The Snow Child

This is my second blog of the day but I've just been informed we've got to blog on certain things to do with 'The Snow Child'...but as I wasn't in last lesson this will be more of a blag than a blog. Bad, bad joke, I know. I'm ashamed.

Anyway...

What the Woman is Wearing
The Count's wife wears 'the glittering pelts of black foxes', 'high, black shining boots with scarlet heels, and spurrs'...although the 'pelts of black foxes' would be considered glamorous and a show of wealth, it is ultimately a dead animal which, as symbols go, isn't exactly cheery. I've done a bit of research on what foxes, specifically black foxes symbolise and discovered black foxes are apparently synonymous with good luck - although foxes in general (in the West) are synonymous with cunning or slyness - in the East they symbolise longeivity and transformation and in Christianity they're associated with hersey, injustice, greed and lust. The 'scarlet heels' can also be linked to the idea of the scarlet woman - and the fact that the woman might only be wearing the items listed is a bit erm...scarlet woman-esque in itself. Hang on...it also says she's wearing gloves and a diamond brooch.

What Happens to What the Woman is Wearing?
The clothes the Count's wife is wearing fly off and clothe the naked girl (e.g. the pelts) However she drops her own glove and throws her own diamond brooch into the pond...maybe it's because she cares more about getting rid of the girl than she does about her clothes that they decide to fly off?! I don't know.

The Count's Wishes and Inspirations
The Count wishes for a girl as red as blood, black as the raven's feather and white as snow. With the 'white as snow' comes connotations of purity and innocence, whereas the 'red as blood' could be seen to symbolise a loss or corruption of innocence. The raven, too, is seen to symbolise death and combined these symbols seem to imply the Count wants a girl who is innocent but as an underlying darkness so can be corrupted. The attraction of the male figure to innocence seems a key theme within a lot of gothic texts...going back to the whole Madonna/Whore theory - the girl in The Blood Chamber, Mina and Lucy e.t.c. The Count specifies a 'girl' also which implies innocence but also, I think, may contrast with his wife...maybe the 'Midwinter' referred to at the start of the story is a reference to the Count's wife and as in Rossetti's 'Winter: My Secret', the 'Midwinter' could be symbolic of the stage of the woman's life...middle age plus...maybe the Count specifies a 'girl' as he wants a female younger than his wife. When I first read the story, I interpreted 'girl' as the Count wanting a daughter at first...though it soon became apparent that wasn't the case. Or at least I hope it wasn't. Moving swiftly on...yes, I first linked the Count's wife to the 'Midwinter' mentioned as, in a way, unlike the young girl, she is 'invinsible' and 'immaculate'. She's invincible in that she survives (unlike the girl) and, in terms of 'immaculate', one could make links with the idea of immaculate conception...which ties in with the Madonna/Whore concept as well as the idea of the girl as a daughter...maybe that's taking it a bit too far though...

Conclusion
To my mind the 'It bites!' line is an expression of the woman's pain at accepting a 'gift' from her husband, though she knows she's not what he wants. Also the 'It bites!' can be linked to the cold 'Midwinter' and if interpreted in the way I mentioned previously (it being symbolic of the 'Midwinter' of the woman's life), it could mean that the 'Midwinter' of the woman's life 'bites' as it's a harsh, cruel time...her husband's more interesting in strange naked girls that mysteriously appear. The more I think about it though, the more I'm convinced the girl is actually symbolic of a daughter...a daughter that the woman perhaps can't give to the Count as she's reaching the 'Midwinter' of her life?! I'm not sure...although it would make what the Count does to the girl rather worrying. Maybe the whole 'weeping, the Count got of his horse...' bit is about the pain that comes with the loss of a child...maybe not. Oh, I don't know. There are certainly a lot of symbols in there...and they're all rather ambiguous so...who knows what it really means? Angela Carter, presumably.

All in all, it's a rather sinister story and although one of the shortest, has the most points for speculation. Even if the girl isn't a daughter...the whole thing's still a teeeeny bit odd...what with the necrophilia and all...