Theme of Love in Frozen

Definition of Love

“Love” is probably one of the most commonly used terms in the world that is mentioned almost every single day between family members, close friends, or people in romantic relationships. It is a very common subject used in songs by famous singers or bands, and it is by far one of the most popular topics in fiction, both in movies and stories. But even though it is part of everyday life, just what is love and what does it mean?

Outside of fiction, there really does not seem to be one single definition of love. It is a feeling that ranges from close, personal affection to pleasure. It is an emotion of personal attachment and strong attraction. It is also a virtue that represents affection, compassion, and kindness, and people who are defined as loving demonstrate these traits. The basic and most common forms of love are familiarity, friendship, and romance, the latter of which being the form that is the focus of many fairy tales. Having never experienced love outside of my close friends and family, I have no basic understanding of romance. However, I do know that a major part of what makes that kind of relationship work is the compatibility between the man and woman. You want to have common interests so you can always have something to discuss, but you don’t want to be too alike because you could very easily get very bored with each other. This is why it is also good for the people to have differences, but, at the same time, to not to be too different, otherwise you could just disagree and argue all the time.

Outside of romance, if I could provide my own definition of love, it would be about getting close to someone or something and becoming emotionally attached to them. To me, love is about showing care and kindness towards someone. You can start off liking someone, then as you get to know them, that feeling can deepen to love. It’s about considering their feelings and needs, and sometimes putting theirs before your own. Besides making occasional sacrifices, the amount of care you develop towards someone can be shown in just how far you would go to keep them safe from harm. When you come to love someone, it becomes a natural instinct to help and protect them. Besides sacrifices, showing love towards someone involves gestures of affection, such as holding hands, hugging, kissing, and even calling each other certain terms of endearment. But love is not obvious or something you can recognize. It is not easy to gain and does not happen so fast; it has to grow and develop. Falling in love with someone takes time to do. Therefore, I don’t believe in love at first sight. I think what happens more at first sight is a crush or infatuation, which are not the same as true love. Such acts often occur because of someone’s behavior and appearance. Those are very superficial reasons to love someone, and love is deeper than just what you see on the outside. That is also involved in what makes one person grow to love another, based on how well you get to know someone. If you think about it, it really makes no sense to say you love someone if you do not know certain things about them. From learning how a person acts on a daily basis to discovering their interests, these things help you decide what you like or dislike in a person. But if your likes about someone dominate what you don’t like, that is what helps to support why you love that person. You can start by liking the general traits of someone, then discovering their depths, of what is beyond their appearances. It is all about how what matters is on the inside, not what is outside.

Love within Frozen

Without a doubt, the strongest theme portrayed in Frozen is the one of love. Its presence in the film is very prominent, much like how it is in many past Disney fairy tales. Like the past fairy tales, Frozen illustrates how love is considered one of the greatest forces, if not the greatest, in the universe, and it is what helps the protagonist triumph over evil. But as a break from the tradition of stereotypical fairy tales, the plot of Frozen centers on familial love, while romantic love is the subplot. The familial bond of love in the film is illustrated by the relationship between Anna and Elsa. Additionally, as a change in stereotypical fairy tale romance, the film involves the protagonist in a love triangle, in which Anna falls for two very different men, with one being a prince who turns out to be the true villain.

Among other themes displayed in the film is the one of coldness, along with the one of the frozen heart. A heart is the shape most commonly used to symbolize love, and this is what helps tie the themes of love and coldness together. The theme of love is largely expressed by how many times the words “true love” are spoken out loud.

During “For the First Time in Forever,” while she scurries by people outside, Anna sings that the coronation is giving her “a chance to find true love .”

.” When Elsa states that Anna can’t marry a man she just met, Anna argues, “You can if it’s true love .”

.” Elsa immediately responds to the aforementioned line by saying, “Anna, what do you know about true love ?”

?” Kristoff also questions Anna on how well she really knows Hans, but despite evidence to the contrary, she states, “Look, it doesn’t matter; it’s true love .”

.” Much like Elsa, Kristoff responds to Anna’s firm argument with, “Doesn’t sound like true love .”

.” When they are chased by the wolves, after Kristoff expresses his distrust in Anna for her engagement, she seethes as she grabs his lute and yells, “It’s true love !”

