Rammstein vs. Snow White

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L_G5fGYU9k

Youtube Link for "Sonne" by Rammstein

The song “Sonne” by Rammstein uses many motifs from the Snow White stories that we read in class this week, yet it also varies in many ways.  Throughout all of the versions of Snow White that we read in class this week, Snow White was depicted as passive and innocent.  She was a tortured girl by a stepmother or aunt who found safety when sent out into the woods.  In this music video, she appears to be the absolute opposite.  Rather than exhausted and in need of refuge, she enters the dwarves home and takes charge.    It is apparent that the dwarves all idolize her for her beauty and continually give her what she wants, but in return she is harsh.  When she first enters, they give her gold, and she hits one with it, and later spanks them. 

The song makes Snow White out to be a terrible person.  She abuses the dwarves and takes advantage of them, as well as doing drugs (gold).  In the stories, Snow White is killed by an evil character, but in this video, she is killed by her own evil characteristics.  In the video, there is no prince to rescue her from her death, but an apple that falls.

http://www.fanpop.com/spots/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs/images/6366576/title/snow-white-wallpaper-wallpaper

Disney Depiction of Snow White: Snow White takes care of the Dwarves

There are also many similarities in the motifs in the folktales we read as well as “Sonne”.  The dwarve in “Snow White” by the Grimms and the video were miners.  The video also takes two of the motifs for the attempted killing of Snow White.  In “Snow White” by the Grimm’s, the wicked stepmother tried to kill Snow White three times, once with lace, once with a poisoned comb, and once with an apple.  The comb and apple made appearances in the video, but there was no sign of lace.  Although no lace, Snow White did fix her stockings, which may have been hinting at the lace.  There was also a glass or crystal coffin that entombed Snow White after her death and she was placed on top of a mountain to be mourned by the dwarves.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snow_White_Poisoned_Apple.png

Snow White accepting the apple which kills her

In the end of the video, it was an apple that saved Snow White, rather than kills her as in the Grimm’s version.  As she lay dead, an apple fell from the tree, breaking the glass/crystal coffin, and she catches it.  The video is very relatable to the folktale versions we have read in class, yet very different through the evilness of Snow White.