THE UGLY DUCKLING, HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON: A STORY OF TRANSFORMATION ANITA L. GAMBOS Introduction The Ugly Duckling is a small story that offers universal hope to the disenfranchised. Here, a misfit, rejected by family and society, makes the microcosmic journey of all who seek self-actualization. In Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, Jack Zipes notes in his chapter, "Hans Christian Andersen and the Discourse of the Dominated": (The Ugly Ducking) has generally been interpreted as a parable of Andersen's own success story because the naturally gifted underdog survives a period of "ugliness" to reveal its innate beauty. (87)
Therefore, to understand the significance of the transformation, from ugly to beautiful, it is important to view the passage against the backdrop of Andersen's life. Andersen's Life Influences Hans Christian Andersen was clearly a product of the nineteenth century, a period of broad-sweeping changes in both world and national views, when tenets of biology, eugenics and race became subjects of public discourse. Andersen was born to poverty in 1805 in the old provincial Danish town of Odense. The son of a cobbler who loved books and taught himself and his son to read, Andersen grew up hearing his father say that he (the father) was of aristocratic origin. Andersen's mother worked as a washerwoman; she was uneducated and superstitious, but introduced Andersen to folklore. He was also greatly influenced by his grandmother, a grounds person at Odense Hospital, a local workhouse. Andersen spent a great deal of time there listening to elderly, female inmates who repeated old stories and the traditional folk tales of Denmark. These made a deep and lasting impression. Andersen was a poor student and received little education. He spent much of his time alone writing short plays and dreaming of becoming an actor. Encouraged by his parents, he composed his own fairy tales and arranged puppet shows. Andersen was fortunate to live in one of the few towns outside of Copenhagen that housed a public theater. He often accompanied his father to the town's playhouse.