All they see is an impoverished child who tried to keep warm as she froze. It was a very cold winter night close to the end of the year. The way the content is organized, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in. The Little Match Girl Irony Someone Must Be Dying (Dramatic Irony) In an instance of dramatic irony—in which the reader knows more than the character—the little girl sees a shooting star and says to herself that someone must be dying. Where times are hard, remember those who love you and want you to be happy. The weather is frigidly cold. Instead, his works often dealt with more realistic (and often morbid) themes of betrayal, sin, violence, and—as in the case of “The Little Match Girl”—death. Brief Introduction of “The Little Match Girl” Characters, Themes and Over-all Stylistic Device/s Used 10. There are rich people but the majority of people are poor working class or simply destitute like the match girl. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Another of the story's major themes is the cruelty directed toward the little girl. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Scene 2 5. If you’re not familiar with the story, it goes like this: The Little Match Girl . It's winter, and the hustling crowds at best ignore her, and some are outright rude. It is set to Alexander Borodin's "Nocturne from String Quartet No. The story’s morbid ending (the girl dies from exposure after she uses all of her…, Christianity was central to the culture of 19th century Denmark (Andersen’s native country), and “The Little Match Girl” reflects this in its depiction of death as being beneficial and good: a means of transcending earthly life, reuniting with deceased loved ones, and connecting with God. Alejandra August 3, 2020 at 4:06 pm. after this, she lit the rest of matches. The theme of the story is that this little girl is trying to sell some matches so she can get money to bring back to her family, and it all depends on those matches but then at … In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets. The little girl, bareheaded and barefoot, curls up in a corner, lighting match after ma Andersen's tale about a little girl who's afraid to go home because she hasn't sold enough matches is a classic. Christianity was central to the culture of 19th century Denmark (Andersen’s native country), and “The Little Match Girl” reflects this in its depiction of death as being beneficial and good: a means of transcending earthly life, reuniting with deceased loved ones, and connecting with God. The short story opens with a little girl attempting to sell matches so that her father won't beat her. Scene 3 6. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. to never give up hope or faith no matter what your situation … The domestic hallucinations of “The Little Match Girl” are familiar to those of us leading lucky, safe lives: a kitchen stove, a table set with a nice supper, a holiday tree, a loving grandmother. There are many important themes in this beautifully crafted short story, but the most important would be the themes of child abuse and child poverty.Children are nearly never responsible for the actions that their parents take and they without reason suffer a life full of destitution and deprivation. Besides, it was cold at home, for they had nothing over them but a roof through which the wind whistled even though the biggest cracks had been stuffed with straw and rags. In “The Little Match Girl,” he focuses on the titular little girl as she struggles for warmth while out selling matches in the bitter cold of New Year’s Eve. theme. The title ‘Little Match Girl’ is quite apt as it revolves around a little girl who sells matches. How does Andersen make his point that vanity is foolish? So I loved this story. The tale starkly highlights the cost of an unequal society. The boy’s own desperate need leads him to take what he can when he can, with no regard for the girl’s safety. she then remembered a table full of food. Scene 4 7. When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the good of that? So light here represents the comfort of heat. The little girl has profound imaginative abilities: with each strike of a match, she conjures a new vision of the warmth, food, prosperity, and love she lacks in her material reality. Despite these injustices, the girl remains virtuous, never questioning or fighting back or practicing cruelty herself. Each … Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. ‘The Little Match Girl’ was first published in 1845 with the Danish title Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne (‘The little girl with the matchsticks’). What is it all about? It has been adapted to various media, including animated, live-action, and VR films as well as television musicals. The little girl has profound imaginative abilities: with each strike of a match, she conjures a new vision of the warmth, food, prosperity, and love she lacks in her material reality. The theme of the afterlife enters the story when the little girl dies and ascends into the sky to be with her dead grandmother and with God. I don’t care that it keeps on giving me this story because I love how the little match girl was able to see her grandmother even though she was gone. The Little Match Girl Study Guide is a resource for teachers and students. By using the conventions of the fairy tale genre as a framework (namely the story’s choices of character, structure, and tone) alongside the morbid realism…, Instant downloads of all 1427 LitChart PDFs Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening-- the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked feet. The conflict in the story was both external and internal. Our, "Sooo much more helpful than SparkNotes. The Little Match Girl is the titular protagonist of an 1845 short story, concerning a dying child's hallucinations. (including. In this cold and darkness there went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked feet. In his stories, Hans Christian Andersen often highlights the plight of the poor during the Industrial Revolution, with a particular interest in how this tumultuous period impacted the lives of children. The little match girl seeks such comfort in the streets but obviously finds none in the bitter bleak night. rising action. As a group, discuss the story's theme with the students. “The Little Match Girl” is a sad story about a miserable young girl that touched the heart of many readers. Moreover, the main theme of the story is the relationship between parents and their children. The theme of this story has a lot to do with faith and her hope.Her hope is to get out of the cold. Her ascendence to the heavens is her means of escape from the cruelty she endures. Showing all 1 items Jump to: Summaries (1) Summaries. The short-lasting flames, therefore, embody how the delight and comfort of escapism is only a temporary form of liberation from poverty. It was so thoughtful. StoryboardThe Little Match Girl 3. Through a lens in which an afterlife is tangible, Andersen presents death as not something to fear but a relief from the cruelties of mortal existence. The Little Match Girl Themes & Motifs Hans Christian Andersen This Study Guide consists of approximately 15 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Little Match Girl. RISING ACTION “The little match girl sat between two walls, hungry and shivering with cold. 2 in D Major". Struggling with distance learning? By contrast, when people see her frozen body at the end of the story, the narrator comments that they cannot imagine what was in the girl’s mind and heart before she died. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. conflict. Christian spiritual understandings of life after death would have been prevalent in 19th-century Danish culture. GradeSaver, Read the Study Guide for The Little Match Girl…, View the lesson plan for The Little Match Girl…. The Little Match Girl: A Commentary on the Story The short story “The Little Match Girl” is all about the poverty, hunger and helplessness of a little girl who is sent to sell matches when she is supposed to stay at home or at school. The Little Girl Summary – As the title suggests, the little girl refers to the main characters of the story who goes by the name Kezia. Not affiliated with Harvard College. She had not given a name as she represents one of Th many poor children belonging to lower class in Victorian Era, who had to face hardship because of poverty. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teachers and parents! Copyright © 1999 - 2021 GradeSaver LLC. (Not all fairy tales have "happily ever after" endings) Primary Themes : Opposites: Loneliness, darkness, cold, hunger and death are sharply contrasted with: Comfort, light, warmth, roast goose, and the hope of the after-life (Heaven) A moral is a lesson that readers can learn about how to live life, while a theme is a big idea or message. The exposition of the story is describing a little girl in bare feet on a cold, snowy day. Scene 6 9. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Although the little girl suffered from starvation, cold, and a lack of love on Earth, the narrator comments that in heaven she will not want for anything. The Little Match Girl (1937) Plot. I keep on reading this story because of eSpark, but I actually don’t care. Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening-- the last evening of the year. Once she is quite numb with cold, she thinks that a little match would be a comfort. I think this is because of the wind hitting them. Source The Little Matchgirl is a short based on the Hans Christian Andersen story that was released in 2006 as a bonus feature on the Platinum release of The Little Mermaid that was intended for a third Fantasia film. They were very large slippers, which her mother had hitherto worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them as she scuffled away across … The Little Match Girl -by Hans Christian Anderson. Cruelty comes from all directions: her father will beat her if she returns home without having sold any matches; carriages nearly run her down in the snow; a boy steals her slipper; and no one tries to help her as she freezes to death. The Little Match Girl Imagine sending your child out into the cold to beg in the hopes that he or she can bring in enough money to support the family. This small poor girl is trying to sell matches because she was ordered to do so by a strict father. She takes shelter and, to try to stave off the cold a bit, lights a match. for a little girl stranded in the cold she has a lot of faith and hope and that is what the author is trying to put out. The Little Match Girl study guide contains a biography of Hans Christian Andersen, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson is classified as a Grimm Fairy Tale. “The Little Match Girl” presents a poignant critique of cultural attitudes to extreme poverty and inequality during the period of the industrial revolution. Activity 4. A small poor girl was trying to sell matches on the street because her strict father had told her to. "The Little Match Girl" (Danish: Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne, meaning "The little girl with the matchsticks") is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. she remembered horses taking her to grandmother's house. In some ways, it shares something with Charles Dickens’s stories highlighting the plight of the poor, and indeed, we might draw a (tenuous) link between Dickens’s famous story A Christmas Carol from two years earlier and this story. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”, read analysis of Christianity and the Afterlife. Read aloud The Little Match Girl. The Little Match Girl Theme. Using imagery and juxtaposition, Andersen contrasts the poverty of the little girl with the surrounding wealth. A small girl makes her living selling matches on the streets of New York. 10/30/2013 3 Comments This story was about a little girl who had a very hard life. setting. Updated January 20, 2019 First published in 1845, " The Little Match Girl " by Hans Christian Anderson is a story about a young impoverished girl trying to sell matches on the street on New Year's Eve who is afraid to go home without selling enough for fear of an abusive father. The story, about a dying child's dreams and hope, was first published in 1845. It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. The desperation of the poor is conveyed through the boy who steals her slipper, thinking one day that he’ll use it to cradle his child. By portraying death as a more positive outcome than continuing to live in poverty, Andersen suggests that dying isn’t something to be feared, since it is only through death that…, Though an author of fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen typically did not write rosy stories of royalty and magic, or triumphant feats with happily-ever-after endings. The story takes place on New Year's Eve during the early 19th century. As such, the story ends with a sense of hope. One of the most well-known stories is the one of the little match girl. Passage – 2. i. Scene 5 8. -Graham S. “Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Theme Wheel When the little girl burns her matches to keep herself warm, their “strange light” brings wondrous visions of warmth, kindness, and celebration until she freezes to death when the flames burn out. The Little Match Girl. 1. She doesn't want to go home because it is cold and there's little food there. The story begins on a cold winter night in which the snow never stopped. The Question and Answer section for The Little Match Girl is a great Bareheaded and barefoot, the girl slowly succumbs to hypothermia while wealthy people are safe indoors, ensconced in warmth and luxury of roast geese. Another of the story’s major themes is imagination, and people’s relative capacity to utilize it. What events and characters in the story express Andersen's theme? Scene 1 4. On New Year's Eve, a poor girl attempts to sell matches in the street. When all the world seems to be celebrating the New Year’s Eve, the girl is deprived of the joy. Based on the criteria cited above, is The Little Match Girl more like a fairy tale than you first thought? Imagination. In Andersen’s story, strangers walk unseeingly past the little girl … Ask students whether they liked the ending or not. As the street clears, she takes shelter in an alley, and one by one lights her matches. The little girl was physically freezing but was able to transport herself to a hopeful and warm place with the visions in her head. Who is referred to as little … She is nearly run down by fast-moving carriages that show no concern for her plight. In this story, the mind is a powerful tool to help guard the little girl from the harsh reality of her life. GradeSaver "The Little Match Girl Themes". It was a real, rough and cold dinner. Another of the story’s major themes is imagination, and people’s relative capacity to utilize it. she lit another match. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. 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