The Red shoes

THE RED SHOES 

The Auther Hans Christian Andersen

The Auther Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, in Denmark, on the 2nd April 1805. His father was a shoe maker and the home was very poor.

Hans-c-Anderson

Hans was a lonely child and he had led a difficult life-his father joined the Napoleonic Wars leaving his mother to struggle to feed the family, then, on the death of his father his mother re-married, leaving Hans even more alone. Hans longed to join the theatre and in 1819 went to Copenhagen for this purpose. He got a job as an actor but‘soon lost it.
 However, one of the directors of the theatre, Jones Collin, recognised his potential genius and gave him education. On passing his examination in 1827 he launched on his career as a writer. He wrote lyrical poetry and a travel book, both of which earned for him a certain degree of fame.
 He travelled greatly and by 1885 had published his first novel and his first fairy story. He wrote a number of masterpieces, the fairy stories.

 

Red Shoes

These tales have spread his fame far beyond Denmark and have been translated into fifty languages. The later years of his life were spent in travel and in writing. His genius was fully recognised and he was given great honour in Denmark Hlid abroad. His life itself had a fairy-tale quality to it. 
He was born poor and solitary and then died happy and well loved by all who had read his stories. He died in Copenhagen, in 1875. story Once there was a little girl whose name was Karen. She was very beautiful, but was so poor that she wore wooden clogs in winter and walked bare-footed in summer.
 A shoe-maker’s widow took pity on her and made a pair of red shoes for her Karen wore those shoes on the day when the funeral of her mother was being carried to the churchyard for burial. It was not an occasion for the red shoes, but she had nothing else to wear. After some time an old lady drove to that place in an old carriage. She asked the clergyman to adopt little Karen. She was granted permission. 
The rich lady did not like Karen’s red shoes. She burnt them. But one day the Queen and princess passed through the country. Everybody went to see them. Karen was also there. When she saw the princess wearing beautiful red shoes, she loneed to have . The old lady took her to the best shop. Many good pair of shoes were there in glass cases.
 Karen selected one attractive pair of shoes which were exactly like the ones the princess was wearing. Karen wore new clothes and those red shoes and went to the church for confirmation. It was strange that the old lady could not notice that those shoes were also red. In the church everbody stared at Karen's shoes. She forgot everything, even the hymns . 
She was only thinking of her shoes. When the priest was baptising her the red shoes were floating before her. In short she was getting obsessed with the red shoes. When they came out of the church, an old soldier who was standing at the gate, praised her shoes and encouraged her to dance.
 At this idea she started dancing till she was picked up by the coach man with great difficulty. Her shoes were taken off, only then her feet stopped dancing. By the evening everybody who went to the church, was talkng of her red shoes. 
 Next Sunday there was communion and they had to go to the church again. Now she was sensible enough. The old lady advised her to wear black shoes and not red ones. But she ignored her advice.
 She was possessed by a strong desire for red shoes. After some time the old lady fell ill. She looked after her but her condition went on deteriorating .During these days a grand dance was arranged in the town and instead of going to the church she went there. She danced there and her feet went out of her control. They were automatically dancing.
 If she wanted to go to the right, they went dancing off to the left. When she wanted to go to left, the shoes went dancing off to the right. She danced over fields and furrows, in rain and sun by night and day. 
She danced into the open churchyard. She was made to dance by some mysterious power. She felt quite miserable and disturbed, She saw an angel dressed in white dress, at the church door. He cursed her and said that she would dance before every house. Karen cried for mercy, but nobody listened to her.
 One day she danced past a house she knew well. She came to know that the old lady had expired. Her coffin was covered with flowers. She was repentant for a moment but then again she began to dance .
She cried aloud and asked the presence to come out, because she could not enter the house as she was dancing. The presence said that it cut off the head of the wicked . She requested it to spare her head, because she wanted to confess her sins, but offered her feet with red shoes to be cut off. 
When.her feet were cut off, she was provided with wooden feet and crutches . She wanted to go the church but could not for fear of the soldier with the read beard. At last she became a servant to the parsonage.
 In the evenings she listened to the recitation from the Bible . The parson’s wife felt sorry for her. Next Sunday they all went to church, but she could not go with them as she could not walk. She went to her small room and prayed to God to help her. She asked for penance and wept bitterly.
 During her prayers, she saw the church before her. She saw the old soldier standing near the church door, He was holding a green branch full of roses instead of the sword. She also heard the choir singing. She felt that she was in the church. It was all a vision Karen was blessed with peace of mind and she breathed her last.