The Snow Queen

The mirror represents the interrelated ideas of the nature of evil, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and The Power of Perspective. The mirror is created by the devil, which in the story’s Christian framework establishes it as inherently evil. The mirror’s fall from the sky reflects humankind’s initial fall from grace, but its effects are not quite those of the biblical fall. Rather, pieces of the shattered mirror lodge in people’s hearts and eyes, rendering them susceptible to the mirror’s effect, which is principally to distort reality. Those who are directly affected by the mirror’s shards view everything cynically; they see only the flaws in their surroundings (or imagine flaws that do not even exist), and they consequently devalue things like beauty, love, and faith. Once Kai is pierced by the mirror, for example, he is dismissive toward Gerda and rips up flowers that he once thought were lovely. The mirror therefore facilitates evil by suggesting that the world is evil already, but it does not—contrary to what the devil claims—reveal the “truth” of things. Humans are flawed, Andersen suggests, but not as irredeemably as the mirror suggests.