St.

Paul’s Co-educational College Primary School

P6 Drama 2021-22
Hans Christian Andersen & His Fairy Tales - Detailed Synopsis

Hans Christian Andersen & His Fairy Tales

Frame story - Andersen’s real life
Hans Christian Andersen The protagonist, a writer
Mr. Andersen Hans’s father
Mrs. Andersen Hans’s mother, a washerwomen
Clara Elisabeth The chairwoman of the Danish
Women Writers’ Club, she writes
plays for the Royal Danish Theatre
Julie Heins Member of the Danish Women
Writers’ Club, she writes children’s
reading books.
Kristine Jensen Member of the Danish Women
Writers’ Club, author of cookbooks
Juliane Jessen Her sister, also a member of the
Danish Women Writers’ Club, author
of cookbooks
Anna Hude Member of the Danish Women Writers’ Club, the first Danish
women historian.
King Frederick VI The Danish King
Other Male Writers Members of the Danish Writers’ Society

Embedded Stories
The Little Match Girl A poor young girl who sells matches
The Match Seller The girl’s boss
The Match Girl’s family The family she sees in her visions in the matches

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 St. Paul’s Co-educational College Primary School
P6 Drama 2021-22
Hans Christian Andersen & His Fairy Tales - Detailed Synopsis

The Kind Washerwoman A kind old woman

The Ugly Duckling

The Mother Duck
The Duck Siblings
The Neighbour Ducks
The Swans
The Old Woman A kind old farmer
The Old Woman’s son A farmer

The Emperor Ruler of the kingdom

The Swindlers
The Officials Advisors to the Emperor
The Servants Servants to the Emperor
Other People People celebrating
The Little Boy

SCENE 1 The Frame Story1 - Andersen in

his family house
At rise, we see young Hans Christian Andersen in his tiny family house, sitting at a writing
desk, reading The Arabian Nights. Shortly, Hans’ father, Mr. Andersen, comes home from
work. Mr. Andersen is unhappy about his poor life, and complains that Hans is wasting his
time on reading and writing. Mr. Andersen laments that while their family is descended from
the nobility, they are now so poor that they can’t afford to waste time on idle hobbies like the
rich. Hans tries to remind his father that it was Mr. Andersen who originally gave him the book,
leading to his interest in writing. However, this just makes Mr. Andersen angry. He blames his
son for being selfish and pursuing an interest that will never earn enough money to restore
their family to its former rich status. He urges Hans to become a merchant and stop wasting
his time on writing.

Hans’ mother comes home from work, and he sees her hands are blistered and cold from
washing clothes through the winter. He begins to doubt himself, and wonders whether he
should really give up his dreams and find a way of making more money to support his family.
However, Mrs. Andersen persuades him that true happiness does not come from wealth, but
from love, and encourages him to write. Hans is inspired, and begins writing his first fairy tale...

SCENE 2 Embedded Story - The Little Match Girl

Outside, on a freezing cold Christmas Eve, a match seller gives a little girl a basket of matches.
He warns her that she has to sell all the matches by tonight. If she fails to meet the sales target,
he will not give her the ointment that her mother needs for her hands. The Little Match Girl
tries bargaining with the match seller but it doesn’t work. The girl goes out into the cold, trying
to sell the matches.

1
The details of Andersen’s life in this synopsis are mostly made up, but based on real characters from 19th
century Denmark.

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 St. Paul’s Co-educational College Primary School
P6 Drama 2021-22
Hans Christian Andersen & His Fairy Tales - Detailed Synopsis

She meets an old washerwoman on her way, who tells her she
shouldn’t go out on such a cold evening. Seeing the
washerwoman’s cold and blistered hands, the little girl thinks of
her mother and starts weeping. Feeling pity for her, the
washerwoman buys a small bundle of matches from her, but
then tells her to keep them as a gift. Reminding her to keep warm,
the washerwoman leaves. The match girl tries to sell the rest of
the matches, but nobody even stops to talk to her.

