Symbolism In Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl

Hans Christian Andersen is a famous Danish author. His stories have been translated into many languages. Some of his stories are considered dark, however he shows optimism at the same time. Andersen’s stories make the reader stop and think and re-evaluate one’s life. He has an understanding of the human condition and the realism of the social issues. This is certainly the case with his story The Little Match Girl the protagonist. The story is about a girl who lives in poverty, neglected from her family and considered a burden on society. She sets out to sell matches on Christmas Eve in the cold and loses her shoes but does not go home because she fears her father’s temper. She stays out in the cold and starts to light her matches to stay warm. Upon lighting each match she has a vision that she wishes that she had. In the last vision she …show more content…
The film confuses the viewer on what message it’s giving because the first two visions are symbols for shelter and food basic needs but the last vision takes a strange turn with the dancing angels and the little girl receiving flowers from cherubs. The film takes on a religious tone through its symbolism of the angels and God’s alter taking the emphasis away from the girl and focusing on what heaven might look like. The conflict is not obvious, compared to Andersen’s. Andersen’s symbolism of the visions, each vision leads to what the girls wants and at the same time brings back memories when she felt love. In the vision of the Christmas tree a star is falling which symbolizes that the little girl is going to die and be visited by the one person she loved. Conflict between life and death.
The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail of fire. Someone is just dead!" said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, (Andersen, paragraph 10, line