The Shining Light of Hope in An Endless Black Sky

“The Shadow”, written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, follows the protagonist, a learned man, who loses his identity and becomes subservient to his shadow. The story deals with complex themes of reversal of fortunes and the inexorable process of submission as the learned man (who represents the modern artist) becomes “overshadowed” by a monster of his own making. He wrote this story to categorize the lights and darkness, which play a pivotal role in driving the story. The good light is the poetry’s glow while the bad light is the sun rays. The good darkness is the one that holds inspiration like a clam shell while the bad darkness is the shadow itself. Andersen uses allegories and symbolisms in this Romantic work to show the power art and people have over an artist’s life in the post-Enlightenment Era. He does this by using a variety of light-spectrum imagery to showcase creative fears and erase illusions of acceptance. Andersen conclusively wants his readers to choose the type of light and darkness (which constantly battle) that he views as serving the best interest of the artist.

Andersen used unmistakably variant sizes of the shadow to highlight the dominance of an artist by his work. He also makes allegorical references to slow progression of submission to show the inherently animalistic nature of art over artist. The shadow is an allegory for the artist’s work. In the story, it is said “Light was brought (lamp light) …stretched itself all the way…how long it made itself” and “stretch in order to gain strength” (Andersen 141). There are references to a new shadow emerging after the loss of the old one, which is described to be “respectable” and so big that “half of it would have been enough” (144). There are many allusions to height, size and strength made in the above paragraph, and in a sense, this evokes primal or natural ideas about domination of prey by predator (a larger entity over a smaller one). Size is related to strength, and further strength is related or creates respect, and Andersen was not being subtle about this idea because he literally uses these words in “The Shadow” to show the dominatingly ominous nature of the shadow creeping slowly towards the learned man’s life. The learned man’s true art was meant to be the books he wrote to document his travels, but the untrue art in the form of the shadow became more influential and relevant to the learned man, rendering his true art meaningless. Andersen juxtaposed the growth of the shadow size and shrinking of the man plagues in illnesses, again to bring out physical qualities in these characters. Giving the shadow these physical qualities draws it out of the meta-physical realm and tells audiences the severity and reality of the now physical threat faced by the learned man. Also, allusions to nature of one predator replacing another is made when a new shadow forms, showing that in the wild, there is no escape from “death”, both in the literal and figurative sense (death of career). The currency of respectability in the story world is the size of the man’s shadow, and any rational man would want to increase this size and be willing to submit to another to achieve this goal. Andersen used this personification for the shadow to give it a human-like identity and show the conversion of the conventional roles initially played by the two characters. The shadow acts as the new replacing the old, and this is Andersen telling his readers how fame and relevance is fleeting in the literary world, and all that remains after the artist’s death is their work. This is further reinforced the increasing submission by the master to the shadow.

For the steady submission process, the story explicitly mentioned “And so they travelled: the shadow was now the master, and the master was now the shadow” (149) The learned man’s nature was described as “kindhearted, gentle and friendly” (149) and the ability for each other to call them by their first name (a right eventually taken away from the learned man). Slow progression meant that Andersen wanted the reader to see a series of small pictures, just like the learned man, before seeing the big picture of the ultimate transfer of authority to the shadow, and most of these allegedly “small moments” were unavoidable (even the learned man couldn’t foresee what was happening). This change in role stripped the learned man of his identity, and this could be entirely attributed to the nature of the man. Andersen perhaps attempted to create an Adam and Eve idea where the learned man is naïve and unsuspecting who is worthy of the reader’s sympathy. The shadow is the tempting snake who has gained the forbidden fruit of knowledge and uses it to impose his will on others. The word “real master” (149) shows the sudden change from the trance-like state where the shadow was gaining power to the hard reality that completed this transition and shows that although the learned man may continue considering himself as the master, it is now a universally hollow title. This “reversal of fortunes” theme alludes to how works of artist force them to compromise on their life and preferences for the sake and benefit of their work, and toil under its power and influence. A lot of fear and pain is needed for creating art works, and many create their own pain to succeed in meeting public expectations and avoiding alienation.

