Review: The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen

First published in Danish in 1837, 'The Emperor's New Clothes' - a strongly moral fable - is a children's story by Hans Christian Anderson. From its beginnings as a tale published alongside 'The Little Mermaid', the story has become something of a global archetype, cautioning against the dangers of not thinking for oneself.

Conception & narrative

The story may well be classed as a fairytale, but it is far from being a whimsical tale of imps and elves. Instead, the story concerns the arrival of two men who are described as "swindlers" - although they profess to be weavers of the highest skill - in a capital city. It turns out that their chosen way of swindling the townsfolk, and indeed the rich men and the ruling classes, is to pretend that they need all the country's most valuable thread with which to weave the most breathtaking cloth. The catch is that they also tell everyone that only the most suitable for their chosen roles in life will be able to see the cloth. One by one, prominent citizens visit the 'weavers', who all the time are 'working' their empty looms long into the night whilst stealing the donated thread, to see the wonderful cloth. They all see nothing but are so afraid of looking foolish that they all claim to have seen the cloth. Eventually, it is left to a child to point out the reality of the situation when the emperor parades around with no clothes on, despite professing to a cowed populace that he is wearing new clothing made of the cloth.

Themes

The main theme of the story centres around the dangers of being unable to escape convention and social pressures in order to be able to think for oneself. Andersen seems to be saying that one should not necessarily trust adults, emperors with new clothes or priests or politicians, because they all have their own reasons for saying what they say. The child's concluding cry of "the Emperor has no clothes" continues to be a lesson to anyone who reads it that it is far better to make up one's own mind than trust others. There is also a strong inference that the destruction of free thought, caused by the complications of adult life, is a result of a loss of childhood's unpretentious clarity of perception- a result of innocence.

Wider Influence

The story continues to resonate today, and its title is an often used phrase in popular culture, usually describing something which doesn't seem to measure up to its enormous hype, often in the sporting sphere. It has assumed far greater significance than a mere tale about kings and their clothing.