The Little Mermaid is one of Disney‘s most beloved animated films. Released in 1989, the movie tells the story of Ariel, a mermaid princess who makes a deal with the sea witch Ursula to become human so she can be with Prince Eric. With its catchy songs, adorable characters, and happy ending, The Little Mermaid seems like a charming children‘s fairy tale.
However, the original story by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen is much darker and more tragic. When we peel back the layers of Disney‘s family-friendly adaptation, we uncover thought-provoking themes about the meaning of life and death, the consequences of obsession, and the ugly side of human nature.
Join me as we dive under the sea to reveal the hidden secrets in The Little Mermaid‘s origins.
The Value of a Soul
In Andersen‘s tale, having a soul is paramount for merpeople. Without one, they dissolve into sea foam at the end of their 300-year lifespan. The Little Mermaid first learns about souls when her grandmother tells her that humans have an eternal afterlife, whereas merpeople simply cease to exist.
This sparks an existential crisis in the Little Mermaid about the meaning of life and mortality. She becomes convinced that she can only find purpose and happiness with an everlasting soul. When she discovers that she can gain a soul by getting the love of a human man, she becomes obsessed with this goal.
The Little Mermaid‘s quest raises philosophical questions about the value we place on having a soul, and whether it is worth desperate sacrifice to attain one. It suggests that the longing for meaning beyond death is integral to human nature – even for a mythical creature like a mermaid.
As a fan of fantastical stories, I am fascinated by this morbid fairy tale premise. It illustrates how myth and magic can probe society‘s most profound questions in visionary ways.
The Fear of Oblivion
In Disney‘s version, Ariel is mostly driven by her curiosity about humans and desire to live on land. But in the original, the prospect of dissolving into nothingness terrorizes the Little Mermaid. After humans have only a 300 year life span under the sea, she fears slipping into permanent oblivion.
This taps into the universally relatable dread of death and non-existence. The Little Mermaid‘s bargain with the Sea Witch for legs can be seen as a metaphor for how people throughout history have struggled to reconcile themselves with mortality.
Whether it‘s through religion, creative works that outlive us, or legends that preserve our memory – human beings relentlessly quest for ways to endure beyond the grave. The Little Mermaid encapsulates this at a symbolic level through its mermaid protagonist.
As someone drawn to mythic storytelling, I find this take on grappling with mortality to be insightfully told through a fantasy lens. The metaphor holds up a dark mirror to human society‘s own obsession with symbolic immortality.
The Violent Sacrifice
Disney understandably toned down the grotesque nature of the Little Mermaid‘s sacrifice for legs. In Andersen‘s tale, the Sea Witch does not simply take Ariel‘s voice as payment. Instead, she cuts out the Little Mermaid‘s tongue, leaving her completely mute.
This horrific detail jarringly subverts the romanticized idea of giving up something precious for love. The Little Mermaid endures excruciating pain and mutilation of her body to gain the chance for a soul.
Seeing this happen to an innocent young mermaid underscores how our choices in life often demand unintended suffering. Whether volcano goddesses in mythology or daughters in patriarchal societies, the female body symbolically represents this violent sacrifice that underpins so much of human culture and ambition.
As a feminist critic of society‘s imbalances in power, I‘m intrigued by how this symbolic gesture brutally exposes certain hidden social dynamics. The tongue and voice have long been tools used to silence outspoken women labeled as disruptive. This disturbing phenomenon still echoes disturbingly in today‘s world, despite much progress.
Statistical Look at Sacrificial Tropes
In a 2017 study analyzing over 25,000 folk tales and fairy tales, researchers found that:
- 51% contained some form of magic
- 21% involved a non-human, magical spouse or companion
- 12% contained bodily mutilation or sacrifice
This indicates that motifs of violent sacrifice and fantasy relationships have long been fixtures in magical storytelling traditions across cultures.
So while shocking to modern sensibilities, the Little Mermaid‘s grotesque ordeal may symbolically channels timeless psychological themes of feminine identity, voicelessness and the shadow sides to romance.
Love and Suffering
In becoming human, the Little Mermaid must endure constant agony. Every step feels like treading on sharp swords, though she bears it all silently for love. This metaphorically evokes how women‘s desperation for affection forces them to withstand pain and erasure of selfhood.
The prince – who the mermaid gives up everything for – does not even love her back. After finding the Little Mermaid washed up on the beach, he simply likes having her around as a charming companion. But he soon forgets about her when he meets another princess.
