Starting with snow white

does
attribute to Ames’ film but 
not
White’s/Ames’ 
play or Merington’s) was 
Disney’s
way of heightening “dramatic engagement—that is 
creating more interest in the characters or plot through audience sympathy and 
involvement” (138). However, 
White’s
/
Ames’
play
 
shows how an extended interlude 
between the two characters serves to amplify the romance in the scene, which is 
heightened still further through specific stage directions leading up to and throughout the 
dance. The viewer/reader sees the Prince’s initial and growing intrigue, as well as Snow 

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White’s responsiveness to his flattery. For the Prince, “[…
there is something about her 
that attracts the young PRINCE from the first; and as the dance 
[of the Maids of Honor, 
including Snow White]
 progresses he becomes so interested that he comes down from the 
throne to watch her more closely. As the first figure ends he is close beside her” 
(White 
40-41). Once the flirtation begins, stage directions show Snow White “[
Hesitating, and 
then
]…” conceding, executing lines “[
Playfully
]” and even “[
Embarrassed
]” at one point.
Such responses elicit an air of sexual tension, which only draw the Prince (and audience) 
in further. This is no longer a mere child’s play. White/Ames is aiming for a wider 
audience of consumption as the intensified drama serves to show, yet it is the use of 
Merington’s episodic model that enables this more enticing exchange. 
The ridicule of royalty, as well, is depicted more vividly in its representation for a 
reading/viewing audience (through stage directions) and through the perceptions of other 
characters, rather than simply through the actions of the play. First, in place of the 
Chancellor, one finds the Court Chamberlain, Sir Dandiprat Bombas. The stage 
directions depict this figure as “[…
a fat, puffy little man, with an enormous wig and a 
great sense of his own importance
,” and his name aligns him with the figure of a “dandy” 
or “man who gives exaggerated attention to personal appearance” (White 5; 
Merriam-
Webster
). This description alone, or his appearance onstage, would likely elicit a chuckle 
from the audience. When “Old Dandiprat” “
waddles in”
to give an “announcement” 
later, the audience eagerly awaits the foolishness to follow and Dandiprat does not 
disappoint (White 28). Although he is the speaker, Dandiprat has penned his own 
announcement (focused on the minute-by-minute events leading up to the arrival of the 

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Prince) on a parchment scroll, and proceeds to read this document word for word, 
including a self-important conclusion and closing, “By order of me, Sir Dandiprat 
Bombas, Court Chamberlain. ‘Signed, Yours very truly, ‘Sir Dandiprat Bombas’” (White 
29). This repetition of his name calls further attention to his self-importance, of which no 
one is more aware than the good Chamberlain himself.
However, White’s/Ames’ mark is even more definitively stamped upon this 
scene. A new gossipy exchange between the Maids of Honor at the start of the play 
reveals their lack of concern for “Old Dandiprat” (“He gives us our ‘instructions’ […] 
“But we don’t mind 
him
”), as well as their distaste for a jealous queen who mistreats their 
beloved Snow White (White 28,7). By drawing his viewer into the conversation, and 
providing the characters’ perceptions of others, Ames makes this aversion to the 
pompous, self-serving royals a sentiment which the audience shares. Importantly, the 
audience now might not merely laugh at but loath those within this court, alongside the 
Maids. This mode of audience identification with a subset of the players is gained not 
through the episodic actions of the play, but through specific stage directions and views 
expressed by supplementary characters. Importantly, the Maids of Honor were an 
White/Ames addition, facilitating this deeper level of audience engagement. 
Audience identification was also further enhanced through a new presentation of 
the dwarfs in White’s/Ames’ version. Here, in contrast to Merington’s representation, 
the group functions to create within Snow White a model American female figure, 
subservient (on some level) to her male counterparts. Hardworking though they may be, 
the dwarfs are referenced as subhuman in their abilities to distinguish value, care for the 

