Andersen, in contrast, portrays the luminous spiritual dignity of even the most relentless ill fortune.Īndersen was born in 1805 in Denmark. The traditional fairy tale shows how bad luck can change into dazzling successes. The starving child does not truly die alone, nor does the toy soldier's love remain eternally a secret, for we, the readers, know the stories and feel pity for the child's privations and sympathy for the soldier's love.
Rather than redeem his characters' sufferings by an ultimate acquisition of love and riches, Andersen shows how goodness and integrity can ennoble the last moments of a lonely and poverty-stricken life. A starving child dies alone in a freezing ally a toy soldier is reduced to a lump of melted metal a little fir tree is thrown in a fire. Thus, Andersen infused the stock figures of traditional fairy tale with human weaknesses and strong personal emotions.Īndersen's story endings are frequently unhappy. The emperor of The Emperor's New Clothes is so fearful of being thought stupid that he allows himself to be fooled into ludicrous behavior by a pair of charlatans. A pea, for example, smugly considers itself the "most remarkable" of its pod because it is about to burst after festering in gutter water in Five Peas from the Same Pod. Andersen has a keen eye for social pretensions and vanity, and many of his stories satirize these human failings. The Fir Tree, (in the story of that name) for example, looks forward to being decorated as part of the Christmas celebration and feels sad when her trimmings are stripped away. Many of Andersen's stories feature personified objects such as darning needles or candles that have thoughts, intentions, and feelings. A mermaid pines for a human prince an ugly toad travels from the bottom of a well to seek something "higher" a starving child imagines ever more beautiful tableaux of prosperity as she freezes to death. Teased by school mates for his awkward appearance and bullied by a teacher who told told him his writings were fit only for the trash can, Andersen persevered with almost desperate devotion to his art and ultimately became known throughout the world as a genius of the literary fairy tale genre.Īndersen's stories are steeped in melancholy and longing, often featuring humble characters who long for love and acceptance into a higher realm of society or more glorious existence. Born in a one-room house to a shoemaker and a washerwoman, Andersen lost his father when he was 11 and left home at age 14 determined to become famous. Like many of his beloved fictional characters, Hans Christian Andersen came from humble origins.
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