In most of them, the author forces kind and defenseless characters to go through terrible trials.

Such a plot is also typical for folk tales, but what is atypical for them is that good heroes Andersen's stories often fail, and many fairy tales have sad endings.

Psychologists explain this by the neurotic personality type of the writer, who was lonely all his life and suffered from many phobias.

Famous Danish writer.

Psychologists say that Andersen was neurotic and suffered from various phobias. This is partly explained by severe heredity - his grandfather was mentally ill, his mother drank a lot and died of delirium tremens.

Biographers characterize Andersen as a depressed, unbalanced, restless and irritable person, and also a hypochondriac - he was constantly afraid of getting sick and groundlessly found symptoms of various diseases.

The writer really had many phobias. He was afraid of being buried alive and during his illness he always left a note on the table by his bed to remind him that he was not really dead, even if it might seem so.

The writer was also afraid of burning in a fire and being poisoned. Over the years, his suspicion increased.

One day, fans of his work gave him a box of chocolates. He did not eat them, fearing that the candies were poisoned, but treated them... to the neighbor's children. Convinced the next morning that they had survived, I tried the candy myself.

As a child, Andersen often played with dolls and was very soft and indecisive. Later, he himself admitted the duality of his nature and the lack of masculine fortitude.

At school, boys teased him for constantly telling made-up stories about himself. Andersen admitted: “I was often carried away in my dreams to God knows where, unconsciously looking at the wall hung with paintings, and I got a lot of punishment from the teacher for this.

I really loved telling other boys amazing stories in which the main thing was actor, was, of course, myself. I was often laughed at for this.”

The love stories in his life were as sad as in fairy tales. Andersen was unrequitedly in love with the daughter of his patron, who was married off to a more successful admirer - a lawyer.

His love for the famous Swedish singer and actress Jenny Lind also turned out to be non-reciprocal. He dedicated poems and fairy tales to her (“The Nightingale”, “ The Snow Queen"), but she remained indifferent.

All his life Andersen remained single and, according to biographers, he died a virgin. One of them writes: “His need for women was great, but his fear of them was even stronger.”

That is why, according to psychologists, in his fairy tales he constantly tortures women: he either drowns them, then leaves them in the cold, or burns them in the fireplace. Andersen was called "a sad storyteller running away from love."

Andersen died in all alone after a long illness. Shortly before his death, he said: “I paid a large, exorbitant price for my fairy tales.

I gave up my personal happiness for their sake and missed the time when imagination should have given way to reality.”

Composition

Under the pen of Andersen, fairy tales appeared with a double addressee: a fascinating plot for children, and depth of content for adults. This gave them a special naivety and spontaneity, close to children, and at the same time created a second, “subtextual” philosophical plan, which is inaccessible to children, but reflects the specifics modern life, helping adults understand it. "Nightingale" for more high level developed the ideas of the “Swineherd” - about the true, “real” in human life and about perceived values. The romantic theme of the confrontation between the artist and the tradesman is fully revealed in “The Ugly Duckling,” a work that can be perceived both as a fairy tale for children and as the life story of a poet who seems alien and worthless in the world of pragmatic souls.

Andersen would later call the poet Elenschläger, the sculptor Thorvaldsen, and the scientists Oersted and his brother swans. “The Christmas Tree” is also a fairy tale with two recipients. Her idea is to neglect one’s natural destiny, dream about the extraordinary and overestimate one’s capabilities. This theme was also heard in the fairy tales of the first collections, for example in “The Garden of Eden.” But now Andersen deepens it and presents it more concentrated and at the same time simpler. Andersen draws the reader's attention to the fact that dreams are different. A ghostly dream that does not take into account the capabilities of the individual destroys it. Andersen's most significant philosophical work is the fairy tale "The Shadow". The theme of shadows and doubles was constantly used by the romantics to embody the extrapersonal principle that depresses a person.

