince Average in her search. Eventually, she hunts down Snow White in the woods, where, disguising herself as Merlin, she takes Snow White back to the castle and turns her into a magic tree with another magic apple. However, the real Merlin comes to Snow White's rescue as he tackles Regina off the tower and electrocutes her with his lightning magic as they fall, killing her and ending her tyranny, and then restores Snow White and her father to their human forms. The antagonist of the 2021 sequel mobile game Red Shoes: Wood Bear World is Regina's sister and also a beautiful but evil witch.^[61]

Literature

The Evil Queen's character has been given various names and characterisations by modern authors. In Adèle Geras' Snow White retelling Pictures of the Night (1992), for instance, the protagonist is plagued by a series of mysterious accidents that she believes are being caused by her jealous, malevolent stepmother Marjorie. In Laurence Anholt's children's book Snow White and the Seven Aliens (1998), the jealous Mean Queen is a former famous pop star who was the lead singer of The Wonderful Wicked Witches. In Tanith Lee's and Terri Windling's White as Snow (2000), mixing "Snow White" with the tragic myth of Demeter and Persephone, the Queen's name is Arpazia. In Black as Night (2004), Regina Doman's adolescent novel set in modern New York City, Elaine is an egocentric stepmother to Bear (the prince figure) rather than Blanche (Snow White). In My Fair Godmother (2009), a romantic comedy novel by Janette Rallison, the evil queen is named Queen Neferia. In Jane Yolen's Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All (2011), the Queen is a dark magic-using stepmother simply called Stepmama. In Louise Simonson's Snow White and the Seven Robots: A Graphic Novel (2015), the Queen exiles the child genius scientist Snow White "so she cannot grow up and take the Queen's place as the most intelligent person on the planet."^[62]

In the "Snow White" chapter of Merseyside Fairy Story Collective's (edited by Jack Zipes) Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England (1986), the evil queen is ousted by popular revolution. Another short story, "The Tale of the Apple" in Emma Donoghue's collection Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins (1997), is a modern adaptation in which it is the Queen who awakens Snow White from her slumber because she yields to her desire for the princess. Priscilla Galloway's collection of short stories Truly Grim Tales (1999) includes a version of "Snow White" told from the wicked stepmother's point of view. In the erotic short story "Gold, on Snow", published by Alison Tyler in Alison's Wonderland (2010), the jealous Queen spies on her stepdaughter in the house of the dwarves.

In the DC Universe, the Queen of Fables was a scheming, villainous witch who, in her youth, wrought hell on earth until she was trapped in a book by her own stepdaughter, Snow White. Centuries later, she was freed accidentally by Snow White's descendants and has since faced many Justice League superheroes like Superman and Wonder Woman, who the Queen thought was Snow White due to her great beauty.

Robert Coover's satirical erotic short story "The Dead Queen" (1973) re-tells the fairy tale from the perspective of the Prince, deeply disappointed with Snow White and her creepy sexual relationship with the dwarves. At the Queen's funeral after her fiery execution, as she is buried in Snow White's former glass coffin, he suddenly realized that the Queen had loved him and had died for him. In desperation, he attempts bring her back to life by kissing her mutilated corpse, but in vain.

Carmen Boullosa's short story "Blancanieves" (1992) explores the concept of female sexuality, focusing on the relationship between the Queen and the forester (the hunter), and the 'love' triangle between the two and Blancanieves (Snow White). In it, the sexually aggressive Queen dominates the forester, who, within his narrative, blames his sexual weakness on the magic potion that he was forced to drink.

In Neil Gaiman's short story "Snow, Glass, Apples" (1994), the Queen is a tragic hero protagonist who struggles desperately to save the kingdom from her secretly vampiric stepdaughter. At the end of the story, it all turns out to be a recollection by the Queen as she is roasted alive inside an enormous kiln on the orders by Snow White and the Prince. Gaiman's story resembles the titular story from "Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer" (1983) by Tanith Lee, in which the Witch Queen is trying to stop the real villain, her stepdaughter Bianca, who is actually a vampire.

