Everyone in the world has been familiar with Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) for a long time! His books are read in childhood, re-read at school, and bought for their children. It is no coincidence that Andersen is called a kind dreamer.

Life was too difficult for him; he had to overcome the callousness and indifference of those around him. He heard terrible prophecies from the teacher: “Nothing good will come of you! You are going to start scribbling paper, but no one will read your writings. They will be bought for waste paper...” - and he did not despair, he continued to dream. And it’s good that the teacher was wrong about him. Who now remembers the name of this teacher? And his student from a poor neighborhood, the son of a shoemaker, is known and loved!

Wooden shoes, homemade toys, cardboard figures, old theater posters - that’s all his wealth. He played tricks on himself, was a prince and a brave knight, went into battle with injustice and cruelty and always won. Let them laugh at him, let them tease him, let him call him a dreamer. He will grow up and prove that being a dreamer is not at all funny. What fairy tale do you remember? That's right, The Ugly Duckling!

The writer's tales are based on life subtext. But the main thing that is in each of them is compassion, devotion, courage, kindness, love. Andersen's fairy tales have a double meaning that only adults can fully understand.

Gennady Tsyferov’s book “My Andersen” is interesting and instructive. In it, he talks about his understanding of the works of the Danish storyteller, draws attention to individual facts from his life, and finds connections between the concept and significant details of the most famous fairy tales. Useful reading for attentive readers!

Gennady Tsyferov

My Andersen

Telling Andersen's biography is probably not so difficult: he was the son of a washerwoman and a shoemaker. He studied at public expense in a gymnasium, worked as a weaver, served in the theater, became a celebrity, and when he was buried, the king himself and a whole crowd of brilliant princesses and princes walked behind the coffin.

But much has already been written about this. I want to tell you about something else. Andersen wrote fairy tales, but what is their story?

TIN SOLDIER

When I first read this fairy tale as a child, I cried. The steadfast tin soldier died in the fire. “Oh,” I thought, “could it really be impossible to make the tin soldier live peacefully to old age, so that he could grow a beard in rings? In the morning, when he went outside, the wind would touch his beard, and it would ring. And the butterflies would dance around, and the soldier himself would play music and be consoled.”

But he died inconsolable.

Maybe Andersen didn't love his little soldier?

No, the matter is completely different.

Dust and sparkling, then the star regiments of the imperial grenadiers walked through the streets, and everyone shouted “hurray” to them.

Adults also love to play. And garlands of buttons, and crimson collars, and small epaulettes, like the sun! Well, what could be more fun than this kind of fun?!

And only one person in the city was silent - the old shoemaker Andersen. He didn't like buffoonery. He always drowned out the beat of military drums with the sound of his hammer. And the louder the drum beat, the harder the shoemaker knocked.

But no matter how hard he worked, the family could not make ends meet - there was always not enough money. And then, waving his hand, he became a soldier. The shoemaker did this instead of some rich man, and he generously paid him.

It's sad, but what can you do? Even if Andersen's father repaired all the boots in the city, he would not receive that much.

And so the shoemaker became a grenadier. Only that grenadier was not shouted “hurray” at all.

The tall fur hat, the pride of the brilliant guardsman, was always in his eyes, and in the rain he simply looked like a scarecrow. And the regiment often laughed at him: “What a soldier!” But the battle broke out, and the laughter ended.

In battle, that little soldier stood steadfastly and straight, like the staff of a regimental banner. And, probably, he would have received an award for such bravery. But the emperor lost the war, and the imperial soldier lost his life.

Andersen returned from his last campaign completely ill, and soon died, without having time to repair the last soldier’s boot. They buried him in those torn boots. They buried him on the high Yura, and, they say, instead of a banner, his wife covered him with a black scarf...

So that's why Andersen wrote this fairy tale. She is the eternal memory of her father, the last wreath on his grave.

But today even the marshals envy that soldier. The story about him is so beautiful and kind.

GIRL WITH MATCHES

Someone said: our heart is like an enchanted chest - both evil and good lie side by side. May be...

