| "The Emperor’s New Clothes" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Hans Christian Andersen (2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) |
| Original title | "Kejserens nye Klæder" |
| Country | Denmark |
| Language | Danish |
| Genre(s) | Literary fairy tale |
| Published in | Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection. Third Booklet. 1837. (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. Tredie Hefte. 1837.) |
| Publication type | Fairy tale collection |
| Publisher | C. A. Reitzel |
| Publication date | 7 April 1837 |
| Preceded by | "The Little Mermaid" |
| Followed by | "Only a Fiddler" |
"The Emperor's New Clothes" (Danish: Kejserens nye Klæder) is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes invisible to those unfit for their positions or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" The tale has been translated into over a hundred languages.[1]
"The Emperor’s New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" in Copenhagen, Denmark by C. A. Reitzel on 7 April 1837 as the third and final installment of Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The tale has been adapted to various media including the musical stage and animated film.
Contents |
Plot
An Emperor who cares for nothing but his wardrobe hires two weavers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position or stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects. A child in the crowd calls out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession.
Sources
"The Emperor’s New Clothes" is loosely based on a story from Libro de Patronio (or Conda Lucanor, 1328–35), a medieval Spanish collection of fifty-one cautionary tales with Arab and Jewish sources by Infante don Juan Manuel (1282–c.1349). Andersen did not know the Spanish original but read the tale in a German translation titled "So ist der Lauf der Welt". The main plot was derived from this version of the original with Andersen giving his tale a universality by setting it in no particular time or place and targeting snobbery.[2]
In the source tale, a king is hoodwinked by weavers who claim to make a suit of clothes invisible to any man not the son of his presumed father. Andersen avoided anything risqué in his work and altered the source tale to direct the focus on courtly pride and intellectual vanity rather than adulterous paternity.[3]
The weavers belong to the folkloric prototypes of tricksters and rogues who outwit royalty, clergymen, merchants, and others.
Composition
Andersen's manuscript was at the printer’s when he was suddenly inspired to change the original climax of the tale from the emperor’s subjects admiring his invisible clothes to that of the child's cry.[4] There are many theories about why he made this change. Most scholars agree that from his earliest years in Copenhagen, Andersen presented himself to the Danish bourgeoisie as the naively precocious child not usually admitted to the adult salon. "The Emperor’s New Clothes" became his expose of the hypocrisy and snobbery he found there when he finally gained admission.[5]
Andersen’s decision to change the ending may have occurred after he read the manuscript tale to a child,[6] or had its source in a childhood incident similar to that in the tale. In 1872, he recalled standing in a crowd with his mother waiting to see King Frederick VI. When the king made his appearance, Andersen cried out, "Oh, he’s nothing more than a human being!" His mother tried to silence him by crying, "Have you gone mad, child?"[7] Whatever the reason, Andersen thought the change would prove more satirical.
Publication
"The Emperor’s New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" on 7 April 1837 by C. A. Reitzel in Copenhagen, Denmark as the third and final installment of the first collection of Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The first two booklets of the collection were published in May and December 1835 and met with little critical enthusiasm.[8] Andersen waited a year before publishing the third installment of the collection.[9]
Traditional Danish tales as well as German and French fairy tales were regarded as a form of exotica in nineteenth century Denmark and were read aloud to select gatherings by celebrated actors of the day. Andersen’s tales eventually became a part of the repertoire and readings of "The Emperor’s New Clothes" became a specialty of and a big hit for the popular Danish actor Ludvig Phister.[10]
Alison Prince, author of Hans Christian Andersen: The Fan Dancer, claims that Andersen received a gift of a ruby and diamond ring from the king after publications of "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Swineherd"—tales in which Andersen voices a satirical disrepect for the court. Prince suggests the ring was an attempt to curb Andersen's sudden bent for political satire by bringing him into the royal fold. She points out that after The Swineherd, he never again wrote a tale colored with political satire, but, within months of the gift, began composing "The Ugly Duckling", a tale about a bird born in a henyard who, after a lifetime of misery, matures into a swan, "one of those royal birds".[11]
On 1 July 1844, the Hereditary Grand Duke Carl Alexander held a literary soiree at Ettersburg in honor of Andersen. The author was on the verge of vomiting after days of feasting and speaking various foreign languages but managed to control his body and read aloud “The Princess and the Pea”, "Little Ida's Flowers", and "The Emperor’s New Clothes".[12]
Commentaries
Jack Zipes, in Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller, suggests that seeing is presented in the tale as the courage of one's convictions; Zipes believe this is the reason the story is popular with children. Sight becomes insight, which, in turn, prompts action.[13]
In Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller (2000), Jackie Wullschlager points out that Andersen was not only a successful adapter of existing lore and literary material such as the Spanish source tale for "The Emperor's New Clothes" but also equally competent at creating new material that entered the human collective consciousness with the same mythic power as ancient, anonymous lore. [14]
Hollis Robbins, in "The Emperor's New Critique" (2003), argues that the tale is itself so transparent "that there has been little need for critical scrutiny."[15] Robbins argues that Andersen's tale "quite clearly rehearses four contemporary controversies: the institution of a meritocratic civil service, the valuation of labor, the expansion of democratic power, and the appraisal of art".[16] Robbins concludes that the story's appeal lies in its "seductive resolution" of the conflict by the truth-telling boy.
