By N'zinga Kelliebrew

The Stepmother although beautiful is not the perfect beauty that is Snow White. She is not complete or whole and therefore imperfect. Her beauty is “eaten, of course, by age”(19). The image is that time has ingested some of her beauty leaving her incomplete and flawed. Time or "age" is personified as a living eating creature that feeds on beauty over extended amounts of time causing tiny flaws at a time. Sexton emphasizes the age factor involved in beauty. "Of course" she is not as beautiful as her stepdaughter because her daughter is young and hasn't accumulated the carnivorouse effects of time on her beauty.  Although the queen was not the fairest anymore, she was still beautiful albeit not complete. However, emphasizing te significance of the effect of time on beauty applies to the queen's youthful rival. Snow White is not simply the most beautiful because of her features, but because she is not old.

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