The Snow Child’ into an examination of men and women is far from satisfactory or conclusive. For example, the girl remains voiceless throughout the entire text, but should we really assume this means a passive woman is part of male fantasy? If so, the Count should have been very happy with her corpse… Gender roles are clearly important but you can get into such a thorny tangle with it that you’ll fail to appreciate ‘The Snow Child’ for what it really is