The Little Match Girl Summary by Hans Christian Andersen
The story entitled The Little Match Girl is a famous story written by Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published in 1845. The story is famous not only because of its poignant tragedy but also because of its beauty. It is possibly one of the saddest holiday stories ever told. This story is about a little girl who is sent out to sell matches on New year’s Eve. Noone buys any of her matches and so she is afraid her father will beat her if she goes home empty handed. She ends up huddled in a corner lighting match after match. With each match she imagines a beautiful scene. In one match she sees her recently deceased grandmother who takes the little girl to heaven with her. In the morning, the little girl is found frozen to death.
This tragic short story paints a dismal picture of life for the poor in the 1840s. It also carries with it that grim hope of a fairy tale with visions of huge Christmas trees and shooting stars appearing before the young match girl—her dying wishes and dreams. In the story, titular character dies by the end, but the story is much more about the perseverance of hope. In these sparse, unforgiving lines, the author packs so much simple beauty and hope : ‘The girl is cold, barefoot and poor-without a friend in the world (it seems)- but is not without hope.’ The girl dreams of warmth and light, of a time when she will be surrounded by love and filled with happiness. It is so far outside of the realm of her current experience that most of us would have long since given up such dreams, but she holds on.
Still, the harsh realities of poverty haunt the little girl’s reality- she must sell a match for fear of being beaten by her father upon returning home and this fear propels her to stay outside all night which ultimately leads to her death by hypothermia.
The Little Match Girl Summary Introduction
It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets. It is true that she had put on a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were of much use. They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at terrible rate. One of the slippers she could not find and a boy seized upon the other and ran away with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle when he had children of his own. So the little girl went on with her little naked feet which were quite red and blue with the cold. In an old apron she carried a number of matches and had a bundle of them in her hands. Noone had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had anyone given her even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along, looking like the picture of misery.
The snowflakes fell on her long, fair hair which hung in curls on her shoulders, but she did not think of her appearance now. Lights were shining from every window and there was a savoury smell of roast goose, for it was New Year’s Eve. In a comer, between two houses, one of which projected beyond the other, she sank down and huddled herself together. She had drawn her little feet under her, but she could not keep off the cold and she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches and could not take home even a penny of money.
Her father would certainly beat her; besides it was almost as cold at home as here, for they had only the roof to cover them, through which the wind howled, although the largest holes had been stopped up with straw and rags. Her little hands were almost frozen with the cold. She thought that a match might warm her fingers if she lit it. She drew out one and struck it. It blazed and burnt and . gave out a warm, bright flame like a little candle as she held her hand over it. It was really a wonderful light. It seemed to the little girl that she was sitting by a large iron stove. How the fire burnt ! It seemed so beautifully warm that the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them. When the flame of the match went out, the stove vanished and she had only the remains of the half-burnt match in her hand.
The girl struck another match against the wall. It burst into a flame and where its light fell upon the wall it became as transparent as a veil and she could see into the room. The table was covered with a snowy white table-cloth, on which stood a splendid dinner service and a steaming roast goose, stuffed with apples and dried plums. And what was still more wonderful, with a knife and fork in its breast, to the little girl. Then the match went out and there remained nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before her.
She lighted another match, and then she found herself sitting under a beautiful Christmas tree. It was larger and more beautifully decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door at the rich merchant’s. Thousands of tapers were burning upon the green branches and coloured pictures, like those she had seen in the show-windows, looked down upon it all. The little one stretched out her hand towards them and the match went out. The Christmas lights rose higher and higher, till they looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. The little girl thought that someone was dying, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her and who was now dead, had told her that when a star falls, a soul goes up to God.
She again rubbed a match against the wall and the light shone round her. In brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance. ‘Grandmother,’ cried the little one, ‘O take me with you; I know you will go away when the match bums out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose and the large, glorious Christmas tree.’ And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noon-day, and her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God.
In the dawn there lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall; she had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year. The New Year’s sun rose and shone upon a little corpse. The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. Some said that she tried to warm herself. No one imagained what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother, on New Year’s Day.
