Talk:The Little Match Girl

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Analysis[edit]

I deleted the analysis sections because it wasn't scholarly - just someone's random opinion. (I also don't think it made sense - it talked about the story being mostly about rich versus poor, almost completely ignoring H.C. Andersens' religious message.) I also rewrote the plot synopsis to make it more accurate based on the original Danish. It now includes the positive (yes, positive!)last sentence of the story.

I'm sorry then but I'm going to have to revert this. First of all, the plot synopsis is what it is: a synopsis. By moving it closer to the Andersen tale, you might as well could have copy-pasted the original text in there. We have Wikisource for that kind of thing. And as far as the analysis is concerned I disagree completely. By removing that content you've made yourself guilty of the very thing you accused the original editor of. It's not because YOU think an interpretation is wrong it should be deleted, and certainly not because you feel the religious message is being ignored (it was actually, clarified in the first few lines of the analysis). Whatever Andersen originally meant with his tale is interesting indeed but analysis doesn't stop at his own intentions. Whatever is there can be discussed. That is the true scholarly approach! --Steerpike 15:26, 12 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

????? -- Jason Palpatine 21:47, 12 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, your analysis stays. I have, however, put my plot synopsis back. This version is actually shorter than the plot synopsis you want, so I don't understand your saying "By moving it closer to the Andersen tale, you might as well could have copy-pasted the original text in there." And I do think that the last sentence is very important - it stresses the joy of the girl going to heaven, not the tragedy of her death. Like it or not, that is how the original story ends. (In fact, a lot of Andersen's tales are very Christian, but this often isn't conveyed in so-called translations that are often just paraphrasing.) Of course, a synopsis, or even a full translation, is never like the original. A synopsis especially doesn't include the wording - Andersen's writing is absolutely beautiful in the original. He is known in the States for his plots, but not really for his style or his writing. Others are, of course, welcome to make changes or deletions to the synopsis (that is the beauty of Wikipedia), but please only do so if you are basing your version on the original Danish. How else will you know that it is correct?

Okay then for your synopsis but I'm still removing the first sentence. The title of the story is already made clear. It just looks odd to begin the text with. And I have absolutely no objections to the final sentence (or whether the tale ends on a grim or a hopeful note). I am well aware of the Christian themes in Andersen's stories, and I am not argueing they should be ignored, but I am argueing that analysis extends a whole lot further than that (the theme of rich vs. poor is definitely there). --Steerpike 10:50, 13 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I had


Song[edit]

On former Rainbow keyboardist Tony Carey's album from 2000, "The Boystown Tapes", there's a track called "Matchgirl", a song (autobiographical?)about a musician who lost touch with a daughter. She ended up dying from a terminal illness, and was found dead lying in the snow, like the little girl in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale.

External Link for 2005 Adaptation[edit]

Thoughts people. Taking a look at the external link, I think it definately should be there - especially since the author of the link took so much time to review this particular aspect of the "Hello Kitty" adaptation (going as far as to "kill" Hello Kitty" to keep the original ending). If taken out, I think that some of the points from the review should be then be included in the article for "Little Match Girl" -- Thoughts all, please. 67.113.99.253 01:22, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]


I like the link - it is vitally needed. I say keep it!Raabscuttle 02:03, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As I eplained on User talk:Raabscuttle:

  1. External links embedded in text are in general deprecated in Wikipedia.
  2. Links that don't lead to what the user expects ("easter-egg links) are particularly objected to; this one leads, not to an article on the episode, but to a review.
  3. The link would be relevant in an article on that episode, but not in this article. "Wikipedia is not a link farm".

