Clothes and Fashion
Senior 1 · English
Clothes and Fashion
Lesson 5 of 5
30 min
Let's begin
In 1837 the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen published a short tale about a ruler, two cheats and a suit of clothes that nobody could see. Nearly two hundred years later, people still say "the emperor has no clothes" when everyone pretends to believe something that is plainly false. The story lasts because its characters are so easy to recognise: you have probably met all of them at school.
Before you read: Have you ever agreed with the group, even though you thought the group was wrong? Why is it hard to be the only person who disagrees?
Many years ago there lived an emperor who loved new clothes so much that he spent all his money on them. He did not care about his soldiers or the theatre, and he only went out to show off his clothes. He had a different coat for every hour of the day. In other countries people said, "The king is in his council room." In his country they said, "The emperor is in his dressing room."
One day two cheats arrived in the city. They said they were weavers who could weave the most beautiful cloth in the world. "Our cloth has a wonderful quality," they said. "It is invisible to anyone who is stupid, or who is not fit for his job."
"What useful clothes!" thought the emperor. "If I wear them, I will find out which of my officials are not fit for their jobs." He paid the two men a large sum of money to begin at once.
The cheats set up two looms and pretended to work, but there was nothing on the looms at all. They asked for the finest silk and the purest gold thread, put it all into their own bags, and worked at the empty looms until late at night.
Soon the emperor wanted to know how the cloth was coming along. But he felt a little nervous about going himself, so he sent his honest old minister. The old man stared at the empty looms. "Heaven help me!" he thought. "I can't see anything! Am I stupid? Am I unfit for my job? Nobody must know." So he said, "Oh, it is lovely! What a pattern! What colours! I shall tell the emperor how much I like it." Then he listened carefully while the cheats described the colours, so that he could repeat every word.
The emperor sent a second official, and the same thing happened. Soon the whole city was talking about the wonderful cloth.
At last the emperor went to see it himself, with a group of his courtiers. "What is this?" he thought. "I see nothing at all! Am I not fit to be emperor? That would be the worst thing that could happen to me!" Out loud he said, "Oh, it is very pretty! It has our highest approval." All his courtiers said the same, and they advised him to wear the new clothes in the great procession the next day.
The cheats stayed up all night. They cut the air with big scissors and sewed with needles that had no thread. In the morning they said, "The clothes are ready!" They held up their empty hands: "Here are the trousers, here is the coat, here is the cloak. The cloth is as light as a spider's web. You might think you have nothing on, but that is its beauty."
The emperor took off all his clothes, and the cheats pretended to dress him while he turned from side to side in front of the mirror. "How well they fit!" cried everyone. The servants who had to carry his train bent down and pretended to lift it from the floor.
So the emperor walked in the procession under a fine canopy, and all the people in the streets and at the windows cried, "What beautiful new clothes!" Nobody wanted to seem stupid or unfit for his job.
"But he has nothing on!" said a little child.
"Just listen to the innocent child!" said the father. And the child's words were whispered from one person to the next, until at last the whole crowd cried, "But he has nothing on!"
The emperor shivered, because he had a feeling that they were right. But he thought, "I must go on with the procession to the end." And his servants marched on as stiffly as ever, carrying the train that was not there.
| Word | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| emperor | a ruler of an empire, higher than a king | The emperor loved new clothes. |
| cheat | a person who tricks others to get something | The two cheats kept the gold thread. |
| loom | a machine for weaving thread into cloth | There was nothing on the looms. |
| invisible | impossible to see | The cloth was said to be invisible to fools. |
| minister, official | people with important jobs in a government | The old minister was afraid. |
| courtier | a person who lives or works at a ruler's court | The courtiers repeated his words. |
| procession | a line of people walking slowly for a ceremony | The procession passed through the city. |
| canopy | a cloth roof held up on poles | He walked under a fine canopy. |
| train | the long back part of a formal robe that trails on the ground | Servants carried the train. |
| innocent | too young or simple to know how to pretend | An innocent child told the truth. |
Definition
Character trait: a quality that a character shows again and again, such as vain, honest, dishonest, cowardly, brave. Writers rarely name the trait; they show it through what a character says, does and thinks, and the reader works it out from the evidence.
