nobility (the king and queen) are played out bluntly when the soldier kills the witch and has the king and queen eliminated by the dogs. The wedding celebration at the end of the story is basically a celebration of the solidification of power by the bourgeois class in the nineteenth century: the unification of a middle-class soldier with a royal princess." In fashioning his tale, Andersen subconsciously touched upon the sociopolitical formula for bourgeoisie progress and success in the nineteenth century: use one’s talents to acquire money and perhaps a wife, establish a means (here, the tinderbox and dogs) to continually renew one’s money and power, and employ that money and power to maintain social and political hegemony. Zipes writes that "the soldier is justified in his use of power and money because he is essentially better than anyone else – chosen to rule. The king and queen are dethroned, and the soldier rises to assume control of society through the application of his innate talents and good fortune.” The tale can be read as the social and sexual maturation of a young man in a brutal world. The soldier has his knapsack (mind and talents) and his sword (power and phallus), and learns not to deplete them wastefully but to control them and direct them for personal happiness and success. The psychological thrust of the tale is connected to Andersen’s criticism of the artificiality, hypocrisy, and injustice of the aristocracy and its eventual overthrow by the "true nobility" of the young, lower-class soldier. The soldier in Andersen's tale shares the brutal, greedy, and impetuous traits with the many soldier-heroes of the Grimms and other European collectors. He is not much of a role model for children, but tales of returning warriors were usually directed toward adults. Andersen softens the story with enough magic and whimsy to make it appealing to both adults and children. Adaptations "The Tinderbox" was the subject of the first Danish animated feature film in 1946 directed by Svend Methling and animated by Børge Ring. The Tinder Box is a 1959 film based on the story. In 2007, "The Tinderbox" was adapted into a 30-minute ballet with sets and costumes designed by Queen Margrethe II. The ballet opened in the Pantomime Theatre of Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens in July 2007. It was the third time the monarch designed a ballet for Tivoli based on Andersen's works. Lucy