The Little Match Girl quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary genre best describes “The Little Match Girl”?

   • Mystery & Detective Fiction
   • Correct answer: Literary Fairy Tale
   • Adventure & Survival Story
   • Science Fiction & Speculative Fiction
   • Comic Folk Tale & Tall Tale

   Literary Fairy Tale is exactly right. It has the bones of an old wonder tale — a poor child, a light that shows impossible things, a rescue that is not of this world — but Andersen wrote it himself instead of collecting it, and he set it on an ordinary modern street of carriages and shop-windows.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What happened to the girl’s slippers?

   • Correct answer: They belonged to her mother and were far too big, and she lost them dodging two fast carriages
   • They belonged to her mother and were far too small, so she left them behind at home that morning
   • They belonged to her grandmother and wore through, so she sold them for the price of a loaf
   • They belonged to her father and were taken back by him before he sent her out to sell matches

   “When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the good of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had hitherto worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them as she scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that rolled by dreadfully fast.” Andersen makes her poverty visible in one detail: the only footwear in the house is a grown woman’s, and it will not stay on a child.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What became of the second slipper?

   • A woman riding in one of the two carriages leaned out and carried it off with her
   • It sank into the snow at the crossing and was nowhere to be found when she looked back
   • Correct answer: A street urchin ran off with it, planning to use it as a cradle for his own children one day
   • She left the second slipper in the street because her mother’s pair was far too large

   “One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself.” It is a small, ordinary cruelty, and Andersen does not even pause over it — another poor child sees an opportunity and takes it.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Where does the little girl finally sit down?

   • Under a shop-window of gaily-colored pictures, out of the wind and the falling snow
   • Before the glass door of the rich merchant’s house, looking in at the Christmas tree she had seen
   • At home under the roof through which the wind whistled, even with the cracks stuffed with straw
   • Correct answer: In a corner made by two houses, one of which stood out further into the street than the other

   “In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder.” The whole rest of the story happens in that one notch of shelter, a few feet from windows full of candlelight.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why does the girl not dare to go home?

   • She has promised her father she will stay out until the New Year bells ring across the town
   • She has been locked out for the night and knows that nobody at home will answer the door
   • She has lost her way in the falling snow and cannot find the street where her family lives
   • Correct answer: She has sold nothing, so her father will beat her, and the wind whistles through the roof anyway

   “to go home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof, through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.” Andersen closes the trap carefully: home offers her neither safety nor warmth, so the street corner is not really a choice.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does "Farthing" mean in this story?

   • A British gold coin worth a quarter of a pound — the largest money there was
   • Correct answer: A British coin worth a quarter of a penny — the smallest money there was
   • A very small amount of anything, worth almost nothing at all
   • A fourth part of any whole thing, such as a loaf of bread or a mile of road

   “Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.” A farthing was a quarter of a penny, the smallest coin in circulation. Andersen is not telling us she earned very little. He is telling us she earned nothing at all — not even the coin nobody would miss.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does the girl see when she strikes her very first match?

   • Correct answer: A large iron stove with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at the top
   • Her old grandmother standing in the light, bright and radiant, mild and full of love
   • A long table spread with a snow-white cloth and a roast goose steaming in its dish
   • A Christmas tree with thousands of lights burning along its bright green branches

   “It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top. The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully.” The visions climb from simplest need to deepest: first warmth, then food, then beauty, then love.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What strange thing does the roast goose do in the second vision?

   • It vanishes into the thick, cold, damp wall the instant she stretches out her hands toward it
   • It sits still on the snow-white cloth with the porcelain service and never comes toward her
   • Correct answer: It hops down from the dish and reels across the floor toward her with knife and fork in its breast
   • It is carved and eaten by strangers at the table while she watches them through the wall

   “And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl.” This is the one moment of real fairy-tale magic in the story, and notice what the magic is for: the food does not wait to be reached. It walks to a starving child.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What was the roast goose stuffed with?

   • With bread and sweet herbs, and steaming famously in its dish
   • With raisins and almonds, and steaming famously in its dish
   • Correct answer: With apple and dried plums, and steaming famously in its dish
   • With chestnuts and onions, and steaming famously in its dish

   “On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums.” Andersen names the stuffing because a hungry child would: the vision is exact in the way real longing is exact.