James Finn Garner included a satirical take on "Snow White" in his collection Politically Correct Bedtime Stories (1994) in which the Queen accidentally bonds with Snow White during the apple scene. Forgetting that the apple in question was poisoned, she shares it with Snow White and both fall comatose to the floor. When the dwarfs discover this, they decide to sell Snow White to the Prince so he can have sex with her. However, when they try to move the two women's bodies, they break the spell and the women awaken, angry and disgusted at what they overheard. The Queen then declares that the dwarfs are trespassers, throwing them out of her forest, and she and Snow White later open a spa for women on the same spot.

"Snow Night", a short story published in Barbara G. Walker's Feminist Fairy Tales (1996), the King's master of the hunt tries to incite jealousy in the Queen towards her stepdaughter after having been rejected by Snow Night. However, the Queen laughs off her magic mirror's answer, claiming that people go through cycles and that it is impossible to challenge the will of nature. The story suggests that the traditional version of the tale was actually invented by the exiled and crazed huntsman, now imprisoned in a distant country. In the preface, Walker wrote: "Snow White's stepmother seems to have been vilified because (a) she resented being less beautiful than Snow White, and (b) she practiced witchcraft. One might suspect that female beauty was really a larger issue for men than for women, because male sexual response depends to a considerable degree on visual clues. ... A queen who was also a witch would have been a formidable figure, adding political influence to spiritual mana. Snow White's stepmother therefore seems to me a projection of male jealousies. As re-envisioned in this story, she may seem more true to life."^[63]

"The True Story", a revisionist short story by Pat Murphy, published in the collection Black Swan, White Raven (1998), tells a story of a queen who sent her daughter away to avoid the incestous advances of her pedophiliac and abusive husband, the King. The princess is cared for by seven witches in the forest, and when the king dies, she is brought back to rule the kingdom in her own right, instead of at the side of a prince.

In Howard Barker's play Knowledge and a Girl (The Snow White Case) (2002), the Queen is the protagonist, attempting to resist the patriarchal and misogynistic structure of the kingdom's court through her lewd sexuality. The Queen is infertile and, at first, the impotent and abusive King actually accepts his wife's promiscuity. Snow White envies the Queen's sexual experience and tries to outdo her stepmother's debauchery. Eventually, however, the King decides to get rid of his Queen. In the final scene, when the Queen appears at the marriage of Snow White and is forced to put on red-hot iron shoes, she is determined to defy them by suffering in silence and motionless.

In Bill Willingham's comic book series Fables (2002-2015), the protagonist Snow White's and Rose Red's witch mother is ordered to kill Snow by the King. She fakes her daughter's death and arranges for her to live with her aunt, a widowed queen of a distant land (Snow's mother helped her to achieve this position). Years later, her aunt who is enraged by the fact that Snow is lovelier than her and decides to kill her herself in a manner similar to the fairy tale (first ordering the hunter and then delivering a poisoned apple).

Gregory Maguire's historical novel Mirror, Mirror (2003) casts the historical figure Lucrezia Borgia as the wicked stepmother's role. Bianca de Nevada (Snow White) is born as a child of a minor noble Vicente de Nevada in the 15th-century Renaissance Italy. After her father is forced to embark on a quest for a magical apple tree by Cesare Borgia, Bianca is left in the care the beautiful and madly vain Lucrezia who becomes jealous of her lecherous brother Cesare Borgia's interest in the growing child. The seven dwarves are the creators of the quicksilver mirror, which makes Lucrezia increasingly paranoid and insane.

In Mette Ivie Harrison's novel Mira, Mirror (2004), the titular Mirra was a young apprentice witch who was enchanted by her older sister and a fellow apprentice Amanda into a magic mirror so Amanda could transform herself into the most beautiful woman in the world. Amanda becomes a Queen, but later mysteriously disappears, while the story of Mirra continues.