A similar oppression occurs in Andersen when a shadow replaces the scientist and forces him to serve her. But Andersen draws attention to the origins of the phenomenon: a bearer of high spirituality, the scientist himself took the first step towards his fall. He separated his shadow from himself and sent it to a neighboring house for the sake of philistine curiosity, so the reason for his death lay in himself. Denial of oneself even in the least threatens, according to Andersen, with innumerable troubles and death. It is no coincidence that, because of this, the initially rather neutral shadow later performs the functions of an ominous double, free in its actions. This is a fairy tale for adults.

One of the masterpieces of the 40s was “The Snow Queen”. It organically combines everyday life and fantasy, it is all permeated with the writer’s great love for people, and his soft irony about the world, his love for the beauty of the harsh northern nature. The world is spiritual in this fairy tale: a deer thinks and feels, old crows help Gerda. This fairy tale includes Andersen's memories of his poor childhood: the garden in the attics of Kai and Gerda is the garden of his childhood. But main idea the work that ensured his immortality is a statement of activity and the power of good. Humanity, which defeats even robbers, is opposed by evil trolls and the soulless Snow Queen.

The bearer of the heroic principle becomes the most a common person, little girl. Andersen the romantic adheres to the peculiarities of “local color” when describing the places where Gerda ends up: these are the wretched living conditions in the attic, this is the arrogance at the court of the prince and princess, these are the rude customs of the robbers, this is the Finnish tent where there are no doors and therefore you need to knock on the chimney, etc. All these realities, permeated with the author's humor, introduced into the fairy tale, create intense interest in events and the selfless struggle to save a kind human heart - the greatest value in the world. At this stage, Andersen also created stories such as “The Little Match Girl.”

In form, it is a parody of a Christmas story, where the suffering of poverty should have a happy ending. In Andersen, happiness comes to a freezing and lonely child only in his dying sleep. Indifferent passers-by mistake the frozen girl for a pile of rags. The stories told by Andersen are noticeably simplified. There are no more people from the graves, no more swan princes.

The heroes become a Christmas tree, a hare, mice, rats, residents of the poultry yard, a cat, and a nightingale. Andersen confesses: “It often seems to me as if every fence, every flower is telling me: “Just look at me, and then my story will pass on to you,” and now, if I want to, stories immediately appear for me.” Objects, animals, birds, plants that have become heroes of fairy tales seem to retain their “psychology”: the Christmas tree is insulted by the fact that a little hare can jump over it so unceremoniously, etc. But the author needs these heroes, first of all, in order to use them to talk about people and their characteristics.

A collar or a darning needle in the fairy tales of the same name, the inhabitants of the poultry yard in The Ugly Duckling are ordinary townsfolk who suddenly imagine themselves as exceptional and important persons. The darning needle, for example, believes that the fingers exist only to hold it. Andersen creates entirely special fiction devoid of romantic dualism. His characters move freely from the world of everyday life and reality to the fictional world. This tradition folk tale was close to the artist from childhood. “Simplification,” so to speak, of fairy-tale material in the 40s did not at all mean a reduction in imagination.

On the contrary, Andersen was never so resourceful as at this stage, when he told amazing stories about the most prosaic subjects. Changing the scope of searches fairy-tale heroes brought fairy tales closer to reality

Difficult childhood

Andersen admitted that he borrowed some ideas for his works from folk tales of Denmark, Germany, England and other peoples. About The Little Mermaid, he said that it was worth writing again.

At school he had difficulty reading and writing, for which he was repeatedly beaten by teachers. However, he never mastered spelling; Andersen wrote with monstrous errors until his old age. The future storyteller was bullied by neighborhood boys, teachers and students at school, and later at the gymnasium, and they humiliated him at his first place of work. In addition, the writer was unlucky in love; Andersen was never married and had no children. His muses did not reciprocate his feelings; in revenge, the images of the “Snow Queen,” the princess from the fairy tale “The Swineherd,” were copied from them.

Mental disorder

Andersen became a cultural visionary of his era. In the fairy tales “The Little Mermaid”, “The Snow Queen”, “Wild Swans” there is a shade of feminism that was alien to the writer’s contemporaries, but was in demand several decades later.

