The Little Mermaid: Her Part in Our World

The Little Mermaid: Her Part in Our World

by Mikayla Nelson

            Once Upon a Time – These iconic words introduce most fairy tales.  The magic and mystery these words possesses set the mood for a timeless story full of fantasy and fun.  Some of the fairy tales we know and love today were first published in a book called Contes du temps passé (Tales of the Past), in France during the late seventeenth century (Zipes Fairy 17).  Since the rise of the fairy tale genre began, it has expanded vastly throughout the world. 

What exactly are fairy tales?  Jack Zipes, a retired German professor from the University of Minnesota who wrote and lectured about fairy tales, wrote, “literary fairy tales are social symbolical acts and narrative strategies formed to take part in civilized discourses about morality and behavior in particular societies and cultures” (Zipes Fairy 19).  Fairy tales teach us lessons and morals.  These morals make most fairy tales universal and they are rearranged to fit changing values, and social norms (Zipes Fairy 19).  One of the better known fairy tale authors is Hans Christian Andersen, a man of Danish decent.  One of his best known stories was The Little Seamaid.  In 1989 this was made into a movie, The Little Mermaid, by the Walt Disney Company.  The different endings and details of these two versions of the classic tale, The Little Seamaid, portray two different messages.  Disney’s personable ending teaches hope and optimism, while Andersen’s story gives a less optimistic, but realistic message about things not happening as planned.  Each of these messages say something different about vocation and purpose and contribute to how we see the world.

Through this fairy tale, children learn that if plans don’t turn out the way they had hoped, they have failed and this notion carries with them throughout their life.  The result being giving up, not wanting to truly work towards their goal and instead, wanting it handed to them.

Disney offers children the opportunity to dream, vindicating the necessity of fantasies that contain utopian traces and that offer an antidote to the brutality and emptiness of everyday life.  But like all dreams, the dreams that Disney provides for children are not innocent and must be interrogated for the futures they envision, the values they promote and the forms of identification they offer… [to] saturate everyday life with its own ideologies (Zipes Breaking 118).

Even with these ideologies and skewed visions of life, “the fairy tale, though mediated, still projects rays of hope that humankind may yet come into its own (Zipes Breaking 145).

Disney made many minor changes from, The Little Seamaid.  In the original, the mermaid has no name, while in Disney’s version they gave her a name, Ariel.   There was a grandmother in the original who served as a mother figure to the six (not seven) daughters, who was cut from the Disney adaptation.  Contradicting to Disney’s adaptation, the mer-people weren’t strict about humans; on their fifteenth birthday each mermaid was allowed on shore to discover the world for themselves.  They were also able to keep human artifacts in their gardens as decoration.  For the most part, the movie and the book are very similar.  The mermaid goes to shore, saves her prince from a sinking ship; although, in the Disney adaptation, Ariel sings to the prince and he looks for her that way.  She falls in love with him and dreams of the human world, but after she decides to visit the sea witch, the story drastically changes.

In Andersen’s version, the little mermaid sought out a witch that could give her legs.  The little mermaid made her way through a very difficult trek to the witches’ residence.  When she finally arrived, the witch knew exactly what the mermaid wanted:

It is very foolish of you! All the same you shall have your way, because it will lead you into misfortune, my fine princess. You want to get rid of your fish's tail, and instead to have two stumps to walk about upon like human beings, so that the young prince may fall in love with you, and that you may win him and an immortal soul.  (Andersen 87)

The witch warned, I will make you a potion that you must take before sunrise that will turn you human.  It is very painful, like swords.  Everyone will see you as beautiful and graceful, but every step you take will feel like you are walking upon knives.  Once you are human, you can never again be a mermaid.  You will never see your family again. If you do not marry the prince, you will not gain an immortal soul and the morning of after his marriage to another you will turn to sea foam (Andersen 88).

The mermaid accepted.  She gained legs and lived with the prince, but “he loved her as one loves a good sweet child, but it never entered his head to make her his queen” (Andersen 92).  One day the prince was told that he would be married to a princess of a neighboring kingdom.  The prince agreed to marry her if he could meet her, so he ventured to see her.  The young princess was indeed the girl from the school who he thought saved his life.  They were married.  The little mermaid sat on the ship that night, deeply saddened knowing that when the day comes, she will surely die.  Suddenly her sisters arose from the water, their hair cut off. They spotted the mermaid and told her, we have given our hair to the witch for her help to save you.  She has given us this knife.  Before sunrise, you must kill the prince with it and when his blood falls on your feet, you will once again become a mermaid.  Hurry, either he dies or you die (Andersen 96).

The little mermaid goes into the princes chambers and looks into the face she loves, realizing she could not kill him.  She kissed his forehead, and as dawn came, she began dissolving into sea foam.  The little mermaid saw clear, beautiful creatures in the sky above her and she gradually took form into the creatures she saw:

To the daughters of the air! answered the others; a mermaid has no undying soul, and can never gain one without winning the love of a human being. Her eternal life must depend upon an unknown power. Nor have the daughters of the air an everlasting soul, but by their own good deeds they may create one for themselves… You, poor little mermaid, have with your whole heart struggled for the same thing as we have struggled for. You have suffered and endured, raised yourself to the spirit-world of the air, and now, by your own good deeds you may, in the course of three hundred years, work out for yourself an undying soul. (Andersen 97)

For the first time, the little mermaid could shed a tear.  She then noticed the prince and his bride searching for her, and cried at the water knowing she had flung herself into the sea.  The little mermaid kissed the prince, smiled at his bride and floated into the air beginning her journey to gaining an immortal soul.