But I'll tell you what. This was in Copenhagen. That day one girl was selling matches:

Buy it, sir! Buy it please!

But neither a quiet “please”, nor a trembling hand - nothing could help her. People didn't want to stop.

The snow crunched underfoot, the frost-covered trees looked like ancient wigs, and the timid girl, like a thin candle, still stood on the corner. And suddenly, chilled, her voice broke, like a fragile New Year's ball. And then, as if hearing that sound, someone carefully put his hand on her shoulder: “Take it, please,” he said in the voice of a prince. And the dream itself, a precious coin, fell into her palm.

Probably, this is where the Christmas tale should have ended, but, unfortunately, the girl looked up - on the prince’s neck, instead of a shiny, sparkling muffler... there was an old towel. And the saddened girl returned the coin to him.

“You are kind, but I can’t do the last five,” she whispered. That's all. It remains to add that that prince was young Andersen. And years later he wrote a fairy tale.

In that fairy tale, the girl died, but the storyteller could not do otherwise. As before, the poor children, like thin candles, stood in the streets. And good Andersen knew: if they went out, Copenhagen would become dark and sad.

That's why he wrote a fairy tale with a sad ending. After all, only sad things make callous people kinder.

Thumbelina

Christian Andersen has a wonderful fairy tale about Thumbelina. Many people know the fairy tale, but few people guess why Andersen wrote it.

So listen...

In Denmark, all little people are children, and Andersen himself was once a child. He wore a velvet jacket, a velvet hat, and velvet trousers with straps. He also loved to sing and measured his height every spring. Standing on tiptoes, the boy leaned against the door frame, and his mother made a new notch. The nicks grew, and the parents rejoiced: “How the child has stretched out over the winter. Just think about it!"

But one day, looking at the notch, the mother suddenly gasped: “God! Yes, if this continues, we will have to cut a hole in the ceiling. Our house is too small for such a giant!”

Christian became sad after his mother’s words. Now all he could think about was how to become smaller.

And when the snow melted and the streams woke up, the shoemaker Andersen put down his hammer and called his son: “Shouldn’t we go to the field?”

Flowers, flowers, flowers... Their light scent intoxicated her head, and she spun like a fairground carousel, that carousel that at first slowly and smoothly, as in an ancient dance, and then spins faster and faster to the sounds of an invisible barrel organ and ringing silver bells

And then, then Hans suddenly noticed: a stuffed bumblebee was slowly crawling out of a large scarlet bud. The bumblebee hums and the flower sways slightly, like a fairy rattle.

Dad, dad! - Christian was surprised. - Do they live there?

Yes,” the father nodded indifferently. - Didn't you know?

No, the son did not know about this at all.

How nice it is to become small and live in a flower bud! And all the poor children who have nowhere to live will also become small and live together, like golden bumblebees, like little elves - princes of flowers. All day long the elves fight on the rays of the sun - their toy swords. But these solar swords do not hurt anyone. Barely touching the heart, they tickle the elves and make them laugh. The elves laugh, laugh tenderly and loudly, like carnival bells...

Oh, if only this could really happen!

But in fact, Andersen grew up big. That's why he wrote "Thumbelina." After all, Thumbelina is just a dream of a very poor childhood.

I told you three sad stories. And you probably thought: this Andersen is a sad man!

So know this: this is what they wrote about him a hundred years ago: “In Denmark, no one knows how to smile like Andersen.”

And in his fairy tales, you also always feel this bright smile.

Well, remember at least “Ognivo” - a fairy tale about a soldier and three dogs.

A long time ago, in the city of Copenhagen, King Christian IV built a round tower. And from then on, this tower stood on the main city square.

She looked solemnly and sternly at the small Copenhagen houses, and they shyly huddled in the corners of the square, afraid to approach. And in fact, how could at least one of them compare with the majestic tower?! Almost all the tiled roofs of Copenhagen buildings looked like grandmother's caps. And only the round tower was crowned with something similar to a knight’s helmet. But it has long been known that everything lofty and knightly inspires respect.

