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While many of Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s 19th-century stories have moralizing motifs, their universality and depth places them among ageless fairy tales. Although The Princess and the Pea and The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes are social satire, they also depict psychic dynamics. A young prince searches but cannot find a mate\u2014until a princess arrives one stormy night, soaking wet and mind-blowingly over-sensitive. Do opposites attract, or are they only contrasting representations of superficiality and entitlement? Andersen\u2019s pen next delivers the famous emperor an even more pointed jab: a child, innocent of the contrivances of social status, blurts truth: he has no clothes! Perhaps each of us has an inner emperor whose shadow is on unwitting public display\u2014and a wise child. If Andersen has little regard for self-aggrandizing conceits, The Ugly Duckling depicts compassion for suffering and the downtrodden. Despite abuse and exile, the ugly duckling responds to springtime\u2019s jubilant beauty. He takes wing, answering the call to transcendence\u2014which reveals his transformation. Swans are the divine bird\u2014a royalty we may rightly aspire to.\xa0

Here\u2019s The Dream We Analyze:

\u201cI am walking and see a headlight lying on the road (on a bridge) and a baby crawling beside it--the baby narrowly escapes from being hit by cars. I see a black and red Bugatti parked (owner of the headlight) and denounce the driver to my football coach, who is also a policeman. I remember the car\u2019s number plate. I get a lot of attention due to this, and I greatly enjoy this. I start murdering people to get more attention. The first murder is with a pistol, the second with a revolver. I try to steal a gun from the football cafeteria for the third one, but I fear being found out by my trainer/policeman, so I end up throwing the gun into the changing room. I confess to him that I am the murderer. My trainer accompanies me to a field nearby where some of my classmates from school are celebrating my birthday. There is a pool. On our way there, I explain to my trainer that I committed those murders because I had become addicted to the attention and adrenaline. It is dark, and suddenly my trainer starts walking faster. There is a donkey chasing us. We manage to evade it and climb the fence. The donkey jumps over the fence and attacks me. I crawl underneath the fence and arrive at the spot where my classmates are.\u201d

REFERENCES:

Hans Christian Andersen. The Complete Fairy Tales & Stories. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1626860998/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_86034741H5DFNZAHMH8D

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