The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales

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‘Ugly Duckling, The’

‘Ugly Duckling, The’.
With ‘Den grimme Ælling’ (‘The Ugly Duckling’, 1837), Hans Christian Andersen wistfully provided an autobiography in narrative form. The duckling is persecuted by all in the hierarchical duck yard, escapes, perseveres, and eventually realizes that he is not ugly, but a beautiful swan. The tale concludes with the marvellous knowledge that it hardly matters where you are born if you have the right talents. The tale and its message have gained proverbial authority, although Andersen slyly suggests that the swan has become a captive of bourgeois society.

Niels Ingwersen

Bibliography

Zipes, Jack, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (1983).

[The entire page is 116 words long]

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