Although quite short, this well-known story by Danish poet and writer Hans Christian Andersen is one of the saddest Festive Season stories ever told. A cruel father sends his little girl out into the snow to sell matches. She crouches between two buildings, afraid to go home because she hasn’t made any sales. As she imagines the people inside their warm houses getting ready for a big New Year’s dinner, a vision of her beloved grandmother appears to take her to a better place. Sadly, child labor and poor people freezing to death still occur in the world today.
Original Text / PDF / Audio (990 words)
General Comments
Our source for the story was the Project Gutenberg e-book Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen trained for the theater when he was young. Although he never performed as an actor, this was to help him greatly later in life. As well as writing stories, authors of the time often performed public readings of their works. George Griffen, an American diplomat, wrote of an Andersen performance of “The Little Match Seller”:
He is a remarkably fine reader, and has often been compared in this respect to (Charles) Dickens – Dickens was in truth a superb reader, but I am inclined to think that Andersen’s manner is far more impressive and eloquent. Both of these men have always read to crowded houses. Dickens voice was perhaps better suited for the stage than the reading desk. It was stronger and louder than Andersen’s, but nothing like as mellow and musical. I heard Dickens read the deathbed scene of Little Nell in New York, and I was moved to tears, but I knew that the author himself was reading the story; but when I heard Andersen read the story of the Little Girl with the Matches, I did not think of the author at all, but wept like a child, unconscious of everything around me.
It is said that the story was written to call attention to the suffering being experienced by many children in Europe at the time. In addition to Andersen’s acting talent, one of the reasons that he was able to move people to tears when reading it aloud may be that he felt so strongly about its message. The most notable thing about the story is its powerful imagery. The story is told from a third person omniscient point of view, and is unusual in that there is almost no dialogue. There are only two sets of “spoken” words in the whole story, and these don’t occur until near the very end. The first is when the little girl cries out to the vision of her dead grandmother. The second is the suggestion that those who find the body the next morning can think of nothing better to say than: She tried to warm herself.
Video Versions
2006 Disney Version: This short film adaption of the story was originally intended to be part of another ‘Fantasia’ re-make which did not proceed. This, along with the lack of dialogue in the story, probably explain why the film is completely set to music. The story follows the original quite closely. The only major change is that the setting is changed to Russia, possibly because of the music selected: the third movement of Nocturne from String Quartet No. 2 in D Major by Alexander Borodin. Watch and enjoy!
1902 Silent Film: This very short British silent film is said to be notable for two things. It is one of the earliest attempts to bring a well-known work of fiction to the screen, and one of the first ever films to use special effects for dramatic purposes as opposed to creating laughter. Watch and enjoy!