Sunday, March 30, 2008

#232- "Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins"

Analysis of Speaker/Rhyme/Meter:
Speaker: The speaker of this poem is omniscient. The lack of a first-person viewpoint helps the poem to be more thorough in its expression of the various allusions it contains. It allows the poem to encompass the meanings of all the biblical references, especially the Seven Deadly Sins. Also, the omniscient speaker connects to the idea of a fairy tale in the poem, as these types of fantasy stories are almost always told in third-person perspective.
Rhyme: The rhyme scheme of this poem, ABAB, is perhaps the most familiarly traditional pattern to readers of poetry and is consistent throughout the entire poem. The familiarity of this rhyme scheme and the fact that poetry is traditionally and stereotypically viewed as rhyming in this way, it emphasizes the idea that the poem is deeply involved with biblical and fairy tale references, perhaps the only two types of stories that can remain this solid and memorable and can withstand the test of time. Biblical stories and fairy tales are familiar to people of every generation, every age, and every historical period, and they never seem to become less effective or valuable as they are passed down through generations.
Meter: The meter of this poem (four lines of relatively similar length in each stanza), like the rhyme scheme of the poem, possesses perhaps the most traditional structure that a poem can have. Both the rhyme scheme and meter give the poem its classic and universally familiar tone, a tone of a fairy tale such as Snow White or a Bible story such as that of Peter, one of Jesus' twelve apostles.
Analysis of 2 Literary Devices:
Allusion: Allusion is the most obvious and effective literary device used in this poem. The two allusions in the poem are to the Bible (the Seven Deadly Sins in particular) and to the familiar fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The connection between these two allusions are the significance of the number seven in both stories, and the concepts and corruptions of each of the Seven Deadly Sins and of the tale of Snow White, and especially how they relate to each other. The first stanza of the poem compares Snow White the princess to a "Good little Catholic girl,/ she didn't mind the cleaning" (1-2). Throughout the poem with the brief yet effective descriptions of the Seven Deadly Sins (emphasized with the use of italicization of the name of each sin), each of the sins are applied to Snow White's life and her work, for example "Pride's wall of looking glasses" (13) references the evil queen's Magic Mirror in the story of Snow White, "Gluttony's empties covered half the table" references the dinner that Snow White prepared for the seven dwarves upon their return from a hard day's work in the mines, and "Retrieving several pairs of Sloth's soiled drawers,/ A sweat-sock and a cake of hairy soap" (23-24) references the dwarves' lack of regard for personal hygiene and cleanliness prior to the arrival of Snow White to teach them better ways of living and to clean up after them. The last two stanzas point out perhaps the presence of lust and greed in the seemingly charming, fantastic, and happy ending of the tale when after she awakens, the handsome [lust] prince beckons Snow White to come with him on his beautiful, [and expensive] white horse [greed] and live happily ever after with him, the finest prince in the land, believed to be so because of his looks and his royal possessions. "In time to see a Handsome Prince, of course," (34). "So debonair! So charming! And so Male" (38).
Personification: The Seven Deadly Sins in the poem are described as having human possessions: "Pride's wall of looking glasses" (13), "Lust's magazines lay strewn" (15), "Gluttony's empties covered half the table" (17), "[...]Avarice's cards and chips" (18), and "[...] sloth's soiled drawers" (23). This personification allows the sins to be viewed on the same level with the same importance as the human characters in the loved and respected fairy tale of Snow White, despite the underlying immoralities and corruptions that are present in the people of this seemingly innocent and charming story. It compares the impulsive marriage of Snow White to the rich and handsome prince, "And she was out the window in a second,/In time to see a Handsome Prince, of course" (33-34), to the things defined as the most immoral by the Catholic church, the Seven Deadly Sins. Essentially, the personification of these sins also shows that Snow White the princess and her Handsome Prince are the human representations of these moral crimes.
Reflection:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves has always been one of my favorite fairy tales, and I have always had an interest in the Seven Deadly Sins and the various different stories and metaphors written about them, but until reading this poem, I never made the connection between the two. I like how the poem is able to effectively compare two very unlike things, one of which is a childhood fantasy story and the other is a collection of the seven worst moral evils of the Christian faith. I really enjoyed the complexity of language and the parallels between these two familiar allusions. My favorite line of the poem was "No poisoned apple needed for this Princess" (29), showing how because there are already so many sins hidden beneath the innocence of the fairy tale, Snow White doesn't need an apple to be poisoned with evil.

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