Plot - summary
The boy Kai gets a piece of a troll mirror in his eye, he turns into a rude and callous-hearted man who thinks only about himself, and he is kidnapped by the Snow Queen.
Gerda goes in search of Kai, almost forgets her friend in the old woman’s garden, but leaves and meets a raven who says that he knows where Kai is.
The prince turns out to be not Kai, and Gerda goes further, but is captured by robbers, from which the Little Robber rescues her.
On the Reindeer, Gerda first reaches Lapland, and then the old Finnish woman directs Gerda to the palace of the Snow Queen.
Gerda comes barefoot to the Snow Queen's palace and with her tears melts the ice in Kai's heart.
The children set off on their return journey and return to their home as adults.
A summary of the work can be read here, and there you will also find another version of the summary for the reader’s diary
Characteristics of Kai and Gerda
Andersen's fairy tale describes to us a kind, attentive and sympathetic Kai. But after challenging the Snow Queen herself, he turns into a rude and angry boy, capable of offending anyone, even Gerda and his grandmother, whose fairy tales he loved to listen to. One of Kai's pranks ended with him being captured by the Snow Queen.
In the palace of the evil queen, he became a boy with an icy heart. Kai kept trying to make the word “eternity” out of ice floes, but he couldn’t. Then she promised to give him skates and the whole world. Kai's desire to comprehend eternity indicates his lack of understanding that this cannot be done without true feelings, without love, having only a cold mind and an icy heart.
Having lost all human feelings, Kai, in fear, wanted to read a prayer, but could not. All he could think about in his head was the multiplication table. Frozen figures of regular geometric shapes were the only thing that delighted him. Kai tramples his once-beloved roses and examines snowflakes with interest through a magnifying glass.
The image of Gerda is a contrast to the character of the Snow Queen. To find Kai and rescue him from the ice castle, the girl sets out on a long and difficult journey. In the name of her love, a brave little girl sets off into the unknown. The obstacles encountered along this path did not make Gerda angry and did not force her to turn back towards home and abandon her friend in captivity of the Snow Queen. She remained friendly, kind and sweet throughout the entire fairy tale. Bravery, perseverance and patience help her not to become discouraged, but to humbly overcome all failures. Thanks to this character, she managed to find Kai. And love for him was able to melt his icy heart and cope with the spell of the evil queen.
The description of Gerda and Kai may be a prototype of real people and similar stories in real life. You just need to take a closer look around.
Proverbs for the work
The hardest road is the one you don't know.
To believe means to win.
Happiness helps the brave.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
Where the heart lies, there it runs.
Other readers' diaries
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Christian motives in a fairy tale
Andersen's tale is imbued with Christian motifs. This is rarely seen in Russian publications. In the episode, when Gerda tries to enter the Queens, the guards do not let her in. She was able to get into it thanks to the fact that she began to read the “Our Father” prayer. After which the guards, turning into angels, paved the way for the girl.
While Gerda and Kai return to their home, the grandmother reads the Gospel. After the meeting, the children all begin to dance around the rose bush and sing a Christmas carol, which is how the instructive tale ends.
And this mysterious journey from the world of good to the land of evil began with a fragment that fell into Kai’s eye. The mirror broke because trolls (that is, demons) reflected everything in the world in a distorted form. Andersen explains this by saying that the demons in the lying mirror wanted to reflect the Creator. God, not allowing this, made the mirror escape from the hands of the demons and break.
The image of Hell is reflected in the word “eternity”, which the Snow Queen instructed Kai to compose. Icy eternity, not created by the Creator, is an image of hell.
In the episode where the deer asks the sorceress to help Gerda and give her the strength of twelve heroes, she replies that she cannot make the girl stronger than she is. Her strength is her small loving heart. And God helps her anyway.
History of creation
It's time to tell the story of the creation of Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen". It was first published in 1844. The tale is the longest in the author’s bibliography, and Andersen claimed that it is connected with the story of his life.
Andersen said that “The Snow Queen,” a summary of which is contained in the article, appeared in his head when he was little and played with his friend and neighbor, the white-headed Lisbeth. To him, she was practically a sister. The girl was always next to Hans, supported him in all his games and listened to his first fairy tales. Many researchers claim that she became the prototype of Gerda.
But not only Gerda had a prototype. Singer Jenny Lind has become the living embodiment of the queen. The author was in love with her, but the girl did not share his feelings, and Andersen made her cold heart the embodiment of the beauty and soullessness of the Snow Queen.