Therefore, not only at home, but also all the inhabitants of Copenhagen were proud of their stone bulk. And only one circumstance confused them...

Every worthy tower has its own dark legends. But what could the Copenhageners tell about theirs?

In 1716, for example, Russian Tsar Peter I rode onto the tower on horseback.

That's funny? It is beautiful.

But where are the dark events?

Time passed, water flowed in the canals, but the long-awaited events did not take place.

And then the Copenhagen people bowed to the storyteller.

“Dear Mr. Andersen,” said the residents of Copenhagen, “we kindly ask you to invent something gloomy about our round tower.”

Andersen, of course, really wanted to help his hometown.

Om very much loved his city, bent over the water of the canals, his little Copenhagen.

Andersen looked at him, and it seemed to him that the city was quietly dozing, waiting for something, dreaming about something... Maybe about the time when he would become big, famous and bring glory to his country, his people? .

But no matter how hard Andersen tried to compose a terrible legend, gloomy thoughts never came to mind.

And ambitious fellow citizens hurried: “When? When?!”

And finally, Andersen made up his mind.

For a long, long time he wrote a fairy tale. However, when I finished, I was quite surprised. There was not a word about the tower or Copenhagen itself.

"What to do?" - Andersen thought. I thought and suddenly burst out laughing: “What if you compare the eyes of a dog with a tower? True, it’s absurd, but it’s so unexpected and involuntarily remembered by everyone.”

And the great storyteller did just that.

Then the Copenhageners were very offended.

But now... Now everyone knows about that round tower that looks like a dog's eye.

And if someone comes to Copenhagen, the first thing they do is go to the square to look at this miracle.

So this is what Andersen did with his fairy tale. He not only glorified the tower, but also surprised people for a whole century!

ANDERSEN DOLLAR

They usually say: Andersen died a poor man. But this is a little different. And even completely wrong. After his death, a dollar remained.

Very little, you say. But today many Copenhagen city leaders say that we would give all our millions for an Andersen dollar.

Weirdos?! Oh no!

Better listen. Sad Andersen always had a hard time living. And one winter it was so bad that he couldn’t even leave the house - he didn’t have a coat.

And the storyteller got angry:

“What is the world like? - he thought. - I give him fairy tales, I give him joy, but he, he doesn’t even want to give me an old coat. Or maybe this is payment for a joke. I recently wrote about the naked king. And now I, too, am an almost naked storyteller. Naked storyteller...” Andersen repeated this word again and suddenly laughed.

Great celebration. So great that all the onlookers in Copenhagen gathered in the square. With their mouths open in curiosity, like the muzzles of small cannons, they stand on tiptoe and ask: “What, what’s there?”

And there, under the loud brass of the orchestra, they lay a heavy wreath on Andersen’s brow. Thin poets, stretching out their goose necks, mutter verses of praise. And the fat ministers make pompous speeches: “Our Andersen is the glory of Denmark!..”

And Andersen laughed again. He laughed like that until the evening.

And passersby began to stop on the street and also smile for unknown reasons. And by nightfall, the whole of Copenhagen was probably laughing.

But in the evening, a bell suddenly rang in the storyteller’s house, and the solemn postman handed over a letter.

The bistro writer opened the envelope and... blushed. There was a dollar in his palm.

Yes, this is alms! Exhausted, he sank onto a chair and... suddenly noticed. A small piece of paper, covered in a child's handwriting, fell out of the envelope.

So, does this mean that the dollar is not at all the alms of a king, count, or lord? No no! Just one boy from America sent him his savings.

And the last cloud left Andersen’s face. He smiled. Well, maybe there is no coat, but there is love and a miracle!

That's why all the rich people in Copenhagen are jealous of Andersen today. They have millions of dollars, but they don’t have that kind of money.

Of course, it is difficult at first to understand what Andersen really was like. And what kind of fairy tales he wrote...

Do you know, for example, how bells are played? A drop of silver must be added to each bell. So it rings...

If you add a drop of pure sadness to a funny fairy tale, it will also ring.

