How we cite our quotes: (Tale Title.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Within our hearts are all virtues and vices—in yours and in mine! They lie there like grains, so small that they are invisible; then, from outside a sun ray or an evil hand touches them. You turn a corner, whether to the right or to the left may be of supreme importance. And the little seed grows til it suddenly bursts and enters your blood. From then on it directs where you will go. (Anne Lisbeth.38)
What Andersen seems to be saying here is that we're all equally capable of being good or bad. But various factors determine which of these "grains" will grow inside of us. External forces will shape us into the people we are today, stimulating our impulses toward piousness or evil. Doesn't exactly sound like we have a whole lotta free will in the process, huh? Andersen seems to think a Christian's free will lies in the choice to accept that we're all sinners. So, repent, repent, repent, people.
Quote #8
She remembered the words she had spoken and what she had wished for Rudy's sake and her own. "Woe is me! Was the seed of sin in my heart? Would my dream have been my future, had not the string been snapped for my sake? Oh, how wretched I am!" (The Ice Maiden.338-339)
Babette, Rudy's bride-to-be, thinks it's a good thing that Rudy died before they got married… because otherwise she would've sinned by being unfaithful. Oh, the huge manatee! Er, the humanity. But, we wonder what Rudy would think of Babette's logic.
Quote #9
Unclean, evil thoughts come from inside yourself, he learned. What were these strange flames that seemed to set his body on fire? Where did the evil come from that he wanted no part of, yet that always seemed to be present within him? (Psyche.58)
Yep, here we are again. To be human = to be a sinner. Trust in this, trust in God, and you cool (by Andersen's Christian standards, at least.)