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Hans Christian Andersen wrote six novels, eighty-plus stageworks, travelogues and stashes of fairytales. His novels are nearly unknown, but the fairytales remain perennial favorites, reflecting the long shadowy silhouette of the author who seemed constantly alone in a society of entertainment and nobility.
From Dicken's viewpoint, HCA was scarcely more than an overgrown child, of which Dickens had enough of his own in an overcrowded house while he was trying to manage his affairs in secret. Insecure, Andersen stuffed his notebooks, writing paper and scissors into his boots afraid that Dicken's coachman would rob him. Relieved at his departure, Dickens put up a sign:
"Hans Christian Andersen slept in this room for five weeks which seemed to the family AGES."
To be fair to Dickens, the visit was to be short, but lasted forever.
In 1810-1811, HCA went to two nursery schools: one supervised by Marie Raaschou and the other by Fedder Carstens whose school was mostly attended by Jewish children. Throughout life, Andersen was troubled by spiritual angst which is reflected in diary accounts and stories. The Mermaid is forced to make an agonizing choice of chopping off her tail to become human or lose the prince's affection. On the eve of her marriage, she is crossed by her nemesis, losing the prince. Rejected, she has not only lost her the possibility of becoming human, but also any possibility of attaining heaven. The plight of the Mermaid awakens us from our indifference to human suffering. We are all too accustomed to the weepy violins and mournful bassoons bleating away broken hearts in bad soap opera series. She is just another jilted woman at the altar of remorseless love.
Is she a she? Or a He? Namely-HCA. The grown Ugly Duckling admiring himself in the reflection of the pond? Certainly the story is narcisstic. The Ugly Duckling receives more than fair share of abuse, but later sees himself as elegant, if not divinely beautiful. Despite the well-known infatuation for Jenny Lind, HCA never married. We see him as a pitiful, solitary man, drifting from castle to castle, the wandering court jester entertaining the nobles with fairytales.
Single, he appears a figure of rejection. Perhaps HCA had no the courage to accept emotional commitments regardless of his tempestuous outbursts and pledges of undying love, imitating Beethoven in his raging Sturm und Drang.
The Brave Tin Soldier, written in 1838, foreshadowed his life. Having only one leg, the Tin Soldier is subject to the children's disdain and bullied by the Goblin. Abnormal, he is a mutant, incomplete and hollow inside. Symbolically, this could be interpreted as Andersen's own gross sense of inferiority and insecurity. The absent leg-Recall the riddle of the Sphinx? What goes on two legs in the morning, three legs at noon and... The missing leg may reflect Andersen's own sexual inadequacy. Entranced by the beautiful ballerina who stands poised on one leg, the soldier fantasizes about a romantic encounter. HCA paints the relationship as impossible. They are on opposite sides of the room, and besides, the soldier has but one leg.
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