The Red Shoes (fairy tale)

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For other works based on the fairy tales see The Red Shoes.

The Red Shoes (De røde sko) is a fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, and was first published in 1845.

[edit] Story overview

A poor little girl, Karen, is adopted by a rich old lady after her mother's death. She grows up vain. She buys a pair of red shoes and repeatedly wears them to church, paying no attention to the service. Her adoptive mother takes ill, but Karen deserts her, preferring to attend a party in her red shoes. Once she begins dancing, she can't stop. The shoes take over. She cannot control them and they are stuck to her feet. And the shoes continue to dance, through fields and meadows, rain or shine, night and day. She can't even attend her adoptive mother's funeral. An angel appears to her, condemning her to dance even as she grows cold and pale, as a warning to vain children everywhere. Karen then asks the executioner to chop off her feet. He does so and gives her a pair of wooden feet and crutches. Thinking that she has suffered enough for the red shoes Karen decides to go to church in order for the people to see her, but the chopped-off feet with the red shoes dance before her, barring the way. The following Sunday she tries again, thinking herself at least as good as the others in church, but again the dancing red shoes bar the way. Karen then goes to do service in the parsonage, but when Sunday comes she dares not go to church. Instead she sits alone at home and prays to God to help her. Then it is as though the church comes home to her and her heart becomes so filled with sunshine, peace, and joy that it bursts; Her soul flies on sunshine to heaven, and no one there asks her about the red shoes.

[edit] Background

Andersen explained the origins of the story in an incident he witnessed as a small child. By his report, his father was sent a piece of red silk by a rich lady customer, to make a pair of dancing slippers for her daughter. Using red leather along with the silk, he worked very carefully on the shoes, only to have the rich lady tell him they were trash. She said he had done nothing but spoil her silk. "In that case," he said, "I may as well spoil my leather too," and he cut up the shoes in front of her.