Most Tragic Characters in Children Story Book
If you think that the hero or heroine in children story book always end up living a happy live, you better think again. These characters certainly never have a happily-ever-after ending.
Tragic things in children story books usually happen to the antagonist character, the one who is bad and naughty. However, in these stories tragic things happen to the hero or heroine, the one who is good and beautiful. They have to deal with poverty, face horror and agony, sacrifice everything they have and undergone so many misfortunes.
I have a very interesting discussion with several friends lately on whether such stories are appropriate for young readers. Some said that the stories are so sad and dark and they will not induce their children to read them. On the other hand, there are always moral lessons learned from these stories. This kind of story may perhaps useful for our children’s life as in real life bad things often happen to good people. Thus, this story can teach our children on how to survive in life and how sometimes we need to make sacrifices for good cause. Here is the list of those characters.
Little Mermaid
The statue of Little Mermaid. Image Credit
The story refer herewith is the original version written by Hans Christian Andersen and not its Disney version.
The story tells a tale of a young mermaid named Ariel who falls in love with human prince named Eric. She saves Prince Eric through a thunderstorm at the sea. Her love made her sacrifice everything. She leaves her family who loves her very much and asks Ursula, the witch, to exchange her tail for pair of feet. She has her feet and human appearance but has to loose her beautiful voice, and has to suffer pain each time she move her feet as if she is walking on knife. She meet Prince Eric on the land, but the irony is that without her beautiful voice, Prince Eric does not recognized her as the beautiful lady who saves him from the storm. Ariel lives in the castle with Prince Eric but never get his love. Instead the prince fall in love and marries Frieda. Ariel’s sisters inform Ariel after the Prince’s wedding that she could get her tail back and going back home again if she kills Prince Eric with a knife. Ariel, though heartbroken still love Prince Eric very much and instead of killing the prince, she throws herself into the sea and turn into foams, however, her spirit lives on eternally as the daughter of the air. What could be more tragic than that?
Little Match Girl
This story is also written by Hans Christian Andersen. It tells a story of a young girl without a name who suffer from poverty and never been loved by his father, her only family left. She was forced to sell matches on a cold Christmas Eve. No one buy her matches. Cold, she takes shelter in a nook and begins to light her matches. She sees beautiful vision in the light: beautiful Christmas tree, delicious holiday feast and finally she sees vision of her deceased grandmother, the only person in her life who love her. Her grandmother stretches her arms and takes the girl into Heaven where there is no pain and sorrow. The next Christmas morning, passers by finds the little girl, dead with a smile on her face. What kind of agony to experienced Christmas Eve in this way and what a way to die, even though she dies happily.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Again, this story is written by Hans Christian Andersen. The Danish writer seems to have a great talent in making such sad touching stories.
This story tells a tale of a handicapped tin soldier who falls in love with a paper ballerina. The tin soldier, the paper ballerina and other toys are placed on the table in a little boy’s house. Other toy who get jealous throw the tin soldier out of the window and from here his adventure begins. The tin soldier has to sail in the gutter, face the rat and eventually swallowed by fish. He has only one goal, to find his way to see the paper ballerina again. He shows courage and persistence along the way. His adventure eventually ends up on the table where the paper ballerina was placed. Ironically when he was just about to embrace her, a little boy throws him to a fireplace. The fire soon consumes him. Suddenly the wind blow and the paper ballerina is push to the fireplace and burned with him. The tin soldier melts and re-forms into the shape of a heart.
How could he go through so many misfortunes, showing courage and steadfastness along the way with unwavering sense of duty only to find tragedy and death? Andersen summarizes the story in his ending note: ‘throughout the sufferings and difficulty of life, only love is eternal’.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
There are 13 books of this ‘Unfortunate Events’ series written by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket. It tells a story of Baudelaire kids, 1 girl, 1 boy and 1 little baby girl: Violet, Klaus and Sunny. The kids have to face the tragic death of their parents at a very young age and have to deal with the mean, cruel, scheming Count Olaf who aims to steal the Baudelaire’s fortune, all through the end. The scene was set in a Gothic manner where all are dark and grey. The kids have to face so many horror and cruel death of kind characters in the book.
The story was told in the narration of Lemony Snicket. The narration is often cynical and sometimes with dark humor in it. The style of narration is unique and very interesting. There is moral lesson too of courage and learning through misfortune but the dark aspect of the book make me think that the book is more appropriate for adults.
