The tale can be read as the social and sexual maturation of a young man in a brutal world. The soldier has his knapsack (mind and talents) and his sword (power and phallus), and learns not to deplete them wastefully but to control them and direct them for personal happiness and success. The psychological thrust of the tale is connected to Andersen’s criticism of the artificiality, hypocrisy, and injustice of the aristocracy and its eventual overthrow by the "true nobility" of the young, lower-class soldier.