Religious Iconography in Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales: Analysis of The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl, The Red Shoes, and The Snow Queen
Overview
This essay analyzes the use of religious iconography across four fairy tales by Christian Andersen, with particular focus on The Little Mermaid. The author argues that Andersen's narratives employ Christian symbolism and theological concepts such as baptism, eternal life, and the Fall of Eden to explore themes of human desire, sacrifice, and spiritual redemption.
What this essay covers
- Introduction to Andersen's four fairy tales and their use of religious symbolism
- Analysis of The Little Mermaid as an allegory for the Fall of Eden, with characters mapped to biblical figures
- Examination of themes of afterlife, immortality, and baptism as central to understanding the narrative's religious dimensions
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Andersen Essay
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Andersen Essay
The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl, The Red Shoes, and The Snow Queen” are fascinating stories written by Christian Anderson. All these stories apply religious iconography throughout the narrative. For example, The Little Mermaid is based on a mythological story symbolizing female initiation in the world of men, in a situation where the father is absent (Andersen, 1993). This movie is about a 16-year-old mermaid princess named Ariel who is willing to give up everything for the chance to gain an immortal human soul. She is the youngest and the loveliest daughter of the Mer-king; Ariel is yearning for distant worlds and is obsessed with the human world. Little mermaid falls in love with a human prince (Eric) whom she later saves from drowning.
With the appealing prospect of getting an immortal soul together alongside the blissful love of prince Eric, Ariel is willing to have her fishtail transformed into human legs and sacrifice her beautiful tongue and voice. Ariel needs to earn the prince’s love before time runs out. To accomplish this, she makes a deal with a wicked sea witch who would make her human. However, Prince Eric ends up marrying another woman. The approach is also similar to what is applied in The Little Match Girl, particularly the relationship between different characters.
There are different religious icons in this movie. The entire tale recognizes what human beings go through to have an afterlife and strive to gain a place in the afterlife.