The Sleeper and the Spindle

“She wondered how she would feel to be a married woman. It would be the end of her life, she decided, if life was a time of choices.”

Much of the story, in particular the queen’s own personal journey, deals with the freedom or lack of personal choice. Even though Gaiman presents the queen as a strong warrior figure and a leader, she recognizes the inescapable gender expectations on which her society is built. Once she becomes a married woman, the identity she has built for herself with her own strength will become a secondary concern, pointing to the story’s thematic interest in Freedom and Constraint.

“She called for her mail shirt. She called for her sword. She called for provisions, and for her horse, and then she rode out of the palace, towards the east.”

This moment uses anaphora, a literary device in which repeated clauses are used at the start of successive sentences for rhythmic effect. It also alludes to the fairy tale power of three, in which motifs often recur in this pattern. Additionally, this scene positions the queen as a narrative authority: she takes action and puts the plot into motion.

“They had names, the dwarfs, but human beings were not permitted to know what they were, such things being sacred.”

Throughout folklore—in particular, fairy lore—names have magical significance. It was believed that knowing a person’s name would strip them of some of their power. This story directly names places but never names a living thing, apart from the innkeeper (which may even be a nickname). This moment creates a divide between dwarves and humans, or the magical “other” and the mundane. 

“There is no honor […] in fighting an opponent who has no idea that you are even there. No honor in fighting someone who is dreaming of fishing or of gardens or of long-dead lovers.”

This moment highlights the queen’s insight and compassion, qualities that make her a strong and effective ruler. It also shows the lack of agency experienced by the sleeping hoard; although their bodies are being controlled, their internal consciousnesses are completely separate from their actions. The reference to fishing and gardening also juxtaposes the mundane everyday against the extraordinary, magical circumstances of the story.

“‘My sisters ruled the world,’ said her stepmother, […] ‘The mortal folk rose up against us, they cast us down. And so we waited, in crevices, in places they do not see us.’”

This moment of exposition gives context to the cruelty of Snow White’s stepmother, an archetypal fairy tale character whose traits are seen in numerous classic stories. The concept of a race of powerful, otherworldly beings—here with an emphasis on women—parallels the idea of pre-Christian deities being pushed down and replaced by monotheism, inviting discourse on this history and complicating the definitions of good and evil within the context of the story.

“She touched the pink lips to her own carmine lips and she kissed the sleeping girl long and hard.”

This line is brought to life in one of the book’s most famous and distinctive images, one which was used extensively in the book’s early promotional materials. It also creates a misleading expectation for the reader, suggesting a gender-inverted romance in place of classic fairy tale tropes, further compounded by the color juxtaposition present in both girls. In actuality, this moment leads to a more complex exploration of female power dynamics, highlighting Gaiman’s intentional Inversion of Gender Dynamics.

“It’s always the same with your kind. You need youth and you need beauty.”

Preconceptions of Youth and Beauty, one of the story’s central themes, are two of the most common fairy tale motifs, often inextricably associated with goodness (for example, many stories feature one “beautiful” sister and one “ugly” sister, with the “beautiful” sister being the kinder and more compassionate). The implication is that what the dark enchantresses are really craving is acceptance by a fundamentally unbalanced society. It’s worth noting that these attributes, youth and beauty, are still universally revered today.

“Learning how to be strong, to feel her own emotions and not another’s, had been hard; but once you learned the trick of it, you did not forget.”

While this line references the magical coercion the queen experienced through her stepmother, it also suggests the process of growing up or distancing oneself from a challenging relationship. Here the queen becomes a symbol of independence and self-actualization—a moment of validation and assurance, which the queen takes with her to the end of the story and uses to inform her final choice.