This is one fairly minor adaptation, which doesn't seem to warrant any more information in this article. If it does warrant more information, then it can be given its own article, where the link would obviously be appropriate. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:37, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]


I have heard that there is a non-animated version that is roughly from the 40s. Does anyone know what this is? or how to get a copy of it? atgc53@yahoo.com thanks! then we can put in the link! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.193.254.242 (talk) 03:54, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Analysis again[edit]

Someone (Mel Etitis) removed the analysis again. We've had this discussion before and I think it should stay. It's not original research at all in my opinion. You don't need scholarly sources to observe the story is about spirituality and poverty, but I'll try and reference it if it makes some people happy. Also, on a sidenote, someone added the sentence "click on the link below for the Wikisource text" in the plot synopsis. What was the point of that?? --Steerpike 11:24, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Read Wikipedia:Citations and Wikipedia:No original research. This is extremely speculative, and gives no citations; it's quite clearly a personal essay. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 14:42, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Synopsis[edit]

I've added the {{copyedit}} tag to this; it's not a synopsis, but a rather purple short retelling. It needs to be shortened and cleaned up. I'll have a go myself if no-one beats me to it. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 14:46, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Okay then while you're at it, shorten these synopses too:
Bluebeard
Puss in Boots
Rapunzel
The Princess and the Pea
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Brother and Sister
Rumpelstiltskin
Point being: since so many fairy tale articles use the "plot synopsis" heading and most of these synopses are too long (or too literary) to actually be called a synopsis, a more economical decision may be to change the heading "plot synopsis" to something else. You will see btw, that the "synopsis" of The Little Match Girl is fairly short compared to other fairy tales on Wikipedia. --Steerpike 19:32, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

All irrelevant; showing that there are other articles with the same problem doesn't make the problem go away. A synopsis is appropriate for an encyclopædia article — a sub-literary retelling of the story isn't. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 21:01, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Did I say the problem would go away? I'm not happy with the current state of fairy tale articles either. I'm perfectly fine with rewriting the "story" to a true synopsis but this will be a long task to work on from here. Oh and btw, while we're at it, a synopsis is preferably written in the present tense. --Steerpike 21:58, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]


[Personal attack removed]... IMHO... Fixed the relivent link (again) which appearently more people then the great Mel think is relivent... Raabscuttle 04:09, 24 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  1. Read Wikipedia:No personal attacks
  2. Unless you have a response to the reasons that I gave, please stop adding the link. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:31, 24 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

page fixed again. [personal attack removed] 67.113.99.253 23:43, 24 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi 67.113.99.253, looking at the link, I think I can incorporate the pertinent points into the actual article without using the link. Take a look and let me know what you think. If you feel it is still needed, by all means feel free to add it back in. Raabscuttle 04:00, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As 67.113.99.253 (talk • contribs • page moves • block user • block log) only seems to edit pages edited by Raabscuttle (talk • contribs • page moves • block user • block log), makes the same sort of spelling and grammatical errors, and leaves the same sort of comments, it's not unlikely that they're the same person. It wouldn't take long to find out from checkuser. If they are the same person, this is abusive, and would result in an editing block. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 11:06, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Hello Mel the bully. Please Read Wikipedia:No personal attacks I am not rabscutle. 67.113.99.253 19:38, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And Rabscutle - I disagree - the link DOES belong in there67.113.99.253 19:39, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pointless personal attack[edit]

All, Where does one report this abusive, bullying behaviour of Mel to??? We need users link this locked out of Wikipedia!!!!! 67.113.99.253 19:43, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In 2002, "Resurrection of the Little Match Girl", a South Korean action film directed by Jang Sun-woo was released.[edit]

which fucking piece of shit reverted "In 2002, "Resurrection of the Little Match Girl", a South Korean action film directed by Jang Sun-woo was released." into "" ??? --217.233.246.25 16:53, 30 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Possible reference[edit]

I think there may have been a reference to The Little Match Girl in the Pokémon anime. In the episode Snow Way Out, Team Rocket try to keep warm by concentrating on a match and imagining themselves somewhere warm. --Wussycat 03:59, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Plot synopsis[edit]

I painstakingly edited this section to make it more dramatic, so I hope you guys accept. What a beautiful and moving story - this kind of genius only comes once in awhile.--141.213.196.222 05:07, 26 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Little Matchstick Girl

It was night on New Year’s Eve, and a poor, little matchstick girl was out on the streets selling matches. Although she was cold and hungry, with neither hat nor shoes, she was afraid to go home as her father would surely beat her when he found out she did not sell any matches that day.

