Today, we will be taking a look at the 1938 Disney movie “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” through the lens of Freud’s Ego, Id, and Superego. We’ll see how each of the characters in the movie represents one of these three psychological concepts. Hopefully after reading this, you’ll never watch Snow White the same way again!
The Story
The story is about a beautiful girl who is Snow White. Her original mom envisioned having her after she cut her hand on accident on the black ebony windowsill. A drop of blood fell into the snow.
“How cool it would be to have a daughter with hair as black as ebony like this window frame, with red lips as dark as this blood, and skin as white as snow,” she said.
But soon after she had Snow White, she died! And it was here that this new little baby had to fend herself off from the world. This sets the stage as the child is orphaned from the top of the story.
The Evil Stepmother
Snow White is loved by all, except for her new evil stepmother, the Queen. This is a woman who has this crazy need for attention. If she’s not number one, she will totally lose her mind.
“Mirror Mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
“Snow White is the fairest of them all, my highness.”
The Queen can’t handle this. She’s not a big fan of constructive feedback.
Out of her extreme envy, the Queen orders her Huntsman to kill the girl. However, the Huntsman takes pity on Snow White and lets her go. Thank god, or the story would have ended here.
The Dwarfs
Snow White ends up in the forest where she meets the Seven Dwarfs. They tell her she can stay at their house but with one caveat – she has to be their literal maid. That’s a lot of food to cook and a lot of beds to make.
Well, one day, while the Dwarfs are away at work, the Queen comes to visit Snow White in costume. She’s always tricking Snow White with a variety of costumes. As such, she kills her every time. But somehow or other, Snow White keeps coming back to life.
For example, one time the Queen poses as an old woman. She gives Snow White a poisoned apple which puts her into a deep sleep.
The Dwarfs find her and cannot wake her up. Assuming she’s dead, they build her a glass coffin so everyone can see her dead rotting corpse.
The Prince
Somehow or other a prince happens by and sees Snow White in the coffin. He falls in love immediately. He strikes a deal to take the coffin with the girl in it.
Now – isn’t this a little strange? This idea of a clear, transparent casket, where you can ogle at the person you love the most? Try to imagine her in the living room as some kind of strange centerpiece.
“It’s Heather, man, otherwise known as Snow White. I have her encased in this clear glass, this transparent tomb.” The Prince then looks at his best friend. “What do you think we should do with her, dude?”
Remember – the first time that the Prince even sees Snow White is when she is dead. And he’s like, “I’m in love.”
I’m just saying, it strikes me as a little strange.
Is it possible to fall in love with a dead person? It seems like usually when I’ve had a crush on people, they’re alive.
Most necrophiliacs choose occupations that put them in contact with corpses. As an example, never trust the town coroner or the people who work down at the morgue, according to this theory.
But the most common attraction for a necrophiliac is this idea that the partner is unresisting. This is because the fear of being rejected is so high, that some people just want a completely unrejecting partner.
It seems odd that the prince would be that insecure, though, doesn’t it?
Anyway, he gives her a kiss which breaks the spell, and she wakes up. They get married and live happily ever after.
Let’s now do our simple breakdown through a Freudian lens.
Ego
The Ego is the part of our psyche that is focused on reality. It’s what helps us balance our own wants and needs with the demands of the outside world. In Snow White, the character who most represents the Ego is, fittingly enough, Snow White herself. Throughout the movie, she is constantly trying to find a balance between her own desires (wanting to be accepted by the dwarfs, wanting to have a family) and the demands of her situation (cleaning up after the dwarfs, cooking for them).
I gotta say, she’s pretty “balanced”. Most people would be upset after someone tried to kill them. But in Snow White’s case, she’s calm and collected after the stepmom does it again and again. Does this mean she has a super balanced Ego?
Or, is she, and I hate to say this – stupid?
No, I refuse to believe this. She is smart. Don’t worry, I got your back, Snow White, if you’re listening!
Id
The Id is the part of our psyche that consists of our basic instincts and desires. It’s often in conflict with the Ego because it doesn’t consider reality; it just wants what it wants when it wants it – kind of like a lizard.
In Snow White, the Id is represented by the Evil Queen. She is driven by her vanity and her desire to be the fairest one of all, to the point where she is willing to kill Snow White in order to achieve her goals.
So the Queen has to be perfect. Number one. Who is she competing with? Does she need to be seen by her husband the King as this perfect looking model? What happened to the Queen to make her act this way? Will she ever be happy?
I must wonder – even if she gets her wish to kill Snow White, I feel like she’ll kind of want to kill again.
Superego
The Superego is the part of our psyche that consists of our moral compass—it’s what tells us right from wrong.
At first glance, this is represented by the Magic Mirror. It always tells the truth, even when that truth is difficult to hear (as when it tells the Evil Queen that Snow White is now “the fairest one of all”).
But the Superego in this story is probably best represented by the men in this story. The Hunter refuses to kill Snow White because it just doesn’t feel right, for example. And the Dwarfs seem to be kind of like parents.
How about the King who we never see? Well, it bothers me that the King just kind of vanishes after Snow White’s original mom passes away. He must know on some level he is newly married to a psychopath Queen – and thus he ought to protect her.
Which brings us back to the Dwarfs. Are they really protecting her?
“You have to work if you want to stay here,” they tell her. “There’s no free lunch, kid.”
I’m reminded of the naïve actress from the small town who goes to New York to try and make it on Broadway, right? And she kind of gets involved with the wrong people. You get the feeling she’s surrounded by sharks.
The Dwarfs aren’t exactly her friend. Can’t they leave one bodyguard Dwarf behind?
Anyway – there are more themes to digest here.
The big one is that this is an adolescent story. Snow White and the blood on the snow, and the men, all these men who try and “save her” as she goes to college, but she just keeps getting “tricked”. Meanwhile, the mom’s unhappy reaction to it all which turns her into a total witch.
Yep.
Kerry Heffelfinger is the co-founder of Sunflower Counseling in Missoula with his wife, Marie Pettit, LCPC. They created Sunflower together to help people get better counseling in their lives. With their team of therapists and client care coordinators they have helped thousands of families in Montana by getting people the counseling they need. Before this, Kerry ran Highwood Music where he taught 80 students in classes how to play classical piano and guitar. He graduated from UM with a Master’s in Education.