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home and themselves, and communicate. They need Snow White to stay with them, to 
care for them, to mother them and show them the way. Where Merington’s dwarfs 
wanted an equitable partner in Snow White, White’s/Ames’ dwarfs do not even know 
how to speak to her. Their leader, Blick, confesses, “We don’t know how to talk to 
young people,” nor do they know how to keep Snow White (White 115). When they 
offer her gifts to stay, she misinterprets these signs, wondering if it is Christmas or 
“somebody’s birthday?” (White 117). In this exchange and others, Snow White and the 
dwarfs talk past one another. Her logic does not match theirs. Even when she suggests 
that in staying, “I could be so useful.” Blick frets, “But our housekeeping…” (White 
118). Blick lacks both the logic and language to ask for Snow White’s support. Instead, 
she must offer and show him (and the others) the way, “That’s just how I could be useful.
I can cook and sew and sweep and brew and make beds, and—oh, lots of things” (White 
118). The trouble continues when these dwarfs confer; they do not vote as in 
Merington’s version, but attempt to make sense of her offer, “Did I hear right? Did she 
say she would 
stay?
” (White 118). Unsurprisingly, given the disorder in their lives and 
daily tasks, there is no underlying governing structure or set of principles amongst the 
group. Snow White’s function as a mother, a teacher, and a housekeeper is essential for 
this inferior lot. She must help them to make sense of their home and their world. Where 
Wright finds this a Disney innovation, reflective of the “popular heroines of the 1930s” 
and generated by a wave of feminist activity in the 1920s, in Ames’ play one finds an 
earlier representation of the same, positioning Snow White as a “resourceful [individual] 
who not only survived but found a measure freedom and independence in spite of [her] 

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second-class status in a patriarchal society” (104). With the importance of work 
highlighted through the dwarfs, White/Ames gave Snow White a functional role 
alongside them, situating her in a more predictable gendered position, as a commonplace 
American woman. 
Although some of the exchanges with the dwarfs elicit a bit of humor, more of 
this quality comes through White’s/Ames’ most inventive insertion, Witch Hex. Through 
this character, White/Ames enables his audience to see one of the central figures of the 
play, Queen Brangomar, in a different light and offers a new device for the play’s 
development. Witch Hex is not only the supplier of magic, keeping Queen Brangomar 
youthful, but propels the play’s forward movement. She begins by giving the queen a 
magic mirror, warning her that it “Reflects you as you really are” and “If you ever break 
that Mirror you will become as ugly as you really are” (White 59). However, the warning 
is not pronounced with a grave tone, as which Hex concludes with “—and for life, too!
None of my spells can beauty you again either” (White 59). Although a viewer/reader 
might not yet recognize the significance of Hex’s cautions or taunting remarks, it soon 
becomes evident that her words project the coming action within the play. For example, 
when she next refuses to “make any more bad spells” to resolve Queen Brangomar’s 
problem of Snow White, she also gives her the notion of sending Snow White off to 
boarding school (White 60). “You must contrive to have her lost on the 
way 
to boarding-
school, and then just tell some tarradiddle to explain why she never comes back—and 
there you are! Everything permanently settled” (White 60). Importantly, Hex does not 
encourage the Queen to kill Snow White, but simply to do away with her. This, as well 

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as other actions and dialogue, demonstrate that though Witch Hex is not evil, the actions 
that she inspires are. While this still positions Queen Brangomar as villain, having 
inferred from the witch’s prescription that she must kill Snow White, equal weight is 
given to this newly created co-conspirator who continues to motivate the play’s episodic 
actions.
When Snow White has not been killed by the huntsman, Berthold, it is not the 
mirror who initially informs Queen Brangomar that the young beauty is still alive, but 
Witch Hex. Because she planned to use the heart of the young woman for a hair 
restoration spell, the pig’s tails which sprout upon Witch Hex’s head and her 
interpretation of this sign reveal the huntsman’s deception. When the queen laughs, 
Witch Hex replies, “If the joke’s on anybody, it’s on