Parents begin with loving their children, they go on with raising them in the best way they can.And sometimes they do something magical. They give their children Fairy tales.
Hans Christian Anderson is a name synonymous with wonder, fantasy, beauty, magic and endurance, all due to collection of fairy tales which for years have enchanted the imagination of children and adults alike. Oddly enough, in our modern world, fairy tales are considered as children’s literature and ignored by the majority of readers. Which is a shame even If Anderson himself had young children as a basic audience.
Even if people have never found the chance to actually read his work, but they have probably seen some films, plays; musicals based on them or simply know the names. After all this is the man who wrote classics like The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid ,The Princess and the Pea and The Brave Tin Soldier .
It is hard to imagine a world that has not been influenced by him, and multiple still reference him; perhaps most famously for the Disney movie Frozen, which won the Oscar for best animated film, which is loosely based on The Snow Queen. There is also the story line in the Daft Punk music video, Instant Crush, which shows the love story of The Brave Tin Soldier.
But is the reason behind this love? Why are people still enchanted by the work of a Danish writer who lived during the Victorian Age, who rose to fame from poverty? What is it there, in his stories that have lived through time and become such a huge part of our culture?
I have a few theories, but to understand fully we will have to understand a few things regarding fairy tales in children’s literature and Andersen’s life also. In modern times we look at fairy tales as a source of entertainment only for children, but originally most of these tales were meant for all ages and were a means to discuss human nature and educate the masses , especially during the times or oral tradition . In some cases they were written to speak out against the corruption in European courts, and later in time during the 1800s, in Germany the preservation of fairy tales, became a way of protecting and defining culture. This was done by the Grimm brothers, and we get the Grimm fairytales from them, which include Snow White, Rapunzel , The Boy who went out in search of fear and Cinderella .
Then from earlier in time, we have from France, Sir Charles Perrault who wrote extensively and wrote the original version of Sleeping Beauty. Perrault and the Grimm brothers are the two big and basic names when it comes to western fairy tales. Them I think Aesop’s fables are also pretty popular .
And it wasn’t until Hans Christian Anderson came along that such a mass majority of people were so interested in fairy tales again. Obviously other writers wrote for children to but they never got to enjoy the same celebrity like Andersen did. A good example would be, Oscar Wilde who wrote stories for children which were wonderful but when we think about him, his plays and one novel come in mind, like the Happy Prince. Andersen also wrote novels, poems, travels memoirs but nothing made such a wave in Denmark and later the world as his fairytales.
They are unique and all his own, and they stand out from most of the conventional fairy tales before him. The Grimm fairytales have a strong moral tone and follow a simple structure of the protagonist going through a tragedy and coming through for themselves. The language is clean and simple but full of color and most of them include some really good poems. Aesop’s fables are simple yet complex, in the sense that they all have this basic lesson which is the center of the story and it’s always serious, like a good friend telling you about the harsh reality of life. The Anderson stories are his own original stories; even if they are a child of the stories he heard growing up. They have emotion in them and are original. Unlike the Grimm tales which are a bunch of common legends collected.
Anderson’s tales come from his own personal experiences and are multi layered, so they keep on expanding once you begin to understand them. They reach out to all the senses with the way he fully describes an action or scene.
So Death gave up each of these treasures for a song ; and the nightingale continued her singing . She sang of the quiet churchyard , where the whites roses grow , where the elder-tree moistened by the mourners tears . Then Death longed to go and see his garden , and floated out through the window in the form of a cold white mist .
The Nightingale
His work is very diverse when it comes to characters and cultures. With the Grimm tales one normally encounters princesses, witches and cursed animals in a strictly European setting. But Anderson travels far out in the world, from Africa to China, from a rose to a Nightingale to a Mermaid deep in the sea.
His characters have a personality and their pain is sensitive and deep. With previous fairy tales you read about bad things happening like falling to ones death or having to chop their toes or and kissing decesed bodies, but they are written very casually and slightly gruesome. When the little Mermaid or Ducking go through heartbreak the language evokes tears and makes their pain relatable.
Thus the little mermaid drank the magic draught , and it seemed as if a two edged sword went through her delicate body : she fell into a swoon , and lay like a dead one.When the sun arose and shone over the sea, she recovered , and felt a sharp pain; but before her stood a handsome prince.
His stories do have a generic stance but they make statements about human nature, which he noticed as he moved up the social ladder. I have noticed how most fairy tales talk a great deal about royalty and have them as central characters. Anderson has that feature to but he takes a jab at them, and exposes their superficial nature also. The little Mermaid may be the good character, but the Prince she loves is a love-at-first -sight jerk. The Princess and the Pea is basically a satire that sounds like the real deal. A shade, that feels like a compliment. The little boy in The Emperor’s New Clothes is the only one in the village with a brain. I think it did good to bring a new range of characters in stories and give people a reality check.
Fairy tales may be criticized for being unrealistic for making it look like love and goodness always prevail, but not Andersoen. His characters go through rejection, isolation and failure, which is normal in children’s literature. Yet they don’t magically have the world at the palm of their hands. They don’t get the happy ending they wanted, but they do get one. The Ugly Duckling is not accepted by the ducks or the children but he finds swans who take him in. He gets to be beautiful. The Mermaid does not get to be human or the Prince, but she becomes immortal. She gets it .
He speaks to everyone and about everyone , without such a hard moralistic lens. Most of the time, his stories don’t even feature villains that have a stake in the outcome, but just represent evil. His main characters have flaws which can or cannot be over looked but are understood. Like Kay from The Snow Queen, who becomes rude towards those who love him.
But that’s because he has a cursed piece of glass in his heart, which Gerda destroys with her love and tears .
As for the Snow Queen, she like the Sea Witch does not really have much of a role, but is a choice. Kay decides to leave his safe home for the ice palace and the Mermaid decides to give her voice away. Yet by the end both of them have been redeemed.
And they both sat there, grown up , yet children at heart; and it was summer ,-warm,beautiful summer.
He does not leave much to the imagination, as are told what everything looks and feels like. How the characters are feeling and what the atmosphere is like. This is something is his fairy tales because the Grimm fairy tales and other collections often lead a lot to the reader, which is probably why they have such diverse film adaptations. It is debatable which style is better for a good story , but both seem to work in their own way .
To conclude, Hans Christian Anderson wrote marvels which have enchanted people . With intricate settings, lovable characters and stories which are no less than an adventure. He did more than just write something , he expressed himself In a way that humanized toys enough for people to feel bittersweet . He made Denmark proud and made his dreams come true , without the full effect . Just like the Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid . If nothing besides that he gave us a piece of our childhood.
Maheen's Muse 