Continuing With the Fairy Tales

     Although I am going to continue blogging about fairy tales for the time being this will not be a continuation of the Grimms' Fairy Tales blog. The stories do come from about the same time from an author just a country away from the Brother's Grimm. This blog will of course be about Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales. Hans Christian Andersen is of course best known for writing The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling. And although The Ugly Duckling is in this book, unless it was renamed The Little Mermaid is sadly not. Other than The Ugly Duckling the book includes 28 other stories The specific fairy tale the blog will be about this time around is The Garden of Paradise. It is a rather strange story about a prince's search for the namesake garden. So without delay let us start the synopsis.

    The story begins with an explanation by the narrator of the prince's grandmother explaining the Garden of Paradise to him. The Prince is utterly absorbed by this story and trying to find the Garden his grandmother described. One day while on a walk it started raining and ranging and raining on the prince. Seeking shelter the prince enters a well-lit cave with an old woman. This woman happens to be the mother of the four winds, and as if on cue they appear one by one. As the Eastern Wind Appears he nonchalantly mentions he will be going to the Garden of Paradise the next day. The prince asks to come along and the Eastern Wind agrees taking him with him. With that, the prince arrives and meets the fairy princess, who lays out the rules. Every night the princess will ask him to come with her, and if he does, which he should not, he must no kiss her. After that fairy tale protagonist, the prince does what fair tale protagonists do, and breaks the rules being banished from the Garden of Paradise.

    Now at first glance, the idea Andersen was trying to get across was pretty clear. That being that you should avoid what Andersen saw as sinful and there's evidence to back this up. When the prince first arrives spirits are relatively high. "'i will Remain here," said the Prince. And the East Wind kissed him on the mouth and said, "be strong then, and we shall meet in a hundred years. Farewell" (Anderson, 17). With this, the East Wind implies that he believes the Prince and that he will meet him every 100 years when he returns. This belief in the Prince shows that the East Wind believes that humans can in fact live their lives without sin. This is also backed up by a statement from the Reaper "'I only mark him [for death]  to expiate his sin and to grow better" (Andersen 19). That statement from the Reaper is him saying that he marks the Prince for death but doesn't kill him yet to rid himself from his sins. This dialogue Is pretty cut and dry, so time to explain an interesting counterpoint.

    The other possible idea Andersen was trying to get across maybe is that humans can not live without sin. The argument for this starts at the very beginning when the Prince ponders the following "'Why did Adam eat the forbidden fruit? If it had only been I, it would had not have happened, and sin would never had entered the world" (Anderson 1). With this thought the Prince believes that had been the supposed first two people he would have not eaten the forbidden fruit, introducing sin to the world. This an incredible claim and implies that the Prince is an incredibly pious person. And yet after that claim which would require self-restraint and dedication, he ends up doing the following near the end "'Even if everlasting night comes over me, a moment like this worth it.' and he kissed the tears from her eyes. His mouth touched hers" (Anderson 18). Despite his previous claims the Prince's self-restraint seems to disappear when he is at the Garden of Paradise. Comparing these two the comparison seems to be clear. Anyone can claim that they would not sin or do wrong, but it seems to inevitably happen. Overall the story seems surface level but with a little digging it seems more like a comparison to the story of Adam and Eve, and I would definitely recommend it to others, as I could not cover everything in this story.