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The Emperor's New Clothes

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This article is about the story by Hans Christian Andersen. For other uses, see The Emperor's New Clothes (disambiguation).
"The Emperor’s New Clothes"
Short story by Hans Christian Andersen (2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875)
Original titleKejserens nye Klæder
CountryDenmark
LanguageDanish
Genre(s)Literary folktale
Publication
Published inFairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection. Third Booklet. 1837. (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. Tredie Hefte. 1837.)
Publication typeFolktale collection
PublisherC. A. Reitzel
Publication date7 April 1837
Chronology
 
The Little Mermaid 		 
Only a Fiddler

"The Emperor's New Clothes" (Danish: Kejserens nye Klæder) is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that are invisible to those unfit for their positions or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" The tale has been translated into over a hundred languages.[1]

"The Emperor’s New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" in Copenhagen, Denmark by C. A. Reitzel on 7 April 1837 as the third and final installment of Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The tale has been adapted to various media including the musical stage and animated film.

Plot

An Emperor who cares for nothing but his wardrobe hires two weavers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position or stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects. A child in the crowd calls out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession.

Sources and variants of the tale

Variants of the story are widely dispersed across the world. There are versions from Sri Lanka, Turkey and India.[2] In the Sri Lankan folktale[3] seven tricksters arrive at the court of a foolish king and ask him, "Maharaja, what sort of robe is your majesty wearing? We have woven a copper-coloured silk robe for the king of our city. It is like the thin silk robes from the divine world. In comparison to our king, you look like one of his servants." The tricksters go on to warn that the silk cloth is "not visible to a low-born person".

Andersen's version is based on a story from the Libro de los ejemplos (or El Conde Lucanor, 1335),[4] a medieval Spanish collection of fifty-one cautionary tales with Arab and Jewish sources by Juan Manuel, Duke of Peñafiel (1282–1348). Andersen did not know the Spanish original but read the tale in a German translation titled "So ist der Lauf der Welt". The main plot was derived from this version of the original.[5]

In the source tale, a king is hoodwinked by weavers who claim to make a suit of clothes invisible to any man not the son of his presumed father. Andersen avoided anything risqué in his work and altered the source tale to direct the focus on courtly pride and intellectual vanity rather than adulterous paternity.[6]

The weavers belong to the folkloric prototypes of tricksters and rogues who outwit royalty, clergymen, merchants, and others.

It is classified as Aarne-Thompson type 1620.[7]

Composition

Illustration by Vilhelm Pedersen, Andersen‘s first illustrator

Andersen's manuscript was at the printer’s when he was suddenly inspired to change the original climax of the tale from the emperor’s subjects admiring his invisible clothes to that of the child's cry.[8] There are many theories about why he made this change. Most scholars agree that from his earliest years in Copenhagen, Andersen presented himself to the Danish bourgeoisie as the naively precocious child not usually admitted to the adult salon. "The Emperor’s New Clothes" became his expose of the hypocrisy and snobbery he found there when he finally gained admission.[9]

Andersen’s decision to change the ending may have occurred after he read the manuscript tale to a child,[10] or had its source in a childhood incident similar to that in the tale. In 1872, he recalled standing in a crowd with his mother waiting to see King Frederick VI. When the king made his appearance, Andersen cried out, "Oh, he’s nothing more than a human being!" His mother tried to silence him by crying, "Have you gone mad, child?"[11] Whatever the reason, Andersen thought the change would prove more satirical.

Publication

Andersen in 1836

"The Emperor’s New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" on 7 April 1837 by C. A. Reitzel in Copenhagen, Denmark as the third and final installment of the first collection of Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The first two booklets of the collection were published in May and December 1835 and met with little critical enthusiasm.[12] Andersen waited a year before publishing the third installment of the collection.[13]

Traditional Danish tales as well as German and French folktales were regarded as a form of exotica in nineteenth century Denmark and were read aloud to select gatherings by celebrated actors of the day. Andersen’s tales eventually became a part of the repertoire and readings of "The Emperor’s New Clothes" became a specialty of and a big hit for the popular Danish actor Ludvig Phister.[14]

Alison Prince, author of Hans Christian Andersen: The Fan Dancer, claims that Andersen received a gift of a ruby and diamond ring from the king after publications of "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Swineherd"—tales in which Andersen voices a satirical disrespect for the court. Prince suggests the ring was an attempt to curb Andersen's sudden bent for political satire by bringing him into the royal fold. She points out that after The Swineherd, he never again wrote a tale colored with political satire, but, within months of the gift, began composing "The Ugly Duckling", a tale about a bird born in a henyard who, after a lifetime of misery, matures into a swan, "one of those royal birds".[15]

