The Snow Child

As major symbols, the characters in The Snow Child are simple enough to mean the essence of their origin. In the snowing forrest of midwinter, a Counter and a Countess on their horses plus the snow child, that's all. The description of the Countess and snow child demonstrates the typical binary images of women in literature. The Countess covered by black garment and scarlet-heel boot represents the temptress while the stark naked snow child is the personification of angel, who is pure and passive. In the classical fairy stories the conflict just includes these two poles. What makes the routine contradiction new is the presence of the Counter, who used to control the story behind the curtain. Besides his male identity, he possessed topless power in the patriachal system, which caused and urged the suppression of the snow child. The compensation of the role of Man actually unveils the elusive female image made by male writers and exposes the hiderous information: women are subordinate under patriachy. Carter uncovered the absent part of the trinity of symbols by only utilizing highly symbolic characters to concentrate on sexual discrimination and the oppression .

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