!” It is said the most during “Fixer Upper,” first with the lyric “ True love brings out the best!” As they dig the hole and throw Kristoff and Anna, they sing it three more times, in a manner of repeating “true” several times, then doing the same with “love.” It is said one more time near the end, when they hold the last “true…” and immediately add “love!”

brings out the best!” As they dig the hole and throw Kristoff and Anna, they sing it three more times, in a manner of repeating “true” several times, then doing the same with “love.” It is said one more time near the end, when they hold the last “true…” and immediately add “love!” Pabbie tells Anna and Kristoff that “Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.”

can thaw a frozen heart.” After Pabbie speaks, Anna immediately repeats in a puzzled manner, “An act of true love ?”

?” After Anna speaks, Bulda immediately offers her suggestion of “A true love ’s kiss, perhaps?”

’s kiss, perhaps?” When they are reunited, Anna tells Hans how Elsa froze her heart and that “only an act of true love can save me.”

can save me.” Hans immediately responds to Anna when he realizes, “A true love ’s kiss.”

’s kiss.” Sven urges Kristoff to go back to Anna, but Kristoff refuses, saying it’s because “she’s with her true love !”

!” After Olaf saves Anna from freezing, he asks about Hans, and Anna says, “I was wrong about him. It wasn’t true love .”

.” Despite fearing that Olaf will melt, Olaf refuses to abandon Anna, saying, “I am not leaving here until we find some other act of true love to save you.”

to save you.” Upon seeing Kristoff returning and Anna saying she needs to get to him, Olaf excitedly exclaims, “There’s your act of true love right there!”

right there!” After Anna is revived, Olaf realizes that that was her act of true love and exclaims, “An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart!”

Many of the film’s major characters, along with the minor, but still important, ones, are shown to be very caring towards the ones they love and demonstrate acts to show how much they care about their loved ones (including small things like hugs and bigger things like sacrifices). However, aside from Hans being shown as the only one who seems incapable of feeling or expressing love, Anna is the only major character who learns a valuable lesson about love. Initially believing that love happens fast and is easy to win, it is during her journey with Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf while searching for Elsa that Anna realizes that love is far more complicated in reality. It is not at all what she thought it was, but she realizes that that doesn’t make it a bad thing, either.

Anna’s Beliefs

Since I already wrote two analyses about Anna’s views with Hans being her true love, I won’t repeat myself too much. But the overall point is that she started off as very naive about love. Because she grew up feeling unloved, she thought romance could be the ticket to changing her lonely life. It got to the point that became so desperate to be loved that she had a false concept about what it was. Anna had the idea that love happened very quickly, that falling in love was very easy to do, and that its basic definition was that it happens at first sight.

To her, love involves a man and a woman flirting with each other, dancing, making each other giggle through words and playful gestures, and even finishing each others’ sentences (or should I say “sandwiches”? ;)). It’s all about the man sweeping the woman off her feet and taking her out into a magical night of all that romantic fun, which includes not only dancing, but watching shooting stars, taking a walk under the moonlight, and especially, singing the romantic duet. A duet particularly helps give proof that the man and woman have mutual feelings for each other because it involves both people doing their part in convincing the other person that they are meant to be. And of course, Anna considers marriage the purest and strongest form of love, because it means, like those in fairy tales, that the man and woman will live happily ever after and be together forever and ever.

Because Anna spent so much time dreaming about finding romance, she could not distinguish reality from fantasy. She was delusional and lived in her own little pretend world. She did not take into the account the more practical aspects of a relationship. Even though she and Hans spent time talking, the answers she gives to Kristoff’s questions proved that she did not know him at all. But to her, none of that mattered because she didn’t understand or think that such things have anything to do with love in the first place.

The Love Interests

Prince Hans

Being a master charmer and manipulator, Hans knows that there are girls who share the same definition of love as Anna. When they first meet, he almost instantly succeeds in getting her to fall for him, all just because of his handsome appearance and undeniable charisma. Once he realizes that he has her wrapped around his little finger, it doesn’t take too long before he also realizes that she is desperate for romance. So he pulls every single one of the said mentioned pick-up lines and actions in order to keep making her think that he is falling in love with her.