Every time after Andersen’s fairy tale, you seem to hear a ringing sound, long and timid. Then you can even forget what it is about, but the timid ringing will forever remain in your heart.

And if someday good memories touch our heart, it will replace it again, and you will again remember your Andersen.

That is why his fairy tales cannot be divided into sad and funny - they are all simply beautiful. The flowers are so beautiful, the trees are beautiful, our distant childhood life is beautiful.

UGLY DUCK

They say that a gentle fairy tale should have a beautiful name. Andersen called one of his best fairy tales “The Ugly Duckling.” And yet, there is nothing more beautiful in the world than her. For a whole century people have been crying over her with joy and grief.

Let us thank Hans Christian Andersen for it and try to find out the history of its creation. It's simple.

Once upon a time, a Danish storyteller was asked to write an autobiography. Namely: why he became a storyteller. Andersen suffered for a long time, biting his pen. He didn't know where to start. And so, when he probably bit his feather for the hundredth time, that distant, distant phrase finally came: “ugly duckling.” That's what someone called him in childhood. This is where it all started.

Yes, yes, then little Andersen had a long nose. And his ears looked like little wings. Mother, however, was not very upset: just think, if she had some intelligence in her head. But the neighbors thought something completely different. And little Andersen often cried, and then suddenly began to dream out of resentment...

He usually did this at dusk. Then everything grew quiet and silent. And every sound was full of hidden meaning. And it was as if he was telling him: “Take comfort.” Whatever happens, he will certainly grow up to be a handsome prince: a crimson cloak, velvet boots, and most importantly, most importantly, he will have a normal nose and normal ears.

You ask: what good are our childhood dreams? Over time, they fly away like autumn leaves.

However, those trembling leaves did not fly off. No no! The adult Andersen wrote amazing fairy tales. Birds talked there, trees laughed, flowers danced, and ugly people could change their noses and ears every time on holidays!

And it was invented so easily and skillfully that everyone admired it.

“How touching this Andersen is,” people began to say.

And from then on he was seen only as he saw himself in that fairy tale: a beautiful swan.

So this is the parable of the ugly duckling. She is like a magic mirror in a silver frame. Once you look into it, everything will change for the better.

This fairy tale is one of the kindest and purest hopes.

So shine forever, mirror! And let your tears falling on him become kind flowers!

LIGHT EARTH

Now I just have to say the hardest thing. Talk about Andersen's death. But it’s probably better to remember a fairy tale.

There was once an ancient country. And a blind singer walked through that country. Everywhere he sang his songs and walked further, further... Adults, meeting him, bowed, and children asked: “Who are you?”

And not wanting to scare them, he answered: “I am a man with my eyes closed.”

But the children asked again: “Why are you knocking with a stick?” And smiling, the blind man answered them: “I’m looking for light soil where I can plant my flowers.”

And when the blind singer died, the whole country cried. And only the children said: “What are you talking about, he just found easy land where he can plant flowers.”

And for a whole century later roses bloomed on that land. And a thousand years later, Andersen came to that country and found a beautiful rose. He wrote a fairy tale about that rose...

Now on Andersen's land, on a small hill, roses are also blooming.

And the children of Copenhagen say: “No, no, he didn’t die, he just found easy ground.”

Yes, great poets and storytellers never die! They simply find light soil to plant flowers there.

Literature

Tsyferov G. My Andersen. - M.: Malysh, 1969.

Alekseev N. A Tale of Tales (To the 200th anniversary of the birth of G.-H. Andrsen) / Pioneer. - 2005. - No. 4. - P. 10-12.

Andersen's exciting tales are familiar to each of us since childhood. Great film adaptations have given us a sense of goodness and magic from each of them, but if you think about it, the plot of these fairy tales was rarely optimistic or cheerful. Of course, Andersen’s heroes in fairy tales spoke about such qualities as envy and malice, deceit and cunning, cruelty and indifference through their own actions, but why did the great storyteller create the fairy tale world so... dull?

The symbol of Denmark is the Little Mermaid looking at the sea...

