We have all heard “The Ugly Duckling” when we were kids. My mom would read me the story every night until I soon memorized the whole thing. Till this day it is still my favorite fairytale story. I have done some research about the story to inform people about the facts behind “The Ugly Duckling”. I will be informing about the story history, characteristics, different versions, and modern adaptations.
The original “Ugly Duckling” was written by a Danish poet named Han Christian Andersen. The story was first published in Copenhagen, Denmark on November 11, 1843 in “New Fairy. First book. First Collection. 1844.” Bregentved’s country estate and beautiful nature inspired Han to write the light hearted story of the “Ugly Duckling” in 1842. Han told the critics that the story reflected his own life and it was the reason why he wrote it, he described the story as his “autobiography”. He also explained that he considered titling the story “The Young Swans” but he didn’t want to spoil the element of surprise at the end of the story for the readers. Han didn’t intend the story to be a children’s book but like Jackie Wullschlager stated even though the story seem to be very mature for little kids it quickly became and remains children’s favorite book and began to sold out.
“The Ugly Duckling” has all the characteristics of a fairytale. Some of the characteristics that make a story a fairytale could be good vs. bad, talking animals, focus plot on a problem, the protagonist leaves home, usually end with a happy ending and a moral. “The Ugly duckling happens to have all of these. In the story all the animals could verbally communicate among each other, even chickens and ducks. The good ugly duckling had to face some mean and bad animals that picked on him for being so different from the rest. The problem throughout the whole story was for the ugly duckling to find where he truly belongs, with his real family. The ugly duckling (which is the protagonist)