About the Author - Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, in Denmark. He is a noveliest, dramatist and poet. He achieved worldwide fame for writing innovative and influential fairy tales. Many of his stories, including "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Princess and the Pea", remain classics of the genre.
About the Story - The Little Match Girl
On the New Year's Eve when everyone was busy celebrating with candles, Christmas trees and delicious dishes, in the bitter cold outside, a poor little girl, unable to earn a single penny that day by selling her match sticks, sat down on the ground. She was shivering in the cold. So she lighted a match stick to keep herself warm but to her surprise she saw different visions (a great iron stove, a roasted goose, a Christmas tree, and her lost grandmother) in the light every time she lighted a matchstick.
At the dawn of the New Year, people discovered that the girl had frozen to death, still holding the matches in her hand but they didnot know what beautiful visions she had seen and into what "heavenly joy and gladness of a new year" she had entered with her "dear old grandmother."
The Little Match Girl - Question and Answer
Q 1. How is the the title "The Little Match Girl" appropriate to the story?
Ans :- The protagonist of the story is the little match girl. The title is apt as the story revolves around a little girl, who sells matches. The author has not given any name to the girl and she is referred to in the entire story as " a poor little girl". This indicates that she was just one of the many poor children belonging to the lower rung of the society, during the Victorian Era, who had to face hardships because of poverty.
Q2. What was more wonderful about the vision that she saw when she had struck the second matchstick? What does it imply?
Ans:- It was even more wonderful that the goose hopped down from the dish, waddled across the floor, with carving knife and fork in its back, waddled straight upto the poor child.
It implies the needd of a poor hungry child to partake in such a delicious meal which only the rich could enjoy.
Q3. What was her next vision when she lit the third match?
Ans:- When she lit the third match, she found herself sitting under the most beautiful Christmas tree. It was much larger and much lovelier than the one she had been seen last year through the glass doors of the rich merchant's house. A thousand candles lit up the green branches, and gaily coloured balls like those in the shop windows, looked down upon her.
Q4. What does the evergreen Christmas tree stand for ?
Ans:- The evergreen Christmas tree stands for undying life, rebirth and stamina needed to endure the winter months. Similarly, the little girl tried to survive in the extremely cold, winter night by lighting the matches.