Thumbelina Essay

1612 Words7 Pages
Thumbelina is a popular children’s story that many children love. As a child, I can remember my mom reading me this story some nights before tucking me into bed, as many other young children can. Traditionally, the story has been labeled as a fairytale, but the story of the tiny little girl also has elements of a fable. Although the story of Thumbelina has elements of a fable throughout, the classic label of a fairytale holds true. Thumbelina was written and published by Hans Christian Anderson in 1835. Over time, the story of Thumbelina has evolved. In earlier stories the main character had many different names, including “Little Totty” or “Little Ellie,” and the name Thumbelina was not used until 1864 by H. W. Dulckin when the story was translated into English (Wullschlager). The same brief summary of the history of Thumbelina, written by Wullschlager, also says that the story of Tom Thumb may have inspired the story of Thumbelina. This summary also included details about the use of animals in children’s literature. Anderson was one of the first to use these animal characters to portray human characteristics, his use of animal characters inspired over children’s authors to do the same. The story of Thumbelina starts off with a witch granting an old woman’s wish to become a mother by giving her a seed to plant. When the flower blooms, the woman finds a tiny little girl inside who is about the size of a thumb; so, she names her Thumbelina. One day, an ugly toad saw Thumbelina and decided that Thumbelina must marry her son, who was also an ugly toad. Thumbelina did not want to marry the toad because he was ugly and she did not know him. She made friends with the fish in the pond around her and they helped her escape. Soon after she escaped, a flying beetle decided to take her away and marry her because she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

More about Thumbelina Essay

Open Document