In addition, Andersen was fascinated by Scandinavian myths, and there death was called the ice maiden. Before his death, his father said that the maiden had come for him. Perhaps the Snow Queen has the same prototype as the Scandinavian winter and death. She also has no feelings, and the kiss of death can freeze her forever.
The image of a girl made of ice attracted the storyteller, and in his heritage there is another fairy tale about the Snow Queen, who stole her lover from his bride.
Andersen wrote the fairy tale in a very difficult time, when religion and science were in conflict. Therefore, there is an opinion that the confrontation between Gerda and the queen describes the events that took place.
In the USSR, the fairy tale was remade, since censorship did not allow the mention of Christ and the reading of the Gospel at night.
Background
So, let's start retelling the summary of “The Snow Queen”. One day, an evil troll created a mirror, looking into which all good things decreased and disappeared, while evil, on the contrary, increased. But, unfortunately, the troll's students broke the mirror in an argument, and all its fragments scattered throughout the world. And if even one tiny piece fell into the human heart, then it froze and became a piece of ice. And if it got into the eye, then the person stopped seeing good, and in any action he felt only evil intent.
Love for the theater
It was then that Era fell in love with the theater. She liked absolutely everything. And the aroma of powder, mixing with the smell of rosin, and the heavy curtain, and theater dust, and the bustle behind the scenes.
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One day, the girl’s mother accidentally came across an entry in her daughter’s diary that she wanted to become an artist in the future. The woman even burst into tears and asked her daughter to think carefully. She was especially worried when imagining her husband’s reaction to such a statement. But Era was adamant. And the diary was burned to the ground that same day. And I learned a lesson: you shouldn’t even trust your secrets to paper.
Film work
After starring in the television play “Twelve Months” (20-year-old Era played the princess), Nikolai Boyarsky began to hotly persuade his colleague to go to Lenfilm, where they were preparing to film “The Snow Queen.” The actor was convinced that the girl would be cast with great pleasure in the role of the little robber.
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He managed to convince Era. And she went to the film studio with the confidence that she was expected there with open arms. However, she was disappointed. Another actress had already been cast for this role. Ziganshina even burst into tears of resentment, running out into the street, but not before shouting that no one could play better than her anyway.
However, just a few days later, Era received a call from the film studio and was invited to filming. They didn't even conduct tests. The actress lived up to expectations. Seeing her work, the crew breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, Era’s predecessor could not cope with the role.
Nevertheless, Ziganshina herself did not like acting in films. She didn’t see here what she was used to when working in the theater - neither sincerity, nor support from colleagues. Everyone was minding their own business. Somehow dry, lean... But Era wanted to hear words of encouragement, to see some emotions. In the end, I wanted applause!
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Of course, after the release of the fairy tale, the actress had no end to offers. But Era preferred the theater. In addition, she was dissatisfied with the uniformity of the proposed roles. They were all in the style of her famous little robber. In general, things didn’t work out for the actress with the movie. She rarely acted. Only if you really liked the role. For example, the role of Ursula in the film “Sky Swallows”.
Era returned to cinema in the 90s. At that time, she had three children who needed to be fed somehow. But the actress still doesn’t like acting. According to her, she cannot feel the camera.
Complex nature
I decided to finish my studies, but didn’t join the troupe. He argued that Era’s character is too complex. Allegedly, the girl does not understand that theater is the collective work of a large group of people. The master was sure that Era would never become a good actress. Despite her talent, emotionality and insightful mind.
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What can we say, the girl’s character was indeed complex. She flared up like a match, could very easily get angry and say a lot of unnecessary words. But not on purpose. Era herself did not know when and how she would behave in a given situation. She couldn't be flexible. And I didn’t want to compromise. Tolerance and gentleness came to the actress only after many years.
After Tovstonogov’s cruel verdict, Era stopped even greeting him. And after graduating from the BDT studio, she was accepted into the Lenkom troupe. She worked there for many years. She got her first role right away. And a few years later she became the leading actress of Lenkom. She didn’t know what a lack of roles was.
The main characters of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen". Gerda
There are many heroes in the fairy tale, but they are all minor. There are only three main ones: Gerda, Kai, and the queen. But still, the only truly main character of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” is only one - little Gerda.
Yes, she is very small, but she is also selfless and brave. In the fairy tale, all her strength is concentrated in her kind heart, which attracts sympathetic people to the girl, without whom she would not have reached the ice castle. It is kindness that helps Gerda defeat the queen and unfreeze her sworn brother.
Gerda is ready to do anything for her loved ones and is confident in the decisions she makes. She does not doubt for a second and helps everyone who needs it, without counting on help. In the fairy tale, the girl shows only the best character traits, and she is the embodiment of justice and goodness.
