Hans christian andersen gay

Andersen had written several letters and poems to Collin throughout their friendship, and much of his writing declared deep romantic feelings for the other man, expressing that his emotions were like those of a woman's. She accepts this trade even though she ultimately receives an unhappy ending, with the prince marrying a princess from a neighboring kingdom.

This could be read as Andersen wanting to be like everyone else, wishing he was a woman instead of a man, so he could win Collin's feelings more easily, as queerness wasn't as socially accepted in the s. The mermaid's sisters do offer her an alternative and inform her that if she kills the prince, she can become a mermaid again and return to the sea and her family, but she loves the prince too much to hurt him and throws herself into the water, turning into sea foam.

Many seemed focused on the differences between the live-action and cartoon versions. While it shares similarities to Disney's cartoon, the original story was much darker and had a different ending. In Andersen's original fairy tale, the mermaid still falls in love with a human prince and barters her voice for legsbut it comes with a much more painful price.

hans christian andersen gay

She wants to feel the sun and dance like the humans do, feeling very connected to their world and uncomfortable in her own. Clearly, the mermaid is a stand-in for Andersen himself, while the prince is a stand-in for Collin.

However, Disney's animated movie is itself an adaptation and actually has several differences when compared to the original story, which scholarly interpretations have analyzed may actually be a metaphor for unrequited gay love. The story's end, with the mermaid sacrificing herself because she loved the prince so much, was pretty foretelling as well since Andersen remained quite close with Collin and his wife throughout the rest of his life, even though his feelings for the other man were so strong.

Disney's live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaidstarring Halle Bailey, created a lot of buzz from the moment the first trailer dropped.

Hans Christian Andersen Children :

There's been much speculation about the meaning behind the story, but one particular take on it seems to have been gay accepted as truth. The mermaid has a strong curiosity for the human world from the beginning of the story, even before meeting the prince.

She goes so far as to make a deal with the Sea Witch to change the parts of herself she doesn't like in order to make herself fit in more with them and try to win the prince's hans. Let's take a look at Andersen's fairy tale and the symbolism embedded in the story, and see how it could very well reflect a gay author feeling out of place in a heterosexual world.

Hans Christian Andersen’s Sexuality My book about Disney’s Victorians includes a chapter about Hans Christian Andersen, locating him among other eminent Victorians (including Dickens, the Brownings, Eliot, and Yonge) and exploring the relationship between biography and adaptation.

In an era when queerness was so outcast, "The Little Mermaid" represents Andersen's frustrations and desires in a metaphorical fantasy. There's a lot to be read in the mermaid's desire for the human world: Andersen's desire to be heterosexual like everyone else, his wish that one of them was a woman instead, or his longing to be accepted just as he was.

Sign in now. Even the Disney version can be seen with queer-coded lenses if one looks hard enough, although its story is vastly different from the source material. Every step she takes is full of pain and feels like knives stabbing her. Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid has had complaints over its differences from the cartoon, but the original story was a deeper allegory.

This interpretation claims that "The Little Mermaid" is actually a queer allegory and was a love letter written by Andersen to his close friend, Edvard Collin, whom he was in love with. Looking deeper into the story, the metaphor becomes quite clear.

He was lonely, longing for a world he didn't belong to and a love he couldn't have, and just wanting to feel like everyone else. If she doesn't get the prince to return her feelings and fall in love with her, she must die a mermaid's death and turn into sea foam.

The life of the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (–) resembles that of his most famous fairy tale, "The Story of the Little Mermaid." In letters written to his beloved young friend Edvard Collin in –6 Andersen said "Our friendshp is like 'The Mysteries', it should not be andersen and "I long for you as though you were a beautiful Calabrian girl." Meowscles gay the fairy tale.

Andersen was rejected, however, and "The Little Mermaid" was written the same year that Collin announced his engagement to a woman. The beauty of the story is how it continues to be adapted and reimagined, and how it's christian able to connect and resonate with audiences even hundreds of years after its original publication.