Heart
A major image of Anderson's fairytales is that of the heart, which becomes synonomous with love. It occurs throughout the stories, often as a way of conveying a loss of innocence. The Little Mermaid's heart figuratively "breaks" when she discovers the marriage of the prince and princess, just as the heart of Kai in The Snow queen is tainted by the magic mirror. While it may seem like a fairytale cliche, it is an image that undeniably pervades Anderson's work.
Seasons
The use of seasonal imagery acts not only as a device for setting in Anderson's fairytales, but often act as major plot points. In The Snow Queen, seasonal imagery and characters become intertwined and inseperable: The Old Witch adopts the flowers of spring and summer, The Robber Girl the wildness of autumn and The Snow Queen the bitterness of winter. Similar imagery is used in other fairytales such as The Most Incredible Thing, seasons act as part of the structure of the novel, the passing of time and even have religious connotations.
Flowers
Flowers are a pervasive image of Anderson's collection, and few of his stories go without at least some reference to flowers. Often used as symbols of love, they are just as frequently personified, becoming characters with tangible personalities themselves. In The Snow Queen each flower has its own story, and a whole sequence is dedicated to the idea of the flowers possessing a fairytale-within-a-fairytale. This is an even more dominant image in the aptly titled Little Ida's Flowers, where a girl dreams about a ball attended by flowers.
Birds
Akin to his use of flowers, Anderson also displays an obsession with birds akin to the Romantic poets. This is displayed in The Ugly Duckling as a way of using the bird as a metaphor for perceptions of beauty, highlighting the foolishness of those who ostracise others. The imagery is arguably more substantial in The Nightingale, which uses Keats symbolism to subvert mortality as the organic song of the nightingale saves the emperor.
