Snow White has a low sense of self-efficacy. She dreams of a prince making her life better, not of making her life better through her own initiative She does not leave her cruel stepmother's home, rather she waits until she is literally forced out in a life or death situation, even though she was being abused and used as a scullery maid. This behavior may also tie into her strong superego as a character -- she does not openly disobey her stepmother, ever, and works hard to earn her keep for the dwarves. However, her superego's strength is inconsistent -- she breaks into a home rather than takes refuge somewhere else, and allows herself to eat an apple from a stranger.
Snow White is the subject of her stepmother's projections -- all of the woman's fears about aging and her loss of beauty are projected onto the girl, and the woman forms a fixation on Snow White. However, the only mother Snow White has ever known is this cruel one -- so she responds with passivity rather than outright aggression. Her only defense is through becoming more feminine -- working harder and dreaming of the price who will escape and enact the vengeance she really feels upon this wicked stepmother. Her sublimated kindness could be her way of resolving her Electra Complex: girls are supposed to resent their mothers for not giving them penises, and try to 'have' their father's penis by 'becoming' like their mothers. By becoming more feminine than her powerful mother-figure, Snow White hopes to gain a father figure in the form of a prince and gain power through beauty rather than magic like her...
She is once again unable to articulate her own needs, and does not even have an opportunity to work hard to secure her self-esteem as she did working at her stepmother's palace or at the dwarves' home. It is difficult for Snow White to understand this and she denies feeling any sense of deep sense of personal discontent before her marriage. Feeling unhappy was not part of her positive persona, as being cheerful and future-focused has been the primary defense mechanism that she has used to deal with emotional difficulties. Snow White has also not dealt with her past traumas, insisting she does not blame her stepmother for trying to kill her -- twice -- or mind that she had to work so hard, in unpaid servitude in the dwarves' home. In fact, she swears that she only remembers sleeping, not the attempt on her life with the poisoned apple, and has repressed most unhappy memories of her childhood.
Final Analysis: Although she is a young woman, Snow White still seems mired in the fourth stage of Erikson's psychosocial development, and failed to have gained a sense of competence in her worth as a human being, outside of others' estimation of her attractiveness and her ability to engage in feminine care-giving (Wagner 2009, p.1).
Works Cited
Wagner, Kendra Van. (2009). Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. About.com
Retrieved June 7, 2009 at http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/psychosocial.htm
