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This image appeared on my facebook news feed. Below is an interpretation.
The hedgehog can be seen as someone who doesn’t know how to love. Her spines are going to hurt anyone who attempts to get close to her. The hedgehog’s tragedy is that deep down she craves to love and to be loved; however, due to past experiences such as traumatic childhood, she never learned how to properly love another person. She built these defenses (spines) that will hurt anyone who gets close to her.
I think the love story between the rabbit and the hedgehog, as demonstrated in the comic, is doomed. Because the only way for the rabbit to be with the hedgehog is to say goodbye to the sun and accept a miserable underground dark life. Perhaps the rabbit also believes he doesn’t deserve to be happy. If that’s the case, the hedgehog and rabbit might end up in an everlasting dysfunctional and torturous relationship.
But is there an alternative universe in which the rabbit and the hedgehog will have a loving functional relationship? I think yes. If, in one way or another, the hedgehog understands that she deserves to be loved, if she learns to love herself, and if she comprehends that her defenses are hurting others. It might be the rabbit who helps the hedgehog in her journey or it might be a therapist.
Or perhaps the beauty of the nature can be a remedy to the hedgehog’s wounds. Perhaps the softness of raindrops can soften the spines of the hedgehog:
“And let her rain now if she likes.
Gently or strongly as she likes.
Anyway let her rain…”
― James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
The Wastepaper 