Andersen colored his tales based on folklore with his personal experience while using the folk perspective to expose the contradictions of the aristocratic class. In “The Swineherd” (1842) he remained close to the folk perspective, which he also developed in some of his original fairy tales, such as “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
In Andersen’s early adaptations of folklore we see him in an “apprentice” phase as a writer of short prose. Taking the structure and contents of these tales as a basis, he developed his own style and tone, which was characterized by the simple folk mode of storytelling. Andersen’s style overall is really not so much “childlike” as it is “folksy,” and it was this blend of intimate, down-to-earth storytelling with folk motifs and literary themes that gave rise to some of his most significant fairy tales.
ORIGINAL FAIRY TALES
It is perhaps an exaggeration to assert that Andersen’s fairy tales are “original” because all his narratives reveal how much he borrowed from literature and from the folklore tradition. Nevertheless, he endowed them with his own original touch and personal experiences, and that makes them somewhat unique narratives. The major feature of Andersen’s original literary fairy tales is that he turned known literary motifs into provocative and uncanny stories that challenge conventional expectations and explore modes of magic realism he learned from the German Romantics, especially E. T. A. Hoffmann. Two of his greatest fairy tales—“The Shadow” and “The Little Mermaid”—demonstrate his talent for transforming known folk and literary motifs into highly complex narratives about identity formation. “The Shadow,” clearly based on German writer Adelbert Chamisso’s novella Peter Schlemihl (1813), in which a man sells his shadow to the devil, can also be traced to E. T. A. Hoffman’s tale “The New Year’s Adventure” (1819), in which a man gives up his reflection for love. For Andersen, this loss of a shadow or reflection is transformed into a psychological conflict in which unconscious forces debilitate and eventually destroy a strong ego. The learned man’s identity is literally effaced by his shadow. In “The Little Mermaid,” based on his poem Agnete and the Merman and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué’s fairy-tale novella Undine (1811), Andersen depicts the quest for identity in a more positive light. There are strong religious overtones in this narrative, in which a young girl learns that becoming human involves self-sacrifice, humility, and devotion. Christian redemption is promised if the mermaid will fulfill her destiny. Other tales, including “The Bronze Pig” (1842) and “Ib and Little Christine” (1855), feature this motif. Many others reflect Andersen’s desire to uncover social contradictions.
What often makes Andersen’s original tales original is their irony—a key element in “The Shadow” but one that is even more pronounced in “The Emperor’s New Clothes” (1837) and “The Naughty Boy” (1835). Andersen used the metaphorical mode of the fairy tale to expose social hypocrisy, and in the best of his original fairy tales, he left his readers not with happy endings, but with startling ones aimed at making them reflect upon ethical and moral behavior.
EVANGELICAL AND RELIGIOUS TALES
Andersen is not commonly thought of a religious writer; yet religious motifs and themes run through a majority of his tales. This religious dimension is one reason Andersen became so popular in the nineteenth century: He “tamed” the pagan or secular aspects of the folk-tale and fairy-tale traditions and made them acceptable to the nineteenth-century European and American reading publics. To a certain extent, some of his tales fit the standards of evangelical literature, which was very strong and popular throughout Europe and North America. “The Snow Queen” (1845) and “The Red Shoes” (1845) are good examples; both depict young girls who place their lives in the hands of God and are saved because they trust in the Lord’s powers of redemption. The beginning of “The Snow Queen” establishes the connection between the devil and the snow queen, and the narrative develops into a Christian conflict between good and evil; it becomes clear by the end of the tale that Gerda will need the assistance of angels and the Lord to save Kai. In “The Red Shoes,” the unfortunate Karen is mercilessly punished for her pride, and she must have her feet cut off and learn Christian humility before she can be accepted into heaven.
Andersen tended to chastise girls or use them as examples in Christian allegorical fairy tales that celebrate the intelligent design of God. Whether the girl is reprimanded, as in “The Girl Who Stepped on Bread” (1859), or elevated to the level of a saint, as in “The Little Match Girl” (1845), Andersen insisted that she become self-sacrificial and pious. It was not much different for the male characters in Andersen’s tales, but interestingly, he did not treat males as harshly as he did females. Overall, almost all of Andersen’s religious tales and many others indicate that the only way to fulfill one’s destiny is to place one’s trust in the Lord.
THE ANTHROPOMORPHIZING OF ANIMALS AND NATURE
In his traditional tales in which animals, insects, and plants speak and come to life, Andersen often didactically conveys moral values. Placing one’s faith in God is an undercurrent in his most famous fairy tale, “The Ugly Duckling.” There are no Christian references in this narrative; instead Andersen uses the tradition of animal tales to demonstrate that there is such a thing as “intelligent design.” The duckling must have faith in order to overcome all the obstacles in his life and triumph in the end.
Andersen’s anthropomorphizing tales are not always religious. In many, he pokes fun at human foibles—for example, pomposity is his target in “The Spruce Tree” (1845) and “The Dung Beetle” (1861). His short tales, pungent and often bitterly ironic, stand in the tradition of Aesop’s fables and reflect Andersen’s notions of “survival of the fittest.” Though in fact he rejected Darwin’s ideas, many of Andersen’s tales that deal with anthropomorphized animals and plants are concerned with intense social and natural conflict. He understood the fierce battles waged in the European societies of his day, such as the revolutions of 1848 and the uprisings of peasants and workers, but instead of recounting these conflicts in realistic stories, Andersen anthropomorphized animals and nature to comment critically on more than one of the delicate issues and taboo subjects of his time.
THE HUMANIZATION OF TOYS AND OBJECTS
Much in the same way that he used animals and nature, Andersen “humanized” toys and inanimate objects to comment on social issues and human weaknesses. Here his model was E. T. A. Hoffmann, who had experimented with this narrative mode in such tales as “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (1816). Another obvious example is “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” (1838). Perhaps more important is “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep” (1845), in which he uses porcelain figures to meditate philosophically on the fear of freedom. What is intriguing in Andersen’s tales about toys and objects is the way he realistically describes them; he had a great eye for detail and depicted toys, objects, and their settings so carefully and precisely that it almost seems natural they would come to life. Andersen often took tiny incidental or neglected objects, such as a darning needle or rags, as the subject matter for a consideration of serious philosophical and social concerns or even survival and immortality.