The Brave Tin Soldier Short Story With Summary, Moral And Theme

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier – This article will tell you the short story entitled, “The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier” by Hans Christian Andersen with story analysis, summary and theme in English. What is the theme, summary, plot, setting, character and point of view of The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen?

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier

THERE were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers, who were all brothers, for they had been made out of the same old tin spoon. They shouldered arms and looked straight before them, and wore a splendid uniform, red and blue. The first thing in the world they ever heard were the words, “Tin soldiers!” uttered by a little boy, who clapped his hands with delight when the lid of the box, in which they lay, was taken off. They were given him for a birthday present, and he stood at the table to set them up. The soldiers were all exactly alike, excepting one, who had only one leg; he had been left to the last, and then there was not enough of the melted tin to finish him, so they made him to stand firmly on one leg, and this caused him to be very remarkable.

The table on which the brave tin soldiers stood, was covered with other playthings, but the most attractive to the eye was a pretty little paper castle. Through the small windows the rooms could be seen. In front of the castle a number of little trees surrounded a piece of looking-glass, which was intended to represent a transparent lake. Swans, made of wax, swam on the lake, and were reflected in it. All this was very pretty, but the prettiest of all was a tiny little lady, who stood at the open door of the castle; she, also, was made of paper, and she wore a dress of clear muslin, with a narrow blue ribbon over her shoulders just like a scarf. In front of these was fixed a glittering tinsel rose, as large as her whole face. The little lady was a dancer, and she stretched out both her arms, and raised one of her legs so high, that the tin soldier could not see it at all, and he thought that she, like himself, had only one leg. “That is the wife for me,” he thought; “but she is too grand, and lives in a castle, while I have only a box to live in, five-and-twenty of us altogether, that is no place for her. Still I must try and make her acquaintance.” Then he laid himself at full length on the table behind a snuff-box that stood upon it, so that he could peep at the little delicate lady, who continued to stand on one leg without losing her balance. When evening came, the other tin soldiers were all placed in the box, and the people of the house went to bed. Then the playthings began to have their own games together, to pay visits, to have sham fights, and to give balls. The tin soldiers rattled in their box; they wanted to get out and join the amusements, but they could not open the lid. The nut-crackers played at leap-frog, and the pencil jumped about the table. There was such a noise that the canary woke up and began to talk, and in poetry too. Only the tin soldier and the dancer remained in their places. She stood on tiptoe, with her legs stretched out, as firmly as he did on his one leg. He never took his eyes from her for even a moment. The clock struck twelve, and, with a bounce, up sprang the lid of the snuff-box; but, instead of snuff, there jumped up a little black goblin; for the snuff-box was a toy puzzle.

“Tin soldier,” said the goblin, “don’t wish for what does not belong to you.”

But the tin soldier pretended not to hear.

“Very well; wait till to-morrow, then,” said the goblin.

When the children came in the next morning, they placed the tin soldier in the window. Now, whether it was the goblin who did it, or the draught, is not known, but the window flew open, and out fell the tin soldier, heels over head, from the third story, into the street beneath. It was a terrible fall; for he came head downwards, his helmet and his bayonet stuck in between the flagstones, and his one leg up in the air. The servant maid and the little boy went down stairs directly to look for him; but he was nowhere to be seen, although once they nearly trod upon him. If he had called out, “Here I am,” it would have been all right, but he was too proud to cry out for help while he wore a uniform.

Presently it began to rain, and the drops fell faster and faster, till there was a heavy shower. When it was over, two boys happened to pass by, and one of them said, “Look, there is a tin soldier. He ought to have a boat to sail in.”

So they made a boat out of a newspaper, and placed the tin soldier in it, and sent him sailing down the gutter, while the two boys ran by the side of it, and clapped their hands. Good gracious, what large waves arose in that gutter! and how fast the stream rolled on! for the rain had been very heavy. The paper boat rocked up and down, and turned itself round sometimes so quickly that the tin soldier trembled; yet he remained firm; his countenance did not change; he looked straight before him, and shouldered his musket. Suddenly the boat shot under a bridge which formed a part of a drain, and then it was as dark as the tin soldier’s box.