But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: everything about Hans, from his looks to his choices of words to his actions, is all superficial and artificial. He pretends to be someone he isn’t and doesn’t really love Anna. He appears to be everything Anna dreamed of and wanted in a prince, and this is what causes her to fall for him. But if you want to argue realistically, Anna was never actually in love with Hans herself. Her “love” for him was really nothing more than a naïve infatuation based purely on his charm and good looks. What she actually fell in love with was the idea of being in love, especially with a charming, heroic prince because Hans offered (though he also tricked) her everything that she believed was love. On another note, while Anna says that Hans said that he loved her, that was not true. Even though she claimed before that they had true love, neither of them ever once said “I love you” to each other. That was also part of her being delusional about love.

Up until he betrayed her, Hans was everything Anna thought he was in a prince that came right out of a fairy tale, so she firmly argued several times with both Elsa and Kristoff that she and Hans had true love. She never saw his betrayal coming, so the fact that he turns out to be the exact antithesis of who she thought he was makes her disillusioned about love. This is so much so that when Olaf rescues her, she appears to have given up hope on saving herself. Since love turns out to not at all be what she thought it was, she says the truth when she admits to Olaf, “I don’t even know what love is.”

Kristoff Bjorgman

As the other love interest, Kristoff represents the genuine and real, yet complicated, aspects of love. Kristoff may be handsome, but he is far from being a charmer and is generally very uncomfortable around people. He doesn’t know how to make a girl fall for him or how to act around one when he falls in love. But his relationships with Sven and the trolls show that he is capable of showing and expressing love. Unlike Hans, he doesn’t force himself on to Anna by being flirty or pulling off other so-called romantic acts. When Kristoff begins to fall for Anna, it’s when his true colors start to show. As she succumbs to her frozen heart, he bravely and selflessly puts her needs first, not even caring what happens to him. He rushes her back to Arendelle and even gives her his hat in a last-ditch attempt to keep her warm. Even though he has fallen for her, he leaves because he believes that she will be happy with Hans (so he doesn’t want to stand in the way). Then when Elsa starts another storm, Kristoff risks his life to head back to Arendelle to see if Anna is truly safe, never once looking back (see this analysis).

Because love very often involves sacrifice, Kristoff demonstrates his love for Anna perfectly through his sacrifices. Despite being virtually clueless with love, what makes Kristoff so much better than Hans is the fact that everything he does is based on going with how he feels and what he believes is right. He acts on instinct and right from the heart, proving that he represents the real over Hans’s representation of the artificial. He proves his love by doing things, while instead, Hans proves his “love” by saying things. But another reason why Kristoff is better is because of his compatibility with Anna. They have their shared similarities, and at the same time, their differences complement each other perfectly, giving just what the other person really needs. Anna is an optimist, and he needs that in order to see that not all people are bad and to keep him from getting too cranky and pessimistic. But Kristoff is also practical, and Anna needs a realist in order to keep her feet on the ground and from doing impetuous acts.

After her disaster with Hans, Anna has learned her lesson about love and realizes that it helps best to take things slow. That being said, her feelings for Kristoff are not as mutual as his feelings for her. In other words, she clearly likes him, but she is not in love with him yet. Just because they kiss, it does not mean that she is instantly in love with him. (In fact, if she had kissed him before, or even Hans, there is a chance she would not have been saved.) What we do see is that she begins to fall for Kristoff, and their relationship can grow and develop from there, just as any romantic relationship should. Their first kiss is definitely the start of a sweet relationship. :)

The Love Songs

In conjunction to her two relationships, each man is represented by a love song, but like the men themselves, the songs are the complete antitheses of each other. “Love Is An Open Door” is like a typical romantic duet, though it differs because of its percussion beat and its nature being more goofy than true romantic. However, through it all, Hans creates an artificial image of himself and forces himself towards Anna. He pretends to be the fairy tale prince that Anna wants. The song is perfect in everything, from its harmony to the dance moves, and through it all, Hans acts so flawless and perfect. Because it includes everything that Anna believes relates to love, it’s the very reason why she falls for him.