In a nook between two buildings, she wanted to warm herself by lighting matches. In the light of the first match she saw a hot iron stove, but the fire was soon blown out by the howling wind. She lit a second match and saw a fully laden dinner table with delicious foods and a roasted goose that came slowly toward her. It too disappeared as the match went out. By the light of the third match she saw a beautiful Christmas tree lit with a million candles. The candle lights went higher and higher until they became stars. One became a shooting star and she remembered her grandmother telling her that a shooting star means a person has passed away and gone to heaven.

Upon lighting the fourth match she saw her smiling grandmother, the only person who ever loved her. This filled her with so much joy she quickly lit the next match and the next so that her grandmother never fades. Finally, the grandmother took the happy girl in her arms and they flew higher and higher to a place where there's no cold, no hunger, no fear - they were with God.

The next morning, the little girl was found in the snow with a smile upon her lips. “She wanted to warm herself!” people exclaimed as they noticed the burned out matches littered around her body. However, no one knew what beauty she had seen or with what glory she had gone with her grandmother into a joyous new year.

A feel-good story about a poor hungry girl freezing to death. It's not beautiful. It's not moving. She has a halucination/vision and dies. If the words weren't pronouncable, I might have mistaken this for a Lovecraft story. Perhaps the purpose of the story is to make it easier for people to ignore poverty and homelessness - after all, they may freeze to death, but they get a nice halucination with it, and that makes it all

better.--RLent (talk) 17:32, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the story was done to show that poverty existed and that people shouldn't ignore it. Hans Christian Andersen was trying to tell a cautionary tale of lost and death but to still provide hope of an afterlife. --Pixarian (talk) 18:50, 12 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The girl certainly is abused, her father is waiting in their home to beat her if she hasn't sold anything. A loving father would be out collecting firewood to sell for example. He world be working to provide for the family instead of leaving it all to the child. Proxima Centauri (talk) 15:45, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How strange are modernist viewpoints ! A Mr. Willingham in the article reworks her into a striving young woman, ' saving her pennies for a better future ', in a capitalist morality ---- when a child like that, and millions of others needed to simply survive; the user above blames the father for not going out working, which is extraneous to such tragedies which happened with horrible tedious mind-numbing repetition in every damn society, to both the honest hard workers and the shiftless. Not the fault of the type of societies, political or religious or how organized, since it happened in all, nor of economics --- but mainly because there wasn't any mechanism to provide even the basics to those in need, nor any preventative means to ensure they didn't go further into poverty.


And because many didn't care. Claverhouse (talk) 21:35, 9 November 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Claverhouse (talk • contribs) 21:31, 9 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject class rating[edit]

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 14:19, 10 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

pi —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.251.190.182 (talk) 19:28, 7 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is why wickipedia sucks. I just spent 15 minutes trying to read about The Little Match Girl and all I read was a few people blundering and arguing. AHHH! You people irritate me! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.36.53.2 (talk) 16:12, 21 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sources[edit]

I move the second paragraph in the sources section be removed. The Star Taler is not an obvious reference (the core message isn't even the same) and without a citation showing some evidence of it being Anderson's inspiration, it feels like personal speculation at best. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.7.237.245 (talk) 05:14, 6 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Plot Summary[edit]

At the end of the plot summary, I see, "Andersen intended this to be a happy ending", but there's no citation for that or the rest of the paragraph. Should that be removed? Jered (talk) 07:33, 5 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion[edit]

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Weird Article[edit]

too many references, a large chunk of them anime? feel like there isnt enough info on the history and publication of the story 70.59.88.20 (talk) 00:49, 21 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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