The Little Match Seller is another bitter-sweet fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. In fact, the ending is so hard that I have heard some challenge the wisdom of sharing it with children. To each his own, of course, but I think it is a very good story for older children like those I teach in middle school.

Let’s look at the plot and then consider its merits.

PLOT SUMMARY

Exposition – The Background

While others are making merry and staying warm inside on New Year’s Eve, a poor little girl must walk barefoot through the freezing cold streets and try to sell matches in order to bring the earnings home to her father. He is a terrible man who will certainly beat her if she cannot make any money.

Inciting Incident – The Problem

And she doesn’t. The whole day long she fails to sell even a single match. All the while her feet have turned blue from the cold, making her unable to continue on.

Rising Action – The Build-up

Yet, rather than cry, she embraces her fate with a heart full of hope. She strikes one of her matches in a vain attempt to warm herself. There in the light she sees a vision of a nice warm stove. Just as she reaches out her fingers to touch it, the match goes out, and the vision disappears.

Eager to bring it back, the little girl lights another match. This time she sees a beautiful dinner table set with a scrumptious goose. It looks so good that it dances right off the table toward her but then disappears when the match goes out.

She quickly lights a third match and beholds a glorious Christmas tree bedazzled with lights from top to bottom. It, too, disappears when the match goes out.

Climax – The Breaking Point

Just then, the little girl sees a falling star and thinks someone is dying, little realizing it is herself.  

Falling Action – The Unraveling

In a final act of hope, the little girl lights a fourth match and sees a vision of her dear departed grandmother, who was the only one who ever loved her.

“O take me with you,” the girl cries. “I know you will go away when the match burns out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large, glorious Christmas tree.”

Resolution – Happily Ever After

She hopes not in vain. Her grandmother, who truly is a spirit sent from God, escorts her to Heaven where she will enjoy all the things she envisioned and more.

On New Year’s Day, people gather around the little girl’s dead body and lament her passing, never imagining all the wonderful visions she saw before she died.

PLOT ANALYSIS

In order to understand the lessons in this story, we have to begin with the ending. Like the onlookers in the story, readers are naturally compelled to focus on the sad death of the little match seller, not to mention the terrible realities of her life.

She was a victim of poverty and abuse and left utterly alone in the world when her grandmother died. No doubt the onlookers could discern a great deal of this from her ragged clothes and bare feet. Perhaps she even bore the wounds of abuse on her frail body. Surely, she was a forsaken child if there ever was one.

And yet she was somehow full of hope. There was no reason she should expect a wood stove or a dancing goose and certainly not a frivolous Christmas tree. Yet, she dreamed of them nonetheless and most assuredly knew she would get them someday in Heaven. Her life, though we might call it tragic, is nothing short of a miracle in that she overcomes her difficulties with such grace.

MOTIFS

Hans Christian Andersen conveys this message through the interplay of three sets of oppositional motifs.  

Light versus Darkness

His little match seller lives a life in the dark, meaning she has virtually nothing. Yet, she has something better than material goods. She has a light within herself that she brings to the world. To her father and all the onlookers, she is a nothing but a poor match seller. But in truth, she is a light giver.

The final matches she strikes are not bought and paid for. They are freely struck just as her goodness is freely shared with any who would care to bask in it. As each match burns down, the light of her mortal world gives way to the eternal light of Heaven until she is consumed by it.

Warmth versus Coldness

So, too, does coldness permeate every aspect of her life. Whether at home or on the streets, the wind is always whipping at her face. She cannot escape it. Yet, she literally and figuratively brings warmth with her wherever she goes. Each of her tiny little matches can strike a roaring fire. Likewise, every hardship she accepts with grace kindles warmth in the world.

When none are left to enjoy that warmth, both that from the matches and that from her goodness, God calls her home to the eternal warmth and sunshine of Heaven.

Life versus Death

Ironically, the little girl’s life on earth is more akin to death, whereas her death is the beginning of her true life. While this accords with basic Christian beliefs, it can lead to a misreading of the story.

It is not uncommon to confuse the truth that we are made for eternal life with the falsehood that some people are better off dead. Just because the little match seller’s life was so difficult does not mean that it was somehow not worth living. It most assuredly was, and she gave glory to God by accepting her hardships with such grace. And by doing so, she gained eternal life.

If she had given up, well, we can guess her death would have turned out differently.

CONCLUSION

The Little Match Seller is not for the faint of heart. It poses many serious questions about the realities of life on earth and life everlasting. If the story makes us cry, so much the better. That means it has kindled something in us.

It seems Hans Christian Andersen was trying to strike his own match and shed light on the beauty waiting to be found in suffering. Maybe that message is too heavy for a small child, but maybe a small child is just innocent enough to bask in its rays. I tend to think it is the adults who cringe.

Image in the public domain