The Ugly Ducking. Analisis De Las Obras De Andersen

“The life of every man is a fairy tale written by the hand of God “

Hans Christian Andersen

1. INTRODUCTION

Reading is an essential part of the education of the children.

From an educational perspective it helps the children develop their imagination and creativity, provides them values and rules of social behaviour and even helps them to solve daily problems.

We must no overlook the playful part, since after all the stories transport us to a world of fantasy where everything what we dream can turn into reality.

In this context Andersen there was a precursor. His works were written more than two hundred years ago, they occupy a prominent position in children’s literature.

2. BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.

Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark, April 2, 1805 – August 4, 1875) was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories.

During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was honored by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired lots of pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.

He was born inside a poor family and he had also a complicated childhood. These two facts are going to be reflected in almost all his works.

From a very early Andersen, showed a great imagination. He was able to memorize entire plays by Shakespeare and to recite them using his wooden dolls as actors.

The Failure of his dream of becoming on opera singer, led him to pursuit a career at the University of Copenhague.

In 1827 his first poem was published at a Danish magazine Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post, the most prestigious magazine at that time.

Andersen was a hardened traveler - "to travel is to live " , he used to say. After his trips he wrote his impressions in the newspapers.

In 1831 he made a trip to Berlin, whose Chronicle appeared with the title Silhouettes. In 1833, he received from the King a small travel grant and made the first of his long trips through Europe.

In 1834 he arrived at Rome. It was Italy that inspired his first novel, The Improviser published in 1835, with considerable success. The first two editions of his stories of adventures for children, followed by a series of short stories also appeared at this year. He had earlier published a libretto for the Opera The bride of Lammermoor and a book of poems on titled The Twelve Months of the Year.

The longest of his travels, between 1840 and 1841, took him through Germany (where he made his first trip by train), Italy, Malta and Greece to Constantinople. The return trip took him to the Black Sea and the Danube. The book Bazaar of a Poet (1842) that recounts his experience is considered by many the best travel book.

In 1863, after another trip, a new travel book published in Spain, a country which impressed him especially the cities of Malaga (where there is a statue in his honor), Granada, Alicante, and Toledo.

Andersen often fell in love with unattainable women for him and many of his histories are interpreted as allusions to his disappointments in love.

At first, his works were not very valued; nevertheless, in 1838 Hans Christian Andersen already was an established writer. The reputation of his fairy-tales was growing.

It began to write the second series in 1838 and one third one in 1843 with the title new Stories.

Andersen turned into a known personage in Europe, in spite of the fact that in Denmark he was not recognized completely as writer.

He didn’t have too much interest in his fairy-tales, by which it is valued nowadays. However he continued writing them and in 1847 and 1848 they appeared two new volumes. After a long silence, Andersen published another novel in 1857: Be or May Not Be.

Between his more famous stories we can find "The ugly duckling ", “The new suit of the emperor ",” The queen of the snow ", " The red slippers ", " The bird Phoenix ", " The princess and the pea " , between others.

His stories for children continued appearing until 1872. During the spring of this year, Andersen suffered a fall from his own bed, which produced to him serious wounds. It never returned to recover completely, and on August 4, 1875 he died in the house called Rolighed, near Copenhagen, where it is buried.

3. CHARACTERISTICS AND STYLE OF ANDERSEN

He was looking at the world with child's eyes and he played the world with adult's comments. For this reason, the language of his work was the daily language, full of expressions, feelings and ideas that had never been incorporated into Childress literature, because authors used to consider them difficult to the understood by the reader.

The majority of his works are autobiographical. He considered necessary that the readers should know his life to be able to understand his work. Andersen's stories were sometimes the reflection of the tormented personality of the author.

A custom that Andersen supported during many years was to narrate of his own voice his stories. He enjoyed reading stories to the children. He liked reading its own histories aloud, and sometimes in front of a big auditorium, the reason was that in this way he could give to his stories the ironic tone he wanted as their majority was based in his own life. It is also said that he had a sweet and beautiful voice

The main characters are chosen between the most disadvantaged groups and reflect the general characteristics of the human spirit; also he choice objects, animals and plants as protagonist on order to show some feature of the human nature.

If we analyze the complete collection of stories, we can see links between them, like the repetition of characters, even of literal phrases.

The perspective, from which he narrates the stories, and the changes of the points of view, replace the fixed narrator of the realistic novel - of which Andersen was distancing himself - and to the absent narrator of the traditional stories.

RECURRENT MOTIVES IN Andersen’s STORIES :

Religion/God: Andersen's stories are marked by the religion though the author himself was not too religious until the end of his life. God's figure is mentioned in many of his stories. God takes decisions for the prominent figures, guides them, and they trust totally him entirely.

Example of stories which display this are: The companion of trip (1835) and the child in the tomb (1859)

Death: It is present in most of the stories. Andersen tries to demythologize death, like an example as something dramatic, but as a logical and normal continuation of earthly life.

Examples of stories which display this are .The Small Ondine (1835), Under the willow (1853) or in Anne-Lisbeth (1859)

Importance of the women: In Andersen's stories women occupy a dominant place up to the point that they we no often find the masculine presence. Women play often the traditionally masculine paper: they have the power, the force and they help the men.

Example of stories which display this are: The Small Ondine (1835), The Queen of the Snow (1844), The history of a mother (1848), was not serving for (not (1853 at all), The bean (1856), Pulgarcita (1836).

The wonderful, the fantastic and the folklore: in all the stories, the wonderful is present in Andersen's statements specially in relation to the Danish folklore.

He often speaks about nymphs, small goblins that live in the houses, trolls, fairies, witches, gargoyles, undines…..

Example of stories of this subject matter: The wild swans (1838), The fille du roi of the vase (1858) or The red slippers (1845). The storks (1839), Pieter, Peter, Pier (1867).

3 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ANDERSEN, THE BROTHERS GRIMM AND CHARLES PERRAULT

The first difference resides in the fact that the brothers Grimm and Perrault gathered and transcribed popular histories that were circulating in oral form.

As for Andersen, he limits himself in taking ideas from the popular stories that provide a starting point to him, and then lets unfold his imagination.

The second difference is that Perrault and the brothers Grimm aim at the transportation of a message. Andersen however does not think about how to be moralizing. Although his stories carry a message, this sometimes is vague and ambivalent.

This can be due to the fact that in Andersen we do not find the opposition good / evil, which is present in all the stories of Perrault and Grimm.

Andersen does not include in his works bad hero, since for him there are no authentic villains but there are "good ones" and "less good".

4. THE UGLY DUCK.

Andersen first conceived the story in 1842 while he was enjoying the beauty of nature during his stay at the country estate of Bregentved, and he dedicated in it an entire year. He initially considered "The Young Swans" as the tale's title but, not wanting to spoil the element of surprise in the protagonist’s transformation, discarded it for "The Ugly Duckling".

It was first published in Copenhagen, Denmark 11 November 1843 in New Fairy Tales. First Book. First Collection. 1844. (Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Første Samling. 1844.)

The tale is completely Andersen's

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