In stories like Cinderella or Snow White it is highlighted almost immediately that the young women in the stories are the rivals of their parents. In the case of Cinderella her father has remarried and her mother is dead (sticking to the Disney versions to avoid confusion for the moment) Her stepmother is an older woman, here we have the issue of competition between women. Cinderella's step sisters are being used by their mother in order to gain a higher social status. Cinderella reguardless of her beauty and kind nature is a treat to the stepmothers social advancement, so I think that her beauty has nothing to do with it. It is simply the idea of one woman striving to step over another.
The real world is a lot like this and it is not only normal but acceptable. In the case of Snow White, her mother is already the Queen she is self obsessed and cannot stand the thought of her own daughter being the fairest in the land. Beauty, then becomes a marker as well as an expectation and a fault that cause both women a great deal of trouble. Snow White's mother goes to great lengths to maintain her status as the most beautiful of them all. When she transforms herself into an old hag she gives Snow White a poisoned apple. The connotations of this are that older women are something to fear as well as knowledgeable. Intelligence is something that was frowned upon in these types of stories because they often meant that the woman involved took on an unfeminine trait, women in fairytales are supposed to be passive and docile As I was reading the PDF entitled Jealous Queens and the myth of Oedipus Rex' I noticed very early into the reading (196) that there's the discussion of parental jealousy over the advancement of their children. I didn't immediately realize that this is what the article would discuss and find it quite funny since I already had my idea developed around it before I read it.
Jealousy is a powerful emotion, and while the Queen in Snow White has supposedly had her daughter killed and is eating her internal organs, I am left with the impression that she has taken on her daughters beauty, by eating a part of her and the parts representing her youth and loveliness she beleives she is able to take on these traits. This is the same as when women follow their favorite celebrities and dress and style their hair like them, they are emulating them in hopes of being more likable or accepted.
The Queen just seems to be going though some sort of Identity crisis because she is no longer the center of attention in the kingdom, I've read about this type of thing in many fairytales even popular literature. In the case of "B-More Careful" by Sharon Holmes. Netta grows up to be more beautiful than her mother ever was, this is something that her mother grows to hate her for since her life has become centered around her drug abuse. Her looks have deteriorated and this even causes her to become physically abusive to Netta. Though out the reading I continued to be reminded of how jealousy has managed to pop up everywhere this got me thinking about Titus Andronicus. A standard Shakespearean tragedy, Titus serves Tamora the goth Queen er sons in a meat paste pie. Titus ultimately has done this in order to seek retribution for his daughters rape but applying it to the concept of jealousy it can be argued that Titus was seeking to replace the males in Tamora's life with himself. Even if they were husband and wife it can simply be an issue of him wanting to control and dominate her.
While the text has transitioned from the concept of Wicked Stepmothers and Parental competion between them and their offspring the issue of closeness has arisen(198) I wanted to look at this a little differently. By maintaining a close even a sexual relationship with a child in the case of these stories, whether the relationship is one of domination or genuineness a sense of control is achieved. Oedipus' father fears he will replace him and the theme runs though out the story, Snow White's mothers jealous because she reminds her of herself. With their own wicked deeds in place they have tried to control their circumstances and in turn control their children. Incestuous entanglements in a strange way are an excellent way of controlling others,(Totally not agreeing with this!) morally degenerate yet conveniently they allow people to maintain power over their children as well as form a deeper bond, this lends to the idea of mind control through manipulation.
Please check out the following link. Re connecting with the idea of incestuous relationships Mother Gothal in Rapunzel is often looked at as a dominant Lesbian figure who tries to live through her daughter. Enjoy!
http://www.gwu.edu/~folktale/GERM232/rapunzel/femme.html
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