Peter Pan
Peter Pan, a character invented by J.M Barrie is a traumatic child. He leaves his home as his parents urge him to grow up and when he returns and looking inside his parent’s home he sees another baby replacing him. He feels unwanted. He flees to Neverland and then refuses to grow up. Poor boy! He often goes to real life and leads groups of children who lost by their parents to Neverland. He will not allow the children who follow him to grow up either. He befriended Wendy, John and Michael Darling and they all have a great adventure in Neverland. Only then the Darling kids finally return to their home and grow up, leaving the poor Peter Pan alone forever as a child.
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January 14th, 2009 at 8:03 am
When I was a little, my mom told me about the story of the Little match girl and it made me cry.
nice article
January 14th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Little match girl was always a great story. Have you read Grimm brothers fairytales? they were all dark stories with the same “Disney’s” characters. If you read them you will see that fairytales were made for adults!
January 14th, 2009 at 8:31 am
This is an eye opener. Great information about these classic stories. Thanks for sharing!
January 14th, 2009 at 8:37 am
I sometimes think that the sad endings often attract the reader as they are more like what happens in real life. No one lives happily ever after in life in real life as the children will soon find out. We can’t always protect them. A wonderful article.
Christine
January 14th, 2009 at 8:37 am
I suppose it depends on what age you let your child read such stories. I had hesitations on letting my boys read certain stories until they were a little older.
Nice write up. A couple of these I didn’t quite realize the darkness.
January 14th, 2009 at 8:50 am
This is a great article, neatly summarizing some of the original fairy tales. Most fairy tales came from stories meant to frighten children into avoiding certain behaviors. I agree that today, though, the world is so different that these tragic tales may be inappropriate in their original form for young children.
Lovely.
-Eva
January 14th, 2009 at 8:50 am
A very interesting article. I like it a lot.
January 14th, 2009 at 8:57 am
thanks for this, i remember my childhood, i love to read stories and tales, i like the little match girl and the little mermaid! the best of all the peter pan… i collected all peter pan books and movies until now!
January 14th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Great article…. I wish, my son never reads such sad stories
January 14th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Great article. The little match girl has been a story that has always troubled me. I just never thought it was a very happy ending. I remeber being in the third grade and thinking, “What! She died. She froze to death. Why are you telling us this!”
January 14th, 2009 at 9:34 am
This is a really interesting piece. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:47 am
A great article that aims one of the most important issues of today.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:12 am
I have been reading Hans Christian Anderson again recently, I wrote about him (somewhere else), it was great to get back to the little match girl, etc. Great article, love the pics.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:24 am
A common theme to many of these stories is that the good people die and go to Heaven. In our culture, where many no longer believe in God and Heaven, those endings are tragic; while those of us with faith see it as living happily forever after.
I’ve heard that the original tales written by the Brothers Grimm were written for adults, and contained much more adult content than today’s versions.
Personally, I would much prefer that my children read stories with sad endings than all the gratuitous violence in so many of today’s cartoons. Yes, the good guys are beating up the bad guys, but are they good role models? I’ve heard the rationale that the good guys only fight when they have to, but the fighting is still the part that the children enjoy, and the producers bank on this.Children’s stories are not written to teach life lessons anymore, they are written to entertain and make money.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:33 am
a very interesting article geared at establishing that not all in life ends in a beautiful note.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Excellent tell of the old fairy tale. Thanks. Your right most of these should be for adults. Makes you wonder if the authors intended it that way for the adult audience as the pre-fantasy genre of the time.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Life is filled with drama and struggles – forces of evil versus good. Stories that all end in satisfaction and happiness do not portray real life. Children learn what the world is all about when the good is attaced by the bad, or the good conquers bad. It helps them grow into realitically thinking adults.
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January 14th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Very nice.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
i agree with you somethings a child should not read or wacth i think last summer a movie came out and in the end God was killed. dont know the name but the thought was horrible i did not allow my children to fo see that and i think books for kids are fairytales but to everything there is a pupose and a time as parents we have to decide that for our love ones
January 14th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Great article and beautiful pics. I read a lot of Hans Christian Anderson as a child and always felt that life must be terribly sad for some. Fortunately, I read enough of the “happily ever after” stories that I also believed in happy endings. Excellent piece, Yovita.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I’ve read those darker tales and agree, they should not be for very young children. Good article.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Great article!
January 14th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Excellent article Yovita, some of these stories were read to us as children but i can only emeber them as being good stories that i never forgot, but i guess the world is changing. you did an excellent job on this piece.
January 14th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Great article, Yovita. What an interesting take on these characters.
January 14th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
I love this. When I lived in Germany I came across an old childrens fairy tails book with about 30 different tails. You are right. Most of them was directed toward your theme.
