Character Sketch of The Little Match Girl
Introduction
The little match girl is a major character of the story because the whole story revolves around her. She is a dynamic character. She is an embodiment of suffering, poverty, and hunger. The utter poverty of his family deprives her of her childhood. When she should be at her home on such bitter cold and enjoy New Year’s Eve, she is asked by her cruel father to sell the matches. Her tenderness is crushed by the cruel behaviour of her father. Her dreams and desires remain unfulfilled. She longs for love but in vain. Ultimately she dies due to severe cold and gets rid of this world of inhumanity.
A Match Seller
On a terribly cold and dark evening i.e., the last evening of the year, the little poor girl is sent by her father to sell matches. She walks bareheaded and barefoot through the streets in the cold weather to find customers for her matches. .Throughout the day as she is not being able to sell anything she does not to go home to get scolded by her father.
Her Suffering and Poverty
The girl belongs to one such poor family where the poverty forces the girl’s parents to send her on the streets to sell matchboxes. A tender and beautiful little girl like her needs to be at her home on such a chilly freezing day and should have been enjoying New Year’s Eve. But circumstances do not allow her the chance to celebrate New Year. In freezing cold, she has to move on the streets in search of those customers who can buy her match. She roams here and there with bare head and naked feet. She shivers with cold and feels extremely hungry, but she continues to move slowly.
Her Physical Appearance
Though her age is not mentioned in the story, from the size of the slippers which belong to her mother and which are too big for her, it appears that she might have been between seven to ten years old. Besides, she has been described as having tiny feet and little hands. She is also described to be having rosy cheeks and long curly hair. All this suggests that she is a beautiful girl who is not meant to suffer but destiny has written something else for her.
A Hard Working, Obedient and Her Having No Grudge to Anyone
The little girl sells matches to earn money for the family even though it is cold outside. Like an obedient child, she puts the matches in an old apron. Nobody buys the matches from her and she cannot earn a single penny, but she keeps on trying despite trembling with cold and hunger. As an obedient child to her father, she does not go against her father.
As her father asks her not to come back home without selling the matches, she follows the instructions. Instead of going back home, she decides to sit outside in the snow. Though she is badly tortured and beaten by her father, she does not have any complaints against him. She endures her sufferings and pains patiently. She seems to be satisfied with her present lot.
Her Longing for Love
The little girl greatly craves to get love from his parents but in vain. Her parents do not show any concern for her welfare, but make ill-treatment with her. She is tortured, scolded, and beaten. Especially, her father seems to be very harsh and cruel in his treatment of her. She always remembers her dead grandmother who loved her wholeheartedly when she was alive. She longs for her grandmother’s love. The memory of her grandmother’s love helps her to keep warm for some time. She is so much attached to her grandmother that she starts to dream and visualize her grandmother and wants to keep her grandmother near her. She rubs a whole bundle of matches in hope that her grandmother will stay with her.
Her Being Brave, Courageous, and Hopeful
The little girl fights the adversities of life with a courage that is worth praising. In spite of all the odds, she carries on hoping and realizing those hopes in her visions. She shows passion for life in spite of the adverse situation. Though the day has been miserable for the little girl, with each match stick that she lights, she hopes for more and more-first a table full of food, then a magnificent Christmas tree with thousand lights, and then the nearness of the dead grandmother who loved her most. She pursues her dreams and tries to make her wish come true with each match stick she lights to eventually succumb to death because of freezing winter and hunger.
Tragic End of Her Life
At the cold hour of dawn, the poor girl is found sitting in the comer, with rosy cheeks, and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall. Actually, she was frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. People said that she wanted to warm herself.
Treasure Trove Poems and Short Stories Workbook Answers