Christian Andersen's Tale Of 'The Professor And The Flea'

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Throughout Hans Christian Andersen’s lifetime, there was one thing constant he was looking for: fame. Andersen worked very hard to be known and be remembered as an artist. As readers expose themselves to his works, they learn how Andersen continuously craved for success through the main characters of his tales. His desire for being well-known came with drawbacks; Andersen’s four tales (“The Professor and the Flea,” “The Shadow,” “Psyche,” and “Auntie Toothache”) delve into his endless personal challenges, involving pressure, anxiety, rejection, and mortality. “The Professor and the Flea” explores an adventurous relationship between an artist and his art. In this tale, the professor embodies the artist and the flea signifies the art (Lecture 13.2). Andersen’s initial struggle is mirrored when the artist and his art must stay together. This tale illustrates how the flea (art) supports the professor in order to survive. In this case, the professor (artist) has to rely on the flea, just like Andersen relied on his tales in order to become famous. This is where Andersen started to inform his readers how he felt pressured to create tales that would be …show more content…

“The Psyche” is one of the tales where Andersen shares the story of an artist trying to find the meaning of life, become famous and be loved. These goals are not easy to achieve as an artist, especially when artists are rejected. “The Psyche” is a “story where Andersen deals with the artist’s pain in a serious manner,” (Lecture 13.3) after being rejected by the people around him. The pain of being rejected affected him negatively, since he felt useless as an artist. Like the young artist in the tale, rejection led Andersen to believe that “[m]an belongs to the world of reality, not to the world of the imagination” (Haugaard, 790). Although Andersen believed this, his creativity left a legacy. His art established an impact he never

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