Starting with snow white

Snow White.
This prominent theatrical director-
producer could no longer own the audience’s vision of the production; technological 
advancement had obscured his role as well as the key innovations of his play. 
As mentioned earlier, one of the elements that made White’s/Ames’ play, 
Snow 
White and the Seven Dwarfs
, so uniquely 
his
was the character of Witch Hex. Not only 
did she drive the plot’s central action, but she did so in a way that humorously under-
girded the grim tale. Rather than focusing so intently on Queen Brangomar’s jealousy, a 
reader or viewer laughed at her majesty’s short-sightedness. This was made possible 
through the perspective of Witch Hex. In the film, however, the Witch, more symbolic in 
nature, plays an ancillary role—representative of evil and sharing its force with the 
queen. 

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Because the “Witch” acts as a symbol of evil or villainy and contrives with 
Brangomar (both in her initial rise to power and attempted elimination of Snow White) 
she is introduced sooner, before the romantic interlude between Snow White and the 
Prince even. Here, a viewer finds an alternate tale, wherein Brangomar was just “an evil 
lady of the court” (ironically, portrayed with a pointed hat, symbolic of witchery) when 
she initially “conspired with [the] Witch to surpass Snow White’s beauty” (Ames).
While the Witch concedes to helping the lady, the very next image presented reflects the 
following (through titles): “In return, the Witch 
demanded 
that, in the future, she would 
receive the heart of Snow White” (Ames; emphasis added). The language of “demanded” 
intensifies this action and positions the Witch as complicit in the villainy, whereas in the 
play, when Brangomar begs the Witch, “Oh, make a spell and turn her ugly—as ugly as 
a 
toad!” the Witch replies, “Won’t! Refuse to make any more bad spells” (White 60). This 
is a very different scene. Here, Brangomar appears no more than a spoiled child from 
whom the Witch has withdrawn support. When, later in the play, the witch does take an 
interest in the heart of Snow White, she explicitly extricates herself from the murderous 
action the queen aims to undertake. With a hair restorer spell in mind, the Witch explains 
that the last ingredient she requires is “the heart of a nice young girl” (White 61). Lest 
she be understood as the villain, she adds, “Now I wouldn’t harm a nice young girl 
myself for anything; but if you’re determined to dispose of Snow White I’d be obliged 
for her heart” (White 61-62).
This
Witch
has 
“demanded” 
nothing, instead, she refers to 
the heart of Snow White as little more than an item on her grocery list. Because the 
audience does not find the same humor in exchanges with the Witch, the tone of the film 

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as well as the central dramatic action within are changed. It is not the figure of the Witch 
who nudges the action ahead with a smile and a wink to her audience; instead, it is the 
evil within Brangomar that motivates the film’s central action. As a result, the tone is 
more serious and, one might argue, reflective of the 
Snow White 
tale’s European folkloric 
past, where jealousy led the way, 
not 
Ames’ Witch Hex. Moreover, this earlier scene 
between Brangomar and the evil witch draws to a viewer’s mind an alternate tale of 
negotiation and commitment for later payment, that of 
Rumpelstiltskin
, only it is the 
villain here who is bound by a verbal contract. Not only has Ames’ vision been obscured 
by this alternate character presentation then, so too has the