On 1 July 1844, the Hereditary Grand Duke Carl Alexander held a literary soiree at Ettersburg in honor of Andersen. The author was on the verge of vomiting after days of feasting and speaking various foreign languages but managed to control his body and read aloud “The Princess and the Pea”, "Little Ida's Flowers", and "The Emperor’s New Clothes".[16]

Commentaries

Jack Zipes, in Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller, suggests that seeing is presented in the tale as the courage of one's convictions; Zipes believe this is the reason the story is popular with children. Sight becomes insight, which, in turn, prompts action.[17]

In Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller (2000), Jackie Wullschlager points out that Andersen was not only a successful adapter of existing lore and literary material such as the Spanish source tale for "The Emperor's New Clothes" but also equally competent at creating new material that entered the human collective consciousness with the same mythic power as ancient, anonymous lore.[18]

Hollis Robbins, in "The Emperor's New Critique" (2003), argues that the tale is itself so transparent "that there has been little need for critical scrutiny."[19] Robbins argues that Andersen's tale "quite clearly rehearses four contemporary controversies: the institution of a meritocratic civil service, the valuation of labor, the expansion of democratic power, and the appraisal of art".[20] Robbins concludes that the story's appeal lies in its "seductive resolution" of the conflict by the truth-telling boy.

In The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen (2008), folk and fairy tale researcher Maria Tatar offers a scholarly investigation and analysis of the story, drawing on Robbins's political and sociological analysis of the tale. Tatar points out that Robbins indicates the swindling weavers are simply insisting that "the value of their labor be recognized apart from its material embodiment", and notes that Robbins considers the ability of some in the tale to see the invisible cloth as "a successful enchantment".[21]

Tatar observes that "The Emperor's New Clothes" is one of Andersen's best known tales and one that has acquired an iconic status globally as it migrates across various cultures reshaping itself with each retelling in the manner of oral folktales.[22] Scholars have noted that the phrase 'Emperor's new clothes' has become a standard metaphor for anything that smacks of pretentiousness, pomposity, social hypocrisy, collective denial, or hollow ostentatiousness. Historically, the tale established Andersen's reputation as a children's author whose stories actually imparted lessons of value for his juvenile audience, and "romanticized" children by "investing them with the courage to challenge authority and to speak truth to power."[23] With each successive description of the swindlers' wonderful cloth, it becomes more substantial, more palpable, and a thing of imaginative beauty for the reader even though it has no material existence. Its beauty however is obscured at the end of the tale with the obligatory moral message for children. Tatar is left wondering if the real value of the tale is the creation of the wonderful fabric in the reader's imagination or the tale's closing message of speaking truth no matter how humiliating to the recipient.

Naomi Wood of Kansas State University challenges Robbins's reading, arguing that before the World Trade Center attacks of 2001, "Robbins's argument might seem merely playful, anti-intuitive, and provocative."[24] Wood concludes: "Perhaps the truth of "The Emperor's New Clothes" is not that the child's truth is mercifully free of adult corruption, but that it recognizes the terrifying possibility that whatever words we may use to clothe our fears, the fabric cannot protect us from them."[25]

Adaptations and cultural references

Various adaptations of the tale have appeared since its first publication including a 1919 Russian film directed by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, a 1987 musical starring Sid Caesar, and numerous short stories, plays, spoofs, and animated films.[1]

Vilhelm Pedersen illustration

The story has been parodied numerous times, including one story in the animated television series Alftales where Alf plays a frustrated tailor of comfortable casual clothes who pulls the trick on the uninterested emperor who refused his usual goods. At the end, when the emperor's pretension is exposed by a girl who makes some sarcastic comments about his state of undress, Alf's character supplies the ruler some of his usual wares which the emperor finds agreeable. However, the story ends with the emperor making the best of his humiliation by indulging in his one opportunity to go streaking.

The Emperor's New Clothes is the title of a fanciful 2001 film starring Ian Holm as Napoleon.

The 1990 song "The Emperor's New Clothes" by recording artist Sinéad O'Connor has the same general message as the original fairytale. The song ends with the lines, "through their own words / they will be exposed / they've got a severe case of / the emperor's new clothes."

In the 1952 film musical Hans Christian Andersen based on the life of the Danish poet and story-teller Hans Christian Andersen, starring Danny Kaye, the story of The Emperor's New Clothes is told in The King's New Clothes as one of the film's eight songs.

Roald Dahl wrote a short story in line with Revolting Rhymes, in which he tells the story of an emperor who was so cruel his tailors plot against him. They fool him in believing they have a cloth which keeps the wearer incredibly warm, but is invisible to fools. He then goes skiing without any clothes on, freezing to death.

