Essays on literary works - 2023

“Stronger than she is, I cannot make her!” (based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale “The Snow Queen”)
Andersen Hans Christian

I was very flattered; that in my childhood I met a wise, sweet fantasist - the storyteller Andersen. Because he taught me in our not very happy time to believe in good, in the victory of a good human heart over evil. Gerda, the heroine of his fairy tale "The Snow Queen", will forever remain the brightest fairy-tale image for me.

In the middle of a cold white winter in a small Danish town, a white rose bush bloomed in a small cozy house. Because good human hands touched him. The girl Gerda touched them. She lived with her grandmother and brother Kai. And these roses would have bloomed, and the grandmother and grandchildren would have lived peacefully, if the sliver from the evil troll's chandelier had not hit Kai in the eye, and the Snow Queen's kiss had not completely frozen his heart. And now the boy looked at the whole world with cold eyes.

And what happened to little Gerda after the goya, how Kai exchanged their cozy house for the ice palaces of the Snow Queen? What a long and arduous journey this little girl, with her "sweet, friendly face, round and rosy like a rose," went on to save him! Not even a woman who knew how to conjure could stop her. Neither the good prince and princess, nor the wise ravens can help her. "How tired her white legs are! How cold and scary she was!" And then she also fell into the bandits. The cruel little bandit was so touched by Gerda's kindness and power of love that she decided to help her.

An old Lapland woman and a reindeer help her. Still, she had to overcome the main challenges herself. The poor girl was left alone in the freezing cold, and her face was painfully cut by cold snowflakes - messengers of the Snow Queen's army.

But she bravely went forward. And here he is, Kai! Cold, alien, hostile. And hot tears of despair and love flowed down the girl's cheeks. They melted Kai's cold heart. And it was wonderful! Because they were walking on the road home, and roses were blooming around them.

And I keep thinking, why was the little girl Gerda stronger than all the sorceresses, and no trials broke her? And I understood that there are no forces greater than love, kindness, and great faith in one's dream.