January 14th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Very well written! I remember reading some of these stories as a child and I must admit that today’s versions are certainly not quite as dark and interesting as the originals. Hans Christian Anderson especially was a favourite author of mine while growing up. Absolutely amazing children’s writer with a great writing talent. Thanks for sharing xx
January 14th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Hi Yovita,
H.C Andersen provides us great story. Perhaps tragic characters are unavoidable as sad and happiness are part of our life. Good job.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
These stories are sad but I think we all read them as children.I believe most of these stories have been modified for todays children.My granddaughter loved the new version of The Little Mermaid.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
This is a great article I was familiar with some of them. I remember being so sad when I saw The Little Mermaid that was based on the original story.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I love Unfortunate Events. Lemony Snicket is awesome.
When I was little I couldn’t stop re-reading The Little Mermaid. I had never read an unhappy ending before and it blew my mind.
I learned that sometimes when you don’t get what you really,really want, you can still get something good. I loved and hated it. Great job, yovita.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
You make some very good points and made good use of your pictures for support. Great job!
January 14th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Great article, nice organization and very informative.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
It’s interesting how some of the most memorable works are the most tragic stories. Great article*
Blessings.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:09 am
A great piece, with great research.
Monica
January 15th, 2009 at 12:24 am
Reallyy good work yotiva.
as usual though!
cheers,
denus
January 15th, 2009 at 12:36 am
When my children your little we bought them a book of fairytales. I was suprised at how sad most of them were. Outstanding article here. Well, well done.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:00 am
Very well constructed piece Yovita. Lemony Snicket books are awesome. Recommended read people.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:58 am
The sadness of it all is more realistic! I think it also prepares the child to face the fact that sometimes bad things happen to good people and to prepare for the worse.
RJ, I love Lemoney Snicket books, and I couldn’t agree with you more.
Nice work, Yovita.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Great article!
January 15th, 2009 at 6:37 am
Wow, it’s great to see another of my friends with a ‘hot’ article! You did a fabulous job on this one. I agree that many of the classic fairy tales are dark, but I also think they serve many purposes in children’s lives and that we would be wrong to keep them from reading. I worry that the ’sanitized’ versions that are common today actually damage children’s development.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Great article! I really liked it. Keep up the GREAT work
January 15th, 2009 at 7:11 am
I like all those stories too…
January 15th, 2009 at 7:13 am
I remember Little Match Girl…I remember feeling sad for the little thing.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:27 am
I think that your article was very well researched and thought out, I never really realized that many fairy tales were so dark in nature, it was a very interesting read,and I enjoyed learning things I was not aware of, ty…
January 15th, 2009 at 11:10 am
A very moving article! Enjoy reading it!
January 15th, 2009 at 11:20 am
A great article. I am an avid reader and I don’t think I ever read the sad tale of the Little Match Girl!
January 15th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Fantastic article, Yovita. It brings back a lot of memories. Thank you.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Well, in real life stories don’t always have a happy ending…
January 15th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Hi Yovita,
This is na very interesting article. I love the facts. I did not know the truth to manjy of these tales. This is so interesting. Great work! Poor little Ariel:(
Sable
January 15th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I have have a two year old son and frankly, would rather have him experience the truth of tragedy first through a fairy tale than having him be blindsided by tragedy in his life. These fairy tales give the truth of life – that bad things happen to good people. We should not shield our children from this, but teach them about the love, will, and faith that these heroes have. Show them that these heroes will go through anything to improve their love or self worth. Teach them that Ariel was the best kind of person because even through her pain, she chose an unselfish act – show that the Little Match Girl kept faith and belief in her time of despair, instead of pitying her fate. These are good life lessons, and build good character. These story’s give the opportunity for children to deal with tragedy making it easier for them to be able overcome the tragedy that will come into their lives. Telling children stories of only happy endings will only induce the false hope that nothing bad will ever happen to them. Although I understand a parents need to protect a child from pain, I also know that you can not shield them from it.
So, I disagree. Tragedy will happen, even to children. It is up to us to prepare them, and teach them that everything happens for a reason – that the reason behind Ariel’s unselfish act was to show the meaning of true love – the reason behind the Little Match Girls faith was that she would not let herself suffer, even in death. It is up to us to teach our children how to cope, and eventually overcome what we can not change. These stories are tools that can help us do that.
KLG
January 15th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I like that bed time story.. It’s informative article
January 15th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I don`t really think that above tales are tragic.. the little mermaid got a rebirth, the little matchgirl was reconciled with a loved one, the tin soldier ended up together with the ballerina, uncle Olaf was punished in the end and Peter Pan has Tinkerbell all the time.. as a mischievous child, I viewed them as happy endings, as a broken-hearted teenager it was tragic and now that I have seen the cruelties in life- I view them with a happy ending again.. I think it all depends on our mood when the story was presented which leads to our conclusion if a story is tragic or not. Congratulations Yovita on such a very intriguing composition.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Great analysis of time tested stories, I never thought of them this way.