The Little Match Girl Summary Stanzawise Word-Meanings
Bitterly = extremely. Gloom = a feeling of being sad and without hope. Bareheaded = without a hat. Barefoot = without shoes. Escape = to get away from something. Misery = extreme suffering or unhappiness. Snowflakes = small, soft pieces of frozen water that fall from the sky as snow. Glorious = very delightful. Roast goose = cooked goose. Huddled = sat in a curled or bent position. Penny = a coin or a unit of money. Tucked = put in a particular place usually to hide. Whistled = made a high sound. Cracks = narrow openings between two things. Stuffed = filled with. Straw = the dry stems of wheat and other grain plants. Rags = waste pieces of cloth. Numb = insensitive; devoid sensation. Vanished = disappeared. Transparent = able to be seen through. Gauze = a very thin cloth. Prunes = dried plums. Hopped = moved by a quick springy leap. Waddled = walked with short steps while moving from side to side like a duck. Gaily = in a bright and colourful way. Streaking = making long lines of a different colour on or in (something). Glow = a soft and steady light. Granny = grandmother. Flared up = flashed. Blaze = an intensely burning fire. Stately = very impressive in appearance, manner, or size. Dawn = the time of day when sunlight first begins to appear. Evidently = in a way that can be easily seen. Vision = something that you imagine. Heavenly = very pleasant or good.
The Little Match Girl Summary About the Writer
With captivating stories that have filled joy in the hearts of millions of children world wide time and time again, Hans Christian Andersen is remembered as one of the most creative and widely read fairy tales. Although Andersen was also a novelist, poet, playwright and essayist, his fairy tales, became his identity and his greatest contribution to world literature.
Andersen was bom to a low class poor family on April 2, 1805 in Odense, Denmark. His father was a shoemaker and his mother contributed to the family income by washing clothes of other people. Being an only child, Andersen was spoiled by his parents, who allowed him to develop his imagination by making him his own toys. Hans grew up with a love for singing and dancing. His tall and bony figure made him appear a little awkward. Andersen, however, least cared about this and stayed engrossed in his colourful imagination.
Andersen’s father died when he was eleven. Three years later, Hans left for Copenhagen with an ambition to join the Royal Theatre and became a stage artist. Although he was not able to make it of the Royal Theatre without references, Jonas Collins, a director of the Royal Theatre supported him by arranging a scholarship to obtain basic education. However, Andersen never proved to be a good student and was weak at spelling and writing well. This is probably why his writing style was simplistic with everyday spoken language After seven tough years at school, Andersen graduated from university in 1828. His first poem The Dying Child was published in the Copenhagen Post a year before his graduation.
In, 1835 Andersen completed his first novel, The Improvisatore. Fairy tales were Andersen’s forte. Some of his most defining tales were written between 1835 and 1850. These included the famous The Princess on the Pea (1835), Thumhelina (1835), The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1838), The Snow Queen (1844), The Darning Needle (1845), The Little Match Girl (1845) and The Shirt Collar (1848). Andersen’s tales are full of emotions and heartbreaking ordeals his characters go through before settling in a happily ever after. The world around the character is often cold and cruel.
It is believed, many of Andersen’s tales carry in them an autobiographic element. The Ugly Duckling for example is the story of an ugly cygnet who transforms into a beautiful swan like Andersen himself who suffered a childhood of poverty and unattractiveness but later became a successful person. His stories also reveal his distrust for authority, something he developed during his struggling years in Copenhagen. With a writing style and language focusing on child readers, Andersen’s fairy tales revolve around adult themes and therefore enjoyable by both.
Andersen sustained a serious injury in 1872 after falling from bed in his Copenhagen home. His final publication, a collection of stories, appeared the same year. Around this time, he started to show signs of the liver cancer that would take his life. The Danish government began commemorating Andersen’s life and work before his death. Andersen died on August 4,1875, in Copenhagen.
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