In Gail Carson Levine's novel Fairest (2006), Queen Ivi is an insecure 19-year-old new queen of Ayortha, who is assisted by Skulni, the mysterious, evil creature living in Ivi's magic mirror. The cold-hearted and power-hungry Ivi blackmails the 15-year-old protagonist Aza into becoming her singing voice in order to preserve her own reputation, and later plots Aza's death. However, it turns out that Ivi's actions were manipulated by Skulni so that he can take a vacation when Ivi is killed. In the end, Ivi turns away from her evil ways, loses her magically created beauty, and is sent away to a remote castle.

Kazuki Nakashima manga series Lost Seven (2008) features Queen Rose, also known as The Witch of the Mirror, as a former court magician who usurped the throne and killed all members of the royal family except of Snow White, who managed to escape. She also appears to plan to open a portal to the demon realm through a magic mirror, here called Sephiroth Glass and crafted by Snow White's own family. Queen Rose is killed (as is Snow White), but as the castle crumbles she manages to rescue her own biological daughter, Red Rose, who 10 years later becomes the heroine of the series.

In Jim C. Hines's Princesses series (2009-2011) chronicling the adventures of Snow White, Princess Danielle Whiteshore (Cinderella) and former Princess Talia Malak-el-Dahshat (Sleeping Beauty), Snow White's mother, Queen Rose Curtana of Alessandria, was a powerful witch who trained her daughter in magic to later attempt transferring her soul into her daughter's body, but thwarted when Snow White proved to be more capable than she had revealed. Snow was banished from her kingdom for the crime of killing her mother (whose feet were burned by the dwarves, here elemental spirits that Snow can summon for aid at the cost of losing seven years of her life as 'payment' for their services, before they killed her). Rose is returned to life when she is summoned by Danielle's stepsisters (believing her to be their now-deceased mother), possessing the elder sister Stacia to acquire a new body, but she is finally defeated when the three princesses confront her with the aid of the seven dwarves. The fourth novel, The Snow Queen's Shadow (2011), reveals that her magic mirror was created by her imprisoning a demon and binding it to her service, suggesting that the mirror's role in the original story was motivated by the demon attempting to create a set of circumstances that would allow it to escape, with the protagonists returning to Rose's former castle to rediscover the secrets she used to bind the demon in hopes of exorcising it after it possesses Snow White.

P. W. Catanese's novel The Mirror's Tale (Further Tales Adventures) (2010) is a sequel to the fairy tale, taking place in the former castle of Rohesia. Before she went mad became known as the Witch-Queen, Rohesia had been using her magic for healing. Her fate is unclear and mysterious, but her ghost shows up to heal a poisoned character.

In the children's book trilogy Half Upon a Time by James Riley (2010-2013), the characters set out to rescue May's grandmother, who they believe is Snow White. She is eventually revealed as the Wicked Queen and the true antagonist of the series.

In The Wishing Spell (2012), a children's novel in The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer, the Evil Queen has been spared by Snow White. She escapes her imprisonment, recovers her magic mirror and reunites with the Huntsman at a remote castle. The Queen desires to complete the Wishing Spell and seeks and sends her new Huntress (the Hunter's daughter) to collect the ingredients for it. She captures the protagonists Conner and Alex, and reveals to them her tragic story. Her real name was Evly, and she was once in love with, and engaged to, a man named Mira. When Evly refused to comply with the wishes of an evil enchantress, he was cursed to be trapped inside a mirror. Evly sought her revenge by killing the enchantress but there was no way for her to break the curse. A witch named Hagatha cured Evly's heartbreak by cutting out her heart and turning it to a stone heart and so Evly could only feel emotion when she was holding it. Evly then snaked her way up to the throne, killing Snow White's mother and marrying the King. Mira's condition began to deteriorate until he became a bland reflection, and he became enamored with Snow White rather than the Queen, and it was what so enraged her and made her order the Huntsman to kill Snow White. Using the Wishing Spell, the Queen manages to free Mira, but he is no longer capable of living outside the mirror and dies in her arms, and they both are consumed by the mirror that once held Mira captive, which then shatters. It is later revealed that Snow White herself has let her escape the dungeon, knowing the Queen's story. In the sequel, The Enchantress Returns (2015), Conner and Alex manage to restore the mirror and contact Evly, but find out that she has become insane and the mirror's curse is in process of taking over her soul completely, just as it did with Mira.

In Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles (2012-2015), Queen Levana is the main antagonist and the equivalent of the Evil Queen. She is the ruler of the moon, aunt of the protagonist Cinder, and stepmother of Princess Winter. Severely scarred from childhood burns, she either wears a veil or uses her psychic abilities to glamour herself with extreme beauty. Fairest, a prequel novella, focuses on her backstory.

Helen Oyeyemi's novel Boy, Snow, Bird (2014) is a reimagination of "Snow White" set in 1950s New England.^[64] Oyeyemi said she wrote a wicked stepmother story because she "wanted to rescue the wicked queen from Snow White, because she seemed to find being a villain a bit of a hassle in a lot of ways. She wasn’t very efficient – it took her three tries to kill Snow White, for example. And I had read Barbara Comyns' The Juniper Tree, which is a retelling of the fairy tale from the perspective of the wicked stepmother, as well, so I began to see a way that I could do it for myself."^[65]

Dark Shimmer by Donna Jo Napoli (2015) reimagines "Snow White" in medieval Italy, focused on the backstory of the Evil Queen figure. Dolce is an innocent, kind woman who grew up thinking she was hideous. Her mood swings and attempts to murder her beloved stepdaughter are the result of mercury poisoning from making mirrors.

Gena Showalter's The Evil Queen (2019), features Everly Morrow, a high school girl obsessed with mirrors who learns that she is prophesied to become the eponymous character in another world of the fairy-tale realm of Enchantia and tries to avert her destiny. The story continues in the Forest of Good and Evil series.

Other

Marius Petipa and Arseny Koreshchenko's 1903 ballet The Magic Mirror, combing the Brothers Grimm tale with the Russian variant The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights features no magic elements. After the evil deeds of the envious Queen (originally played by Marius Petipa's daughter Marie Petipa) against the Princess are exposed and the King threatens her with dungeon, she has attack of insanity, tells all what she ordered done and then falls dead.

In Robert Walser's 1904 opera Schneewittchen (and João César Monteiro's 2000 film Branca de Neve), the adolescent, weak Prince has revived Snow White, but instead of marrying her he fell in love with the beautiful Queen. The Prince thinks the villain is the huntsman, who is the Queen's lover, while the King is oblivious of everything. The story centers on the conflict between the Queen and Snow White, and ends when the latter decides to forgive the former and they make a peace at last.

In the Ever After High franchise by Mattel, Raven Queen is the daughter of the original Evil Queen, and is one of the lead character of the franchise, along with Snow White's daughter Apple White. She is a rebel, frustrated with her destiny to become a new queen of evil, and wishes to go her own way. Most people see her as evil and mean, but she is actually misunderstood and wishes to be herself and rewrite her own chapter and strives to try to make it work. The Evil Queen herself is locked up in Mirror Prison and often insults the things Raven talks about, including Raven's father, the Good King.

In the lore of the video game series Dark Parables, the jealous Queen enchants the King to put the twins Snow White and Ross Red to death for a false offense. She is eventually exposed by a magic frog that Snow White had befriended sometime before and turned out to be The Cursed Prince, and flees the kingdom.

Ellen Reid's 2001 debut album Cinderellen features the song "In Defense of the Wicked Queen", which tells the story from the Queen's perspective.