Ақ патшайымның зұлымдығы: Аққу жолындағы антагонист

Character in Snow White fairy tale by Brothers Grimm
the Disney version of the character

The Evil Queen (böse Königin), also called the Wicked Queen or the Queen, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of "Snow White," a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm; similar stories exist worldwide. Other versions of the Queen appear in subsequent adaptations and continuations of the fairy tale, including novels and films. One particularly notable version is Disney's depiction, sometimes known as Queen Grimhilde. The character has also become an archetype that inspired unrelated works. The Evil Queen is Snow White's vindictive wicked stepmother, obsessed with being "the fairest in the land." The beautiful young princess Snow White evokes the Queen's sense of envy, so the Queen designs several plans to kill Snow White through witchcraft. A driving force in the story is the Queen's Magic Mirror. In the traditional resolution of the story, the Queen is grotesquely executed for her crimes. The tale is meant as a lesson for young children, warning them against the dangers of narcissism, pride, and hubris. In some retellings of the fairy tale, the Queen has been re imagined or portrayed more sympathetically, such as being morally conflicted or suffering from madness instead of being simply evil. In some of the revisionist stories she serves as the protagonist and has even been portrayed as an antihero or a tragic hero.

The Evil Queen is a very beautiful but proud and arrogant woman who marries the King after the death of his first wife, the mother of Snow White. The Evil Queen owns a magic mirror, which one day informs her that her young stepdaughter Princess Snow White has surpassed her in beauty. After deciding to eliminate Snow White, the Queen orders her Huntsman to take the princess into the forest and murder her. The Queen tells him to bring back Snow White's lungs and liver, as proof that the princess is dead. However, the Huntsman takes pity on Snow White, and instead, brings the Queen the lungs and liver of a wild boar. The Queen has the cook prepare the lungs and liver and she eats what she believes are Snow White's organs. While questioning her mirror again, the Queen discovers that Snow White has survived and has found sanctuary with the Seven Dwarfs. Intending to kill Snow White herself, she takes the disguise of an old peddler woman. She visits the dwarfs' house and sells Snow White laces for a corset that she laces too tight in an attempt to suffocate the girl. When that fails, the Queen returns as a comb seller and tricks Snow White into using a poisoned comb. When the comb, too, fails to kill Snow White, the Queen again visits Snow White disguised as a farmer's wife and gives Snow White a poisoned apple. Snow White is awakened by the Prince from another kingdom, and they invite the Queen to their wedding. Although fearing what will happen, her own jealousy drives her to attend. There she is forced to put on red hot iron shoes and "dance" until she drops dead.

In the classic ending of "Snow White", the Evil Queen is put to death by torture. This is often considered to be too dark and potentially horrifying for children in modern society. In fact, already the first English translation of the Grimm's tale, written by Edgar Taylor in 1823, has the Queen choke on her own envy upon the sight of Snow White alive. Another early (1871) English translation by Susannah Mary Paull "replaces the Queen's death by cruel physical punishment with death by self inflicted pain and self destruction" when it was her own shoes that became hot due to her anger. Other alternative endings can have the Queen just instantly drop dead "of anger" at the wedding or in front of her mirror upon learning about it, die from her own designs going awry (such as from touching her own poisoned rose) or by nature (such as falling into quicksand while crossing a swamp on her way back to the castle after poisoning Snow White), be killed by the dwarfs during a chase, be destroyed by her own mirror, run away into the forest never to be seen again, or simply being banished from the kingdom forever. As Sara Maitland wrote, "we do not tell this part of the story any more; we say it is too cruel and will break children's soft hearts." Therefore, many (especially modern) revisions of the fairy tale often change the gruesome classic ending in order to make it seem less violent. In some versions instead of dying, the Queen is merely prevented from committing further wrongdoings. Fawzia Gilani Williams' Snow White: An Islamic Tale, for instance, has Snow White forgive her evil witch stepmother entirely, making her repent and redeem herself, as part of the book's religious lessons for children. However, in the same 2014 nationwide UK poll that considered the Queen from "Snow White" the scariest fairy tale character of all time (as cited by 32.21% of responding adults), around two thirds opined that today's stories are too "sanitized" for children. Anthony Burgess commented in 1983: "Reading that, how seriously can we take it? It is fairy tale violence, which is not like real mugging, terrorism and Argentinean torture." Sheldon Cashdan, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, argues that, in accordance to the logic of fairy tales, the Queen could not be allowed to flee or merely be locked up in a dungeon or exiled, as the story portrayed her "as a thoroughly despicable creature who deserves the worst conceivable punishment." In his opinion, fairy tale narrative also demands that "if the witch is to die — and remain dead — she must die in a way that makes her return highly unlikely," and so "the reader needs to know that the death of the witch is thorough and complete, even if it means exposing young readers to acts of violence that are extreme by contemporary standards."