Critical Appreciation of the Story The Little Match Girl

Introduction
The story The Little Match Girl was first published in 1845. Hans Christian Andersen was inspired to write this fairy tale when he received a calender with a drawing on it, portraying a girl selling matches on the street. Consequently, this same story served as inspiration for many other artists in different disciplines. The present story is classified as a Grim Fairy Tale. ‘Many grim fairy tales were originally written or narrated for adults, as folk tales representative of various cultures.’ Andersen based many of his stories of his mother’s hardships. The Little Match Girl is to be considered the same.

This tragic short story portrays as realistic and crude view of the society in Victorian Era. It shows social differences of the times. During the Victorian Era, the middle class emerged and took over an important percentage of work places. It is at this time, there appeared an ‘under class’, which remained unemployed and lived in abject poverty. The girl’s clothes and her house as having only the roof, through which wind whistled and large cracks were stuffed with straw and rags, indicate that she belonged to the ‘under class’ of the society. The story also shows that in the Victorian Era, the children were regarded as ‘miniature adults’, who were used for cheap labour. The child abuse was common during that period. The little girl in the story was not only cold and hungry, but she was also abused at home by her father.

Plot of the Story:
Exposition: The exposition of the story is that the little maiden is left out on the streets on a cold New Year’s Eve while evryone is at home celebrating.

Rising Action : The rising action of the story is that the little maiden cannot return home because she has not sold any matches. She does not have anything to warm her up so she uses the matches to warm her up.

Climax: When the little maiden lights up the matches to warm her up she notices that when she brings the matches close to the wall of one of the houses that it becomes transparent. Then she notices that there is an old sweet lady on the wall. She comes closer and then sees that the lady is her grandmother (who is dead and that is the only person that loved her). When she sees that the old lady is her grandmother, she begs her to take her with her because she is suffering too much.
Falling Action: In the story, the little maiden leaves with her grandmother (which just means she dies at the end).

Resolution: At the end of the story the little maiden is found dead by the wall where she found her grandmother and she is also found with a smile on her face.

Moral of the Story:
Moral of the story is hope and faith. The little girl represents that you should always be hopeful even when things are bad. The little girl was freezing and hungry, but she still had hope to sell her match for her family. She also had the hope that she would pull through the difficulties and therefore, she continued to warm by lighting the matches. She had faith in God that He would help her. When she lighted a match and saw her grandmother, she did not want to lose her and therefore, lighted the whole bundle of matches. She pleaded with her grandmother to take her to heaven with her where there would be neither cold nor hunger, nor any abuse.

Setting of the Story:
In the short story, the setting is set very clearly. The story takes place on a late night, the last night of the year. It is snowy and cold and most families were inside enjoying their meals. The setting clearly reflects the author’s intent on the story. He wants to create a calm world that is comparable to the girl’s feelings after she settles on the ground in the comer of two houses.

Appropriateness of the Title:
The title of the story is very apt and justified because the story revolves around a small poor girl who tries to sell matches and earn some money because she is ordered to do so by her strict father. She does not have enough warm clothes and shoes to protect herself from the cold. She creeps along trembling with cold and hunger. She feels miserable, sad and uncomfortable. She huddles herself against a wall and tries to keep herself warm by lighting the matches, but it is of no avail. She dies of cold, hunger and abuse. Her frozen dead body is found the next morning. The title is very suitable because it narrates the miserable and pathetic tale of the little match girl.

Characterization in the Story:
The little match girl is a main character. She is a major character in the story because the story is about her. The little girl’s father is a minor character in the story. He is static because he does not change. He is in the story because he kicks the girl out and says that she cannot come back until she sells matches. The girl’s grandmother is a minor character. She is also static. She is there, when the girl is dying. The girl is the protagonist and the antogonist is the weather and her family for not letting her back until she sells matches.

Elements of Pathos:
The Little Match Girl is a pathetic story of a poor little girl that touches the hearts of the readers. The following descriptions clearly arouse sympathy for the poor girl :
‘In the cold and gloom a poor little girl walked bareheaded and barefoot through the streets.’
‘She crept along shivering and hungry, the picture of misery, poor little thing.’
The author describes the tragic and unfortunate fate of the girl who dies of cold and hunger:
‘But in the cold dawn, in the corner formed by the two houses, sat the little girl with rosy cheeks and smiling lips, dead-frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. ’

Irony in the Story:
The type of irony in the story is situational irony. This is because the little girl sells matches, which are meant to start fire and keep people warm. However, this girl has no shoes or gloves and is practically freezing to death.
‘But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth….’

The Use of Symbols:
Matches symbolise hope : ‘She rubs the match at the wall and she imagines to meet her grandmother.’
Matches symbolise courage : ‘It took courage to sell the matches as a little girl in the street.’
Light symbolises ‘warmth’ and ‘comfort’. ‘The shooting star’ is the symbol of‘Dealth’-her grandmother said, ‘when a star falls, a soul ascend to God’. Slipper is the symbol of‘mother love’-the slippers belong to her mother.

The Use of Imagery:
The author has used a number of images which reflect the pain and suffering of the little girl and make the readers feel pity for her :

(i) Tactile Imagery (Sense of Touch):

  1. ‘It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle as she held her hands over it.’
  2. ‘Her little hands were almost numbed with cold.’

(ii) Visual Imagery (Sense of Sight):

  1. ‘On the table was spread a snow-white table cloth, upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was streaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums.’
  2. ‘Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it was larger and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass doors in the rich merchant’s house.’

(iii) The Olfactory Imagery :
‘And it smelt so deliciously of roast goose.’

(iv) Sense of Hearing :
‘Far above her she had only roof, through which the wind whistled.’

Figurative Language:
Figurative language is used in the short story to contribute to the tone and theme. The overall theme and tone is similar to solitude and dreaming of a better life. The little girl is in solitude when she is lighting the matches and the figurative language directly contributes to this. Similes, metaphors and onomatopoeia. Here are some instances of simile :

  1. ‘It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle
  2. ‘It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove
  3. ‘. there the wall became transparent like a viel.’
  4. ‘. you vanish like the warm stove

Here is an instance of onomatopoeia :
‘She drew one out. ‘Rischt !’ how it blazed, how it burnt !’

The Use of Solilqouy:
Soliloquy is a literary device in which a character speaks aloud when alone. An example of soliloquy used in the story is before the little girl lights all the matches, the little girl cries out for her grandmother saying that she wants to go with her.

‘Granny !’cried the little girl. ‘Oh, take me with you ! I know you will disappear when the match is burnt out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the lovely roast goose and the great glorious Christmas tree !’
Narration

The story is written from the third person omnicient limited point of view. This is justified because we only know the thoughts, actions and feelings of one character. The narrator does not interact in any events in the story and knows every aspect of the little girl:

  1. ‘ and she held a bundle of them in her hand.’
  2. ‘In the cold and gloom a poor little girl walked, bareheaded and barefoot, through the streets.’

Treasure Trove Poems and Short Stories Workbook Answers

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