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10. 10

    Question 10. How does the Christmas tree in the third vision compare with a tree the girl has actually seen?

    • It is the first Christmas tree she has ever seen, in a window or anywhere else in the town
    • It is exactly the same Christmas tree she had seen through the glass door of the rich merchant’s house
    • It is smaller and plainer than the tree she had seen through the rich merchant’s glass door
    • Correct answer: It is larger and more decorated than the tree she had seen through the rich merchant’s glass door

    “Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant’s house.” Even her imagination is built out of things glimpsed from outside: “Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her.” Every wonder she conjures is something she has only ever looked at through glass.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does "Lustre" mean in this story?

    • A thin sheet of frost that was left on a cold wall
    • Correct answer: A soft glowing light; a gentle shining brilliance
    • A heavy woollen cloak that was worn in the winter
    • A large iron lamp that was hung above a doorway

    “She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love.” Lustre is a soft, glowing brilliance. Our page prints the British spelling here, while the closing paragraph of the same translation gives you the American “splendor” — a small trace of the long road this 1845 Danish tale travelled into English.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What had the girl’s grandmother taught her about a falling star?

    • Correct answer: That when a star falls, a soul is rising up to God at that same moment
    • That when a star falls, the person who sees it is allowed to make a single wish
    • That when a star falls, the hard winter is broken and the cold weather will soon end
    • That when a star falls, a child is being born somewhere in the world that very minute

    The lights of the tree climb into the sky and become stars, and one of them drops: “The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail of fire.” Then: “‘Someone is just dead!’ said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.” Notice that this vision costs her no match at all — it is the sky itself, and it is the hinge of the story.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does the story tell us about the girl’s grandmother?

    • She is the one person in the story who stops in the street and buys a match from the girl
    • She is the one who sent the girl out into the snow to sell matches on New Year’s Eve
    • Correct answer: She is the only person who ever loved the girl, and she has already died before the story opens
    • She still lives at home with the girl and is waiting there for her to come back with money

    Andersen puts both facts in a single clause — “her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more”. That is why the fourth match is different from the others. The stove, the goose and the tree are things the girl has never had; the grandmother is the one thing she has had and lost, and she comes back “so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love.”

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14. 14

    Question 14. Why does the girl strike the whole remaining bundle of matches at once?

    • Correct answer: To keep her grandmother from vanishing the way the stove and the goose had vanished
    • To make a signal bright enough that somebody in the warm houses would come out to her
    • To burn up the matches she had failed to sell so that her father would not count them
    • To warm her hands and her feet all at once before the cold hour of dawn arrived

    “‘Grandmother!’ cried the little one. ‘Oh, take me with you! You go away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!’ And she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her.” She is not trying to get warm any more. She is spending everything she has left to hold on to one person.

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15. 15

    Question 15. How does the grandmother appear in the light of the whole burning bundle?

    • Dimmer than before, and smaller than the girl had ever remembered seeing her
    • Correct answer: Brighter than at noon-day, and never before had she been so beautiful and so tall
    • Just as she had looked in life, in the same plain clothes she had always worn
    • Turned away and silent, so that the girl could not make out her grandmother’s face

    “And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall.” The more matches she burns, the larger the vision grows — until “She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.”

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16. 16

    Question 16. Why does Andersen set the story on New Year’s Eve rather than on any ordinary winter night?

    • The date of the holiday marks the night the girl’s grandmother died the year before
    • The smell of roast goose will bring someone out of the warm houses to help her
    • The falling snow of the holiday night is what makes each match burn with a warm flame
    • Correct answer: The feasting and candlelight behind the windows sit inches from a child freezing outside

    “From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year’s Eve; yes, of that she thought.” The holiday is what makes the neglect unbearable: the whole town is warm and eating, and the child outside can smell it. The date works a second time at the end, when she crosses out of the old year into what Andersen calls “the joys of a new year” — in a sense nobody in the street intended.

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17. 17

    Question 17. Which device is Andersen using when he puts gleaming candles and the smell of roast goose just above a barefoot child in the snow?