In The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen (2008), folk and fairy tale researcher Maria Tatar offers a scholarly investigation and analysis of the story, drawing on Robbins's political and sociological analysis of the tale. Tatar points out that Robbins indicates the swindling weavers are simply insisting that "the value of their labor be recognized apart from its material embodiment", and notes that Robbins considers the ability of some in the tale to see the invisible cloth as "a successful enchantment".[17]
Tatar observes that "The Emperor's New Clothes" is one of Andersen's best known tales and one that has acquired an iconic status globally as it migrates across various cultures reshaping itself with each retelling in the manner of oral fairy tales.[18] Scholars have noted that the phrase 'Emperor's new clothes' has become a standard metaphor for anything that smacks of pretentiousness, pomposity, social hypocrisy, collective denial, or hollow ostentatiousness. Historically, the tale established Andersen's reputation as a children's author whose stories actually imparted lessons of value for his juvenile audience, and "romanticized" children by "investing them with the courage to challenge authority and to speak truth to power."[19] With each successive description of the swindlers' wonderful cloth, it becomes more substantial, more palpable, and a thing of imaginative beauty for the reader even though it has no material existence. Its beauty however is obscured at the end of the tale with the obligatory moral message for children. Tatar is left wondering if the real value of the tale is the creation of the wonderful fabric in the reader's imagination or the tale's closing message of speaking truth no matter how humiliating to the recipient.
Naomi Wood of Kansas State University challenges Robbins's reading, arguing that before the World Trade Center attacks of 2001, "Robbins's argument might seem merely playful, anti-intuitive, and provocative."[20] Wood concludes: "Perhaps the truth of "The Emperor's New Clothes" is not that the child's truth is mercifully free of adult corruption, but that it recognizes the terrifying possibility that whatever words we may use to clothe our fears, the fabric cannot protect us from them."[21]
Adaptations and miscellanea
Various adaptations of the tale have appeared since its first publication including a 1919 Russian film directed by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, a 1987 musical starring Sid Caesar, a song by Sinéad O’Connor, and numerous short stories, plays, spoofs, and animated films.[1]
Footnotes
- ^ a b Andersen 2005a 4
- ^ Bredsdorff 312-3
- ^ Wullschlager 176
- ^ Wullschlager 177
- ^ Andersen 2005b 427
- ^ Bredsdorff 313
- ^ Frank 110
- ^ Wullschlager 165
- ^ Andersen 2005d 228
- ^ Andersen 2005d 246
- ^ Prince 210
- ^ Andersen 2005d 305
- ^ Zipes 2005 36
- ^ Andersen 2005a xvi
- ^ Robbins 659
- ^ Robbins, 670
- ^ Quoted in Tatar 8,15
- ^ Tatar xxii,xiii
- ^ Tatar xxiii
- ^ Wood 193-207
- ^ Wood 205
References
- Andersen, Hans Christian; Tatar, Maria (Ed. and transl.); Allen, Julie K. (Transl.) (2008). The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-393-06081-2.
- Andersen, Hans Christian; Wullschlager, Jackie (Ed.); Nunnally, Tiina (Transl.) (2005). Fairy Tales. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-03377-4.
- Andersen, Hans Christian; Frank, Diane Crone (Ed. and transl.); Frank, Jeffrey (Ed. and transl.) (2005). The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen: A New Translation from the Danish. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3693-6.
- Andersen, Jens; Nunnally, Tiina (Transl.) (2005). Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life. New York, Woodstock, London: Overlook Duckworth. ISBN 1-58567-737-X.
- Bredsdorff, Elias (1975). Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of His Life and Work, 1805–75. London: Phaidon Press Ltd.. ISBN 0-7148-1636-1.
- Prince, Alison (1998). Hans Christian Andersen: The Fan Dancer. London: Allison & Busby Ltd.. ISBN 0-7490-0478-9.
- Robbins, Hollis (Autumn 2003). Emperor's New Critique. 34. New Literary History. pp. 659-675. ISSN 0028-6087. http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/new_literary_history/v034/34.4robbins.html.
- Wood, Naomi (2007). "The Ugly Duckling's Legacy: Adulteration, Contemporary Fantasy, and the Dark". Marvels & Tales 20 (2): 193-207.
- Wullschlager, Jackie (2000). Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-91747-9.
- Zipes, Jack David (2005). Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller. New York and Middleton Park: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97433-X.
External links
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Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Emperor's New Clothes |
- "Keiserens nye Klæder". Original Danish text
- "Keiserens nye Klæder". Manuscript from the Odense City Museum
- "The Emperor's New Clothes". English translation by Jean Hersholt
- "The Emperor's New Clothes". Audio rendition by Sir Michael Redgrave
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