So then with “Fixer Upper,” not only do Kristoff and Anna not even sing, but the trolls are the ones who force Kristoff towards Anna. In doing so, they show Anna the real deal with Kristoff by pointing out the things that are wrong with him. The song is disorganized because many different trolls sing all at once and interruptions occur (especially from Kristoff). But the reason it is important is because it is real and relatable. No one is perfect and everyone has flaws; they are part of who we are. But flaws don’t mean that we can’t be loved, and even with any flaws present, the real dominates the artificial. Even though Anna starts off smitten with Hans, by the end of the latter song, it’s clear that she starts to fall for Kristoff.

The overall point of this is that only one of these men truly loves Anna. Hans may seem perfect and flawless in every way, but as we come to discover, this does not mean that he is perfect for Anna. Love is not perfect and it does not involve perfection. Just because someone acts like the perfect person does not necessarily mean that they are perfect for you. Anna has flaws herself and is far from perfect, so she needs someone who is flawed, but still perfect for her. With his own good qualities and flaws, Kristoff complements those of Anna perfectly.

Elsa’s Beliefs

Even though they never interact with each other, Kristoff and Elsa share a lot in common, including their definitions of love. Although both do not appear interested in romance, they are more practical about love than Anna is at first. Based on the reasons on why Anna “loves” Hans, it shows that she is a little less mature than and not as practical as Elsa. As we see from Kristoff and Elsa’s shocked reactions upon hearing of Anna and Hans’s rushed engagement, they clearly do not believe in love at first sight, or even that love can happen in such a short amount of time. Still, when Anna claimed that she knew more about true love than Elsa and argued with Kristoff that, despite how little she seemed to know about Hans, it was true love, Kristoff and Elsa expressed their disbeliefs. In fact, Elsa knows how naïve Anna can be, so it’s why she expressed her doubts about Anna knowing anything about true love.

Kristoff acted more skeptical than Elsa with his doubts, but like I said, they share the same ideas and views about love. To them, love is deep and enduring. It involves showing someone how much you care about them and how far you would go to keep them safe at all costs. It means sacrificing your needs and putting those of someone else first. Sacrifice almost always ties to love in one way or another (see this analysis). Elsa knows that it is a huge part of love, so it’s why she is devastated when Anna says that all she (Elsa) knows how to do is shut people out. Even though it hurt her to shut Anna out of her life, she did it out of love for her little sister and wanted to keep her safe from her magic.

But the fact that Kristoff and Elsa are so alike is why they would not work as a romantic couple, along with how different they can be from each other (e.g., Elsa’s elegant and regal demeanor does not balance Kristoff’s messy, scruffy ways). Still, there is no doubt that they would be very good friends because of their similarities, including their love for Anna. Because they are very alike, they are also compatible with Anna in almost the same ways, with Elsa as the sister and Kristoff as the boyfriend.

The Warm-Hearted Snowman and the Cold-Hearted Prince

I have already said before that Olaf is the living embodiment of Elsa and Anna’s love for each other. Although I won’t go into all the details since you can read the analysis about him, he is a major part of why Anna still loved Elsa during the years that they were apart. The girls loved to build snowmen together, and what remained of Anna’s altered memories were those happy times she shared with Elsa, including Olaf. He represents the innermost and deepest desires of Elsa and is basically the side of Elsa that she had kept to herself for so long. She feared being touched, yet she still wanted physical affection, hence why she makes Olaf say, “I like warm hugs.” Olaf forms a close and loving friendship with Anna, which is the very thing that Elsa wishes to have with Anna again. Because Elsa proved love for Anna by staying away in order to keep her safe, being Elsa’s creation, Olaf proves himself to be a love expert as he claims. He proves his love for Anna by offering to distract Kristoff so she could run away (since they initially think he is just talking to rocks), saying, “Because I love you, Anna, I insist you run.” When Anna admits she doesn’t know what love is, Olaf gives her the correct definition, saying it is putting someone else’s needs before your own, and uses Kristoff as the perfect example. While he tells her this, he performs his own act of true love for her by staying with her by the fire, only caring about her well-being and not his own, even though he knows he might melt. (And you just gotta love his quote, “Some people are worth melting for.” It’s enough to make anyone’s heart melt!) Despite being a literally cold snowman, Olaf is a very warm and loving friend. Thanks to Olaf, Anna is able to take the advice to heart when she saves Elsa from being killed by Hans.

