INTRODUCTION                                                                                                                       

The Ugly Duckling, one of the masterpieces of Hans Christian Andersen, has a significant and global influence. It is a Danish literary fairytale that resonates with readers of all ages, embodying themes of perseverance and self-acceptance. It tells the story of a duckling that is ridiculed by his siblings, rejected by other ducks, and shunned by his own mother. The duckling, feeling despondent, remembers the fresh air and sunlight, longing to go swimming on the water. Despite being bitten and buffeted by his siblings, the ugly duckling perseveres, ultimately transforming into a graceful swan.

Beyond its significance in children’s literature, which serves as an enlightening reading material for young minds, The Ugly Duckling also strikes a chord in adults’ hearts, offering life philosophy. In her essay “The Ugly Duckling, Hans Christian Andersen: A Story of Transformation”, educator Anita Gambos aptly described the story as a source of universal hope to the disenfranchised, as it portrays a misfit who faces rejection from both family and society (63). It is noteworthy that Andersen experienced a miserable life before his great success. Despite numerous rejections and hardships, including the initial dismissal of his plays and stories by publishers and critics, Andersen never gave up. He persisted in writing and finally achieved great success. The ugly duckling, like Andersen, encounters a series of misfortunes. He is chased away from his farm, suffers the harsh- ness of winter, and faces attacks from other animals. However, he perseveres and never succumbs to despair. Ultimately, his resilience pays off, and he eventually transforms into a beautiful swan.

This essay explores the parallels between The Ugly Duckling and Andersen’s life experiences. It draws comparisons between Andersen’s early life and the ugly duckling’s growing journey, highlighting their self-discovery, identity exploration, and similar personal experiences. The essay also explores misconceptions of beauty, and people who put them into miserable conditions or gave them support. While it is acknowledged that Andersen’s autobiography may contain elements of self-mythology, as he portrays his life as a “fairy tale,” Wullschlager’s biography, Hans Christian Andersen: The life of a storyteller provides a comprehensive analysis that combines strict research with literary insight. This biography goes beyond Andersen’s self-portrait, which deconstructs the myth and reveals the underlying anxieties, ambitions, and contradictions that shaped his storytelling. By examining these elements, the essay concludes that The Ugly Duckling is deeply connected to Andersen’s life experience, as reflected in Wullschlager’s biography and Andersen’s autobiography The Fairy Tale of My Life. In other words, The Ugly Duckling serves as a candid portrayal of Andersen’s early life.

ANDERSEN’S EARLY LIFE AND ITS REFLECTION IN THE TALE

The Ugly Duckling stands as a literary classic, highly recommended for Chinese young children and widely recognised as one of the most popular fairytales in China. A 2020 survey conducted by China Children’s Press & Publication Group ranked The Ugly Duckling among the top ten most recognised foreign fairytales among Chinese children. Children in the Mainland are required to study a chapter on this tale, and most of them diligently read the entire story and are deeply affected. Consequently, The Ugly Duckling consistently ranks among the top-selling children’s fairytales on the two major Chinese book retailers Dangdang and JD.com.

Out of love and appreciation for The Ugly Duckling, I dedicated myself to reading and studying Andersen’s autobiography as an adult. Through this exploration, it became evident that Anderson’s life experiences must have had a profound connection with the fairytale’s protagonist, the ugly duckling, who serves as a mirror that reflects Andersen’s whole life. In his book Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller, Wullschlager also highlights Andersen’s impoverished childhood in Odense, Denmark, and his early feelings of being an outsider before reaching the age of thirty (6). These experiences are reflected in many of Andersen’s stories, including The Ugly Duckling, which mirrors his own transformative journey from marginalisation to achieving recognition and success.