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“Where am I going now?” thought he. “This is the black goblin’s fault, I am sure. Ah, well, if the little lady were only here with me in the boat, I should not care for any darkness.”

Suddenly there appeared a great water-rat, who lived in the drain.

“Have you a passport?” asked the rat, “give it to me at once.” But the tin soldier remained silent and held his musket tighter than ever. The boat sailed on and the rat followed it. How he did gnash his teeth and cry out to the bits of wood and straw, “Stop him, stop him; he has not paid toll, and has not shown his pass.” But the stream rushed on stronger and stronger. The brave tin soldier could already see daylight shining where the arch ended. Then he heard a roaring sound quite terrible enough to frighten the bravest man. At the end of the tunnel the drain fell into a large canal over a steep place, which made it as dangerous for him as a waterfall would be to us. He was too close to it to stop, so the boat rushed on, and the poor tin soldier could only hold himself as stiffly as possible, without moving an eyelid, to show that he was not afraid. The boat whirled round three or four times, and then filled with water to the very edge; nothing could save it from sinking. He now stood up to his neck in water, while deeper and deeper sank the boat, and the paper became soft and loose with the wet, till at last the water closed over the soldier’s head. He thought of the elegant little dancer whom he should never see again, and the words of the song sounded in his ears- –

“Farewell, warrior! ever brave,

Drifting onward to thy grave.” –

Then the paper boat fell to pieces, and the soldier sank into the water and immediately afterwards was swallowed up by a great fish. Oh how dark it was inside the fish! A great deal darker than in the tunnel, and narrower too, but the tin soldier continued firm, and lay at full length shouldering his musket. The fish swam to and from, making the most wonderful movements, but at last he became quite still. After a while, a flash of lightning seemed to pass through him, and then the daylight approached, and a voice cried out, “I declare here is the tin soldier.” The fish had been caught, taken to the market and sold to the cook, who took him into the kitchen and cut him open with a large knife. She picked up the soldier and held him by the waist between her finger and thumb, and carried him into the room. They were all anxious to see this wonderful soldier who had travelled about inside a fish; but he was not at all proud. They placed him on the table, and- how many curious things do happen in the world!- there he was in the very same room from the window of which he had fallen, there were the same children, the same playthings, standing on the table, and the pretty castle with the elegant little dancer at the door; she still balanced herself on one leg, and held up the other, so she was as firm as himself. It touched the tin soldier so much to see her that he almost wept tin tears, but he kept them back. He only looked at her and they both remained silent. Presently one of the little boys took up the brave tin soldier, and threw him into the stove. He had no reason for doing so, therefore it must have been the fault of the black goblin who lived in the snuff-box. The flames lighted up the tin soldier, as he stood, the heat was very terrible, but whether it proceeded from the real fire or from the fire of love he could not tell. Then he could see that the bright colors were faded from his uniform, but whether they had been washed off during his journey or from the effects of his sorrow, no one could say. He looked at the little lady, and she looked at him. He felt himself melting away, but he still remained firm with his gun on his shoulder. Suddenly the door of the room flew open and the draught of air caught up the little dancer, she fluttered like a sylph right into the stove by the side of the tin soldier, and was instantly in flames and was gone. The tin soldier melted down into a lump, and the next morning, when the maid servant took the ashes out of the stove, she found him in the shape of a little tin heart. But of the little dancer nothing remained but the tinsel rose, which was burnt black as a cinder. – –

The Short story entitled, “The Brave Tin Soldier,” is from americanliterature.com

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier Story Analysis

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen Analysis is a precise analysis of the short story to further understand its underlying message. Allow us to indulge ourselves by delving into the great story analysis of the story The Brave Tin Soldier.

