The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen continues to fascinate modern day children. Of course everybody loves the famous underwear scene, but that’s not the only reason it has endured. It also touches on an array of virtues and vices like wisdom versus foolishness and humility versus pride in highly palpable ways. What’s more, it offers lessons for the everyday person and the statesman alike.

In order to unpack those ideas, let’s first examine the plot.  

PLOT SUMMARY

Exposition – The Background

There lives an emperor who is particularly fond of his appearance and spares no expense to dress in the finest attire. So obsessed is he, that he spends virtually all of his time consumed with his looks instead of the affairs of state.

Inciting Incident – The Problem

Knowing the emperor’s disposition, two swindlers seek to deceive the king and thereby make a profit. They pretend to be fine tailors and offer to sew him an outfit of such unmatched quality that none but the wisest can see it.

Rising Action – The Build-up

Greedy for such finery, the emperor commissions the tailors and follows their progress most eagerly. However, fearing his own foolishness would be revealed if he could not see the clothes, he sends in several of his advisors one after another to look at the clothes on his behalf.

As the tailors are not actually sewing anything but simply pretending to cut fabric and sew seams, none can see anything. Yet, all pretend to see a fine outfit for fear of being thought foolish. As the days progress and the pretend outfit nears completion, the emperor plans a royal procession throughout the streets of his kingdom to show off his new clothes. 

Climax – The Point of No Return

Finally, the emperor steps into his dressing chamber to try on his new outfit. Of course he can not see the clothes because they do not exist, but he pretends to get dressed in them just the same. There is no way he is going to admit that he does not see them because he, too, does not want to be thought a fool.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

And so the king processes through the streets with a grand entourage wearing only his underwear but believing himself royally clad.

Anti-resolution – The Truth is Out

All but a small child pretend to see the outfit. The child, not concerned with the thoughts of others, blurts out the obvious truth that the emperor is wearing nothing but underwear. The rest of the crowd soon also acknowledges this to be true.

Even the king realizes he has been made a fool of, but he continues on his procession, unwilling to acknowledge his shame.

PLOT ANALYSIS

Clothed in Falsehood

There are a number of figurative interpretations at play in this timeless story. Perhaps the first and most obvious has to do with vanity. After all, the king is obsessed with his looks, and that is what leads him down a foolish path.

When we dig just a little deeper, it becomes clear that his vanity relates not only to his looks but also to his power. He is obsessed with “being king” yet cares nothing for the real duties this entails. Instead, he spends his days playing dress-up, so to speak, and pretending to be in charge of the kingdom.

What’s worse, he knows he is a fool and is worried sick that anyone should find out. That is why he refuses to look at the outfit himself. He knows from the beginning that he is not wise enough to see it. And when he finally looks into the dressing room, his doubts about himself are confirmed. He cannot see the outfit.

Ironically, what he really cannot see is that he has been tricked. When he parades through town in his underwear, he believes himself regally clad. Just as the truth of his nakedness is revealed, so too is the truth of his power. He has none. All his wisdom and authority are empty, so much so that even a small child knows it.

It does not take an act of war or even well-planned subterfuge to bring about his downfall. It takes only two swindlers. He truly was not fit to be king.

Historical Lessons

This story, though about a king, was not written for a king. It was written for the people.

We know that because the narrator lets us readers in on the trick the swindlers are playing. From the beginning, we know they are not really sewing a fine outfit, and we anxiously look forward to seeing how the king will deal with them. We may hope he does not fall for their trick, but we thoroughly enjoy that he does.

Hans Christian Andersen, writing in the 1800s, knew that most of his readers would feel a level of disdain for kings whose right to rule was far more arbitrary than we could ever claim today. A king was either born into power or took it by force. Meanwhile, the people plain-old had to fall in line.

Many a real king leisurely sat in his palace “admiring his power” while the people toiled away paying taxes, ready to suit up for war on command. For them, the emperor’s new clothes were nothing but a well-worn reality. 

CONCLUSION

Such is often the case today as well. Be it the politics of state or family, church or school, fame or fashion, one needs ever to be on the lookout for falsehood.

And therein is the lesson I like best about The Emperor’s New Clothes. It teaches children to look critically at the world around them. In a sense, it shows them that they have power far greater than that of a king for theirs is the power of critical thinking. With it, they can judge the world around them and rule their own lives with wisdom and virtue.

Image in the public domain