The Queen
The Queen is a minor character in the album Märchen. Her stepdaughter, the princess Schneewittchen, takes revenge on her after being killed by the Queen for overtaking her in beauty. Her vocals and dialogue were provided by MIKI.
Contents |
Appearance
The Queen is presumably very beautiful, having previously held the title of being the most beautiful in the world according to the mirror. She is dressed in a regal dark gown with dark hair held up beneath her crown.
As the peddler woman, she wears the guise of an old hag. Her body is cloaked and hooded, and she carries a basket of apples with her. Yokoyan's illustrations in the Märchen booklet show her to possess a walking stick, although this is not portrayed in the live.
Role
She appears in Garasu no Hitsugi de Nemuru Himegimi as the antagonist to Schneewittchen's character. The Queen is shown to be a vain woman, cold to her stepdaughter and often preoccupied with asking her mirror who is the most beautiful in the land. Predictably, the mirror responds that it is the Queen, and so it goes up until Schneewittchen becomes a young woman:
| “That used to be you – 《the Queen》[die Königin]… But now it’s her - 《Snow White》<Schneewittchen>!” |
Garasu no Hitsugi de Nemuru Himegimi, 7th Story Märchen. Translation by Defade. |
Outraged, the Queen sends the old huntsman to kill Schneewittchen and bring back her heart. The huntsman returns instead with a pig's heart, but although the events leading to it are never explicitly mentioned, it is implied that the Queen finds out that Schneewittchen is still alive and makes other attempts to kill her.
| “After that, I nearly died several times thanks to my sly stepmother, But every time, I miraculously revived!” |
Garasu no Hitsugi de Nemuru Himegimi, 7th Story Märchen. Translation by Defade. |
Her efforts are finally successful when she dresses herself as an old woman and presents Schneewittchen a poisoned apple. The princess initially resists, but succumbs when the disguised Queen offers to share it with her. Schneewittchen dies after a bite and the Queen returns triumphantly to the mirror's declaration that she is once again the fairest in the world.
However, unbeknownst to the Queen, Schneewittchen is revived from death. The princess invites the Queen to her wedding and takes revenge by forcing her stepmother to dance in burning shoes until she dies.
Live Portrayal
She is portrayed by MIKI in the live performances, both as the Queen and the peddler woman. To play the latter, she simply puts on a cloak and an old hag's mask over her regal wear. As in the song, the Queen often appears with the mirror behind her as a movable screen where Jimang's head appears at the top.
MIKI revealed that she had to learn how to tapdance in preparation for the last scene where the Queen dances to her death.
Theories
The Loop of Vanity
In an interview with Tomoyo Kurosawa, it was revealed that the lines of Schneewittchen's revenge verse describing her skin, hair and lips could also be applied to the mother[1]. This suggests that Schneewittchen might also be liable to commit the same sin of envy in the future, causing a never-ending loop of vanity and revenge.
True Mother
Another theory that has been raised would be the non-existence of a stepmother – rather, that the stepmother Schneewittchen regards is actually her birth mother. This is supported by the fact that the original version of the tale released in 1812 contains no mention of a stepmother; her character was only introduced by the Brothers Grimm in their version released seven years later[2].