Andersen shows his fears and worries of estrangement and alienation of talented artist in foreign communities by highlighting the powerful sun symbol and constructing a nightmarish environment. The sun represents the power of people, and its overpowering strength delineates how this power can result in alienation of the powerless (in this case the learned man). The story narrates that “(learned man) thought that he could run around freely just as…home…learned otherwise” (141), and his trip to the foreign hot countries were described to be “unbearable…felt he was sittings, red hot oven” (141). All the doors were kept closed by the locals and the sun was shown to take a toll on both him and even his shadow. This shows that the learned man, in spite of being young and knowledgeable, is nevertheless a stranger or an outcast in this new land he finds himself at the beginning. Dominating the entire region here is the sun, that is all-powerful and all-encompassing. The brutal descriptions for the sun show how overbearing and malicious this seemingly radiant entity really is. The allusion to oven shows that the artist is merely lifeless and insignificant as a piece of food, like fuel to power the shadow. The people were extremely reserved and uninviting to the learned man, and this made him a little lost. The closed doors are allegorically representing closed arms or hearts, so is rather awkwardly unapproachable. This entire portion of the story paints an almost hostile environment, as if the learned man were sent to a foreign/extraterrestrial environment like Mars. Even the sun, meant to represent warmth and comfort, seems to elude him by appearing distant and icy. And all this hostility shows the true isolation of a man who’s only company now is his shadow.  All this evidence from previous and current claims has logically led me to believe in the formation of a power ranking scale which is as follows: Sun > Shadow > Learned man. He uses this allegory of the sun to represent the scrutinizing light placed upon the artist in the form of modern fanfare. The shadow exists (has relevance) only when the light shines on it, and so long as people care about it. Without this light, writers become disoriented and slip into obscurity. Many artists like the learned man want acceptance and, in not getting this, they become desperate and change their behavior in line with their art. The art is well received and accepted (celebrated in fact). They define themselves limitedly in the scope of their art as opposed to becoming their own person. This compels the artist to turn towards a darkness unlike that of the shadow – one that holds inspiration – so that he may achieve acceptance.

Andersen believes that darkness can be both good and bad, depending on where it comes from and how you seek it. The two sources of darkness are people and art. People characterize the sun and shadow, the bad things in the world. Art characterizes the light and darkness for inspiration from poetry, the good things in the world. The story describes the neighbor’s house to be “dark inside”, from which came out poetry appearing with “strange radiance” and she was “glowing…sight dazzled his eyes”. His problem in attempting to observe this “magnificent…imagined” beauty would be easy “if…not been so much sun” (142,3). The darkness of art is meant to represent the inspiration that comes from unpredictable sources of pain and the summation of an artist’s life experiences. This is a “good” darkness, and lack of this darkness can leave artist uninspired and become the creative’s greatest fear. The “bad” darkness is the shadow that comes from people (as represented by the sun symbol) and so is more of a “pseudo-darkness”. Andersen contrast the harsh sunlight to the warm, inviting glow of inspiration to show how inspiration creates and completes an artist while fan-service destroys and leaves them nothing behind (like a scavenger eating even the carcass). The poetry, in the story, inspires the learned man for only he can see and appreciate its radiant beauty, something that was inaccessible for both the neighbors and the shadow itself. The sunlight appears to act as a hindrance for inspiration, preventing artist from appreciating real, bona fide ideas. The flowers are an allegory for the nurturing nature of inspiration to create and grow (almost maternal). These descriptions, including “the most beautiful colors” (142), emphasize Andersen’s resolute preference for poem as a dying art form that he considered was diverse and vibrant in its true and pure form. This duality of darkness and light shows that inspiration is vital for any artist to make a self-satisfying work of art, and what Andersen believes is the purity that all must pursue with curiosity and courage. Andersen wants us to pursue this good darkness, and hence the warm light for he believes that this is the right path for any artist starting their career. But unfortunately, Andersen fears that many people let the darkness of people dictate terms in their lives and kind of work they produce, and this causes the death of inspiration and originality.

As seen and interpreted from “The Shadow”, Andersen expresses his frustrations and anger from having felt betrayed by the literary environment of art that surrounded him in the European post-Enlightenment Era. Andersen spent much of his early years living in the shadow of other artistic creatives such as Simon Melsing and competing for acceptance in the Collins Family. He also searched for acceptance in him being Danish, and this could hint to the role of the outsider as seen in this story. He was aware of the two major influences in his life at the time – people around him and the art he produced. He described poetry to be one of the purest forms of art during the post-Enlightenment era. Light imagery was a creative way to show these influences and change in circumstances by physically altering the effects of light throughout the story. And possibly from what I interpret, Andersen realized that the light he really wanted to seek didn’t come from the people (for it was criticized in this story) but from inspiration and art which was glorified in “The Shadow”. All other lights and darks were mere distractions and temptations preventing Andersen from finding his light of hope (inspiration) in a cruel, dark world of criticism and hate.

Yamasaki, Lisa. “Week 1 Romanticism_Andersen_Storytelling2_18.” UCLA, Haines Hall, Los Angeles, CA.  28 June, 2018.

Andersen, Hans Christian.  “The Shadow” Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen.  Trans. Patricia L. Conroy & Sven H. Rossel.  Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1982.  141-153. Print.