ANDERSEN’S CHILDHOOD INFLUENCES                                                                 

First and foremost, Andersen was born into a poor family in Odense, Denmark. His father, a shoemaker, passed away when he was young, leaving the family in a more difficult situation. His mother, a washerwoman, later remarried, and Andersen’s relationship with his stepfather was strained. This experience of family changes and instability might have been reflected in the ugly duckling’s sense of not belonging within his “family” of ducks. Furthermore, due to his family’s poverty, Andersen spent his entire childhood in the lower social class and seldom played with other children, which made him feel out of place, like the duckling’s sense of being an outsider in the barnyard. Andersen rarely played with other boys, even at school. He took little interest in their games and preferred to sit alone at the doorway. Once, he took the courage to make friends with a girl. The girl dreamed of becoming a milkmaid on a big farm. Andersen responded with kindness:

That you can become a guest in my castle when I am a nobleman! And she laughed at me and told me that I was only a poor boy. One day I had drawn something which I called my castle, and I told her that I was a changed child of high birth, and that the angels of God came down and spoke to me. I wanted to make her stare as I did with the old women in the hospital, but she would not be caught. She looked queerly at me, and said to one of the other boys standing near, ‘He is a fool like his grandpapa’, and I shivered at the words. I had said it to give me an air of importance in their eyes, but I failed and only made them think that I was insane like my grandfather (9).

Andersen was an innocent child full of imagination, but hardly anyone appreciated him except for his family members.

THE DUCKLING’S JOURNEY

The duckling, born into a duck family, immediately exhibits differences in appearance and size from its siblings. Before hatching, the old duck visited the mother duck and thought the big egg was a turkey egg. She convinced the mother duck to give it up. The old duck dislikes turkey children because she hatched one and after caring for them, they were afraid of water, and it was not a bit of use no matter how she quacked and snapped at them. After the big egg is hatched, the old duck and mother duck want to figure out whether he is a turkey or not:

Next day the weather was perfectly splendid, and the sun shone down on all the green burdock leaves. The mother duck led her whole family down to the moat. Splash! She took to the water. ‘Quack, quack,’ said she, and one duckling after another plunged in. The water went over their heads, but they came up in a flash, and floated to perfection. Their legs worked automatically, and they were all there in the water. Even the big, ugly gray one was swimming along (Andersen).

At that moment, the mother duck has made sure he is indeed a duck and said firmly and lovingly:

Why, that’s no turkey. See how nicely he uses his legs, and how straight he holds himself. He’s my very own son after all, and quite good-looking if you look at him properly. Quack, quack come with me. I’ll lead you out into the world and introduce you to the duck yard. But keep close to me so that you won’t get stepped on, and watch out for the cat! (Andersen)

When confronting the other duck’s whacking and the old duck’s aversion, mother duck defended the ugly duckling:

He isn’t so handsome, but he’s as good as can be, and he swims just as well as the rest, or, I should say, even a little better than they do. I hope his looks will improve with age, and after a while he won’t seem so big. He took too long in the egg, and that’s why his figure isn’t all that it should be. Moreover, he’s a drake, so it won’t matter so much. I think he will be quite strong, and I’m sure he will amount to something. (Andersen)

However, tremendous changes have taken place. Later on, he was bullied and rejected by the other ducklings and other animals on the farm. His mother changed her attitude towards the ugly duckling and said, “How I do wish you were miles away.” What caused the mother duck to change so much? The reasons remain unexplained in the original text. Based on my understanding and Andersen’s life experience, it is plausible that during this period, Andersen’s mother remarried a young handicraftsman whose family belonged to the same handicraft class. The handicraftsman thought that he had married below him- self, and neither Andersen nor his mother were permitted to visit his family. Consequently, Andersen was compelled to leave his home, mirroring the early loneliness and hardship endured by the ugly duckling. In a similar vein, the poor duck had to depart from his home, much like Andersen decided to travel alone to the unfamiliar city of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.

