The Little Mermaid Again

Enjoying a rare moment of being pretty and not in pain.

Greetings, reader. I analyzed The Little Mermaid previously on my blog, but there is definitely more to get into in this story. If you want to read Hans Christian Anderson's original version, I've linked to that for you. If you remember it, go ahead and keep on reading to see my analysis.

The beauty of the little mermaid is mentioned often enough that I feel it's worth looking it. Both above and below the waves, beauty is painful for her. When the protagonist's grandmother puts oysters on her tail to make her beautiful, the little mermaid complains about how much it hurts, but her grandmother tells her to deal with it. Then, when she has legs, the little mermaid is the most beautiful girl around, but every step feels like her feet are being cut apart. I don't think I'd want to be beautiful in either of these worlds. It seems to me that Anderson was trying to tell us something about the cost of beauty by making it so painful. The little mermaid hopes to use her beauty and grace to get the prince to love her as she loves him, but it doesn't work. So, beauty is costly and, ultimately, useless.

I'm also interested in the sea witch in this story. I can't help but compare her to Ursula in the Disney movie and the difference between the two is startling. In this story, the sea witch tells the little mermaid going into land is a bad idea and that it will cost her dearly. She's almost trying to talk her out of it, but she won't stop her if the little mermaid agrees to the craziness. Later in the story, the sea witch even agrees to sell the other mermaid princesses a remedy to the little mermaid's predicament and she only asks for their hair, which will grow back. Granted, the "remedy" of murdering the prince is pretty brutal, but if he was dead then the little mermaid would have no reason to stay on land. Perhaps that was the point. It seems like the sea witch is trying to help the little mermaid not be quite so reckless, but she will enable the little mermaid if she accepts the terms.

The ending is also somewhat unexpected. After all the fuss they made earlier about mermaids not having a soul, you would think that committing suicide would seal the deal of no afterlife. That has generally been the stance of the church, more or less. However, this story takes her intentions into account and the little mermaid is granted the chance to earn a soul and go to heaven. Perhaps when she's there, she can meet the prince on an even playing field and see where it goes from there. That is, if he goes to heaven.

There are many possible morals for this story. I say the best is, "Don't give up everything for a guy who doesn't know who you are." Although, my runner up would be, "If you are going to do something crazy go so crazy with it that it becomes a good idea."

Like this story? Subscribe! Want me to talk about another fairy tale? Comment below! Be sure to come back next week when I put this story into today's context.