Of Hans Christian Andersen's 156 fairy tales, 56 end with the death of the main character; in most of them, the author forces kind and defenseless characters to go through terrible trials. This plot is also typical for folk tales, but what is atypical for them is that Andersen’s good heroes are often defeated, and many fairy tales have a sad ending.

m/f "The Snow Queen"

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

m/f "The Ugly Duckling"

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 unreasonably found symptoms of various diseases in himself.

m/f "The Steadfast Tin Soldier"

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.

m/f “The Snow Queen” The prototype for the Snow Queen was the only love of Andersen’s life, Jenny Lind, who throughout her life did not let him come closer than one step to her.

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 character was, of course, myself. I was often laughed at for this.”

m/f "Wild Swans"

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. They were friends for a long time, but after her marriage Andersen did not meet with her again, although until the end of his life he remembered only her alone.

m/f “Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep”

They say that in his old age he became even more strange. He spent a huge amount of time in brothels, but not at all because he was looking for carnal pleasures. He simply had conversations with the “priestesses of love” - he considered everything else to be betrayal of his only beloved.

illustration from the book “The Princess and the Pea”

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."

m/f “The King’s New Dress”

Andersen died completely 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.”

Today Andersen is called a brilliant storyteller, his works are fairy tales for children, but the writer himself believed that he was not understood and his creations were more like instructive stories. In addition, he did not like children, and repeatedly said that he created his works for adults. Most of Andersen's works were adapted and, in many ways, softened, but the original versions are imbued with Christian motifs, they are darker and more severe.

Difficult childhood

It is believed that one of the reasons for the writer’s cruel tales was his difficult childhood. Critics, Andersen's contemporaries, often attacked him, did not recognize his talent, accusing him of “badness of kind” and “mediocrity.” The fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling” was ridiculed as an autobiographical work with libelous elements. This is partly true; the author later admitted that he was the “ugly duckling” who became the “white swan”. Andersen's childhood was spent in poverty, misunderstanding from relatives and peers. The father and writer were shoemakers, the mother was a laundress, and the sister, according to researchers, was a prostitute. He was ashamed of his relatives, and after he achieved fame, he did not return to his hometown almost until his death.

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's maternal ancestors were considered mentally ill in Odense. His grandfather and father claimed that royal blood flowed in their veins, these stories influenced the storyteller so much that as a child his only friend was the imaginary Prince Frits, the future king of Denmark. Today they would say that Andersen had a highly developed imagination, but at that time he was considered almost insane. When the writer was asked how he writes his fairy tales, he said that the heroes simply come to him and tell their stories.

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 were met 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 literary nobles in Denmark were unable to resist world public opinion, which 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 a beautiful swan. It should be explained to children that Andersen portrayed himself in this fairy tale, 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 material for an interesting and instructive tale in the simplest and most inconspicuous object. “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 furnace at the 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 together with the groom on the ship, how during a storm the sailor sent in his bottle last greetings to the bride, how she rose high on an airship and was thrown out of there 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 even have a lush bouquet - a small flower in a bottle neck brightens up her lonely life.

In a 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. The kind and pure heart of a simple person is contrasted in them with 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 "The King's New Clothes" by Andersen . The king ordered an unusual outfit from two deceiving weavers. Every day they demanded the finest silk and pure gold for their work and hid it all. They told the king that they would weave such an outfit that would be visible only to 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 also of great importance for the aesthetic education of 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 repeatedly reread Andersen's best fairy tales and 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...

Composition

Under the pen of Andersen, fairy tales appeared with a double addressee: a captivating 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 of modern life, helping adults to comprehend it. “The Nightingale” developed the ideas of “The Swineherd” at a higher level - about the true, “real” in human life and about supposed 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 the main idea of ​​the work, which ensured his immortality, is the affirmation 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 ordinary person, a 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 an entirely special fantasy, devoid of romantic dualism. His characters move freely from the world of everyday life and reality to the fictional world. This tradition of folk tales was close to the artist’s 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 for fairy-tale characters brought fairy tales closer to reality