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Zach Manalo

Storer

English 3H: Block 4

January 24, 2020

Sneaky Snake on Ice

Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins once said, “For there to be betrayal, there would

have to have been trust first.” The movie Frozen, directed by Jennifer Lee, immerses one into the

magical and mystical universe that may hold many more secrets that one can imagine. In the

film, Princess Anna and recently crowned Queen Elsa of Arendelle have been unknowingly

infiltrated by Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. Prince Hans being born the youngest son in his

family causes him to be emotionally abused by his father and thirteen older brothers. With all his

despair, he attempts to overthrow the Kingdom of Arendelle to live up to his father’s

expectations. Elsa, who already has so much pent up anxiety from not being able to control her

ice powers, decides to set off an eternal winter and run into the mountains. With the Queen gone,

Princess Anna is the only one who could fix this problem. Having already fallen in love with

Prince Hans, Anna decides to put the power of Arendelle in his hands which is an immense

mistake. Frozen uses the falling relationship between Anna and Hans to expose Han’s real

intention of gaining economic power in order to earn his father’s respect. He endeavors to attain

this power through manipulation of both the bourgeoise and proletariat: he fakes his love for

princess Anna, gains the trust of the citizens of Arendelle, and attempts to murder Queen Elsa.

Hans cold-heartedly lies to Anna about falling in love with her in order to take over the

throne of Arendelle and show his father that he is more than just the youngest son. In the musical
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duet, “Love Is an Open Door,” sung by Anna and Hans, Hans serenades Anna with the

following lyrics: “Say goodbye to the pain of the past. We don’t have to feel it anymore! Love is

an open door!” (Lee 00:24:58:59-00:25:13). Both Anna and Hans are happy that they can leave

behind their life of neglect. Anna can leave Elsa’s antisocial personality and Hans can leave

behind the bullying of his brothers and lack of respect from his father. Now that they have found

each other, they can live a life of relief and peace. Though, Han’s is just singing along to put on a

visage to entice Anna and intertwine himself into the bourgeoise of Arendelle. Obviously, the

song was written to sound beautiful and reassuring, but at the end of the song Hans asks Anna to

marry her, which is unusual because they had just met that day. The directors of Frozen use this

song for Hans to throw more lies at Anna and fill her emptiness that Elsa brought upon her. Hans

continues to feed into Anna’s naïve love up until the point where Anna is near death due to Elsa

striking Anna with her ice powers. When Anna sickly returns to Arendelle and meets with Hans,

she expresses that she needs a true love kiss to rid the magical ice Elsa struck onto her, and as

Hans leans into kiss her, he stops and says, “Oh Anna, if only there was someone out there who

loved you” (Lee 01:15:46-01:15:51). Hans is clearly stating that he has no feelings for Anna and

that never did. His actions in this scene really show that he does not love Anna because when he

leans into kiss, he caresses the side of Anna’s face and then moves his hand closer to her chin

and pulls her in closer. Though, when they near each other’s lips, he suddenly stops and so does

the background music to show the switch up in personalities. His tone of voice changes from

light-hearted to villainous. As he puts out the fire, the illusion of Hans’ love is dispelled as well.

Anna trusts and loves Hans, up until this moment and admits he is faking the love to take

advantage of Arendelle.
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Hans gains the trust of more innocent people, the proletariat of Arendelle. Anna appoints

Hans to take care of Arendelle, as she leaves to find Elsa in the mountains. Hans takes charge

and says to the people as he passes out cloaks, “The castle is open. There is soup and hot glogg

in the great hall” (Lee 00:49:46-00:49:50). Hans’ tone of voice sounds genuine and comforting

making the people of Arendelle feel safe. With his actions and duties taken place in this scene,

Hans portrays himself as trustworthy. This allows him to interact with more people in Arendelle

and learn more about how he can infiltrate the kingdom. As seen before, it is easy for him to win

someone over, so he moves onto a larger audience which he also wins over. Along with showing

that he cares for the people of Arendelle, he explicitly shows that he cares for the princess of

Arendelle, Anna, in front of a crowd. When Anna’s horse comes running back from the

mountains in distress, Hans announces in front of the crowd, “Princess Anna is in trouble! I need

volunteers to go with me to find her” (Lee 00:50:30-00:50:35). Hans puts emphasis on his tone

of voice making it sound as if he is worried. The people of Arendelle do not know what to do

and his source of dominance among Arendelle shines bright. He asserts that he is brave and

willing to sacrifice himself for Anna. This action of his gains a lot of reassurance from the people

making him a reliable leader if he did end up marrying Anna and not taking advantage of all

those in Arendelle. He could have gained power and respect, but his charm and lying only got

him so far.

Hans tries to go after Elsa’s life to gain even more economic power. Hans has Elsa

chained into the jail cell in the castle after he finds her in the mountains in her icy abode.

However, when Elsa starts to question why she is in there he responds with, “I couldn’t just let

them kill you” (Lee 01:12:52-01:12:53). Hans is charging Elsa for treason and wants to save Elsa

for himself to kill on his own. Hans does not want her death caused by others. Since Elsa is
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viewed as a monster by most of the kingdom, Hans would want to be the one to take her out

because she is seen as a threat with her ice powers. He wants to be the saving hero, yet little does

he realize his intentions are malicious and he will gain nothing but backlash, if he did succeed in

his plan. Hans waits for the perfect moment to assassinate Elsa and that is when she is trying to

escape Arendelle and is on the frozen fjord. Hans sees Elsa running and he stops her to tell her

that there is no use in leaving because [Anna] “is dead because of” [her] (Lee 01:25:25-

01:25:29). Hans sounds so genuine and sad when he says this knowing that Elsa would react by

crying and breaking down. Even though he is not sure that Anna has died yet, he is certain that

the condition she is in, she will die soon. Telling Elsa that Anna died because of her, will get

Elsa in the perfect position to kill. He is not successful because Anna is still alive and protects

Elsa at the last minute. This leads to Anna exposing Hans’s disingenuous plan of faking his love

and taking over Arendelle. He is shown in the end shoveling cow manure back in his kingdom,

revealing that his father had lost even more respect for him.

It is clear to see that Hans is suspicious in the way of wanting to achieve power in the

wrongful manner, but his charm hides that. With the charm Hans has, he makes and breaks

Anna’s heart. Frozen uses their relationship to uncover what he really wants by going to

Arendelle; economic power and respect from his father. He deceives the bourgeoise and

proletariat by pretending to love Anna, having Arendelle rely on him, and attempting to

assassinate Elsa. A lesson that one can take away from this film is that one cannot trust someone

they barely know because that can lead to terrible incidents. Whether it be someone you think

you love or someone you connect with fast, one never knows what type of person they might

actually be. Be cautious with people newly met, get to know them first, and then evaluate if time

should be invested in them.

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Works Cited

Lee, Jennifer, director, Frozen, Walt Disney Pictures, 2013.