The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson

     Hans Christian Anderson was a 19th Century Danish author. He has penned several plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, but he is best remembered for his Fairy Tales. Andersen's Fairy Tales consists of 156 stories in nine volumes and is translated into more than 125 languages.

    This is a fairy tale about a dying little girl’s wishes and her visions. The harsh reality of poverty, hunger and lack of parental care is presented in this story. 

    The story begins on a freezing New Year’s Eve. A small, poor girl is shivering and bareheaded. She had lost her mother’s big slippers, hence barefooted too. She tries to sell match sticks in the street, but she is unable to get even a cent.

    Despite the harsh weather, she is afraid to go home because her father usually beats her for the unsold matches. As it is New Year’s Eve, all the houses are bright with lights she is tempted by the smell of roast goose. She huddles between two houses and lights a match to warm herself. 

    The freezing weather and hunger cause hallucinations. In the flame of the first match, she sees a series of a large warm stove and so she stretches her legs to get some warmth. The stove disappears, as the match goes off. Then she strikes another match stick on the wall and sees a big roast goose. That too disappears and with the striking of the third match, she sees a large and beautiful Christmas tree with bright candles. 

    In the sky, she sees a shooting star and says that a soul is on its way to Heaven, just like her beloved grandmother had taught her. Her grandmother was the only person who was kind and loving to the little girl, but even she was no more. In the flame of the next match she sees her grandmother and in order to prolong the vision, the little girl lights the entire bundle of matches. She pleads her grandmother to take her along and so she carries the little girl’s soul to Heaven. The Heaven is a place where there is no starvation and hunger.

 

    The next morning, people find the little match girl with a smiling face sitting frozen and dead. They express pity. They did not know anything about the amazing visions that the little match girl had seen before she died.