“The spectre of the shore, her own child, had come to her the night before, and had said to her, “Thou hast dug me only half a grave: but thou hast now, for a year and a day, buried me altogether in thy heart, and it is there a mother can best hide her child!” And then he gave her back her lost soul, and brought her into the church. “Now I am in the house of God,” she said, “and in that house we are happy.”
- Hans Christian Andersen, Anne Lisbeth (1859)
The quote above is from Hans Christian Andersen’s Anne Lisbeth (1859). However, I want to focus on another Hans Christian Andersen story, The Little Match Girl (1845).
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen deals with similar themes to The Heavenly Christmas Tree, in fact, another title for Dostoevsky’s story is The Little Orphan. Both stories deal with the symbols of coldness and darkness, which give us good insight to the theme of the story. They represent despair, old age, hardness. But it can also represent purity, peace, and submission. The children are in a terrible circumstance, in this story we can get a sense of Dostoevsky’s care for the peasants and have nots. Both stories deal with visions before and during their death, but an interesting detail, is how brighter and greater, the visions they have are compared with the Christmas tree, the lights, and other material possessions in their respective town's well to do households. Furthermore we are acquainted with Dostoevsky’s faith and thoughts on immortality, where he claims indecisively “I cannot tell you whether that could have happened or not.” What both stories attempted to get across is (1) a concern for the unfortunate (2) and the solace they attain from their belief/faith.
“She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety- they were with God.”
- Hans Christian Andersen, The Little match Girl (1845)
“No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.”
- Hans Christian Andersen, The Little match Girl (1845)
“Mammy, Mammy; oh, how nice it is here, Mammy!” And again he kissed the children and wanted to tell them at once of those dolls in the shop window.”
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The heavenly Christmas Tree (1876)
“She had died before him. They met before the Lord God in heaven.”
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The heavenly Christmas Tree (1876)
The Little match Girl (1845): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_r4fDtPq6o&ab_channel=FrankMarcopolos-Audiobooks
The Heavenly Christmas Tree (1876) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SvFGNOmNdo&ab_channel=FrankMarcopolos-Audiobooks