January 16th, 2009 at 1:41 am
Great article.
Inna
January 16th, 2009 at 8:38 am
I’m on the same page as Kristen–I think the value of a tragedy in a children’s story is that it can be preparatory; and the fact that the parent may also be taking part in the reading affords the parent the forum to assist the child in understanding more complicated concepts of life. My kids were weaned, primarilly, on Pooh and Dr. Seuss and are now just delving into such classics noted here. When they reach 9-10 years old I’ll start them on Edgar Allen Poe (lol). Nice Job!
January 17th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Great article.
January 18th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Great article here. There’s a time for happy, a time for sad. The one helps with the other. I think Disney has sweetened some old stories so much it’s given today’s children fat minds. We need to experience bad things in fiction to help us when they come in real life.
January 18th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
This is a great article, very well written,
Lots of good information here,
nicely put
January 28th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I read this article earlier, and I can’t figure out why I never posted a comment!
I’ve read most of the stories listed above, and I think that they are all very exceptional, albeit sad, stories.
I think that it’s good for children to be exposed to such things. Life is not always a happy thing.
Good article!
January 29th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Very interesting.
January 30th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Great article! It’s hard for children to deal with unhappy endings. Maybe some of these stories will prepare them for the harsh realities of real life. I enjoyed reading this article very much!
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:52 am
superb i grew up on fairy tales love to visualize myself in faraway places the happy ending was a must if i read these books we know there wont always be a happy ending but sometimes in our mind we make our happy ending.
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Lovely article and a beautiful collection of tragic tales. I only heard about the litlle match girl fairly recently and I was struck by how sad it is.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:24 am
I never heard the original story of the little mermaid. I can understand why they changed it for disney. As for Peter Pan, I like the ending they made in Hook where he finally grew up and forgot about being Peter Pan but was a bad Dad until he found himself again.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:27 am
Wonderful article — and I’ve read every comment!! Well done to stimulate so much debate! I’m glad for these stories, they show what life is really like, and my early life, before marriage to my ‘prince’ was a lot like some of these — worse — but I was rescued and lived happily ever after for 36 years. Now, tragic, I start again, alone, yet not alone. Older, Wiser and closer to God. We make the ending of our own story through faith. Without hope we are lost. With love we have everything; and with God we have eternity.
April 29th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
This is the exact information of what I was looking for.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:35 am
This is also what I was looking for. Thank you
December 10th, 2009 at 2:46 am
Great piece of work. Your articles are interesting
November 23rd, 2011 at 11:03 am
I read most of these stories at the age of three (A Series of Unfortunate Events, at the age of seven.) I understood them, but I didn’t cry. I sat there, numbly, letting the acceptance sink in before thinking of alternate endings. A favourite of mine was always Little Match Girl. When I went into school at the age of four, I used to wonder a little about why all of the other children looked confused when the teacher read the endings – it was a while later, after I reread some other books, that I realised that most books have happy endings. I didn’t dislike these books, but they didn’t stick with me like sad or bittersweet ones did. I liked books with morals and truth to them, not ones that I could read and then walk away from like nothing had happened. All of these are prime examples of morals and (sometimes) truth. How the Baudelaires could lose so much in such a tiny amount of time, the fact that the Little Match Girl’s mother might have saved her had she been alive, how Ariel commited suicide rather than killing a hopeless love; it was all entrancing to me.
November 23rd, 2011 at 11:04 am
I read most of these stories at the age of three (A Series of Unfortunate Events, at the age of seven.) I understood them, but I didnt cry. I sat there, numbly, letting the acceptance sink in before thinking of alternate endings. A favourite of mine was always Little Match Girl. When I went into school at the age of four, I used to wonder a little about why all of the other children looked confused when the teacher read the endings – it was a while later, after I reread some other books, that I realised that most books have happy endings. I didnt dislike these books, but they didnt stick with me like sad or bittersweet ones did. I liked books with morals and truth to them, not ones that I could read and then walk away from like nothing had happened. All of these are prime examples of morals and (sometimes) truth. How the Baudelaires could lose so much in such a tiny amount of time, the fact that the Little Match Girls mother might have saved her had she been alive, how Ariel commited suicide rather than killing a hopeless love; it was all entrancing to me.
(Please excuse the lack of apostrophe’s in here.)