The Snow Queen

By beginning with the devil’s creation of the mirror, “The Snow Queen” immediately establishes perspective as a central concern. A mirror by its very nature changes what it represents (if only by reversing it), and the devil’s mirror is less reliable still. Though the devil and his minions claim it reveals humanity and the world as they actually are, Andersen states that it distorts what it reflects, making good seem bad and bad seem worse. As the story traces the mirror’s effects, it suggests that this misperception fundamentally alters the character of the perceiver, which introduces an element of morality to the story’s exploration of perception.

The effect of the mirror shards on Kai illustrates this point. Before being afflicted by the shards, Kai is carefree; though he is not unaware of the world’s darkness—including the Snow Queen, whom he and Gerda discuss—recognition of the existence of evil does not shape his understanding or behavior. However, when the shards overtake his eye and heart, they change how he views everything and everyone around him. Kai immediately becomes cynical, pointing out the flaws in things he once found pleasurable or beautiful, like the roses.