In Disney’s version the story is quite different, Ariel goes to see the sea witch, Ursula.  Ursula convinces her to trade her voice for human legs.  In order for Ariel to keep her legs, she must get the prince to kiss her in three days, or she will become a prisoner to the sea witch forever.  Ariel agrees, gives up her voice, is given human legs, and is brought to shore where she will begin her journey.  She meets Prince Eric on the shore and he brings her to his castle.  The mute girl begins to spend time with the prince while her friends try to assist her in her ultimate endeavor, true love’s kiss.  The prince begins to ponder whether he should give up on this mystery voice that saved him and marry Ariel, a girl he has grown quite fond of.  When suddenly, the voice that captivated came from a distance, he had finally found her.  The prince and his mystery maiden were to be wed.  Ariel was confused and her heart broke.  Ariel’s seagull friend, Scuttle, saw the prince’s beloved getting ready in her room, when he noticed her reflection.  It was the sea witch in disguise.  She had used Ariel’s voice to trick the prince into believing she was his mystery maiden.  Scuttle rushed to tell Ariel and she swam to the ship as fast as she could.  When she arrives, the shell necklace, where Ariel’s voice was being kept, shattered into pieces and freed her voice from the sea witches’ possession.  It found its way back to Ariel and broke the curse put on the prince.  He realizes it was Ariel all along and runs to kiss her, but it’s too late, the sun has set on her third day as a human and she becomes a prisoner of the sea witch.  Prince Eric tries to save her, while down below King Triton makes a deal with the sea witch, his life for Ariel’s.  Ursula now possesses King Tritons Trident and crown and becomes ruler of all the oceans, her original plan all along.  Ursula becomes a giant, erupts out of the sea and begins to try destroying Ariel and her prince.  Prince Eric stabs Ursula with a shipwrecked ship that she conjured out of the bottom of the sea and she is thwarted.  The Sea King is no longer a prisoner, and takes back his place as king.  Ariel still a mermaid, while Prince Eric is washed up on shore near his castle.  Ariel swims to the surface and watches Eric from a distant rock while her father and Sebastian (King Triton’s assistant and Ariel’s friend) watch Ariel daydream about her beloved.  Her father, feeling sympathy for his youngest daughter, gives her human legs.  She arises from the ocean and Eric runs up, twirls her around and they embrace and share true love’s kiss.  They are married and they live happily ever after.

There are many slight differences between these two versions, but the most drastic difference is the endings.  In the Disney version, the princess gets her happily ever after, both her voice and her prince; while in the original version, she dies and becomes a “daughter of the air” (Andersen 97) in hopes to one day gain an immortal soul. The original mermaid sacrificed much more then Ariel, Disney’s mermaid.  The original mermaid not only gave up her voice, she was willing to walk with stabbing pains in her feet for months, and in the opportunity to become a mermaid again and live by killing the prince, she declined and made the ultimate sacrifice of her life.  Whereas Ariel not only got her voice back in the end, she didn’t feel pain when she walked and even if she had, it was for three days instead of months. Also, when Ariel failed she didn’t die, but became prisoner of the sea witch. Even that didn’t count as a sacrifice because her father took her place as prisoner, her prince saved her and her father gave her happily ever after to her in the end.  She got her prince.  “The spiritual aspects of the tale are usually replaced by romantic love and the goal is to find a soul mate, not a soul” (Frus 201-202).  We must not forget the fact that Ariel got her happily ever after and the original mermaid did not, at least in the convention sense.   

 The drastically different endings of this beloved tale send a differing message and meaning.  In Andersen’s tale, the little mermaid discovers salvation doesn’t have to be achieved by the love of a man, but can also be achieved through good deeds, suffering and self-sacrifice.  Andersen writes, “I have not allowed the mermaid’s acquiring of an immortal soul to depend upon an alien creature, upon the love of a human being… I have permitted my mermaid to follow a more natural, more divine path” (Leadbeater 2). Whereas in the Disney adaptation, her goal is achieved for her out of the love of her father, without any consequences for her actions to follow.  “Since Eric kills the witch for Ariel, and since Triton makes her marriage possible. Ariel does not solve her own problems” (Trites 6).  Ariel isn’t the hero of her own story.  The lesson behind the original is completely lost, it portrays a poor, impractical message and gives false hopes to young girls.

