Snow White in Beasts and Beauty: Character Analysis

Overview

In Soman Chainani’s Beasts and Beauty, Snow White is not the passive princess of tradition. She is the daughter of the first queen—a woman who married a weak prince and was slowly abandoned by him. Born with crow-black skin, blood-red lips, and eyes as white as snow, Snow White inherits her mother’s beauty but also her mother’s loneliness. When her mother dies and her father remarries a vain queen, Snow White faces a campaign of psychological and physical abuse. Rather than waiting for rescue, she outwits the queen’s poisoned gifts, survives in the forest with seven dwarfs, and ultimately returns to claim her throne without a prince. This chapter subverts the classic fairy tale by giving Snow White full agency and challenging ideas of beauty, race, and power. For a full overview of the book, see the main book page.

Plot Role

Snow White serves as the protagonist of the second chapter, which takes the familiar “Snow White” story and inverts its key moments. She is the target of her stepmother’s envy, but she never becomes a damsel in distress. When the huntsman raises his knife, she asks “For what?”—a question no victim has ever asked him. This moment shifts the power dynamic. Instead of fleeing or crying, she confronts him with logic. Later, when the stepmother disguises herself as a peddler, Snow White uses the queen’s own poisoned comb against her by baking it into bread. The stepmother dies. Snow White then refuses the prince who discovers the queen’s glass coffin; she returns to the castle to take her father’s throne. Her role is that of a self-rescuer who breaks the cycle of male-led salvation.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Snow White’s primary motivation is survival and self-determination. She endures years of mistreatment at the castle without rebellion because she knows that “a nemesis uses any excuse to kill you.” This calculated restraint shows her intelligence and long-term thinking. When she finally kills the queen, she does so methodically—baking the comb into bread and offering it as a gift. She is not cruel but decisive. Her actions also reveal a deep desire for belonging. At the dwarfs’ cottage, she feels an immediate kinship with others who share her skin color, realizing she had been “blind” for not seeing how much she needed a mirror of herself. She adapts quickly, becoming the cook and storyteller for the dwarfs, creating fairy tales of her own because none exist for people like them. This shows resilience, creativity, and a refusal to accept the stories imposed on her.

Chronological Arc

Snow White’s arc spans from childhood to queenship. She is born to a loving mother who teaches her to be loved. After the mother dies, the stepmother reduces her to a servant. For years Snow White suppresses her anger. When the mirror declares her fairer, the stepmother escalates from verbal abuse to attempted murder. The huntsman spares her, and she flees into the forest, where the animals and nature welcome her. She finds the dwarfs’ cottage and earns their trust by telling bedtime stories. The stepmother attacks twice: first with a poisoned comb, which the dwarfs remove, then with a poisoned apple. This time Snow White turns the trap around. The queen dies; the dwarfs place the body in a glass coffin on a mountain. A prince arrives, but Snow White does not marry him. Instead, she returns to the castle, “stronger than before,” and takes the throne, vowing to raise her future child differently. Her arc moves from passive endurance to active resistance and finally to triumphant self-rule.

Relationships

With her mother (the first queen): The first queen loved Snow White unconditionally and kept her close, teaching her how to be loved. Her death leaves Snow White without protection, but the memory of that love gives her a foundation of worth.

With the stepmother: The relationship is that of nemesis. The stepmother sees Snow White as a living threat to her own beauty and control. She tries to kill her three times. Winter in the palace mirrors the tension. Snow White eventually kills her, but the act is not vengeful—it is survival.

With the dwarfs: The seven dwarfs are the first people Snow White meets who share her Black skin. They take her in, teach her to fight for breath, and protect her as family. The eldest dwarf warns her of danger; Snow White provides food and stories in return. Their bond is mutual and healing. They are her community.

With the prince: The prince appears only after the queen’s body is placed in a coffin. He is immediately attracted to the dead queen’s body, not to Snow White. When he sees Snow White, he falls back in shock. Snow White rejects him and the “happily ever after” he represents. This decision underscores her refusal to be saved by a man.

