Tear Jerker / The Little Match Girl

• The fact that the girl is impoverished and is selling matches but no one's buying them is every bit as tragic as it is chilling.
• The girl isn't selling the matches because she wants to - it's because her father sent her to do so, or else he'd beat and leave her outside their house if she fails to make money from selling all or enough of them.
• The girl sees better-off families celebrating New Year's Eve and having a nice dinner. She can only fantasize about what that must feel like, and proceeds to burn all of the matches she's supposed to be selling in an attempt at feeling something resembling that warmth.
• Seeing a shooting star reminds the girl of her grandmother, who was the only real source of joy in her life before she died, and who told her that a shooting star represents a person's soul going to heaven. She sees a vision of her grandmother in the match's flame, and burns all of them because she can't bear the thought of that vision fading away. As she freezes to death, she imagines herself being taken up to heaven by her and dies with a smile on her face.

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