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A Look into the Mind of Hans Christian Andersen

A look into the mind of Hans Christian Andersen

From the stories that I have so far been introduced throughout this course and I will make special references to The Little Mermaid and The Red Shoes, I have come to respect Mr. Andersen for his vivid imagery and writing skills.

I found myself wondering many a time as to his way of thinking, and what would have prompted him to write such as he did, and each time I came to the conclusion that his Christian faith played a big role in it. His poverty during his childhood seems to have inspired him to write of it as the background of his characters in most of his folk tales, and it often is associated with accessing wealth in the end. He seems to write of love sometimes in the most forlorn way, and I can only conclude that it might have been one of his most desired emotions.

In the Little Mermaid, he entrances his readers with such accomplished detail of life under the sea and made us see the beauty of it through his exemplary way of explaining the finer details of the world underwater. He always has a penchant for beauty, and his female characters in the Little Mermaid and The Red Shoes are portrayed as beautiful. There is an untouchable quality in Little Mermaid that he has managed to relate to us. She is the ultimate Star of the Story. She falls in love and it is unrequited, but her love for the Prince has her losing him in the end. 

In this sense, Mr. Andersen has shown us that Little Mermaid has a blinding love for her Prince. She was unwavering in her pursuit of him to the extent of losing her beautiful voice and going against the wishes of her family. She was seeking that which was beyond the aspirations of her family. She even made a pact with the sea witch in this regard. In that way too, she had hurt her family to follow her heart.

Mr. Andersen has come across as showing to the world that in love nothing else should matter. If there were a chance to pursue one's pursuit of happiness, then it should be taken. As I read his stories, I always wondered at his ability to reach across to countless with love stories and fairy tales, and still remain a personal seeker of these values.

As in the case of The Red Shoes, Mr. Andersen has clearly in a way ridiculed the idea of sin being part of vanity and beauty. Even though Karen, in the end, found redemption and salvation, Mr. Andersen had told the story in such a way that Karen had shown how displeased she was that she couldn't break the tradition of the church and follow her passion. She went ahead and did what her heart desired and was cursed by the Angel of God. While reading this story, I wondered if Mr. Andersen himself was against some of the orthodox ways of the Christian faith, or if he was trying to warn the readers of the punishment that comes with going against the norm of the church.

The modern world has woven itself so intricately with beauty and vanity. In every aspect of society, these virtues are admired and sometimes detested. Mr. Andersen's writings on these clearly outline a man who had envisioned a life intricately woven with these attributes.

I believe more than anything Mr. Andersen was a visionary who had the heart and soul of a child who yearned for riches, beauty, and love. His only way of imparting his knowledge and passion was through the books he wrote for children. He invoked special regard for children and related well with them and only because his childhood was a sad one.

(The thoughts and summation here are expressively that of Shobana Gomes based on the course that she took on Hans Christian Andersen, the person and his stories with Future Learn)

By
Shobana Gomes
02/12/2016




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