H. C. Andersen and Romanticism - Essay Example

H. C. Andersen and Romanticism By H. C. Andersen and Romanticism The era of Romanticism in the nineteenth century saw literature experience a shift of its focus from faith in reason to faith in senses, feelings, and imaginations. Romanticism focuses on feelings as well as the relationship one has with the natural world. Before Romanticism, most writers of literature were more concentrated on scientific writing and advancement of society. Romanticism mainly was opposed to the emphasis on reason, intellect, logic, and subjectivity. Romanticism sought to promote the values of communal consciousness and the belonging to a great whole of nature. What follows is an analysis of the social background at the time and the role the society plays in Anderson’s romanticism ideas, and the extent to which decentralization is in harmony with opposition of romanticism to scientific rationalism of the enlightenment. Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) is considered among the Romantics of the nineteenth century who also influenced diverse writers of fairy tales, including Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann and C. S. Lewis (Wullschlagger, n.d). In his works, Romanticism helps to emphasize the importance of folk consciousness and the imagination of different interpretations of this consciousness that are in unity with nature (Roth, n.d.). This essay analyzes two works by Andersen, “The Snow Queen” and “The Toad,” with a goal of identifying romantic motifs in order to prove the thesis that Andersen’s social background as a poor child in Odense, a town rich in old customs and superstitions, provided him with a creative literary mind that exemplifies the ideals and preoccupations of literary Romanticism. This will be achieved by analyzing the aspects of decentralization of any privileged status of humans within the world as well as the triadic historical development of the Romantic ideology as pertains to Andersen’s two stories. In Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” (1844), there are many links to Romanticism. This story comprises seven sections that revolve around two friends Kay and Gerda, and how they separate but later love brings them back together. At the time of publishing of this story, Romanticism had a major influence on literature in the Scandinavian region. Mainly, the developmental process of the story “The Snow Queen” reflects the triadic historical development of Romantic ideology. Romantic ideology has a triadic historical development as a major characteristic. This developmental process is outlined in different ways, including phylogenetically, ontogenerically, or a combination of both. In the first stage, it is assumed that there exists harmony between individual, nature, and humanity. However, the second or middle stage alters this harmony through separation making alienation the key social element. In the third stage, there is renewed unity and maybe, the shape of a replica of the first stage or the shape of sublation, imitating but also transgressing the first stage (Friberg, n.d.). In “The Snow Queen,” the first phase of harmony in regard to individuality versus humanity is depicted in the first part of the second story where Kay and Gerda have a playful moment at the rooftop during summer while at the rose garden. The second separation period starts when the Snow Queen meets Kay. Afterwards, Queen meets and seduces Kay, he is separated from the initial unity even as demon-splinters invade his heart and eyes. The third stage of re-unification begins when Gerda makes an adventurous journey with the goal of rescuing Kay from the Snow Queen. Gerda finds Kay inside the hall of Snow Queen’s palace that was snowy, with a frozen lake shredded into many pieces in the middle of the hall. Snow Queen calls this lake the “Mirror of Reason”. In this case, the ice symbolizes rationality and reason. When Kay was playing a game with the ice, he was unable to spell the word “eternity” using the ice (Friberg, n.d). This implies that intellect has no capacity to reach eternity. In this moment, Gerda represents self-sacrificing love where together with man’s heart, eternal absolute and the transient human existence are found. It is only after Gerda found Kay and shed a hot tear on him that the lump of ice in his heart melted and the splinter of glass therein was burnt. Only through this integration of Kay into Gerda’s love that he finds God’s eternal grace. Finally, when Kay and Gerda walk hand in hand back to the house with red roses on the roof, one sees a form of reunification, a restoration of the first stage. These two had forgotten about the Snow Queen and her icy palace. As the story comes to an epic end, it comes to realization that while at home, Kay and Gerda were adults but children at heart (Friberg, n.d.). Here, there is an amalgamation of the rational and fictional male intellectual prowess, the female affection as well as the innocence of the child and a sense of responsibility. On the other hand, Andersen’s work “The Toad” (1872) exemplifies the ideals and preoccupations of literary Romanticism as this work is, most importantly, a fairy tale that involves the anthropomorphization of animals as well as speaking non-human creatures such as frogs and toads. This level of personification in this particular work of Andersen shows a displacement of what