Emperor's New Clothes By Hans Christian Andersen

Since its conception, the Freudian, or the Psychoanalytic, lens has been used to analyze and understand certain unconscious tendencies within one’s mind that may influence decision making. Hans Christian Andersen often times invokes the Freudian id, ego, and superego in separate instances that lead to unfavorable outcomes in order to show the importance of balance between the three aspects of one’s psyche in decision making. Furthermore, when looking at the rationales and the decisions that characterize Andersen’s creations in various stories, the reader is able to gain more insight into Andersen’s instinctual, moral, and rational personalities. In the Emperor’s New Clothes, Andersen tells the tale of an egotistical emperor who perpetually pampers himself. The Emperor squanders vast amounts of money on buying clothes from all around the world. One day, two cunning men decide to fool the oblivious ruler. The men claim that they can …show more content…
The flea and the grasshopper let their emotions control them during the competition. The flea tries showing off by jumping where no one could see him, so everyone assumed he just didn’t jump. The grasshopper only jumped where people could see him, but he does not look where he is jumping and lands in the king’s face. The frog is very rational and “made a sideways jump into the lap of the princess, who sat close by on a little golden stool” (Andersen). The king applauds the frog for recognizing that there is no place higher than his daughter, and he gives him her hand in marriage. Andersen once again demonstrates that in the flea’s and the grasshopper’s cases, letting a single aspect of one’s psyche take control of decision-making can have ill-favored ramifications. Furthermore, the reader can also see that Andersen favors rationality and patience over impulsivity as shown by the frog's