The Snow Queen

By beginning with the devil’s creation of the mirror, “The Snow Queen” immediately establishes perspective as a central concern. A mirror by its very nature changes what it represents (if only by reversing it), and the devil’s mirror is less reliable still. Though the devil and his minions claim it reveals humanity and the world as they actually are, Andersen states that it distorts what it reflects, making good seem bad and bad seem worse. As the story traces the mirror’s effects, it suggests that this misperception fundamentally alters the character of the perceiver, which introduces an element of morality to the story’s exploration of perception.

The effect of the mirror shards on Kai illustrates this point. Before being afflicted by the shards, Kai is carefree; though he is not unaware of the world’s darkness—including the Snow Queen, whom he and Gerda discuss—recognition of the existence of evil does not shape his understanding or behavior. However, when the shards overtake his eye and heart, they change how he views everything and everyone around him. Kai immediately becomes cynical, pointing out the flaws in things he once found pleasurable or beautiful, like the roses. Even worse, he becomes callous and self-centered, as when he leaves Gerda behind in favor of the older village boys. However, Kai believes he is simply becoming more sophisticated and grown-up, and his misapprehension of himself only deepens when he encounters the Snow Queen. When Kai goes with the Snow Queen, he is cold until she kisses him, and “then he [feels] fine; he no longer notice[s] the chill around him” (24). With the mirror shards in his eye and heart, Kai cannot distinguish good from evil and therefore does not see the Snow Queen as the villainous figure she is or her effects on him as the corruption they are.

The mirror’s danger is all the more potent in the context of a story where good and evil are difficult to distinguish under the best of circumstances. Gerda is not only unaffected by the mirror but the most pure-hearted character in the entire story. Nevertheless, her journey across the world challenges her perceptions, presenting her with many occasions when things are not what they seem. On her quest to find Kai, Gerda meets a varied cast of characters. Some, she likes, such as the prince and princess and the old woman with the flower garden. Others, she immediately fears, such as the bandit girl. Gerda’s opinion of the prince and princess doesn’t change as she gets to know them, but in the case of the old woman and the bandit girl, Gerda’s early impressions are far from accurate. Gerda initially thinks the old woman is kind and good but eventually recognizes her selfish desire to keep Gerda for herself. Conversely, Gerda’s fear of the bandit girl vanishes as she learns that the girl is actually capable of kindness and generosity.

Andersen therefore suggests that good and evil are deeply tied to how one sees the world. Morality itself is not a matter of perspective in “The Snow Queen”—some characters and actions are clearly “good” and some clearly “bad”—but the story implies that people who cannot see good also cannot do good, not least because they do not even recognize their own deficiency.