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Snow Queen: The Old Woman's Garden-Flower Talk

© Mary C. Legg

From the beginning of the story, Andersen introduces blindness and journey as symbols. Eons before the story takes place, a demon constructed a mirror that contorted the images of reality so that beautiful things looked loathsome. The demon becomes the foil of Kay who goes out one day to skate. A splinter of the broken mirror his pierced his eye and froze his heart so that anything that previously beautiful became ugly and distasteful.

However, simplistic this sounds, the message conveys psychological truth. How often, we become embittered by a particularly shattering experience and are no longer able to see the beauty within the world. We lose a job, and suddenly life becomes a terrible struggle without the means for financial support or social engagement. We no longer have the means to enjoy public entertainment or spend money on delightful things. Our perspective becomes twisted like the images in the mirror made by the demon.

Kay goes off to skate, abandoning his friend, Gerda. Entranced with the Snow Queen, he ties his sled to her sledge and vanishes from Gerda's life. His disappearance alarms Gerda. Although not rich, Gerda is determined to find him and bring him back into her life. The theme is that of Rake's Progress, composed by Strawinsky and written by Auden, based on the etchings of Hogarth. Abandoning the security of her home, Gerda forsakes persoanl belongings, sacrificing her new red shoes to the river in hopes of finding Kay again.

More poetically Shakespeare presents Sonnet 116, using the ship following the stars to reach its goals. The turmoil and dangers in the sonnet are hidden, as the lofty goal of love is raised to its zenith.

Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage to http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/116c...

Gerda is no poet or lady of the white glove. She is as poor as the Goose-girl, but more generous. Climbing into a boat, she entrusts her fate and journey to God, and sets out. In the third chapter, Gerda enters the garden of the Old Woman. Andersen, contrives the accidental encounter. We do not see him scheming in the background with the meeting of the two women: one is old and childless; the other, young and childless. Andersen insists that the old woman is not a bad witch, but still a witch who can order the arrangement of her garden to suit her needs, manipulating the memory of Gerda. The one is childless from old age-and also possibly selfishness. She cannot take the risks that Gerda is willing to make and she will not give up the comfort of her tidy world to venture into harsh realities outside. The garden is an image of containment, self-interest and selfishness. Gerda is isolated where no outside force is allowed to influence or touch her. The old woman desires selfishly to retain her company. She will take no risk in allowing Gerda any freedom, including Gerda's dreams and past memories. She contrives to erase all memories of Gerda's past life by banishing the roses underground and maintaining an eternal springlike season in her garden.