According to another version, Andersen’s “scary” tales were caused by periodic depressions that plagued him throughout his life and dissatisfaction in the sexual sphere. Until the end of his life, the writer remained a virgin, although he visited brothels, but never used their services. The “abominations” he saw only disgusted him, so he preferred to spend time there in conversations with prostitutes.

On April 2, 1805, in the small Danish town of Odense, Hans Christian Andersen was born into the family of a poor shoemaker, who later gained immortal, unfading fame as the author of wonderful fairy tales.

Critics about Andersen's work

Andersen's first experiments in writing poetry, stories and dramatic works was greeted by the literary circles of Copenhagen, arrogant and arrogant people, with undisguised anger. They contemptuously called him an upstart, an arrogant, ridiculous son of a shoemaker, from whom no good in literature could be expected. Finding fault with the purely external roughness of Andersen’s language and not delving into its essence creativity and works, critics sought to protect the “noble” society of Denmark from the penetration of people from the people. The gross partiality and insensitivity of literary judges prompted Aedersen to leave his native country and travel extensively throughout Europe. He received recognition abroad earlier than in his homeland. But the time came when the literary nobles in Denmark were unable to resist the world public opinion, who placed Andersen on the pedestal of a wonderful writer and storyteller.

Life of Christian Andersen

Andersen's life, according to him, is very similar to the fate of the hero of one of his best fairy tales, “The Ugly Duckling.” Life was hard for this “ugly” duckling, who was so unlike other ducklings. “Everyone chased the poor duckling, even his brothers and sisters angrily told him: “If only the cat would drag you away, you obnoxious freak.” And the mother added: “My eyes wouldn’t see you!” The ducks nibbled him, the chickens pecked him, and the girl who gave the birds food kicked him away.” The poor duckling had to run away from his “home,” but wherever he ran, he was met with ridicule. He endured hunger and cold, and no one sympathized with him or pitied him. With bitterness in his heart, the duckling swam to the majestic swans so that they would peck him to death.

So he bows his head and sees his reflection in the water, but the reflection is no longer of an ugly duckling, but of a beautiful swan. Large swans caressed him, children and adults called him the most beautiful of swans. “He recalled the time when everyone laughed at him and persecuted him. And now everyone says that he is the most beautiful among the beautiful swans. The lilac bent its fragrant branches towards him into the water, and the sun shone so warmly, so brightly... And then its wings rustled, its slender neck straightened, and a jubilant cry burst from its chest: “No, I never dreamed of such happiness when I was still ugly duckling!

Reading this wonderful fairy tale, our children are imbued with a feeling of love and responsiveness to all those who are oppressed and offended, and a feeling of hatred for rapists; they see, using a living, figurative example, how to treat people with care, how to cruelly and imprudently humiliate another, who, perhaps in appearance, resembles an ugly duckling, but in his heart and talent will turn out to be beautiful swan. Children should be explained that in this fairy tale Andersen portrayed himself, and then they will condemn that arrogant, soulless society that persecuted the shoemaker’s son, as everyone around them persecuted the ugly duckling, and will be imbued with love and respect for the famous storyteller, who managed to find life despite all the difficulties mighty swan wings of creativity, beautiful artistic skill.

Images, characters, heroes of Andersen's fairy tales

Rich and varied the world of fairy-tale images, characters, heroes of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen. In this world, a significant place is occupied by fantastic characters, such as the beautiful and gloomy snow queen, the fairy Fata Morgana with her ghostly, ever-changing castle, Ole Lukoje, who closes the eyes of children going to bed.

But more often the heroes of Andersen's fairy tales are children, animals and birds, plants and often inanimate objects, such as toy shepherdesses and a chimney sweep, a simple darning needle, an old street lamp, a bottleneck. Andersen found in the simplest and most inconspicuous object material for an interesting and cautionary tale. “It often seems to me,” Andersen writes in one of his letters, “that every fence, every flower tells me: “Look at me, and you will have my story.”

Let's take for example fairy tale "Bottleneck" . What, it would seem, can be said about such an insignificant subject? But under the magic pen of the storyteller, a poetic and instructive story unfolds, a kind of biography of the bottle from the day it was born in a molten furnace until the moment when only the neck of the bottle remained, replacing the poor girl with a flower vase.