are considered to be purely human traits. This can be taken to mean that in nature, not only human beings are able to think, feel and speak. Instead, all creatures in nature can think, feel and speak, but in their own unique way, and each creature exists in its own unique way. In “The Toad,” the speech of the stork demonstrates the aspect of unique existence of different creatures in nature. The Stork considers man to be the most conceited creature. That man boasts of his language and eloquence yet at some point, men fail to understand one another (Andersen, 1872). This implies that man is therefore, a part of nature, with unique weaknesses just as other creatures in nature. Andersen also advances the notion that the aspect of intelligence is only known to man, yet man remains a part of nature, and not in any way more special than other creatures in nature. The advancement of this view by Andersen fits with the romantic motif of reconciliation with the natural world. This attempts to eliminate the tension between man and nature, which is created by the idea of rationality and reason. In “The Toad,” other animals have the capability to think, speak and feel, but in their own unique ways. The conceit of man is scientific conceit that makes him believe that he is the only one capable of thinking, feeling and speaking. In “The Toad,” the tension between humans and nature is seen through the characters of the naturalist and the poet and how these react to the toad. The naturalist considers the toad as a specimen that can be taken out of its natural habitat for scientific study purposes. “There sits a good specimen of a toad,” said the naturalist. “I must have that fellow in a bottle of spirits” (Andersen, 1872). The poet however, holds a different viewpoint as compared to the naturalist, even as Andersen uses the poet to echo his romantic viewpoint. “Let the thing sit there and enjoy its life” (Andersen, 1872). This way, the poet considers the toad to exist just as he (the poet) exists. To the poet, the toad just as humans has a life to live and enjoy. The poet therefore, advances harmony in nature, where creatures co-exist in unity and there is no interference with the unique existence of any creature. In “The Toad,” the naturalist is depicted as one that aims at causing the rupture of unity in nature. The naturalist wants to rupture unity in nature in order to advance his pursuance of epistemological truth through knowledge and analysis that interferes with the harmonious co-existence of different creatures in nature (Andersen, 1872). The aspect of romanticism in this story lies in the introduction of what are considered to be “human” traits of existence into the world of animals. In this story, Andersen creates a world where non-human creatures behave uncannily. However, viewing non-human creatures as having uncanny behaviour or nature is an aspect of rationality and naturalism. However, the romantic perspective in this story is seen on the side of the poet, where he considers animals as being entitled to enjoying and living their own existence, just as humans. This way, there is a reconciliation of nature and nothing can be seen as uncanny on the side of the non-human creatures. In this story, the naturalist can be considered mistaken as he believes that rationality is the only way through which we can describe the world. In “The Toad,” Andersen fails to provide an account of the world from the perspectives of rationalism or enlightenment, but reflects a greater inclination to romanticism. In this story, there is an attempt to remove the anthropocentric perspective on nature by critiquing the privileged position that man has been assigned, and more stress is put on the unity in nature. Man should not be considered special and an exception to nature, but part of it. By showing that all nature can exists and enjoy life just as man, this story alleviates the antagonism that considers man as being at odds with nature. In this regard therefore, Andersen’s “The Toad” can be considered to be a reflection of basic romanticist principles. As a writer mainly influenced by Romanticism, Andersen made a significant contribution to literature at his time, and his contribution continues to be felt even today. The contribution of social background to his creative romanticism cannot be underestimated. Created by a writer of mostly fairy tales, Andersen’s stories will continue to shape and mirror culture even in the future. Nonetheless, by analyzing the Romantic motifs and developmental process in Andersen’s essays “The Toad” and the “Snow Queen,” this essay has established that Andersen’s work exemplifies the ideals and preoccupations of literary Romanticism in a world where such works received a lot of resistance from the public. References Andersen, H. C. (1872). The toad. Retrieved from http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/tale115.pdf. Friberg, I. (n.d). The endurance of female love: Romantic ideology in H. C. Andersen’s “The snow queen.” Retrieved from https://pure.ltu.se/portal/files/3312826/Endurance-of-female-love.pdf Roth, C. (n.d.). Bournonville: Some untold stories. Retrieved from https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.319757!/file/Roth-Bournonville.pdf. Wullschlagger, J. (n.d.). Hans Christian Andersen. The British Library. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/andersen/pdf/essay.pdf. Read More