What Happened To The Wearer Of The Red Shoes?

Karin, the heroine of Hans Christian Andersen's story, is a poor, very vain girl who is a companion to an old lady. When they go to buy Karin a new pair of shoes, she takes advantage of the old lady's weak eyesight to persuade her to buy a pair of bright red shoes, the colour of which she can't see. Normally such bold colours are forbidden to Karin, in fact she has already had one pair of red shoes taken from her. She puts on her new shoes, which immediately cause her feet to dance. At first Karin enjoys this, but soon finds that she can neither stop the magic shoes nor take them off. She is forced to dance on and on, growing ever more exhausted, and in the end goes to a woodcutter and begs him to cut off her legs. Reluctantly, he does so, and Karin, now on crutches, starts a virtuous new life, though still tormented by the sight of the shoes, with her feet in them, dancing after her. Eventually. after a lengthy repentance, she dies and goes to heaven.

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