Why does this matter?  “From the folk tale, one learns ones role in life; one learns the tragic dilemma of life, the battle between good and evil, between weak and strong.  One learns that if he is kind, generous, and compassionate, he will win the princess.  The triumph is for all that is good in the human spirit” (Hasse 1).  Fairy tales and folk tales teach life lessons in a fun and hopeful way.  “One could argue that the sanitized versions we have today are actually counterproductive to the original purpose of fairy tales, so the children can safely confront their darkest fears” (Gubler).  Disney’s version defeats the purpose of fairy tales and instead brings false hope and “one-dimensional portrayal and thinking, for it is adorable, easy and comforting in its simplicity” (Zipes Fairy 95).  Society has comfort in the belief that happy endings do exist, but are effected when they don’t get a result they hope for or if they have to work hard to get it.   

            Even when considering the radical differences from the original story, somehow the Disney adaptation is still adored and loved despite its differing and controversial message. Dr. Susan Cocalis, offered a class where students discussed these two versions of The Little Seamaid.  At the end of the class, the students wrote an essay explaining if their views of the Disney movie changed after knowing the original story.  Among the fifty usable papers of these students, 90% of them did not change their views about the Disney movie, and the ones who did change their views, did not offer much critique (Chyng 44).  Why is it that the Disney version is subject to favoritism?  Many of the students wrote that the Disney version has an entertainment quality, was a part of their childhood and that “… overanalyzing a film and picking every little bit apart ruins it so you start to look too closely at other films and lose the entertainment quality which is what film essentially is” (Chyng 51). 

A rigid view of this flawed story says a lot about how we see the world. 

Indeed, the animated tales made by Disney himself, as well as those produced by his followers are simply flawless, as evidenced by the enthusiasm with which several generations of viewers have been relishing the animators’ technical brilliance.  Across the world ‘children from seven to seventy’ predominantly relate such fairytale characters as Cinderella or Snow White with their cartoon version created by Disney.” (Deszcz 1)

Though the Disney version is flawed, it is entertaining for the audience, has a happy ending, conveys a concept of good versus evil, is advertised by the media and “the message of the fairytale is conveyed in terms suitable for a modern public” (Mortensen 449).  In a world full of wars and consistent violence, people look to fairy tales to take them to a world of fantasy, where good always defeats evil. “The fairy tale… projects the relief of all pressures and not only offers ways to solve problems, but promises that a ‘happy’ solution will be found” (Bettelheim 36).  People seek for a place where dreams come true and where happiness lies, but what they forget to focus on is the meaning behind it. “Many of the stories have a moral, although, we think more as we read them of the diversion than of the lesson” (Lieberman 384).  The Disney version is entertaining, but the original reminds us of the intended lesson, that our happiness may not come in the way we expect, a lesson everyone should learn.

The different endings between the original and the Disney version of The Little Seamaid, say different things about vocation and purpose and these differences in meanings effect our view of the world.  The Disney version creates happiness which gives people hope, belief, and optimism but the original reminds us that things don’t always turn out according to plan.  Both of these lessons are helpful to know for many life situations.  This fairy tale and many others remind us of lessons learned.  In times of darkness and evil, we look to them for guidance, for hope and for the belief that good will always win.  That we will find our life’s purpose and our happily ever after.

Works Cited

 Andersen, Hans Christian. Stories from Hans Christian Andersen. Illus. Edmund Dulac. Ed. Jim Manis. Hazleton: Electronic Classics Series, 2007. PDF file.

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. 1st ed. ed. New York: Knopf: distributed by Random House, 1976. Web.

Chyng, Feng Sun, and Erica Scharrer. "Staying True to Disney: College Students' Resistance to Criticism of the Little Mermaid." Communication Review 7.1 (2004): 35-55. Web.

Deszcz, Justyna. "Beyond the Disney Spell, Or Escape into Pantoland." Folklore 113.1 (2002): 83-91. Web.

Frus, Phyllis, and Christy Williams. Beyond Adaptation: Essays on Radical Transformations of Original Works. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., c2010. Web.

Gubler, Matthew Gray, et al., perf. "If the Shoe Fits." Dir. Bethany Roony. By Jeff Davis and Bruce Zimmerman. Criminal Minds. By Jeff Davis. CBS Television Studio's. 5 Nov. 2014. Television.

Hasse, Donald P. "Gold into Straw: Fairy Tale Movies for Children and the Culture Industry." John Hopkins University Press 12.2 (1988): 193-207. Print.

Leadbeater, Bonnie J., and Gloria Lodato Wilson. "Flipping their Fins for a Place to Stand." Youth & Society 24.4 (1993): 466. Web.

Lieberman, Marcia R. ""Some Day My Prince Will Come": Female Acculturation through the Fairy Tale." College English 34.3 (1972): 383-95. Web.

Mortensen, Finn Hauberg. "The Little Mermaid." Scandinavian Studies 80.4 (2008): 437-54. Web.

 The Little Mermaid. Dir. Clements, Ron, and John Musker. Prod. Musker John Ashman Howard. Perf. Jodi Benson, et al. Walt Disney Pictures, 1989.

Trites, R. "Disney's sub/version of Andersen's the Little Mermaid." Journal of Popular Film & Television 18.4 (1991): 145. Web.

Zipes, Jack David. Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales. Rev. and expanded ed. ed. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002. Web.

Zipes, Jack David. Fairy Tale as myth/myth as Fairy Tale. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, c1994. The Thomas D. Clark Lectures: Web.