"The Snow Queen," Gerda and Kai: Characteristics and History of Images

The fairy tale of H.H. Andersen is dedicated to the very famous in the 18th century by Ienny Lind - an opera actress. She had a phenomenal range. She was applauded by Berlin, Paris, London and Vienna. Her voice was admired, and the performances were sold out.

Andersen conquered to the depths of her soul her beautiful voice. The acquaintance of Lind and the writer took place in Copenhagen. Literally at first sight he fell in love with the singer. Whether this feeling was mutual is unknown. But she appreciated his writing talent.

Andersen could not speak beautifully of his love, so he decided to write about this and confess his feelings. By sending a letter with the confession of Lind, he did not wait for an answer. This is how a famous fairy tale was born, telling about the touching love that Gerda and Kai felt for each other.

Prototypes of heroes in a fairy tale

Two years later, Lind and Andersen met. The actress invited Andersen to become her brother. He agreed (since it's better than being nothing), thinking that Gerda and Kai were also like a brother and sister.

Perhaps in search of a real sense Andersen spent a lot of time traveling, trying to escape from the kingdom of the Snow Queen, for whom he was Copenhagen. In life everything is not as it is in a fairy tale. The image of Kai and Gerda, invented by Andersen and personifying him and Lind, was just as pure. In life, Kai could not fall in love with Gerd and escape from the kingdom of the Snow Queen.

Brief fairy tale analysis

G. H. Andersen is the first Danish writer whose works have entered the world literature. The most famous are the fairytales "The Little Mermaid" and "The Snow Queen". They are familiar to almost every one of us. The fairy tale "The Snow Queen" tells about good and evil, love and oblivion. It also tells about devotion and betrayal.

The image of the Snow Queen in the tale was taken for a reason. Andersen's father before his death told him that the Ice Maiden came for him. In his tale, the writer personified the Snow Queen with the Ice Maiden, who took his dying father with him.

The fairy tale is at first sight simple and does not contain a deep meaning. Deepening into the process of analysis, you understand that the plot raises one of the most important aspects of life: love, devotion, purposefulness, kindness, fighting evil, religious motives.

History of Kaya and Gerda

This is the story of the touching friendship and love of two fabulous Andersen fairy tale characters . Herda and Kai were familiar from the very childhood and spent a lot of time together. In a fairy tale to prove the strength of friendship is precisely Gerde, who went on a long and hard journey after the boy, who became a prisoner of the Snow Queen herself. Charming Kaya with a piece of ice, she turned him into a stale, spoiled and impudent boy. At the same time, Kai was not aware of his changes. Having managed to go through many difficulties, Gerda managed to find Kai, to melt his icy heart. Kindness and faith in saving a friend gave the girl strength and confidence. The fairy tale teaches to be faithful to one's feelings, not to leave a loved one in need, to be kind and, despite the difficulties, to strive to achieve this goal.

Characteristics of Kai and Gerda

Andersen's Tale describes a kind, attentive and sympathetic Kai. But after the challenge thrown to the Snow Queen, he turns into a rude and evil boy, capable of offending anyone, even Gerd and his grandmother, whose fabulous stories he loved to listen to. One of Kay's tricks ended in the fact that he was captured by the Snow Queen.

In the palace of the evil queen he became a boy with an icy heart. Kai kept trying to put the word "eternity" out of ice, but he could not. Then she promised him to give skates and the whole world. Kai's striving to grasp eternity indicates his lack of understanding that it is impossible to do without true feelings, without love, having only a cold mind and an ice heart.

Deprived of all human feelings, Kai wanted to read a prayer in fear, but he could not. In his head, only the multiplication table was rotated. Frozen figures of the correct geometric form - this is the only thing that fascinated him. Once, Kai's favorite roses are trampled down, and snowflakes are viewed with interest in a magnifying glass.

The image of Gerda is an opposition to the character of the Snow Queen. To find Kai and get him out of the ice castle, the girl goes on a long and hard journey. In the name of her love, a brave little girl goes into obscurity. Obstacles encountered along this path did not make Gerda angry and were not forced to turn back to the side of the house, to leave the friend in captivity at the Snow Queen. Friendly, kind and sweet she stayed throughout the fairy tale. Courage, perseverance and patience help her not to lose heart, but humbly overcome all the failures. Thanks to this character she managed to find Kai. And the love for him could melt his icy heart and cope with the enchantment of the evil queen.

Description Gerda and Kaya can be in life a type of real people and similar stories. It is enough only to look around more closely.

Characteristics of the Snow Queen

Snow Queen, Witch-Blizzard, Ice Maiden is a classic character of Scandinavian folklore. Lifeless and cold space, snow and eternal ice - this is the Kingdom of the Snow Queen. A tall, beautiful ruler on a throne on the lake, which is called the Mirror of Reason, she is the embodiment of cold intelligence and beauty, devoid of feelings.

The rise of the fairy tale heroes

Having visited the kingdom of the Snow Queen, the heroes become adults. Moral meaning acquires the motive of growing up. Children grow older when faced with severe life challenges, overcoming which Gerda managed to save her beloved, resisting the difficult searches and intrigues that the Snow Queen did for them. Kai and Gerda, despite growing up, keep their children's mental cleanliness. They seemed to be born again for the purpose of a new adult existence.

Christian motives in a fairy tale

Andersen's tale is imbued with Christian motives. In Russian publications, this is rarely to be found. In the episode, when Gerda tries to enter the castle of the Snow Queen, she is not allowed to go there. She could get into it because she began to read the prayer "Our Father". After that, the guard, turning into angels, paved the girl's way.

At the time when Gerda and Kai return to their home, the grandmother reads the Gospel. After the meeting, the children all begin to dance around the bush of roses and sing Christmas carols, which ended the instructive tale.

And this mysterious journey began from the world of good to the land of evil from a fragment of a broken mirror that fell into the eye of Kai. The mirror broke because the trolls (that is demons) reflected everything in it in a distorted form. Andersen explains this by saying that the demons in the fraudulent mirror wanted to reflect the Creator. God, not allowing this, did so that the mirror burst out of the hands of demons and broke.

The image of Hell is reflected in the word "eternity", which the Snow Queen instructed to fold Kayu. Ice, not created by the Creator, eternity is an image of hell.

In the episode where the deer asks the sorceress to help Gerda and give her the strength of the twelve bogatyrs (twelve apostles), she replies that she can not make the girl stronger than she is. Her power is a small loving heart. And God is helping her.

Counter cold and heat

With the prologue of the fairy tale Andersen begins to write about the fact that some people get ice fragments in the heart, which is frozen, becomes cold and unfeeling. And at the end of the tale describes how hot tears of Gerda fall on the chest to Kaya and a splinter of ice in his heart melts.

Coldness in a fairy tale is the personification of evil, everything bad on earth, and warmth is love.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Snow Queen, Andersen sees a lack of warmth, the presence of cold and insensitivity.