In The Romans, a 1965 episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor convinces Emperor Nero that he can play the lyre by announcing before his performance that "the music is so soft, so delicate, that only those with keen, perceptive hearing will be able to distinguish this melodious charm of music". He then pretends to play, making no actual sound, and at the end of his performance he receives cheers and applause from the other guests at the banquet. He later boasts to one of his companions that he gave the idea to Hans Christian Andersen.

The tale itself was adapted as an episode of the 2008 series Fairy Tales.

The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose is a book about physics and complexity theory. Penrose concludes that computers, although they appear to think, cannot think as we experience it. He attempts to prove this hypothesis by examining all physics as we know it in a small amount of detail.

The novel Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind makes an allusion to the tale with its title and the book deals with similar themes.

Another book that alludes to the tale is "The Empire's Old Clothes: What the Lone Ranger, Babar, and Other Innocent Heroes Do to Our Minds," by Ariel Dorfman, the Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist.

The Chinese novelist Ye Sheng Tao continued the story which Andersen had left off; it is also titled, The Emperor's New Clothes.

The PBS series Sagwa also aired an adaptation of this classic tale.

The Barenaked Ladies included the lyrics "I felt a chill because I was still wearing the emperor's new clothes" in the song "The Humour of the Situation".

The song "Ready to Start" by The Arcade Fire contain the lyric "All the kids have always known, that the Emperor wears no clothes / but they bow down to him anyway, 'cause it's better than being alone".

Episode 020 of the CGI animated show Super Why! is based on and named after this short tale.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Andersen 2005a 4
  2. ^ Other tales of this type are given at D. L. Ashliman's page on The Emperor's New Clothes. Accessed 2010-03-06. Similar tales are listed at surlalunefairytales.com. Accessed 2010-03-06.
  3. ^ See Parker, Henry (1914). Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, volume 2. Luzac and Company. pp. 66–69., given on Google books and, more readably, on D. L. Ashliman's page on the tale. Accessed 2010-03-10.
  4. ^ In Spanish:Exemplo XXXIIº - De lo que contesció a un rey con los burladores que fizieron el paño. In English: Of that which happened to a King and three Impostors from Count Lucanor; of the Fifty Pleasant Stories of Patronio, written by the Prince Don Juan Manuel and first done into English by James York, M. D., 1868, Gibbings & Company, Limited; London; 1899; pp. xiii-xvi. Accessed 2010-03-06. This version of the tale is one of those collected by Idries Shah in World Tales.
  5. ^ Bredsdorff 312-3
  6. ^ Wullschlager 176
  7. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to the Emperor's New Clothes"
  8. ^ Wullschlager 177
  9. ^ Andersen 2005b 427
  10. ^ Bredsdorff 313
  11. ^ Frank 110
  12. ^ Wullschlager 165
  13. ^ Andersen 2005d 228
  14. ^ Andersen 2005d 246
  15. ^ Prince 210
  16. ^ Andersen 2005d 305
  17. ^ Zipes 2005 36
  18. ^ Andersen 2005a xvi
  19. ^ Robbins 659
  20. ^ Robbins, 670
  21. ^ Quoted in Tatar 8,15
  22. ^ Tatar xxii,xiii
  23. ^ Tatar xxiii
  24. ^ Wood 193-207
  25. ^ Wood 205

Further reading

  • Andersen, Hans Christian; Tatar, Maria (Ed. and transl.); Allen, Julie K. (Transl.) (2008). The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-393-06081-2.
  • Andersen, Hans Christian; Wullschlager, Jackie (Ed.); Nunnally, Tiina (Transl.) (2005). Fairy Tales. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-03377-4.
  • Andersen, Hans Christian; Frank, Diane Crone (Ed. and transl.); Frank, Jeffrey (Ed. and transl.) (2005). The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen: A New Translation from the Danish. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3693-6.
  • Andersen, Jens; Nunnally, Tiina (Transl.) (2005). Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life. New York, Woodstock, London: Overlook Duckworth. ISBN 1-58567-737-X.
  • Bredsdorff, Elias (1975). Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of His Life and Work, 1805–75. London: Phaidon Press Ltd. ISBN 0-7148-1636-1.
  • Prince, Alison (1998). Hans Christian Andersen: The Fan Dancer. London: Allison & Busby Ltd. ISBN 0-7490-0478-9.
  • Robbins, Hollis (Autumn 2003). "Emperor's New Critique". 34 (4). New Literary History: 659–675. ISSN 0028-6087. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Wood, Naomi (2007). "The Ugly Duckling's Legacy: Adulteration, Contemporary Fantasy, and the Dark". Marvels & Tales. 20 (2): 193–207.
  • Wullschlager, Jackie (2000). Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-91747-9.
  • Zipes, Jack David (2005). Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller. New York and Middleton Park: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97433-X.
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