SELF-DISCOVERY AND IDENTITY EXPLORATION

Since then, Andersen went through a long process of self-discovery with no support or guidance. During this period, he experienced a constant alternation between affirmation and rejection. In his youth, Andersen was eager to become an actor and applied to the Royal Danish Theatre. At first, he was appreciated by Sibone and studied singing with Professor Weiss. However, six months later, without warm shoes and clothing for the winter, Andersen sustained a vocal injury that prevented him from pursuing a career in singing. Subsequently, when he turned to writing, his early works were met with criticism and rejection from publishers and critics. These repeated setbacks in his pursuit of his dreams mirror the experience of the ugly duckling, who was repeatedly chased away and bullied by other animals. It took him years to find his true calling and establish himself as a renowned author. Likewise, the duckling remains unaware of his true identity as a swan and embarks on a journey filled with confusion and self-doubt. He constantly questions his place in the world and his identity, only to finally realise his true nature as a beautiful swan, representing a pivotal moment of self-discovery. The duckling’s journey from an outcast to finding his true self can be seen as a reflection of Andersen’s own struggle for recognition in the artistic world, alongside other prominent figures such as Charles Dickens and The Grimms. Wullschlager traces Andersen’s relentless pursuit of artistic success, detailing his rise from a poor and uneducated youth to one of the most celebrated writers of his time. She elucidates how Andersen’s ambition and determination were driven by a need to prove himself and overcome the limitations imposed by his background. (Wullschlager 120)

PARALLELS BETWEEN ANDERSEN AND THE DUCKLING

One experience that strikes me as being remarkably comparable between Andersen and the ugly duckling is that one day Andersen and his mother went to a place where the bailiff was well-known for being a man of a rude and savage disposition:

We saw him coming with a huge whip in his hand, and my mother and all the others ran away. I had wooden shoes on my bare feet, and in my haste I lost these, and then the thorns pricked me so that I could not run, and thus I was left behind and alone. The man came up and lifted his whip to strike me, when I looked him in the face and involuntarily exclaimed, ‘How dare you strike me, when God can see it?’ The strong, stern man looked at me, and at once became mild; he patted me on my cheeks, asked me my name, and gave me money. (Andersen 10)

While in The Ugly Duckling, after being driven out by his family, he met the bird dogs coming through the swamp:

The bird dogs came splash, splash! through the swamp, bending down the reeds and the rushes on every side. This gave the poor duckling such a fright that he twisted his head about to hide it under his wing. But at that very moment a fearfully big dog appeared right beside him. His tongue lolled out of his mouth and his wicked eyes glared horribly. He opened his wide jaws, flashed his sharp teeth, and – splash, splash – on he went without touching the duckling. “Thank heavens,” he sighed, “I’m so ugly that the dog won’t even bother to bite me. (Andersen)

In actuality, the ugly duckling and Andersen suffer not because of their appearance, but because of their deep-seated inferiority complex. They naturally link their unsatisfactory experiences with their less confident appearance.

MISCONCEPTIONS OF BEAUTY

In fact, the ugly duckling is not inherently ugly in his appearance, a colossal and grey “duckling” when born, but he is incompatible with a duck yard, where he is rejected and bullied by everyone. That is why he sees himself as “ugly” from this intuitive perspective. Apparently, a duck yard is a mistaken place for a swan to live. Similarly, “ugly” is merely the incorrect self-perception of Andersen, a peculiar boy during his youth. He was also tall, thin, and awkward with a prominent nose and large feet, which made him the target of ridicule and teasing from other children. In his early life, Andersen faced social rejection and struggled to fit in. He was sent to a Jewish school for poor children in Odense, where he felt like a stranger. Later, in Copenhagen and prestigious schools like Slagels and Elsinore, he was ridiculed for his appearance and aspirations. He seldom played with peers and was not interested in their games. Instead, he preferred to stay alone in the classroom. Perhaps influenced by his parents, his greatest pleasure was making clothes for dolls. He also loved fantasy and was convinced that Odense was not the place for him to pursue his aspirations. Being a shoemaker was not his dream life career. Anna Toom considers The Ugly Duckling to be one of the most captivating fairytales, where the plot revolves around the main character’s miraculous transformation, like from a fool becoming a sage, an unfortunate orphan becoming a prince’s favourite, and a loser becoming a winner. More significantly, the unconventional storyline of the loser’s ascent to victory profoundly inspired numerous readers (Toom 87).

