The Count wishes for a girl "as white as snow". This could mean that as the colour white symbolises purity and virginity, these are the characteristics he desires his girl to encompass. This idea is reinforced by the juxtaposition to the blackness surrounding his wife. She wears "high, black" boots and rides a "black horse", black symbolising darkness and evil, suggesting his wife embodies these characteristics. The contrast between the suggested darkness of his wife and the whiteness of the girl he longs for accentuate that this is perhaps the meaning behind this wish is the Counts desire for a "Madonna", rather than a "Whore".
However, this wish may also be symbolising the male visual obsession with women. He is only concerned with the visual elements of his fantasy girl, the colour of her as perfect as "snow". The male-gaze is a notion repeatedly referred to within Carter's previous stories, therefore it is possible that it is referred to again here.
Conversely, the unmissable intended contrast between the wife and the girl he wishes for strengthen the argument that the Count's main priority is a pure virgin, and not the evil, 'whore' of his wife. Therefore, this may undermine slightly the visual obsession element of this wish.
However, whilst considering that the man wishes for a girl who is the antitheses to his wife, we can note how Carter may be subtly criticising the unsatisfiable disposition of men. One woman is not enough for men, therefore he always desires a more beautiful, or in this case more innocent female.
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