Hans Christian Anderson, the author of many famous tales such as The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid, was a Danish author (who is rumored to have possibly been an illegitimate member of the Danish royal family, but of course that has never been substantiated) who is most famous for his fairytales, but many of the themes in these stories were inspired by his own personal life.
Hans Christian Anderson had a very tragic love life, and this can be seen reflected in many of his stories. He had strong romantic feelings for a man in his life, Edvard Collin, and wrote him many letters about longing to be with him as if he was a girl, saying "My sentiments for you are those of a woman," among many other things. However, unfortunately, Edvard, who was the son of Hans Christian Anderson’s patron who supported his art, did not return his sentiments, leaving the famous author devastated.
This theme of unrequited love and heartbreak is most clearly reflected in Hans Christian Anderson’s story “The Little Mermaid''. In this story the young girl loves the prince so much she would do anything for him, and at first loses her voice and lives in excruciating pain just to be around him. But the prince only ever views her like you view a younger sibling, and never truly loved her, much to the devastation of the young mermaid. Eventually the prince meets his true love, and the young mermaid would so much rather see him happy and alive than to kill him and live herself, so she accepts her fate of death. This is a clear allegory to the love life of Hans Christian Anderson, who had to live in excruciating pain of knowing that Edvard did not love him the same way, but still choosing to be around him and watching him marry someone else. Hans Christian Anderson was not only doomed to fall for someone who did not love him back, but doomed to fall in love with a man in a very non-accepting society, and these are the themes that are reflected in “The Little Mermaid.”
Hi Katy! I wrote about the same topic and was so intrigued by his life— his life definitely wasn't a fairy tale. I am particularly intrigued by his alleged love affairs with men; it's interesting to see representation in this sort of context. It's especially interesting when you consider that a lot of his other beliefs regarding women were not as "progressive" as LGBTQ+ acceptance; I wonder how, then, if LGBTQ+ rights and tolerance were always connected to progressive movements.
ReplyDeleteI agree about how the representation is kind of interesting, because his views on women were VERY reflective of the times that he lived in, but he didn't view much difference between relationships between men and relationships between women, which is especially interesting in the way he views women as objects (basically).
DeleteInteresting that it seemed he was gay, yet still wrote about women in the old-fashioned, almost degrading manner. To what extent do you think social norms around women vs. the almost nonexistent thought of LGBT people back in his time played a role in what he wrote about?
ReplyDeleteFrom historical standpoints it seems he had feelings for both men and women at separate times, so it's interesting to view the contrasts between how he treated the women he had feelings for versus the men he had feelings for. I think societal norms, specifically around women, played a huge role in his thought process, due to the fact that he lived in a time where women were regarded as worth less than men at best.
DeleteInteresting post about HC Andersen's love life, Katy! Did you come across any information on his romantic attachments with women? I know he was similarly unlucky in that regard, but I wonder if there are similar insights from his love life in the way he depicts women in his stories. The best they seem able to hope for is to die young before they're corrupted...
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