Context: the time, the place and the society in which a story is set or was written. Context helps explain why characters behave as they do.
| Character | Trait | Evidence from the story |
|---|---|---|
| The emperor | vain | He spends all his money on clothes and goes out only to show them off. |
| The emperor | proud, dishonest with himself | He sees nothing but says, "It has our highest approval," and he walks on after the whole crowd cries out the truth. |
| The two cheats | dishonest, cunning | They pretend to weave and keep the silk and the gold for themselves. |
| The old minister | honest but afraid | He is called honest, yet he thinks "Nobody must know" and praises the empty loom. |
| The crowd | afraid of what others think | Everyone praises the clothes, because nobody wants to seem stupid. |
| The child | innocent, honest | "But he has nothing on!" The child has no job to lose and says what anyone can see. |
| Context in the story | How it explains the behaviour |
|---|---|
| A royal court long ago, where officials keep their jobs only if the emperor is pleased | The minister lies to protect his job; the courtiers copy the emperor. |
| A rich city where fine clothes show a person's importance | The emperor believes clothes prove his greatness, so the cheats' offer tempts him. |
| A crowd where each person watches the others | Nobody speaks first; once the child speaks, everyone repeats it. |
Worked example
Work out a trait from evidence: the old minister.
Definition
Syllable: a unit of sound in a word, built round one vowel sound. jack-et has two syllables.
Word stress: in a word of two or more syllables, one syllable is said louder, longer and higher than the others. In this lesson the stressed syllable is written in CAPITALS: JACK-et.
| Word | As a noun (first syllable) | As a verb (second syllable) |
|---|---|---|
| present | a PRE-sent (a gift) | to pre-SENT (to give formally) |
| record | a RE-cord (a written account) | to re-CORD (to write down or film) |
| object | an OB-ject (a thing) | to ob-JECT (to say you disagree) |
| protest | a PRO-test (a public complaint) | to pro-TEST (to complain publicly) |
| increase | an IN-crease (a rise) | to in-CREASE (to become bigger) |
| export | an EX-port (a product sold abroad) | to ex-PORT (to sell abroad) |
From the story: nouns WEAV-er, MIR-ror, SCIS-sors, NEE-dle, PAT-tern; verbs pre-TEND, de-SCRIBE, re-PEAT, ad-VISE.
Tip
Tap the table. Say the word and tap once, hard, on the loud syllable: JACK-et (tap on JACK), pre-TEND (tap on TEND). But remember that the rule is "most", not "all": ho-TEL, po-LICE and mis-TAKE are nouns stressed on the second syllable. When in doubt, a dictionary marks the stress with a small mark ( ˈ ) before the stressed syllable.
Syllable stress: patterns for two-syllable words, from American English (2 minutes). Say each example word along with the video, then check whether it follows the noun or the verb pattern above.
One student sits in the "hot seat" as the emperor on the evening after the procession. The class asks questions (Why didn't you say you saw nothing? How do you feel now?), and the emperor answers in character, showing his traits. Then try the old minister and the child.
Class: Why didn't you say that you couldn't see the cloth?
Emperor: An emperor cannot look stupid! Everyone said it was beautiful, so I said it too.
Class: What will you do to the two weavers?
Emperor: They have gone, with my gold. Tomorrow I will buy a coat that I can see.
Write a paragraph of 80 to 100 words about one character. Name a trait, give two pieces of evidence from the story, and explain how the context helps us understand the behaviour.
The emperor in Andersen's tale is vain. Firstly, he spends all his money on clothes and goes out only to show them off, which proves that his appearance matters more to him than his army or his people. Secondly, when he sees nothing on the loom, he still says the cloth "has our highest approval", because admitting the truth would make him look unfit to rule. The context explains his behaviour: in his court, fine clothes show importance, so a ruler who loves admiration is an easy target for two clever cheats.
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