The neck remembers how the bottle got its life in the oven on glass factory how the wine sparkled in it when it was a festive, joyful day of the bride and groom, how the bottle traveled across the sea with the groom on the ship, how during a storm a sailor sent his last greetings to his bride in a bottle, how she rose high on an airship and from there was thrown and crashed. But the remainder of it - the bottleneck - still benefits people.

The girl does not have the opportunity to buy a flower vase, she does not have a lush bouquet - small flower in a bottleneck brightens up her lonely life.

IN short fairy tale"Five from One Pod" The fate of five peas is told. Each of them wanted to quickly escape from the walls of the pod and do something useful. But, as soon as they were born, three of them were swallowed by pigeons, the fourth fell into a ditch and lay in moldy water, and only the fate of the fifth pea, which rolled into a crack under the window of the attic closet, turned out to be quite happy.

In the crack there was moss and loose soil, allowing the pea to sprout. A sick girl was lying in the closet, and a modest pea flower was a great joy for her. When the girl began to recover, she leaned out of the window and kissed the thin petals of a blooming white and pink flower.

What do Andersen's fairy tales teach?

Andersen's tales imbued with genuine humanism, love for the people, for the simple and especially for the poor, downtrodden and suffering people. These fairy tales teach sensitivity and kindness in dealing with people. Kind and pure heart common man they contrast the callousness of the proud nobility.

The little heart of the poetic heroine is full of sensitivity, responsiveness, the need to help all the weak fairy tales "Thumbelina" .

Widely known satirical tale « New outfit King Andersen . The king ordered an unusual outfit from two deceiving weavers. Every day they required the finest silk and pure gold and they all hid it. They told the king that they would weave such an outfit that would be visible only to one smart people. All the king's entourage, fearing that they would be considered fools, pretended to find wonderful fabric in an empty loom. The king himself agreed with them, because he did not want to be branded a fool. But the deceivers began to “dress up” the king, or rather, pretend that they were dressing him up, since in reality there was no outfit. On the street, noble people feigned admiration: “Oh, what an outfit! What a luxurious robe! How this dress suits a king!” Suddenly some boy shouted: “The king is naked!”, and everyone among the people began to repeat his words, making sure that the king really had no clothes on.

This tale very graphically and sharply ridicules the empty grandeur and arrogance of high-ranking nonentities and the hypocrisy and servility of their associates. The tale also has a broader meaning as an exposure of all kinds of arrogant narcissism, the arrogance of some people and the sycophancy of others. When a person boasts of his non-existent merits, and his close people, out of servility, agree and flatter him, but in reality it turns out that this person has no special merits; in such cases, they say: “But the king was naked!”

Andersen's fairy tales teach also vigor, cheerfulness and firmness in the fight against difficulties. Hero fairy tales "Flint" The soldier under no circumstances lost his composure. The hero of one of the children's favorites bravely endured many disasters. Andersen's fairy tales "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" .

Andersen's fairy tales provide great food for children's imagination, teach children to observe life, pay attention to unnoticed objects and phenomena and comprehend them.

Andersen's fairy tales are of great importance for aesthetic education children. In fairy tales, the beautiful is not contrived, but taken from life, even if the plot of the fairy tale itself was fantastic.

Many of Andersen's fairy tales are such that they require some explanation for children from adults. This is best done by accompanying the reading of a fairy tale with a brief educational conversation.

Speaking about the merits of Andersen's fairy tales, Chekhov pointed out that they are interesting for both children and adults. Many teachers and parents re-read best fairy tales Andersen and at the same time experience great pleasure every time.

Conversations with children about Andersen and his fairy tales are always interesting for both children and parents.

Based on materials from an old Soviet magazine...

A children's fairy tale is a fascinating introduction to the world around us, the system of human values ​​and the entertaining characters. A child brought up on fairy tales early age, has a wild imagination and creative imagination, has a concept of humanity and kindness towards people and animals. Therefore, the benefits of fairy tales for children are undeniable.