SOCIETAL CRITIQUE

In his life, Andersen encountered many people who were unkind or dismissive of his dreams and talents, such as his head teacher at school. At that time, societal norms and expectations dictated certain behaviours, and people who deviated from these norms, like Andersen due to his unusual and creative nature, were frequently subjected to criticism and ostracism. A notable example is the director of Helsinger Junior High School, Dr. Mesling, whose actions had a profound impact on Anderson’s mind:

I was actually like a wild bird which is confined in a cage; I had the greatest desire to learn, but for the moment I floundered about, as if I had been thrown into the sea; one wave followed another; grammar, geography, mathematics: I felt myself overpowered by them, and feared that I should never be able to acquire all these. The Rector, who took a peculiar delight in turning everything to ridicule, did not, of course, make an exception in my case. (Andersen 55)

I tremblingly brought to him The Dying Child; he read it, and pronounced it to be sentimentality and idle trash. He gave way freely to his anger. If he had believed that I wasted my time in writing verses, or that I was of a nature which required a severe treatment, then his intention would have been good; but he could not pretend this. But from this day forward my situation was more unfortunate than ever; I suffered so severely in my mind that I was very near sinking under it. That was the darkest, the most unhappy time in my life. (Andersen 56)

When, in taking leave of him, I thanked him for the kindness which I had received from him, the passionate man cursed me, and ended by saying that I should never become a student, that my verses would grow mouldy on the floor of the book- seller’s shop, and that I myself should end my days in a mad-house. I trembled to my innermost being, and left him. (Andersen 57)

Whereas in The Ugly Duckling, the other animals on the farm, such as the wild ducks, hens, and geese, represent the unkind and judgmental society:

When morning came, the wild ducks flew up to have a look at their new companion. ‘‘What sort of creature are you?’’ they asked, as the duckling turned in all directions, bowing his best to them all. ‘‘You are terribly ugly,’’ they told him, ‘‘but that’s nothing to us so long as you don’t marry into our family’’ (Andersen).

They tease and bully the ugly duckling because he is different, reflecting the same kind of intolerance and lack of understanding that Andersen faced in his real life.

SUPPORT AND TEMPORARY ACCEPTANCE

Despite the unkindness and setbacks he encountered, Andersen experienced periods of temporary assistance and protection from Collin:

The present conference councilor, Collin, one of the most distinguished men of Denmark, who unites with the greatest ability the noblest and best heart, to whom I looked up with confidence in all things, who had been a second father to me, and in whose children I have found brothers and sisters, – this excellent man I saw now for the first time. In order therefore to obtain the means for my support and the necessary instruction, Collin recommended me to King Frederick VI., who granted to me a certain sum annually for some years; and, by means of Collin also, the directors of the high schools allowed me to receive free instruc- tion in the grammar school at Slagelse (Andersen 42).

While there were people who offered him shelter or opportunities, these were often tran- sient or came with conditions. In The Ugly Duckling, the duckling encounters a farmer and his wife who save the duckling’s life and provide him with a temporary refuge:

Early that morning a farmer came by, and when he saw how things were he went out on the pond, broke away the ice with his wooden shoe, and carried the duck- ling home to his wife. There the duckling revived, but when the children wished to play with him he thought they meant to hurt him. (Andersen)

However, the duckling still cannot truly accept how kind the family is, and eventually he must leave, similar to how Andersen’s temporary fortunate situations did not invariably result in long-term stability or fulfillment.

CONCLUSION

When it comes to the Ugly Duckling, some people consider that it is a story that addresses the misconception that the ugly duckling is mocked and bullied by others because of his appearance. Through this story, readers learn to avoid judging others based on their looks. After reading Andersen’s autobiography, I gained a deeper understanding of his intended message, which was to provide a simplified and palatable portrayal of his early life for children. He also conveys the message that individuals should persevere through challenges and never give up.

In essence, Andersen’s life experiences, as recounted in his autobiography The Fairy Tale of My Life, mirror the journey of the ugly duckling. Both endured ridicule and hardships in their early years, yet ultimately transformed into something beautiful and celebrated.

In conclusion, it is noteworthy that in 2025, we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the passing of renowned fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen’s Fairy Tales has laid a solid foundation for global children’s literature, which has been translated into more than 150 varieties of languages and has inspired a multitude of creative endeavours, including films, ballets, life theatre, and animations. Notably, some of his fairytales may offer insights into his life experiences during various periods, such as The Little Match Girl and Daughter of the Sea, which warrant further scholarly research.