With the kingdom: Her father’s people view her as a curse because of her skin color. They prefer the stepmother. Snow White does not try to win their approval; she claims power through her own strength.

Key Decisions and Consequences

1. Asking the huntsman “For what?” – This stops the killing and gives her a chance to escape. The huntsman spares her, but he also lies to the queen by bringing boar lungs and liver. This decision preserves Snow White’s life and delays the queen’s next attempt.

2. Staying with the dwarfs – She accepts their invitation to share the cottage, becoming part of their household. This provides her with shelter, food, and emotional support. It also puts her in the path of the queen’s second attack (the comb) and third attack (the apple).

3. Eating the combo-bread – Actually, she does not eat it; she bakes the previously poisoned comb into bread and feeds it to the disguised queen. This kills the stepmother. The consequence is that Snow White eliminates her predator but must then decide what to do with the body. She initially wants to bring it to her father to expose the evil, but the dwarfs convince her that such a “fair ending” would get them all killed because the kingdom would see a Black girl and dead queen and demand justice against them. Instead, they hide the body in a glass coffin on a mountain.

4. Refusing the prince – When the prince appears and offers a romantic ending, Snow White turns away. She returns to the castle alone and claims the throne. This breaks the fairy-tale pattern and establishes her as a ruler independent of marriage.

Theme and Symbol Connections

This story directly engages the theme of beauty as a curse. Snow White’s beauty is the stated reason for her stepmother’s hatred, yet she never considered herself beautiful until the dwarfs reflect her true self. The mirror symbolizes the arbitrary and racialized standards of beauty: it first declares the stepmother fair, then Snow White, because Snow White “breaks the rules” of what beauty is supposed to look like. The text also explores subversion of fairy-tale conventions by making Snow White the agent of her own rescue. She does not need a prince; she needs a community (the dwarfs) and her own cunning. The theme of agency and self-rescue is embodied in every action she takes, from the first question to the final throne. Additionally, the story touches on power of naming and identity: Snow White is named by her mother who wishes for a child “white as snow, red as blood, black as a crow.” The name is both a description of her physical appearance and a statement of identity that others weaponize. Snow White reclaims it by the end. Finally, the absence of a romantic pairing reinforces queer and non-traditional relationships, though the main relationship here is platonic with the dwarfs and a self-chosen solitude.

For more on how this ending redefines the story, see the ending explained page.

Snow White: Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why does Snow White kill the queen by baking the comb into bread?
Snow White realizes the queen has returned in disguise and will try to poison her again. Rather than reject the apple outright, she outwits the queen by offering bread that contains the previously poisoned comb from the queen’s earlier attack. This proves her intelligence and willingness to use the queen’s own methods against her.

2. Does Snow White marry the prince at the end?
No. The prince appears, sees the dead queen in the glass coffin, and is entranced by her beauty. When he sees Snow White, he is startled. Snow White rejects the fairy-tale ending and returns to the castle to claim her throne by herself.

3. Why don’t the dwarfs bring the queen’s body to the king?
The dwarfs point out that if they show up with the body and a Black girl and seven Black dwarfs, the people will assume guilt and demand their deaths. “To seek a fair ending for their kind is as foolish as it is noble,” the eldest says. They choose survival over justice.

4. How does Snow White’s relationship with her mother shape her?
Her mother loved her unconditionally and taught her “how to be loved.” That early bond gives Snow White a core belief that she is worthy, even when everyone else, including her father, treats her as a curse. It also motivates her to return to the castle so that her own child will not lose a mother.

5. What does the mirror represent in this story?
The mirror represents arbitrary standards of beauty imposed by society. It first validates the stepmother, then declares Snow White fairer, which enrages the queen. The mirror’s truth is not objective; it reflects the story’s challenge to racial beauty norms. Snow White’s “fairness” is both literal (her skin) and metaphorical (her inner strength). For discussion, see the questions and answers page.