The Red Shoes

"The Red Shoes" is often mistaken for a sweet fairy tale for children, but it is in fact the sharpest and most unsparing of Andersen's works. Though short, it develops three themes in layers—vanity, repentance, and redemption: the red shoes turn from a gift into a symbol of desire, then into an inescapable curse, and finally into the price of the soul's salvation. Andersen said the story came from a real memory of his childhood—his father made dancing shoes for a rich young lady but was scolded for ruining the silk, and in a rage cut the shoes to pieces; the name Karen came from his half-sister, whom he disliked. Understanding this background makes it easier to read the class shame and the author's self-examination behind the tale. Ye Junjian's translation, based on the Danish original, preserves to the greatest extent Andersen's prose-poetic rhythm and cold narrative distance, and is well suited to close reading and repeated savoring. When reading this tale, it is worth placing it alongside "The Little Match Girl" and "She Was No Good" to see the deep attention Andersen paid in his late work to the fate of women at the bottom of society.