The little match girl gets so cold that she lights one of the
matches given back to her by the washerwoman. The flame
leads her to imagine a hot stove and a warm blanket. The match
blows out, and so she lights a second one. She imagines food;
a big Christmas dinner. The match blows out again. She decides
to light all the remaining matches from the small bundle, and this time she sees her family,
sitting around a Christmas tree, with a warm stove and food all around them. She realises
what she wants most is to be with her family.

SCENE 3 The Frame Story - Andersen & The Danish Women Writers’
Club
Hans Christian Andersen walks out the front door of the Danish Writers’ Society onto the street
and sighs dejectedly. A woman approaches him and strikes up a conversation. He admits he
has just been rejected from the Society because they think his stories are just fairy tales and
not proper literature. The woman introduces herself as Clara Elisabeth, a member of the
Danish Women Writers’ Club, and asks if he’d like to meet her Club at a tea room on the street
nearby.2

2
In 19th Century Europe, men usually socialized at the coffee houses, while women gathered at tea rooms
(which they would sometimes set up themselves, even converting parts of their own house) as women
usually weren’t allowed to eat out if unaccompanied by men.

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 St. Paul’s Co-educational College Primary School
P6 Drama 2021-22
Hans Christian Andersen & His Fairy Tales - Detailed Synopsis

In the tea room, Hans is welcomed by the other members from the Club. They briefly introduce
themselves and Julie starts asking Hans about the ending of The Little Match Girl. She wants
to know whether the Little Match Girl survived or not, so she can tell the children she’s teaching.

Hans explains he intentionally leaves space for his reader to imagine, and therefore he is open
to any ending. Clara expresses her appreciation for Hans’ choice as he is “not treating his
readers as fools.” From this point onwards, the ladies talk about how they are treated at work.
Clara, as a playwright, has always been told by directors to “improve her characters.” Anna,
although she graduated as a historian, finds her writings and essays are always challenged
as “not proper history, but folklore.” As for Julie and the Jessen sisters, although their books
are best sellers, they are rejected from the mainstream and not regarded as writers, because
they are just writing children’s stories and cookbooks.

Clara assures Hans he can feel comfortable in the club, as they are all outcasts in the writing
industry. Clara continues to encourage her members to have faith in their writing, and that “It
doesn't matter if you’re born in a duck yard, as long as you are hatched from a swan's egg.”
Hans is inspired and starts writing another fairy tale…

SCENE 4-6 Embedded Story - The Ugly Duckling

On a riverbank, Mother Duck’s eggs are just starting to hatch. The last of her baby birds to
hatch is much larger than the others. The other ducklings immediately tease him for being so
big and ugly. However, Mother Duck is very protective of the ugly duckling.

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 St. Paul’s Co-educational College Primary School
P6 Drama 2021-22
Hans Christian Andersen & His Fairy Tales - Detailed Synopsis

The ducklings all go out swimming together.

The ugly duckling is faster and stronger
than the others, which makes his siblings
even more jealous. They gradually go from
just teasing to attacking the ugly duckling.
Mother Duck then comes out to stop the
fight. However, she is very sad about it.
Feeling rejected by his siblings, and seeing
his mother so upset about their conflict, the
ugly duckling decides to leave home that
night.

After swimming away, he meets a flock of swans. He asks the swans whether he could join
them. The swans say they are going to fly south for winter, but the ugly duckling is too young
to fly yet. Snow falls, and the ugly duckling meets an old woman. Seeing the poor duckling
waddling through the snow, the old woman takes him to her farmhouse to pass the winter.

Spring arrives, and the ugly duckling has grown up. The farmhouse door opens and the old
woman’s son comes in. The son tells his mother that he intends to kill the ugly duckling for a
feast for her birthday. Overhearing their plan, the ugly duckling tries to run away. He starts
flapping his wings in his struggle to go faster, and suddenly finds that he can fly. He escapes
the farmhouse and after a while, lands by a lake full of swans. After a while, he landed by a
lake. There, he saw many beautiful swans gliding across the water towards him. Fearing that
they will attack, he apologises to them and says he will leave, but the swans welcome him and
don’t understand what he’s worried about. He looks down at his reflection and realises that he
looks the same as them.

