30 pages • 1 hour read
Hans Christian AndersenThe Emperor's New Clothes
Fiction | Short Story | Middle Grade | Published in 1837A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
The Emperor
The emperor is the protagonist around whom the events of the story unfold. While he is the primary character of the story, he is not a heroic figure, as is often the case in fairy tales. He is a flat character who remains largely unchanged by the story’s events. His pride, vanity, and fear of losing his social status prevent him from learning from his errors.
Within the world of the fairy tale, the emperor represents power, authority, and order. He sits at the head of the court of the unnamed kingdom and its capital city. Despite holding a powerful office, the emperor is not shown to be a great leader. He is first shown to be vain and inattentive to his duties. His primary concerns are his status and his appearance, rather than actually performing the duties of an emperor: “He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theater […] except to show off his new clothes” (Paragraph 1).
The emperor’s limited discernment and lack of self-awareness also characterize him as a poor leader. He is responsible for welcoming the swindlers into his city and rewards them repeatedly for their fraudulent labor. The emperor’s interest in their magical fabric is derived equally from his vanity and his poor judgment. He wants the fabric for himself because he imagines that he will look extravagant in it. At the same time, he believes that he can “discover which men in [his] empire are unfit for their posts” (Paragraph 3). Rather than trusting his own judgment of the people in his court, he relies on the enchanted qualities that the weavers claim his promised fabric possesses to tell him what he should believe.
While the emperor remains unchanged as a character, his plight drives the rising and falling action of the story. The tale culminates with the crowd’s realization that the emperor “hasn’t got anything on” (Paragraph 30). The emperor’s nakedness is the revelation that his office and authority are not derived from any innate qualities of his character. Rather, they are derived from a collective illusion or agreement that he is the emperor. With that illusion broken, the image of his authority is shattered. In spite of this, the emperor resolves to continue his procession, thus keeping up the charade of his high status.
The Swindlers, or Weavers
The swindlers, also referred to as the weavers, are the story’s antagonists. Like the rest of the cast of characters, they are flat, one-dimensional figures who do not experience growth throughout the story.
The swindlers are dishonorable individuals who deceive the emperor, and by extension his entire kingdom, into handing over immense riches while receiving nothing in return. Despite being immoral characters, the swindlers are responsible for exposing the character flaws in the emperor and his noblemen. Narratively, they create the action of the story by promising “the most magnificent fabrics imaginable” (Paragraph 2) and pretending to weave at their looms all day and night.
Thematically, the swindlers can be read as a depiction of deception itself. They commit an act of deception and also enable the self-deception of the emperor and his noblemen. However, the swindlers are allowed to carry out their deception to its conclusion only because the emperor and his men are complicit in it. The emperor’s two officials, his court, and the emperor himself are all given opportunities to put a stop to the swindlers’ actions, but none of them do so. The swindlers exploit this negligence to gain riches and a higher social station for themselves.
Alternatively, the swindlers may be read as a commentary on The Value of Labor. On multiple occasions, the swindlers are rewarded handsomely for their supposed progress, and they are eventually honored with the title of “Sir Weaver.” They are well-compensated despite the fact that they produce nothing of material value for the kingdom. The only product of their pretend labor is the propagation of their lie, which temporarily upholds the existing social order of the kingdom. By pretending to weave the magical fabric, the swindlers allow the emperor and his noblemen to continue to pretend to be able to see it, thus proving the supposed worthiness of their stations.
The Noblemen
The emperor’s noblemen are the “honest old minister” (Paragraph 6) and the “trustworthy official” who are sent by the emperor to check on the weavers’ work. They are flat characters whose primary narrative function is to lend strength and validity to the weavers’ lie.
Both noblemen, when sent to inspect the weavers’ work, immediately realize that they cannot see anything on the looms. Both men wrestle with the same internal conflict: their inability to perceive the fabric could expose them as fools. However, neither admits to being unable to see the fabric.
Both noblemen are motivated by self-interest and a desire to preserve the social order, which is favorable to them. By adhering to the fiction presented by the swindlers, they strengthen the lie that will ultimately undermine and humiliate their emperor and their kingdom.
Their actions are suggestive of two different forms of deception: self-deception and social deception. Both noblemen can plainly see that the looms are empty, but neither chooses to outwardly acknowledge this fact. They first deny the truth to themselves due to a fear of being thought a “fool” or unfit for their high-ranking place in society. They then deny the truth to the emperor for fear of upsetting the social balance within the kingdom.
Had either one of the noblemen voiced suspicion of the swindlers upon seeing their empty looms, their lie could have been exposed to the entire kingdom. However, both men elect to preserve their own high status rather than acknowledge the truth. This speaks to the story’s central theme of Conformity Versus Nonconformity. An act of nonconformity in this instance would be the correct thing to do. However, the two noblemen choose conformity due to fear of the consequences of upsetting the social order.
The Little Child
The “little child” is the first character to openly acknowledge that the weavers have deceived the kingdom. Apart from being identified as a child, they are not characterized in any meaningful way. However, their power of honest observation is responsible for bringing about the revelation at the story’s climax.
The child only speaks one line of dialogue in the story: “But he hasn’t got anything on” (Paragraph 30). This line is delivered just before the story’s conclusion. Despite the late appearance and brevity of this moment, it is the pivotal event in the narrative, as it unravels the collective deception surrounding the emperor’s clothes.
The child is the story’s truth-teller who exposes the foolishness or dishonesty of the conventional social order. This is an inversion of multiple conventions of the fairy tale genre. In many fairy tales, the young child is the protagonist who is meant to learn an important moral lesson. However, in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” the child is the harbinger of the lesson rather than its intended audience. In addition, the child is also responsible for “breaking the curse” that has been woven over the kingdom causing its citizens to see something that is not truly there. Unlike many fairy tales, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” features no real magic. However, the social deception created by the weavers is akin to a spell or illusion cast over the kingdom.
The child’s interjection during the procession is also the necessary conclusion of the story’s satirical commentary: the illusion of the emperor’s majesty, power, and authority only persists as long as everybody agrees upon it. Once called into question, it quickly dissolves.
The child’s being young is critically significant in Andersen’s story. Notably, they are the only child character in the narrative. Childish innocence is often symbolic of an uncorrupted perspective with no knowledge of the social or political influences of the world. The little child is unencumbered by social pressures, and so they may perceive things as they truly are rather than as they are supposed to be.
The little child may also be read as belonging to the archetype of the Fool or Jester. Popularized in literature from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, this character type is often the lowest-ranking member of a king’s court or society. However, the Fool is also often one of the few characters in a work of fiction who is given license to speak honestly and openly, despite their low station.
