The Emperor's New Clothes
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The Emperor's New Clothes (Danish: Keiserens nye Klæder [original spelling]) is a Danish fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen and first published in 1837, as part of Eventyr, fortalte for Børn (Fairy Tales, Told for Children). The moral of the story is that just because the whole world believes that something is true, doesn´t mean that it is, and perhaps also that one should not refrain from asking a question that may, at the time, be considered to be stupid by the majority.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
Many years ago, there lived an emperor who was quite an average fairy tale ruler, with one exception: he cared much about his clothes. One day he heard from two swindlers that they could make the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they said, also had the special capability that it was invisible to anyone who was either stupid or not fit for his position.
Being a bit nervous about whether he himself would be able to see the cloth, the emperor first sent two of his trusted men to see it. Of course, neither would admit that they could not see the cloth and so praised it. All the townspeople had also heard of the cloth and were interested to learn how stupid their neighbors were.
The emperor then allowed himself to be dressed in the clothes for a procession through town, never admitting that he was too unfit and stupid to see what he was wearing. He was afraid that the other people would think that he was stupid.
Of course, all the townspeople wildly praised the magnificent clothes of the emperor, afraid to admit that they could not see them, until a small child said:
"But he has nothing on!"
This was whispered from person to person until everyone in the crowd was shouting that the emperor had nothing on. The emperor heard it and felt that they were correct, but held his head high and finished the procession.
[edit] Analysis
This story of the little boy puncturing the pretensions of the emperor's court has parallels from other cultures, categorized as Aarne-Thompson folktale type 1620, although the tale itself has no identified oral sources.[1]
The expressions The Emperor's new clothes and said The Emperor has no clothes are often used with allusion to Andersen's tale. Most frequently, the metaphor involves a situation wherein the overwhelming (usually unempowered) majority of observers willingly share in a collective ignorance of an obvious fact, despite individually recognizing the absurdity. Such a case could be considered a classic example of groupthink, where individuals of a group agree with the majority rather than put themselves outside the comfort zone of what is accepted by the group. A similar twentieth-century metaphor is the Elephant in the room. A metaphor of the opposite, in which each individual insists on his or her own perspective in spite of the evidence of others, is shown in the various versions of the Blind Men and an Elephant story.
In one interpretation, the story is also used to express a concept of "truth seen by the eyes of a child", an idea that truth is often spoken by a person too naïve to understand group pressures to see contrary to the obvious. This is a general theme of "purity within innocence" throughout Andersen's fables and many similar works of literature.
In another interpretation, the child is not simply a naive person, but precisely a child, as the perspective of children is often unencumbered with the filtering "knowledge" and social conditioning that fills the heads of adults, warping their perspective.
"The Emperor Wears No Clothes" or "The Emperor Has No Clothes" is often used in political and social contexts for any obvious truth denied by the majority despite the evidence of their eyes, especially when proclaimed by the government.
[edit] Adaptations
The story has been parodied numerous times, including one story in the animated television series Alftales where Alf plays a frustrated tailor of comfortable casual clothes who pulls the trick on the uninterested emperor who refused his usual goods. At the end, when the emperor's pretension is exposed by a girl who makes some sarcastic comments about his state of undress, Alf's character supplies the ruler some of his usual wares which the emperor finds agreeable. However, the story ends with the emperor making the best of his humiliation by indulging in his one opportunity to go streaking.
The Emperor's New Clothes is the title of a fanciful 2001 film starring Ian Holm as Napoleon, and a 1996 play by playwright Eric Coble. It is also the title of a popular single by the recording artist Sinéad O'Connor. The song ends with the lines, "through their own words / they will be exposed / they've got a SOLID case of / the emperor's new clothes."
In the 1952 film musical Hans Christian Andersen based on the life of the Danish poet and story-teller Hans Christian Andersen, staring Danny Kaye, the story of the The Emperor's New Clothes is told in The King's New Clothes as one of the film's eight songs.
In "The Romans," a 1965 episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor convinces Emperor Nero that he can play the lyre by announcing before his performance that "the music is so soft, so delicate, that only those with keen, perceptive hearing will be able to distinguish this melodious charm of music". He then pretends to play, making no actual sound, and at the end of his performance he receives cheers and applause from the other guests at the banquet. He later boasts to one of his companions that he gave the idea to Hans Christian Andersen.
The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose is a book about physics and complexity theory. Penrose concludes that computers, although they appear to think, cannot think as we experience it. He attempts to prove this hypothesis by examining all physics as we know it in a small amount of detail.
In the Halo (series) video game series by Bungie Entertainment, the high prophets refuse to accept the obvious facts that the rings are actually massive superweapons capable of exterminating life throughout the galaxy, instead believing that the rings are capable of launching them towards their great journey. In one scene Master Chief alludes to the story.
The novel Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind makes an allusion to the tale with its title and the book deals with similar themes.
The book and movie Being There are essentially a story along these lines. The Chinese novelist Ye Sheng Tao continued the story which Andersen had left off, with the same title, the emperor's new clothes.
The 1990 song "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Sinead O'Connor has the same general message as the original fairytale.
[edit] Cultural References
The Barenaked Ladies included the lyrics "I felt a chill because I was still wearing the emperor's new clothes" in the song "The Humour of the Situation".
[edit] See also
- Elephant in the room
- Stone soup
- Whistleblower
- Shadow (psychology)
- Conformism
- see Philip Zimbardo for his Stanford prison experiment
- Asch conformity experiments
[edit] References
- ^ Maria Tatar, p 269, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN 0-393-05163-3
[edit] External links
- SurLaLune's Annotated The Emperor's New Clothes
- Emperors New Clothes
- Hear Michael Redgrave read aloud from this fairytale and many more on the Hans Christian Andersen Bicentenary Website
- Original story in English translation
- Another version and some similar tales and links
- Link to entry for the film "Hans Christian Andersen" on imdbda:Kejserens nye klæder
de:Des Kaisers neue Kleider es:El traje nuevo del emperador fr:Les Habits neufs de l'empereur it:I vestiti nuovi dell'imperatore he:בגדי המלך החדשים nl:De nieuwe kleren van de keizer ja:裸の王様 no:Keiserens nye klær pl:Nowe szaty króla pt:A Roupa Nova do Rei sv:Kejsarens nya kläder zh:國王的新衣