The enchanting world of fairy tales is represented by fantastic stories of various peoples of the world. Children listen to the sad Russian story about the gullible Kolobok or the English tale about the confrontation between the wolf and the three little pigs with extraordinary delight. However, the wonderful fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen occupy a special place on the fabulous Olympus.

How did the creations of the brilliant storyteller originate?

The master of fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, grew up in the Danish town of Odense. The Danish young man's dream was to act on stage and recite poetry, but he immortalized his name precisely thanks to his writing talent. Literary fairy tale it owes its appearance to this man. Published in the 19th century, Andersen's fairy tales captivated all young readers without exception.

Memories from childhood formed the basis storylines magical stories Andersen. Everyone's favorite characters in his fairy tales are ordinary animals, such as cats, dogs or chickens; kitchen utensils; simple flowers and plants glistening under the rays of the sun on the forest edge. But these are the simple heroes that kids wait for before going to bed. His fairy tales for children are fascinating. It’s not without reason that hundreds of cartoons have been made around the world based on Andersen’s children’s works. And parents begin reading Andersen’s fairy tales to children very early.

Why should children read Andersen's fairy tales?

As you know, children do not tolerate monotony, so it is not so easy to captivate them with a book. However, all of Andersen's fairy tales have a unique, non-repetitive plot, which arouses delight and great interest among children. From the pages of Andersen's books, a child always learns something previously unknown and at the same time exciting and fascinating. At the same time, he acquires versatility of thinking and vivid imagination. So, after reading Andersen's fairy tale "The Nightingale", why not delve deeper into thoughts about China. Or tell your child about Denmark, answering his inexhaustible questions, after getting acquainted with the wonderful story of “Galoshes of Happiness”. And the world-famous “Snow Queen” in the imagination of children seems to be an action-packed adventure story, the outcome of which they eagerly await. The reason for this is the author’s system of vivid and unique images.

Another one characteristic feature Andersen's fairy tales - the almost complete absence of violence and cruelty in them, with the exception of two episodes: the abduction of Thumbelina and the possible execution of the Soldier in "Flint". Andersen's fairy-tale stories are permeated with wisdom and kindness, even if at times their ending is sad ("The Little Mermaid").

However, to appreciate Andersen's fairy tales, first of all, follows the writer's desire to reach the very hearts of young readers.

Spiritual and moral education of children through Andersen's fairy tales

The meaning of each Andersen fairy tale is very deep, and the themes of the stories are extensive. Below are the main themes of his children's works.

1) Humanity, heroism and selflessness.

Fairy tales such as “Wild Swans” and “The Snow Queen” are dedicated to these strong qualities. Thus, Gerda’s courage and unquenchable faith in the person inspires only admiration.

2) The immeasurable power of love.

This is what motivates little Gerda, the Little Mermaid, and the steadfast tin soldier. Love in Andersen's fairy tales is a feeling that can overcome the bitterness of separation and all the difficulties that arise along the way.

3) The meaning of life and art.

This theme is vividly represented in several of the writer’s fairy tales: “Flax”, “Tallow Candle”, “The Last Dream of the Old Oak”.

4) Compassion and mercy.

The sensitivity of Gerda's heart helped to cope with evil and envy, greed and indifference.

5) The ability to appreciate and love life.

Thus, in the fairy tale “The Nightingale,” a living nightingale was more desirable than an artificial bird, because it was a real bird that could cure the emperor.

Many parents doubt the need to read Andersen's fairy tales to children. Their hesitation is caused by the sad endings of some of the writer’s stories, as well as the presence of the theme of death in fairy tales. But the main thing Andersen strives for in such stories is to show that his actions and actions during life are of great importance for a person, they remain forever in memory, even after the person passes away.

Thus, children should read Andersen’s fairy tales, but always remember that some of the writer’s creations are addressed to older children and adults. Therefore, it is better to approach this issue thoughtfully and choose Andersen’s fairy tales, taking into account the child’s age (as a rule, start introducing fairy world Andersen is better than children who have reached the age of five). The writer's children's fairy tales will become a worthy guide to fascinating world literary masterpieces.