    • Flashback, cutting away from the street to an earlier scene in the girl’s life
    • Foreshadowing, dropping an early hint about an event that arrives much later
    • Personification, giving the roast goose the human action of walking across the floor
    • Correct answer: Contrast, setting warmth, light and plenty directly against cold, dark and hunger

    Contrast is the engine of the whole tale. Outside: “She crept along trembling with cold and hunger--a very picture of sorrow, the poor little thing!” Inside, a few feet away: “From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast goose.” Andersen never once tells us the town is cruel. He just keeps holding the two pictures next to each other until we notice the distance between them is only a pane of glass.

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18. 18

    Question 18. What do the matches themselves most clearly stand for?

    • The wealth of the merchant’s house, which the girl can see through glass but never enter
    • Correct answer: Brief flares of hope and comfort, each one leaving the cold wall behind when it goes out
    • Her father’s anger, waiting for her at home if she comes back without any money at all
    • The turning of the old year into the new one at the stroke of midnight in the town

    Every vision is bought with one match and ends the same way: “but--the small flame went out, the stove vanished: she had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.” And again: “the match went out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind.” The matches give her a few seconds of everything she does not have, and they are also the only thing she owns — so every comfort she takes costs her some of what is left.

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19. 19

    Question 19. What does "Cowered" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: Crouched down and drew herself together against the cold and the fear
    • Fell fast asleep with her head leaning back against the cold stone wall
    • Called out loudly to the people who were passing by her in the street
    • Ran quickly from one lighted window along to the next lighted window

    “In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the other, she seated herself down and cowered together.” To cower is to crouch and pull yourself in small — from cold, from fear, or from both at once. The word tells you her posture for the entire rest of the story: she never stands up again.

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20. 20

    Question 20. What is ironic about the way the people explain her at the end?

    • They say she must have fallen asleep, when in fact she had been awake the whole night
    • They say the matches were worthless, when a merchant had offered to buy every one of them
    • Correct answer: They say she wanted to warm herself, never suspecting the beautiful things she had seen
    • They say her father will be sorry, when he was the one who had sent her out to sell them

    “‘She wanted to warm herself,’ people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.” Their explanation is not wrong, exactly — it is just the smallest possible version of the truth. This is dramatic irony: we have seen the stove, the goose, the tree and the grandmother, and the people standing over her never will.

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21. 21

    Question 21. When did Hans Christian Andersen first publish this tale?

    • 1805, the year Andersen himself was born in the town of Odense to a shoemaker
    • 1875, the last year of Andersen’s long life as a Danish writer
    • 1900, a full twenty-five years after Andersen had already died
    • Correct answer: 1845, in a Danish almanac printed for the year that was about to begin

    It appeared in December 1845, in the Danish almanac Dansk Folkekalender for 1846, under the title “Den lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne.” By then Andersen was famous across Europe, which is part of what makes the tale remarkable: a celebrated author using his fame to put a barefoot child in front of a comfortable reading public.

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22. 22

    Question 22. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • The girl loses her slippers because two carriages roll past her dreadfully fast.

      Happened

      She lost them “as she scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that rolled by dreadfully fast.”

    • An urchin runs off with one of her slippers to keep as a cradle.

      Happened

      “he thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself.”

    • A kind stranger buys the last of her matches so she can go home.

      Didn't happen

      “Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.” Nobody in the story helps her at all.

    • At home there is only a roof above her, and the wind whistles through it.

      Happened

      “above her she had only the roof, through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.”

    • The first match shows her a large iron stove with burnished brass feet.

      Happened

      “as though she were sitting before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top.”

    • The roast goose hops down from the dish and comes across the floor to her.

      Happened

      “the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl.”

    • The Christmas tree she sees is smaller than the one in the merchant's house.

      Didn't happen

      The opposite: “it was still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant’s house.”

    • She sees a star fall and remembers that a soul is going up to God.

      Happened

      Her grandmother “had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.”

    • Her grandmother is alive and comes out into the street to find her.

      Didn't happen

      The grandmother is “the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more”. She appears only in the light of the matches.

    • The people who find her in the morning understand what she had seen.

      Didn't happen

      “No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen”. They say only that she wanted to warm herself.

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