The nature of love in The Steadfast Tin Soldier, by Hans Christian Andersen

Abstract

The object of study of this article is the fairy tale "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", by Hans Christian Andersen. For this, the study is based on notions learned from mythocriticism (Durand, 2003, 2012), also counting on the help of studies of symbolism and comparative mythology (Eliade, 1996; Campbell, 2007), analytical psychology (Jung, 2000; Von Franz, 2003), anthropology of rituality (Eliade, 2008; Van Gennep, 2011) and the myth of the androgyne as presented in Plato's The Banquet (2001). It is concluded that Andersen, in “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, avoids the moralizing and conciliatory outcome of part of his work; thus, it presents, in an ambiguous finish, a vision of love that, despite dialoguing with the unio mystica and the return to the primitive totality of being as predicted in the myth of the androgyne, indicates convergence with a tragic vision of the world.