Despite being told by God that she and her husband were not allowed to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve gave into her temptations. The idea of the "forbidden fruit" has been carried into other pieces of literature, using an apple to symbolize a character's temptation leading to downfall.

For example, in the fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when Snow White eats the poisoned apple, offered by the evil witch, who parallels the serpent, she falls into a death-like sleep.