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 St. Paul’s Co-educational College Primary School
P6 Drama 2021-22
Hans Christian Andersen & His Fairy Tales - Detailed Synopsis

SCENE 7 The Frame Story - Andersen in the Danish Royal Court

Hans Christian Andersen is waiting with a group of other elite Danish writers in the Royal Court,
waiting to meet King Frederick VI.3 Clara Elisabeth is there with him, but she is the only woman
present, and the other writers are ignoring them.

The King enters and makes a speech, announcing his plan to hold a nationwide writing
competition with a grand prize of 1000 gold coins. Inspired by the growth of the writing and
publishing industry, he hopes this will promote the Danish language4 and literacy among the
population.

When the king leaves, Hans and Clara overhear other writers talking about how they will flatter
the king with stories about his victories, such as the battle of Copenhagen in 1801. They laugh
about what sycophants the other writers are, and what they could write to stand out from the
crowd...

SCENE 8-10 Embedded Story - The Emperor’s New Clothes

Two swindlers arrive in a big city and make their way
through the busy street. They overhear people
discussing how their emperor spends all his money
on fancy clothes. They come up with a plan to trick
this Emperor, by disguising themselves as tailors
from an exotic foreign land.

The swindlers enter the court in disguise and are

granted an audience with the Emperor, who wears a
ridiculously expensive outfit. They introduce
themselves as experienced tailors and offer to sew
the Emperor an outfit of such quality that none but
the cleverest can see it. Intrigued and greedy for
such an extraordinary outfit, the Emperor
immediately commissions the swindlers to start
work, declaring that he will wear the outfit in the
upcoming grand parade.

The swindlers pretend to work on the invisible

garments in the palace workshop. The Emperor’s servants come by and ask why they don’t
seem to be doing anything, but the swindlers reply that only the clever can see the cloth. The
servants fetch the emperor’s most trusted advisors, telling them what is happening, but the
advisors all pretend that they can see what the swindlers are making.

3
History from 1808-1820s about King Frederick VI for your reference: He became the king of Denmark-
Norway in 1808. He allied with Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars and lost Norway in 1814 after the
defeat of Napoleon. The country then faced an economic recession that did not ease until the 1830s.
4
For your reference: Before the 19th century, a large proportion of writings and publications in Europe
were still in Latin, which was a language only taught to the highly educated and not understood by the
general public. However, in the 19th century, there was a trend toward using common languages in
literature, greatly improving the literacy level among the general public.

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 St. Paul’s Co-educational College Primary School
P6 Drama 2021-22
Hans Christian Andersen & His Fairy Tales - Detailed Synopsis

The grand parade day arrives, and the

Emperor comes to see the clothes that have
been made for him. However, there is only a
bare mannequin, so he is confused. His
advisors all praise the work of the two
swindlers, saying how generally beautiful the
clothes are (though they don’t specify any
colour or style). Afraid to be the only one not
clever enough to see the clothes, the Emperor
also praises them. The swindlers lead him to a
private area, pretending to help him to get
changed into the new clothes. When he
reemerges, he is wearing only his underwear.

On the street, the Emperor’s advisors come

out to begin the parade. They announce that
the Emperor will be wearing such an incredible
outfit that only those with sufficient intelligence
will be able to see its beauty. The Emperor
then strides out proudly in his underwear. The
people, though confused, clap and cheer for
him.

All of a sudden, a little boy laughs at the

Emperor and points out that he’s got no clothes on, and that he can see his underwear.
Gradually more and more people start to laugh and the Emperor finally feels embarrassed and
runs back to his palace.

SCENE 11 The Frame Story - Andersen in the Danish Royal Court

The final scene of The Emperor’s New Clothes is revealed to be a performance at the court in
front of King Ferderick VI, presented by Hans Christian Andersen. As the actors bow, we see
the real King in the audience stand up and…

...

Now, you are going to decide the ending. If you were King Frederick VI, would you let Hans
Christian Andersen win? Does the king clap? Does he understand the joke? What is Hans’
reaction? What about the other writers?

No matter what your choice is, remember to let the King explain his reasons.