While Olaf proves himself to be a love expert, Hans, who is Olaf’s antithesis (since he is meant to symbolize the broken relationship between Elsa and Anna), proves to be just the opposite. He initially appears to be a love expert himself, but he is really an expert on false love. By this, I mean that he is an expert on making girls fall for him and knows every pick-up line and action to make a girl thinks he loves her in return. But this is all part of how he represents everything about love that is easy and artificial, which is also not what love truly is. Among many things, Hans shows many traits of a sociopath, one of which includes the inability to feel or express love to others. Part of what can attribute to Hans’s behavior is the fact that he was ignored, overlooked, and/or abused by his family and people outside of them because he is the much youngest of thirteen princes. Since this could have happened for most, if not all, of his life, without anyone ever or seldom showing him some sort of act of love or care, then it can offer a large explanation on why Hans is genuinely incapable of loving anyone. In fact, Hans’s only true love in life is power. While he does not care for anyone but himself, he still acted nice to the people of Arendelle because he wants to be a beloved, admired king. But this is what ties in to his love for power. He doesn’t want to be loved for who he is, but for what he is, or would have been, as a king. Being a king would give him the power he has desired all his life, but could never have. Hans clearly has no love present in his heart, hence why he should be described as cold-hearted and why Anna says he is the only one with the frozen heart.

An Act of True Love

Despite having been told or advised that a true love’s kiss could have been the act of true love to save Anna from her frozen heart curse, the act that Anna did was a complete change from what has been done before. In many past fairy tale films, even those not made by Disney, a true love’s kiss has been used to revive a princess in a deep sleep or to undo the unwanted effects from a spell or curse. It has become a major element of stereotypical fairy tales, but it has also been used so many times that it is kind of old by now. Not only that, but it seems it has been so commonly used that people (in fairy tales, at least) can easily forget or overlook that love can be demonstrated in other ways. Frozen is not another typical Disney fairy tale, and it was great to see how it was done so differently from those in the past, including with an act of true love.

Like I said earlier, the bond between Elsa and Anna is the center of the film, and the strongest point that supports this is when Anna performs her act of true love. Rather than having another “true love’s kiss,” the act is when she sacrifices her own life to save Elsa from Hans. (Interesting enough, while Elsa grieves, Anna is surrounded by those who love her most, and they each represent a different form of love: Kristoff represents the romantic form, Olaf and Sven represent the friendship form, and Elsa represents the familial form.) Because Anna was the one with the frozen heart, she had to do the act of love herself, not have someone else do an act of love for her. Although she temporarily freezes to death, Anna subsequently thaws and is revived, proving that her sacrifice counted as the act she needed to do. As another point of interest, when she thaws, you can see it starts from her heart and the rest happens in the shape of a heart. This is done to relate to the fact that a heart is the shape most commonly used to symbolize love. It also meant that when Pabbie first mentioned “an act of true love,” the act did not have to be out of romantic love; it just had to be one out of genuine, real love.

Anna’s act shows that, despite their long estrangement, she never stopped loving Elsa. Her love for her sister is so strong that she would rather die than live in a world where Elsa is dead. When Elsa sees Anna alive, she is so overjoyed that she doesn’t hesitate to hug Anna, and it is the first time they have hugged in years. She expresses her amazement at Anna’s sacrifice, and all Anna answers to that is “I love you,” which makes Elsa smile.

Love Will Thaw and Conquer All

And it is because of Anna’s selfless act of love that Elsa realizes love is the key to controlling her magic. After Olaf exclaims that what Anna did was the act of true love she needed to do, Elsa repeats, “Love will thaw” and understands that it is the power she has to end the winter. Remember that the winter was brought on by Elsa’s fear, which is a very strong emotion. But love is probably the only emotion that is stronger than fear. In the case here, it is both figuratively and literally the warmest emotion of all. Hence, when Elsa focuses on love (possibly the love she has for Anna), it is why she is able to melt the snow and ice and bring summer back to Arendelle.

So as I say from all reasons stated above, love is very prominently portrayed in Frozen, and in very different ways. Love is not one thing and it cannot be described in just one way. It is probably more complex than we think it is, but it could still be considered the greatest force in the universe. Even though it is not a stereotypical fairy tale, Frozen does share one thing with many past Disney fairy tales, which is that love truly does conquer all.