Fear of Women and Other Phobias, or Why Andersen's Tales Are So Sad

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Out of 156 fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen 56 end with the death of the protagonist, in most of them the author makes the kind and defenseless characters go through terrible trials. Such a plot is also typical for folk tales, but it is atypical for them that Andersen's good heroes often fail, and many tales have a sad ending. Psychologists attribute this to the neurotic personality of the writer, who was lonely all his life and suffered from many phobias.

Psychologists say that Andersen was neurotic and suffered from various phobias. This is partly due to severe heredity - his grandfather was mentally ill, his mother drank a lot and died of delirium tremens. Biographers characterize Andersen as a depressed, unbalanced, restless and irritable person, moreover, a hypochondriac - he was constantly afraid of getting sick and unreasonably found symptoms of various diseases in himself.

The writer did have many phobias. He was afraid of being buried alive and during his illness he always left a note on the table by the bed to remind him that he was not really dead, even if it might seem so. The writer was also afraid of being burnt in a fire and being poisoned. Over the years, his suspicion increased. Once fans of his work handed him a box of chocolates. He did not eat them, fearing that the sweets were poisoned, but treated them to … the neighbors' children. After making sure that they survived the next morning, I tried the candy myself.

As a child, Andersen often played with dolls, was very soft and indecisive. Later, he himself confessed to the duality of his nature and the lack of masculine firmness of mind. At school, he was teased by boys for constantly telling stories about himself. Andersen confessed: “Often, God knows where, in dreams, was carried away, unconsciously looking at the wall hung with pictures, and I got a lot from the teacher for this. I was very fond of telling other boys amazing stories, in which the main character was, of course, myself. I was often laughed at for this."

The love stories in his life were as sad as in fairy tales. Andersen was unrequitedly in love with the daughter of his patron, who was married to a more successful admirer - a lawyer. His love for the famous Swedish singer and actress Jenny Lind turned out to be non-reciprocal. He dedicated poems and fairy tales to her ("The Nightingale", "The Snow Queen"), but she remained indifferent.

All his life, Andersen remained single and, according to biographers, he died a virgin. One of them writes: "His need for women was great, but his fear of them is even stronger." That is why, according to psychologists, in his fairy tales he constantly tortures women: he drowns them, then leaves them in the cold, then burns them in the fireplace. Andersen was called "a sad storyteller escaping from love."

Andersen died all alone after a long illness. Shortly before his death, he said: “I paid a great, exorbitant price for my fairy tales. For the sake of them he gave up personal happiness and missed the time when imagination had to give way to reality."

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