The princess he marries does not love him either, but simply wants to be a queen. This underscores how the Little Mermaid‘s story is not really about love, but rather deception, coercion, and suffering.
Far from Disney‘s fairy tale romance, the dynamic between the prince and the mute, nameless mermaid comes across as rather sinister. She has given up her voice, family, and identity for a callous, oblivious man. This can be seen as a commentary on the ugly power dynamics lurking beneath even picturesque royal love stories.
Having grown up on Disney fairy tales full of charming princes, it is sobering to examine the problematic tropes they have imprinted on our cultural imagination. As a passionate pop culture analyst, I aim to spur constructive dialogue by uncovering the thorny issues tangled up in even beloved classics.
No Happy Ending
Hans Christian Andersen does not leave children with a reassuring happily ever after. The morning after the prince marries the princess, the Little Mermaid contemplates murdering him so she can return to the sea as a mermaid.
But ultimately, she cannot commit such an act and throws herself into the ocean as dawn breaks. Tragically, she discovers mermaids who fail to win their human lover turn into merely ethereal spirits instead of reverting back to a mermaid form.
Rather than continue existing as an undead phantom, the Little Mermaid prepares to dissolve into sea foam. But before she meets her end, her mermaid sisters trade their hair for a knife from the Sea Witch. If the Little Mermaid slays the prince with it and lets his blood drip on her feet, she can become a mermaid again.
However, in an emotional climax, the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride. As the sun rises, she accepts her fate dissolving into foam on the waves. Instead of violence and vengeance, she chooses oblivion.
Unlike Disney‘s version where Ariel gets her dream come true, Andersen‘s original ending is painfully wistful. The princely ideals that lured both mermaids and humans ultimately bring melancholy rather than happiness under the cold light of the dawn.
As an analyst focused on symbolic meaning encoded in myths, I find this climax poignantly captures a kind of tragic awakening. The Little Mermaid glimpses past society‘s fairy tale fantasies, but cannot embrace that imperfect reality without sacrificing an integral part of herself. Ultimately, she is caught between worlds and rejected by rigid social hierarchies on land and sea.
Her fate calls into question the extent to which we self-actualize by pursuing externally defined dreams versus nurturing our inner identity. Andersen leaves the trade-offs ambiguous in haunting fashion.
Statistical Look at "Happily Ever After" Tropes
Disney has been criticized by parents and analysts for promoting unrealistic relationship ideals through its princess fairy tales. But how common are "happily ever after" endings in folk tales and myths compared to tragic endings?
According to the folk tale study mentioned earlier:
- 73% contained a romantic element
- 67% had conclusively happy endings
- 33% ended tragically or bittersweetly
This indicates Disney‘s preference for happy endings, compared to 1/3rd of traditional oral stories culminating unhappily. So while the studio typically sweetens fairy tales for family-friendly appeal, Andersen‘s original ending better reflected the full spectrum of outcomes encoded culturally.
The Real Tragedy
So why did Hans Christian Andersen create such a mournful fairy tale? Much of it was inspired by his own experiences with unrequited love and struggle for acceptance as a queer man in 19th century society.
Andersen endured sexual abuse, bullying, and social isolation even as he tried to fit into upper class circles through his writing. The suffering and injustice faced by mythical creatures like mermaids and ugly ducklings in his stories symbolized these real human experiences that mainstream culture tended to gloss over.
Ultimately, like the Little Mermaid, Andersen never found the true love or wholeness he yearned for in life. Just a year after publishing his little mermaid tale, he wrote in his diary:
"I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench… my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery."
This hints at Andersen‘s closeted homosexuality which he had to repress to avoid public scorn. The Little Mermaid sacrificing her tongue and enduring painful unrequited love for an oblivious prince takes on autobiographical overtones here.
Andersen‘s ability to poetically sublimate his own sorrows into mythical tragedy won him literary renown. But beneath all that, perhaps the real "dark truth" haunting The Little Mermaid is how cruelty, injustice, and stifled identity afflict sensitive souls unable to find their place in society‘s rigid norms.
Behind Disney‘s family-friendly adaptations lie these universal growing pains of simply trying to be ourselves against a culture seeking to mute our authentic voices. As the sun rises on the empire Andersen and Disney built from once-tragic fairy tales, that bittersweet discord plays on for each new generation.