One of the most fundamentally important literary devices used to develop a short story is the element of pathos, or the empathy that the reader feels for the characters of the story. Without pathos, the reader is not engaged with the characters of the story, and is left apathetic to the eventual outcome of the storyline. Without characters that engage the reader in some way-- whether their existence drives the storyline or not-- the reader is left without any kind of emotional connection to the story. This is especially true for short stories, as they must convey significant actions, events, or development in a relatively small number of words. Hans Christian Andersen was a master of the fairy-tale style fable, the short story whose main function is to teach the reader a lesson about life. In “The Fir-Tree,” Andersen examines the theme of growing up too fast and the arrogance of youth through the character of the fir-tree itself.
The main character of Andersen’s “The Fir-Tree” is the titular fir-tree. At the beginning of the story, the tree is small; it lives in the forest with many other, larger trees, which it envies because they are so large (Andersen and Burkert). Yenika-Agbaw suggests that to properly analyze the characterization of actors in Andersen’s fairy tales, a number of questions should be addressed; Yenika-Agbaw writes, “how characters’ disabilities limit participation in their fictional communities revolves around six of several questions that Paul uses to illuminate the colonial order evident in children’s books: Whose story is this? Who is on top? Who acts? Who is acted upon? Who gets punished? Who speaks? Who is silenced? Who looks? Who is observed?” (Yenika-Agbaw). Answering these questions allows the reader to investigate the pathos of the characters of the story-- mainly the character of the fir-tree. Andersen’s tales were specially designed to speak to people of all levels of intellect and education; for this reason, they are simplistic in their construction and easily broken down into formulaic pieces (Rossel). “The Fir-Tree” contains a number of characters, but their interactions with the protagonist-- the fir-tree-- are brief.
“The Fir-Tree” is, of course, the story of the titular fir-tree, but it is a story that is more than that as well. The fir-tree represents the youthful arrogance in everyone, a youthful arrogance that makes the tree so desperate to grow up and get bigger that he cannot appreciate the things that he has at the moment. At the beginning of the story, the tree says: “‘Oh, if only I were such a big tree like the others I'd be able to spread my branches right out and from my top see into the wide world! The birds would come and build their nests in my branches, and when the wind blew I'd be able to nod as grandly as they all do!’” (Andersen and Burkert). The tree also becomes very sad and indignant when a hare jumps right over top of him. This is a feeling that all of the readers can sympathize with; the feeling that when they grow up they will find greater glory.
The reader senses, from the beginning, that the fir-tree is guilty of some great sin of arrogance, although the sin that the tree has committed is accidental at first. However, as the story continues, multiple characters appear to inform the tree that things may be better while he is small; for instance, the tree does not have to worry about being cut down and used as a mast for a ship while he is small (Andersen and Burkert). The tree fails to see this as a positive side to his size, however, and yearns to be large enough to be cut down and used as a mast for a large sailing ship (Andersen and Burkert). Some literary analysts suggest that the tree’s constant yearning for something greater than himself is reflective of Andersen’s constant desire for something greater; however, it is an emotion that every human being shares to some extent, and recognizing the folly of not living in the moment seems to be the face-value lesson of the tale. Nature is due to take its course, and there is no hurrying it; the fir-tree’s attempt to hurry nature and find some greater glory than the life he was living is eventually what leads to his downfall.
The other character that remains nearly constant throughout the story is the characterization of Nature itself. Nature warns the fir-tree to slow down, and to rejoice in his life and youth, but the fir-tree does not understand and pays nature no heed (Andersen and Burkert). When considering his future, the tree ignores the warning of Nature:
“‘Something better, something still grander must follow -- but what? Oh, how I long, how I suffer! I do not know myself what is the matter with me!’
‘Rejoice in our presence!" said the Air and the Sunlight. "Rejoice in thy own fresh youth!’” (Andersen and Burkert)
The tree refuses to listen, or even acknowledge the warnings of Nature, and thus, he goes to meet his fate with a sense of foreboding that he does not truly understand. The fir-tree does eventually become a Christmas tree for a family, and although he is sad to be parted from the forest, he rejoices at how beautiful the Christmas ceremony is. However, it is short-lived, symbolic of the short-lived grandeur that the author himself may have feared (Rossel). As Lewis writes, “The more directly Andersen's tales draw on his own emotional vulnerabilities or satirize his contemporaries, the more powerful they are” (Lewis). One of the reasons that the fir-tree elicits such pathos in the reader is because it was created directly from Andersen’s own neuroses and inner anxieties.
