Tonight I delved into a very existential discussion with my art teacher, and a theme we kept returning to was the recurrence of the number 7 in the universe (7 days of the week, 7 continents, 7 deadly sins, 7 plagues of Egypt, etc.). So, naturally, I thought of the Endless. Now, I am not sure how much research Neil did when he created the Endless, or if they are based on more ancient concepts (I remember that in one of the intros to one of the books, I believe it was Fables & Reflections, it mentioned that the names of the Endless came from seven Greek words). If that were the case, we decided that the seven dwarves (or "dwarfs", according to Disney) were probably based upon the same ancient concepts. Once, I got home, I hopped on the computer to research the seven dwarfs, and unsurprisingly, I found several similarities...

Here are the equivalents I concluded (though I'm still not sure if I'm correct about Death and Destruction):

Destiny = Doc
Death = Sneezy
Dream = Sleepy
Destruction = Happy
Desire = Bashful
Despair = Grumpy
Delirium = Dopey

The site I used was http://arar.essortment.com/sevendwarfsnam_rygj.htm

These are the characteristics this site used to depict each of the dwarfs (these are direct quotes, but I added the names of the Endless to those with which they complied, and bolded the words that strengthened my point):

Dopey (Delirium): the youngest, sweetest, and silliest of the seven, and the only one to be completely bald and beardless; wears a too large lime green tunic and purple cap.

Grumpy {Despair}: the grouchiest and most curmudgeonly of the group, though even he is supremely devoted to the beautiful Snow White; wears a red tunic, long white hair and beard.

Doc [Destiny]: the only one of the dwarfs to wear glasses (so presumably the most intellectual); wears an orange-brown tunic, long white hair and beard. I thought that the glasses part was really ironic, since Destiny is supposedly blind.

Happy (Destruction most likely, but it might be Death instead): the most rotund of the dwarfs; wears a brownish two-tone tunic, yellow cap, long white hair and beard.

Bashful {Desire}: evokes his bashful nature through a classic pose of shyness (hands clasped behind back, shoulders slightly raised, eyes upturned); sometimes difficult to distinguish between Sneezy and Sleepy; depicted in purple tunic and magenta cap (on video), as well as long white hair and beard.

Sneezy (Death, probably, but maybe Destruction): frequently shown with one finger underneath his nose, as if trying to stifle a sneeze; sometimes difficult to distinguish between Sleepy and Bashful; wears a yellow-brown tunic, long white hair and beard. I thought the finger under nose pose might be symbolic of Death quieting and soothing the dead when she takes them away, perhaps.

Sleepy [Dream, obviously]: perhaps the most difficult to differentiate between Sleepy and Bashful, though he wears a perpetually sleepy looking, heavily lidded expression on his face; wears a brownish tunic, green cap, long white hair and beard.


Maybe I am being far too presumptious with this little analysis, but I feel that there are far too many connections for it to be simply a coincidence (well, and the fact that I don't believe in coincidences might contribute to that feeling). So please tell me whether this sounds even somewhat legitimate, or if I'm simply being rather foolish.

Like any mapping process, there are bits that work and bits that don't. If you really believe that Delight is bashful, then you must know some pretty alarmingly confident people. Delight is arrogance and charisma personified - if Oscar Wilde was a God, he'd not be far off the mark.

Worth the exercise though.

Sorry, Desire.

interesting theories.

someone told me once that they were made to symbolize the stages of what happens to you after snorting coke. i imagine it could be said that they're symbollic of anything, though, if you put enough thought into it.

Square peg, round hole. Put down the hammer, it ain't going in.

Why pick on the Disney representation? Those Dwarves were created to appeal to children, using broad strokes of character. Sleepy is sleepy. Not asleep, not a dreamer, not hungover, not a story teller, not hide bound by self imposed rules, not concerned with obligations that effect beyond his immediate world, not anything more than sleepy. Which is a state easily recognised and related to by children. Dream is a tad more complex. Grumpy is the grouchy child, possibly just woken up, again a condition the child is familiar with. Not the grey naked mistress of a realm full of the prospect of nothing. Sneezy sneezes. That's what the finger is for. A vain attempt to prevent a natural process. Death is a natural process. Like Destiny, Doc is the nominal leader. But where Doc wears glasses as a shorthand for being the most intelligent (though wearing glasses only signifies poor eyesight, not intellect) and therefore the leader, Destiny is blind yet reads. Is blind yet looks you in the eye. And it's not as if Destiny does much more in leadership terms than nod sagely and say so it shall be so it is. He holds the meeting because the meeting is held. You've got nothing for Happy equalling Destruction. Damned if I can remember anything about that dwarf other than he's called Happy. If it were to work then it would foul up your assertion that Grumpy is Despair because he is devoted to Snow White. Wouldn't that make Snow White Destruction? A comparison between Destruction and Snow White would be more convincing and have more points of correspondence than Happy. Andrew has covered Desire = Bashful but a little bit more here. Where is the duplicity in Bashful? The arrogance and the lust? Would you want to fuck Bashful? Where is planting the seeds of wanting in the character of Bashful. You can argue that Bashful represents a response to Desire, but really is not Desire, the object, at all. If Desire is anything in Snow White then it's the Step Mother. Dopey is marijuana. Dopey isn't even skunk weed, but low grade resin at that. Delirium is LSD. Sure Dopey's silly, but he's non-threatening silly. Delirium could get you killed. And it's not as if Delirium is stupid. Dopey sure is.

You could look at the Magnificent Seven and find the same number of correlations. Yul Brynner dressed in black, is honourable and responds to the call of the needy. That's Dream that is. Though of course, it isn't.

I think that if your study were to have any validity at all you need to look at other, earlier, representations of the Dwarves to see what Disney did to them. Try here, and here..
And when you do look at them you'll discover that for the most of them they are just seven dwarves with no discerning characteristics to identify them. So Disney created the uniqueness of them. But they're not that unique, being little more than their names. And if they're bold characters have been created by Disney then there isn't a reflection of seven ancient concepts in the story of Snow White and the seven dwarves. You might find mileage in finding where the seven concepts have been grouped together before. And work from there. You might find them again in Snow White, but you'd actually have something to work with that is less arbitrary

For the Greek names of the Endless (plus more)look here..


There are far too few connections, and the connections are too spurious to be anything other than a coincidence. Sorry.