Setting in The Snow Child

Choose one setting carter uses and discuss how it is significant in the telling of the story.

For this question, I chose to focus on The Snow Child (no surprises there I’m sure) however, this is not simple just because we have recently discussed it, but also due to the setting being extremely important (in my opinion) to the telling of the story.

The Snow Child documents the story of a count and countess travelling through a forest, the count points out aspects of the surroundings that he wishes were aspects of a ‘girl’ she then appears, dies and the count then has sex with her causing her to melt away. It’s certainly a strange tale that is clearly low in levels of realism; this brings me to my first key point regarding the setting. There are aspects of the setting that are nonsensical such as ‘they came to a hole in the snow; this hole is filled with blood’ this establishes elements of the Gothic straight from the opening of the story, which is a key genre within the story. Furthermore, the ‘hole filled with blood’ could be thought to be symbolic of a vagina, therefore with the count calming that he wants as girl as ‘red as blood’ this suggests that men see women’s reproductive organs as something that they have the ability to lay claim over. To further this point, it could be argued that this also reflects how men feel that they have the ability to design women as they see fit which can be seen in the other elements that he requests such as ‘I wish I had a girl as white as snow’.

The description of the wider world itself is also very important, the wider world is described to be ‘the whole world was white’ the word white carries connotations of being sterile and cleanliness, this could be symbolic of his wife being sterile, and therefore unable to bear him a child, which has then caused him to seek other women. It is also important to consider the title of ‘the snow child’ which, when the white is interpreted as being sterile, could be thought to mean that she is the child that he seeks due to her being sterile. He lists specific aspects that he craves from her such as ‘black as that birds feathers’ the countess is incapable of doing anything to try and stop his desires of this child. As what she does try does not prove successful ‘is she a fish? To swim in such cold water’ this shows how the Count has the superior level of power over her and the decisions that are made. However, when the girl is then described to ‘melt’ this how due to there being no marital connection, the potential for a child is removed and she is then shunned from society and ‘melts’. The count then returns to his wife which is symbolically shown when he hands her the rose.

Setting can also be seen in the use of the ‘rose’ that causes the death of the snow child. This is important as roses are symbolic of beauty; this suggests that it is the beauty of the snow child that causes her death. Furthermore, this could also be interpreted as a reference to the fairy tale of Snow White, however, the princes kiss takes a more sinister form. The red of the rose is also important to consider due to the connotations of danger that it carries; it also carries connotations of blood. This helps to build a Gothic tone into the story.

Overall, setting is a key aspect of The Snow Child as it helps to not only foreshadow events and allow different readings to be taken, for also allows for the genres within the story to be emphasised.