The true sadness and pathos of the character of the fir-tree comes from the reader’s knowledge of the way the human world works, and the tree’s apparent ignorance. The tree does not understand that his glory as a Christmas tree will cause him to burn brightly for a brief moment and then be extinguished, but the reader understands this fact implicitly. There is a sense of foreboding for the reader that the tree cannot feel, because he does not understand the potential outcomes of the situation. The situational irony that Andersen creates with the dichotomy between the fir tree’s lack of knowledge and the knowledge that the readers have is one of the main ways that he elicits empathy from the readers for the fir-tree. The tree does not know its potential fate, thinking that it will have a place of honor for a long period of time; the reader knows that this is not the case.
The ephemeral nature of the Christmas tree is particularly sad from the fir-tree’s point of view. He wanted so much to be taken from his place of origin in the forest and used for a ship’s mast, until he heard of the Christmas trees (Andersen and Burkert). However, if he had been content to stay in the forest and grow (and eventually cut down and used as a mast) he would have been afforded considerably more longevity than his brief stint as a Christmas tree (Andersen and Burkert). In this case, it seems as though the tree is trading in his long-term happiness for a short time in the spotlight; this may reflect Andersen’s own feelings about his fame and success as a writer, and his desire for more grandiosity throughout his life.
One thing that many biographers note about Andersen is that he was one of the first successful writers to move from the proletariat-level working class to the bourgeoisie due to the merit of his work (Lewis, Rossel). However, Lewis also notes that Andersen never truly evolved as a writer, and no amount of violence could help convince the populace that his stories were anything but children’s stories; they lacked the sophistication that many adult narratives need to appeal to the more complex adult mentality (Lewis).
Despite Andersen’s insistence that his stories were designed for adults, the simplistic character development that relies so heavily on pathos is one of the things that makes these stories so timelessly appealing to children. The character of the fir-tree, for example, is an excellent template for children who yearn so much for adulthood and greater things that they cannot live in the moment. The fir-tree has no way of knowing what his potential future will hold, and yet, he yearns for it to the extent that he cannot enjoy his existence in the sun and in Nature.
The sadness that the reader is meant to feel when reading about the story of the fir-tree and his ultimate death in the fire is a primal, childlike feeling of sadness. The fir-tree’s final fate is so clear to the reader, and yet the tree himself cannot see the future; he does not heed the advice of any of the other characters in the story when they try to gently remind the tree to enjoy his life in the forest as it is (Andersen and Burkert). The tree continuously feels hope for the future, which just encourages the feeling of sadness in the reader, because the fir-tree is so completely unaware and unwitting regarding his fate.
A fairy tale with a moralistic ending cannot exist without the creation of a sympathetic character. In the case of Andersen’s “The Fir-Tree,” the character is not even an animal; it is a tree. However, the reader still feels a sense of sadness and attachment to the tree, seeing the tree moving forward in the direction of his inevitable destruction, like some kind of animal to the slaughter. Understanding the reasoning and methodology for creating sympathetic characters in short stories elicits a more complete understanding of the meaning of the story and the genre as a whole.
Works cited
Andersen, H. C and Nancy Ekholm Burkert. The Fir-Tree. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Print.
Austin, Linda M. "James Thomson's Elegy and" Human Unsuccess"." Victorian Poetry, 32. 1 (1994): 21--34. Print.
Feng, Ruizhen. "Contradiction Leads to a Miracle: A Rethinking of Hans Christian Anderson and His Fairy Tales." Review of European Studies, 1. 2 (2009): 34. Print.
Lewis, Tess. "A Drop of Bitterness: Andersen's Fairy Tales." The Hudson Review, (2002): 679--686. Print.
Mylius, Johan De. "Religious Views in Hans Christian Andersen's Works--and their Literary Implications." Orbis Litterarum, 62. 1 (2007): 23--38. Print.
Rossel, Sven H.. "Hans Christian Andersen." Children's Literature Review, 113. (2006): 92-97. Print.
Yenika-Agbaw, Vivian. "Reading Disability in Children's Literature: Hans Christian Andersen's Tales." Journal of Literary \& Cultural Disability Studies, 5. 1 (2011): 91--108. Print.
