Ra Rough Draft 1

Kristine Dayrit
Professor McClure
Writing 39B
6 February 2018
Challenging the Damsel in Distress
Obedient, daring, and charismatic are characteristics the stereotypical princess
possesses. From the classic fairy tale princesses such as Cinderella and Princess
Aurora to other familiar princesses like Princess Fiona in Shrek and Princess Zelda in
The Legend of Zelda series, can all be classified as a “damsel in distress,” a young
woman typically in need of saving from a male character. In literature, the princess is
typically portrayed as a protagonist who restores justice and power to the kingdom from
her step-mother, the cruel and fearsome queen. Neil Gaiman, a renowned English
author of infamous works such as Coraline, The Sandman, and The Graveyard Book
winning Newbery and Carnegie medals, published a short story in 1994 titled Snow,
Glass, Apples that subverts the cliché princess role, more specifically Snow White from
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Walt Disney. Gaiman challenges the
quintessential wretched queen and graceful princess by crossing the fairy tale and
horror genre, appealing towards young readers who read dark children’s fantasies.
Gaiman’s sole purpose is to criticize the femininity in young women who use their
sexuality for the desire of cultural power, contrasting the roles of the wise and powerful
queen to the subordinate and aggressive princess in attempts to inform the audience to
admire and respect women in power instead of undermining them. To achieve this to
the audience, Gaiman uses the art horror genre and includes the motif of sex to show
how he is subverting the traditional view of a princess as well as incorporating pathos to
sway the emotions of the reader to support this claim.
In this story, Gaiman illustrates how the princess embodies an art horror monster
who instills fear at the thought of her and utilizes the art horror monster character to her
own advantage in order to emphasize towards the audience that women are capable of
exploiting themselves for their own personal gain. Gaiman portrays this message
through the princess, a paradoxical character in the story who betrays her
compassionate, understanding step-mother. The princess in Snow, Glass, Apples does
not take on the role of a typical heroine princess, rather, she embodies the likes of a
malevolent being -- a vampire who seduces men to feast off of. In the beginning of the
story, the king is healthy and lively but begins to deteriorate, a sign the queen
immediately takes notice of. This is one of the instances where the princess can be
seen as aggressive for betraying the queen, for the princess has slept with the her
father, the king. The king begins to cry as an automatic response to the queen’s attempt
to pleasure him, who later dies. “He would not permit me to pleasure him with my
mouth: the one time I tried, he started, violently, and began to weep. I pulled my mouth
away and held him tightly, until the sobbing had stopped, and he slept, like a child
(Gaiman).” In the upcoming paragraph, it is stated that the king has scars and on his
bollock-pouch. This implies that the king is terrified and traumatized, most likely due to
his daughter feasting off of him. The author further supports that the princess is using
the art horror monster to implement terror to characters in the story as well as the
audience through the use of pathos.
Gaiman incorporates an appeal to pathos through two instances: describing the
prince’s uneasy reaction to the art horror princess as she claws open her chest in order
to restore her heart and the thought of a being licking a heart. The moment the princess
and prince walk into the queen’s bedroom, the queen watches the princess rip her chest
wide open. Gaiman says,“She licked her heart, once, as the blood ran over her hands,
and she pushed the heart deep into her breast. I saw her do it… Her prince looked
briefly concerned, but he put his arm around her nonetheless (Gaiman),” where she
deliberately includes the reaction of the prince. In doing so, it gives the audience a
specific way to respond. This is intentional and is backed up by Noel Caroll, an
American Philosopher with multiple works on journalism, philosophy, theory of media,
and history, in his essay The Nature of Horror, saying,” The characters of works of
horror exemplify for us the way in which to react to the monsters in the fiction. Our
emotions are supposed to mirror those of the positive human characters (Carroll 53).”
Gaiman is hoping that the audience has a similar response as the prince, where he
feels uncomfortable in the moment. The author also explicitly includes the princess
licking her own heart, which stirs up an uneasy response to the reader. As normal
human readers, we know that this is both revolting and unusual to even do. The author
includes this not only to suade the audience into feeling disgusted by the monster, but
also because it represents the princess’s vampire side where she yearns for the taste of
blood as well as her own heart. Gaiman also supports his argumentation that the
princess is subverting the princess role in literature by including the the motif of sex.
Sex reappears throughout the story multiple times due to the princess abusing her body
in order to live and progress in life, demonstrating to the audience that this is her main
approach to surviving. In one particular point in the story, the queen watches the
princess through a mirror who she fools a man who paid her for prostitution, but is
instead her meal. Gaiman says, “He closed his eyes, and fumbled one huge hand under
her skirt. She lowered her mouth to the nipple she had been teasing, her smooth skin
white on the furry brown body of him. She sank her teeth deep into his breast. His eyes
opened, then they closed again, and she drank (Gaiman)” showcasing that the princess
had used her body to avert her true motive in feasting on the man. Aside from the
conspicuous reasons such as killing people and taking advantage of the innocent, the
princess exploits her body for the desire of power, therefore she cannot be a heroine.
The power she obtains is linked to the prince, a recurring theme in princesses in
literature where women do not achieve their own power without the help of a man.
Bridget Whelan, an Emmy Award-winning journalist who has worked on digital news
platform and television, writes Power to the Princess, explaining the controversial anti-
feminist roles princesses play. Whelan asserts, “The brief glimpse Disney offers into the
lives of their princesses begins and ends with the princesses' romantic involvement with
men. ‘At no point do these girls go off to lead their own Uves,’notes one disgrunded
blogger. ‘They always end up being with the man (Whelan)."

Works Cited
Gaiman, Neil. “Snow, Glass, Apples.” The Dreaming, 10 Oct. 1999,
thedreaming.moteofdust.com/1999/10/10/snow-glass-apples/.
Noel Caroll. "The Nature of Horror." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 46,
No. 1. (Autumn, 1987), pp. 51-59.

Bridget Whelan. "Power to the Princess." University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Humanities Education & Research Association pg. 21-32

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Kristine Dayrit

Challenging the Damsel in Distress

Obedient, daring, and charismatic are characteristics the stereotypical princess

how he is subverting the traditional view of a princess as well as incorporating pathos to

sway the emotions of the reader to support this claim.

compassionate, understanding step-mother. The princess in Snow, Glass, Apples does

audience through the use of pathos.

Gaiman incorporates an appeal to pathos through two instances: describing the

specific way to respond. This is intentional and is backed up by Noel Caroll, an

American Philosopher with multiple works on journalism, philosophy, theory of media,

blogger. ‘They always end up being with the man (Whelan)."

Gaiman, Neil. “Snow, Glass, Apples.” The Dreaming, 10 Oct. 1999,

No. 1. (Autumn, 1987), pp. 51-59.

Humanities Education & Research Association pg. 21-32

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