Title	The Brave Tin Soldier also known The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Author	Hans Christian Andersen
Publication Date	October 2, 1838
Setting	Once upon a time in the boy’s room.
Theme	The theme of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Brave Tin Soldier is to be true to one’s heart.
Genre	Literary fairytale
Moral Lesson	The lesson of the story is that we will face many challenges in life, but in the end, love will save us.
Characters	The tin soldier, Ballerina, the Boy, and the Mother
Regret Summary	With only one leg, the last soldier in a box of 25 tin soldiers is given to a young boy. He performs this steadily, standing on a table like all the others. Another item on the table is a fantastic cardboard castle with a wonderful paper doll ballerina standing on one leg. The tin soldier falls in love with her, but the jack-in-the-box toy warns him not to gaze. Once knocked from a window sill, the toy soldier finds himself inside a fish being caught and prepared for supper in the same house as the small kid. The one-legged tin soldier is placed back on the table to look in quiet love at the paper doll bellerina. This goes on for a while until one of the children tosses the tin soldier into the fireplace. A gust of wind blows the paper doll ballerina in too. She burns to ash, and the tin soldier melts into a tin heart.

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen wrote the fairy tale The Steadfast Tin Soldier, also known as The Brave Tin Soldier. This is a narrative about a tin soldier who falls in love with a paper ballerina, as well as heroism and romance. It serves as a gentle reminder that not all love tales end happily.

Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense on April 2, 1805. He was born into a low-income family. His father was a shoemaker, while his mother was unemployed. Even though they didn’t have much, Hans felt grateful to have grown up close to a father who appreciated his love of adventures and stories.

Despite the fact that he created a diverse range of works, including dramas, travelogues, novels, and poems, it was his fairy tales that became culturally iconic in the Western world. His stories transcend age, nationality, and culture, and have been translated into over 125 languages.

He created many fairy tales, including “The Ugly Duckling,” which was thought to include elements of his life. Some of his other well-known fairy tales include “The Little Mermaid,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “The Snow Queen, and so on.” He died on August 4, 1875, in Copenhagen.

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier Theme

The theme of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Brave Tin Soldier is to be true to one’s heart.

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier Genre

The genre of The Brave Tin Soldier also known as The Steadfast Tin Soldier is Literary fairytale. According to lithelper.com, literary fairy tale with parable elements is fully sustained in the spirit of late romanticism, conscious of its “romance” and slightly teasing itself.

Exaggerating the romantic doom of light souls, not being able to reach the ideal of high love in life and only being able to reach it when you die are all examples of this.

Of course, the adult reader will be able to understand all of these subtleties, even if they were written by someone from a different time. It’s not clear how “Fairy Tales Told for Children” (the name of Andersen’s book) affect a child’s psyche and form the child’s life cognitive and ethical strategies.

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier Moral Lesson

The lesson of the story is that we will face many challenges in life, but in the end, love will save us.

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier Characters

The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier Summary

With only one leg, the last soldier in a box of 25 tin soldiers is given to a young boy. He performs this steadily, standing on a table like all the others. Another item on the table is a fantastic cardboard castle with a wonderful paper doll ballerina standing on one leg. The tin soldier falls in love with her, but the jack-in-the-box toy warns him not to gaze. Once knocked from a window sill, the toy soldier finds himself inside a fish being caught and prepared for supper in the same house as the small kid.

The one-legged tin soldier is placed back on the table to look in quiet love at the paper doll bellerina. This goes on for a while until one of the children tosses the tin soldier into the fireplace. A gust of wind blows the paper doll ballerina in too. She burns to ash, and the tin soldier melts into a tin heart.

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This short story, called “The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen,” with Tin Soldier and Paper Doll Dancer only exchange glances from afar in this example of romance. Unrewarding love is a common theme in Andersen’s stories, and it’s also a type of pain he had to deal with in his own life.

Based on The Brave Tin Soldier : The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen Short Analysis With Summary, Characters, And Theme, Tin soldiers loves a paper ballerina, and this is a story about how one tin soldier fell in love with one. It’s a gentle reminder that not all love stories end happily, and that not everyone is in love.

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