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The Emperor's New Clothes
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Symbols & Motifs
The Fabric
The fabric that the swindlers pretend to weave is symbolic of ideas or beliefs that are presumed to be true. This symbol has an extremely wide range of real-world applications, ranging from critical reception of a work of art, to commonly held social beliefs or even, as in the narrative, the ideas which uphold the social hierarchy.
The weavers repeatedly describe their fabric as being unmatched in its beauty and richness. Their audience (the emperor and his noblemen) accept the weavers’ reports despite being unable to see the fabric with their own eyes. The fabric is a central symbol of many of the story’s key themes. Each member of the emperor’s court insists on pretending to see the non-existent fabric out of a sense of conformity and a fear that they will lose their powerful stations. The fabric is also responsible for distorting the valuation of labor within the kingdom, as the swindlers are richly rewarded for providing an immaterial and dishonest service.
The Looms
The perpetually-empty looms that the weavers pretend to work at are symbolic of lies, hollow ideas, and empty social systems. The looms are explicitly the tools used to create and propagate lies in the emperor’s kingdom.
The weavers promise the emperor “the most magnificent fabrics imaginable” (Paragraph 2), but “not a thread went into the looms” (Paragraph 12). As the fabric is meant to invoke ideas of majesty, brilliance, and authority, the emptiness of the looms reveals the illusory nature of these ideas. This symbol challenges notions of social and intellectual high-standing. The emperor derives much of his self-worth as a ruler from his fine clothes and believes that the “magnificent fabrics” promised by the weavers will elevate his status even higher. However, because the looms are empty, there is nothing tangible to bestow power or authority upon the emperor. This is relevant to the central theme of the trappings of power, as the emperor and his noblemen feel they must propagate the lie of the empty looms in order to remain in power.
Office/Station
The motif of an individual’s office or station is used repeatedly to highlight the themes of Conformity Versus Nonconformity and The Trappings of Power. One of the key qualities that the weavers claim about their fabric is that it, “had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office” (Paragraph 2). The notion of being “unfit for his office” becomes one of the primary concerns for each member of the emperor’s court when looking upon the weavers’ empty looms. Both the “old minister” and the “trustworthy official” resolve not to reveal that they cannot see the fabric because doing so would threaten their office: “Am I unfit to be the minister? It would never do to let on that I can’t see the cloth” (Paragraph 9).
The motif of office is analogous to any position of high status within a social group, whether it be an official rank or merely a favorable reputation. The noblemen’s self-denial of what they see is a lie borne out of a corrupt desire to remain in power and conformity to the status quo.
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