Anne Sexton's renditions of the classics "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Cinderella" follow the story line of the original Grimm Brother's stories, but contain a little more reality. Instead of being true fairy tales, they tend to be more believable tales about more normal girls(if that's possible).
In "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" she starts out by comparing the virgin Snow White to a doll. She describes her with the following features: "legs made of Limoges", "lips like Vin Du Rhone", and "china-blue doll eyes". Then she explains how she only keeps her eyes "open" to the good in the world and "shuts" them to the bad or unmoral. She does not use open and close literally, instead she means that Snow White is aware of only the good, pure things in life. For an example of the "bad" Sexton says "the thrust of the unicorn". This is definitely a sexual reference. It is most obvious because of word choice of thrust.
After that introduction Sexton describes Snow White's stepmom and explains how she is basically obsessed with her mirror. She is so entranced with the mirror because she is extremely concerned with looks and beauty. When the mirror tells her one day that Snow White is prettier, she orders Snow White to die.
Snow White luckily escapes and wonders off into the woods. When it finally comes time for the seven dwarfs to meet Snow White they do so in a way that seems creepy and weird. Sexton paints the picture of Snow White sleeping on the ground and the dwarfs circling her several times. The dwarfs refer to her as "it" like she is an object instead of a person to them.
After Snow White wakes up the dwarfs allow her to stay with them. They give her one rule and one rule only, do not open the door while they are at work. They know that her stepmother is out to get her. The first time Snow White foolishly opens the door her stepmother is disguised so that Snow White does not notice her. She ends up selling her some lacing for her corset and laces it so tight that she dies. When the dwarfs come home they undo the lacing and she comes back to life. The same series of events happens another day when her stepmother sells her a comb. Both of these scenarios show that like her stepmother Snow White is also concerned with her looks.
The last time her stepmother comes in contact with Snow White she sells her a poison apple. Snow White eats it and falls into a deep sleep. She stays like this for a very long time. The dwarfs put her in a glass case and place her on a mountain. One day a prince comes by and can not leave her side. He is amazed by her beauty. He ends up taking her back to his castle, but on the way he drops her and the apple is dislodged and she comes to life. Then they live happily ever after.
A few things are strange about these events. The first is that the dwarfs put her in a glass case. The only reason someone would do this was so that they would stare at the person and kind of worship them. It seems like the dwarfs and the prince for that matter are only fascinated by Snow White's appearance. There is no talk of any of her other qualities. Also at the end of the poem Sexton states that Snow White "sometimes referring to her mirror". This explains that in the end Snow White isn't much different that her stepmother.
The Cinderella poem is similar in that the prince once again seems to only be concerned with her looks and basically forces himself on her. About half way through the poem Sexton is talking about how Cinderella has been going to the prince's castle for a few days and has spent lots of time with him, but has always returned home at night. The prince seems to want more out of the relationship so one night he breaks into Cinderella's house with an axe, but she is no where to be found. The next night he puts wax on the steps which makes one of Cinderella's shoes fall off. The prince takes the shoe and goes around the town looking for the owner. He eventually finds Cinderella and they live happily ever after.
I thought it was strange that the prince would break down the door to her house. Most females would have nothing to do with a man who would do something like that. It is also strange that he puts the wax down to "trap" her. It's as if he doesn't really care if she wants him or not, he is going to get her one way or another. I thought it was also weird that he has to rely on a shoe to find Cinderella. As the story explains both of her step sisters fit into the shoe(after some foot surgery) so it would be possible for multiple women to fit into the same shoe. It is only when a bird tells the prince to look at their bleeding feet that he notices that they are the wrong women. This shows the prince is superficial and is really only worried about looks.
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