"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

Since she turned ten, Snow White has been constantly dodging assassins sent by her stepmother; the first two were foiled due to luck, but however lucky Snow White was, it couldn't last forever. She began killing the assassins off instead, with the philosophy that it was either her or them, and she preferred herself alive, thank you very much. It is because of this that she constantly has either a knife or gun in her pocket, which hardly anyone ever realizes.

Despite all that, Snow White isn't a violent person; she's withdrawn to the point of being catatonic on occasion, and when she speaks, she thinks over her words long and carefully. Her words are hesitant and questioning- her father does not speak often with her, and she's the only person her age in a cold, large castle. The breaking point comes when she's seventeen; the queen sends the woodsman after her, in the hopes that his innocence will catch her guard down.

She kills him instead, emotionlessly, and presents his heart to the queen who doesn't realize that Snow White is under a disguise. Following that, Snow White flees to the forest, just wishing for peace and that she didn't have to murder even young kids her age just to stay alive.

There, she finds a cottage, and she keeps house for the seven dwarves who live there in exchange for food and lodging. Despite her reticence, the dwarves take a liking to her, becoming surrogate fatherly figures to her, with the exception of one, who recognized her as the daughter of the king. He rats out her location to the queen who then swoops down with her poisoned apples while the devious dwarf lured the others away for a mining trip that was to take at least a week, to a far-off mountain. Snow White is somehow tricked by the queen, and she falls into an enchanted sleep. Three days pass, and though she sleeps on the kitchen floor, it is clear that Snow White is dying.

It is then that the second prince of a neighbouring country comes into the forest; bored of life in the castle, he decides to journey into his neighbouring country. He finds Snow White, and revives her (with the classical kiss even), and asks her to marry him. She refuses, but agrees to go with him back to his home country, seeing as she would not be safe any longer in her own. Once back in the prince's country, he consistently proposes to her; she refuses to marry him though she does think kindly of him. It goes on for three weeks, until one night when the prince and his friends get awfully drunk- he stumbles into her room and rapes her. The next morning, he's horrified at what he has done, but Snow White merely tells him calmly that she will marry him, for there is nothing else to be done.

At their wedding, the queen is invited and the prince, deeply in love with Snow White despite what he did, forces red-hot iron shoes onto her feet and leads her in an agonizing dance until she falls dead; Snow White is startled by it, but she accepts the prince's act as one of apology.

Snow White doesn't understand love; the most she understands is affection, because she feels some measure of that for her belongings, pets, and certain people she likes. It's something she can let go of however; a castle servant she thought of vaguely as a friend tried to poison her, and she killed her anyway. No one is indispensable to Snow White, and she likes it that way, since it ensures her survival.

All the marriages around her have been dismal failures. Her father the king, married her stepmother out of infatuation, and the queen agreed to the marriage in return for the luxuries of nobility. None of the servants she knows have happy marriages (though there're bound to be some around). Her parents-in-law profess to be in love, but have affairs left, right and center. Her own husband tells her he loves her (and despite the childish infatuation, he does, to some extent, really love her) but she's too love-weary to believe him. She likes him well enough, but can never forgive him for the events that led to their marriage; his saving grace has been the solicitous and loving way he treats her normally.