In Bruno Bettelheim's essay, The Uses of Enchantment, he explains the fairy tale of Snow White in a way which makes the reader think critically. He makes the reader explore their mind to better understand a tale in a way, which they have not explored.
             This essay begins with Bettelheim talking about "Narcissus, who was a Greek god who loved only himself, so much that he became swallowed up by his self-love." (Bettelheim p202) With this statement Bettelheim begins to explain his reasoning with his Freudian or oedipal perspective with this story. He explains this using Snow White and the wicked stepmother. The wicked stepmother becomes jealous when Snow White begins her transcend into a women. Snow White is becoming a beautiful woman and the wicked stepmother is becoming older and older, making her less attractive. Snow White is becoming older, more attractive and noticed. This sets up a competition for the fathers' love between stepmother and daughter, creating what Bettelheim says is the oedipal complex. With this it helped me to better understand what was going on in the tale. The tale was not just about a wicked stepmother believing she is the most beautiful of the land. It is a complicated tale that involves critical reasoning between two people. One-person feels threatened by the other, in this case the wicked stepmother is feeling threatened by the young beauty of Snow White. So much in fact that the stepmother wants Snow White dead.
             When jealousy arises between a parent and child especially a parent being jealous of the child, Bettelheim believes creates a superiority complex for the child. The child sees that the parent envies the qualities that the child possesses and the child begins to believe that they are superior to the parent. With this Bettelheim goes on to explain why the wicked stepmother wants Snow White dead. "Competition between a parent and the child makes life unbearable for the p
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