Who of the personages in Andersen's tales corresponds to author's character mostly?

Question

Uggly Duckling- as the author had not been very good-looking,
The Brave Leaden Soldier- as Andersen wrote tales for good overcoming bad
Ole... or some other hero?
What was the author's favorite tale?

Answer 1

It is argued by some critics that both "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Mermaid" embody, perhaps subconsciously, Andersen's suffering because he was different--homosexual, or perhaps bisexual, in a society in which only heterosexual love was permitted. Even as a child of twelve or so, working as an apprentice in a cigarette factory, his fellow workers teased him for being girlish and pulled down his pants to "prove" that he was like a girl. As a young man, he did write to a male friend,
Edvard Collin, that "my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery." Some biographers think "The Little Mermaid" was written in response to the marriage of Collin, who commented in his memoirs about not returning Andersen's affection.

On the other hand, other critics think that a stronger case can be made for Andersen's simply expressing the frustration and anxiety that most all children go through at one time or another, feeling small, unappreciated, awkward, unattractive, and different.

On the other hand, I think "The Fir-Tree" is a clear example of autobiographical significance. The young tree is unhappy in the forest, longing to be big and strong and to experience exciting adventures like the tall trees cut down as ships' masts. But then it is pleased to be chosen and chopped down while still young to become a Christmas tree in a grand mansion. The tree shines as the center of attention for only a few moments, then is discarded into an attic where it tells stories to the mice. Finally, it is dragged outside and chopped into firewood, where it comes to an end after only one day of glory, and little recognition or personal happiness. "The Fir-Tree" ends, ". . . the tree had passed away--and the story too, all ended and done with. / And that's the way with all stories!"

Andersen himself, after a pampered childhood, then the death of his father when he was eleven, and that unfortunate apprenticeship, did achieve a moment of glory in childhood. Here's the way wikipedia explains what happened:

"He had a pleasant soprano voice and succeeded in being admitted to the Royal Danish Theatre [in Copenhagen]. This career stopped short when his voice broke. . . . Following an accidental meeting, King Frederick VI of Denmark started taking an interest in the odd boy and sent Andersen to the grammar school in Slagelse, paying all his expenses. Before even being admitted to grammar-school, Andersen had already succeeded in publishing his first story," in 1822 when he was only 17.

As an adult, Andersen, to his way of thinking, never achieved such attention or notoriety again. Even when he became world famous for his fairy tales, he thought of them as slight works, read only by children, and he was keenly disappointed at his relative failure as a novelist and dramatist for adults. He had read, even memorized, Shakespeare as a child. He never lived up to that high goal for himself. Instead, he was an awkward, homely adult, rejected by friends. Charles Dickens, for example, whom he saw as one of the "tall masts" of British literature, satirized him as the ugly, self-centered. obstreperous Uriah Heep in David Copperfield.

Like the little fir-tree, Andersen had longed to sail the world with the tall ships' masts. Instead he achieved momentary splendor as a child singer and favorite of the king, but then was "trashed," achieving only limited recognition telling stories to children (like the fir-tree in the attic with the mice). Like the dried-up old Christmas tree, in his own thinking he (with his unsuccessful novels and plays) became firewood, a Uriah Heep, definitely not a Shakespeare or Dickens (or a tall ship's mast).

"And that's the way with all stories!" All his stories, at least, those life stories with which he had fed his childhood imagination.

How little did he realize, at the time, that his little fir-tree would live on and on, and like his "Ugly Duckling" and "Little Mermaid" sail on and on, all around the world.

Who knows what his own favorite work would have been. He did insist that "The Ugly Duckling" should not be thought of merely as an innocent children's story. Perhaps he was proudest of his novel To Be or Not to Be [1857], taking its title from his beloved Shakespeare, now almost never heard of or reprinted. Firewood, if you will.

Answer 2

The Ugly Duckling most reflected Hans Christian Anderson sense of impoverishment and loneliness.