Thoughts about ‘ The Little Mermaid’

 

 

 

 

 

‘The Little Mermaid’ is a fairy tale from the Hans Christian Anderson collection, and perhaps most famously known as the loosely based Disney animated film, which has equally enchanted audiences and readers around the world.

It is a story about a young mermaid princess, who wants more from her life and escape her limitations. Having fallen for and saving a human prince from drowning, she makes a bargain with a sea witch. She gives her voice away for two legs, and needs to have her feeling returned or else perish with the rising sun. Not to be loved and not to attain a soul. She chooses to be the self-sacrificing person and even if she doesn’t the prince, she gets what she truly wants, a soul.

‘The little Mermaid’ in the simplest form is a recount of unrequited love. It’s about not getting what you want, perhaps a selfish or greedy journey, but what stands out is the emotional investment and the sacrifices that go in the way for that dream. It is something that speaks to the private feelings of the personal lives of people, who hide their hurt, and make way by sublimation, by destroying the past. But the young girl does with all her desire, all her pain, does not let the bitterness or defeat corrupt her.

In that sense the story is more of a hero’s journey, of self actualization, a path for a painful loss of innocence and change. It is both tragic and beautiful, because she gets what she wants just not how she wanted it.

The story may not always be a feminist favorite, since she willingly leaves everything for a man, and her love involves a lot of suffering and she doesn’t get what she wants, which narratively contrasts with how male characters are able to pine for a get the girl. Symbolically also the color red is associated with the male in the story. The coral around the statue that the mermaid idolizes is a bright red, and when she dies the sun is a burning red flame, showing a victory or overpowering of the male over the female. People also generally take issue with the protagonist being a questionable role model, stating she is silly, for giving up her life. They take issue with the fact she runs away from home, falls in love with someone she doesn’t know and par takes in black magic. So obviously conservative society and parents don’t want their daughters doing the same.

I personally don’t feel that way. I think what Anderson did was inverse a generally anti-woman trope into something humane and heart-felt. He turned Sirens into mermaids. A siren is basically the sea version of what witches were on land, the images and lives of women demonized and disrespected through the male gaze. Be it Medusa, Homer’s fight with the sea witches or general stories of sailors being brought down to death at the voices of bewitching sirens, it’s hard to see how female sexuality and romantic feelings have always been seen as something worthy of punishment. And they in the biblical sense must be cursed and become a symbol for all other women to not do the same. And that it only men who can actively battle and fight for love, that also outside the consent or control of the women that they love. They must fight those in their way and she must accept the victor, because he is the winner. Not because she can decide for herself.

 

 

‘The little Mermaid’ does not exist in the same context. Here is have a child who will through her encounter with the world become who she was always meant to be. She is not evil, wicked or filled with any jealous intentions, she is just young, innocent and in love. Instead of bringing the prince down to die, she saves him from death, but is not recognized for it. There is a selfless quality in her actions. And even when she leaves her family, home and makes a deal with the devil, we forgive her. We don’t feel the need to watch her pay for her sins, because she is brave enough to willfully suffer if she is able to be with the boy she comes to love. Every step she takes with human legs is like walking on knives, and without a voice she is unable to confess her feelings. And when is left out in the cold by the prince she still decides to spare him his life, for her character and her spirit out ways his ignorance and existence. The heavens at last do not strike her for having a heart but it blesses her. She becomes an angel like being, literally rising above the mess.

 

The story overall has very strong Eco-feminist tones to it. The girl is raised by her wise grandmother, who makes sure the child gets her education. She has older sisters to look up to, she is able to get legs through a sea witch. The women dominate the story, and the only place we feel a lack feminine care, is that the mermaid does not have a mother, and that she has this obvious fascination and love for the male spectacle. This also follows the mermaid as a character who is able to transcend all the divided parts of society, probably because she wants to actually more than what society deems acceptable.She moves from the sea, to the land and finally to the ethereal realm.

It is a story of dynamic magic, transformation, growth and following one’s dream and being what we all are as young star-crossed people. We are alone in our personal battles against destiny.

My term paper on ‘The Little Mermaid’ and Trans-humanism

I’m happy personally with this term paper. I haven’t any word back on this one, but it has a fun memory attached to it. I had a two months heads up on it but of course I was going to do it the night on the submission. And what normally would be me staying and finishing an assignment turned into me going out with my friends for a birthday party while finishing and submitting the assignment in the cafe. Cafe Pomelo at Packages Mall to be exact. I finally have teenager  memories.

 

 

 

Literary Theory and Movements

Term Paper ( Post Humanism and Trans humanism) 

 

Name: Maheen Ahmed

 

 

 

Mother Malfunction: The Eco-feminist defiance to the stance of Trans humanism in Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Little Mermaid’.

 

 

Literature Review

This paper looks to see the exchange and multi-dimensional exchange and embodiment of an extended notion within Post Humanism which is Trans humanism. Post humanism opens and carries out a study on what is humanness and what changes and affects humanity, while Transhumanism talks and advocates for the technological development of human life and artificial life, and it looks down at the essence and perceived weaknesses of humans.

Regarding ‘The Little Mermaid’, and fairy-tales in general there has been a lot of work on it’s eco-feminist discourse, psychology, imagery and sociological revolution and a way of providing a wholesome space for female feelings and development, but there has been little work done on the element of Trans humanism, as the short story ironically involves her becoming a human. Transhumanism is also applied to war literature and futuristic literature and media, so this research will be bringing the binaries in contact.

Therefore this paper will be an extension and different approach done in papers like, ‘Ecofeminist thought and practice’ by Bruna Bianchi, ‘Han’s Christian Andersen’s Fish out of Water’ by Nancy Easterlin and ‘The Little Mermaid : Three Political Fairytales’. It will also question and answer the idea that the Trans humanist movement is populated predominately by men and the male gaze.

 

 

 

Discussion and Analysis

 

The center of ‘The Little Mermaid’ is found in the youngest mermaid of a royal family, who in form is like an ecological ‘Earth Mother’ in eco feminst terms, in that she is a reflection and symbol of nature, and she also a symbol of a ‘Meta Human’  and an amphibious character in that she has mobility and movement possibilities beyond mortal humans in the story and is also linked with being able to feel more realities and grow as a character. All of these characteristics would suggest some sort of ‘Transhumanist’ fantasy as she is both more and less than human, and she being  able to live in water, apply magic and in a way escape a normal mammal death because her grandmother tells her‘ Mermaids do not have souls. When we die we become the white foam on the face of the sea’.

 

Therefore as an opening the image of this female fish-like character is like an ecological and fantastical robot, both idealistic and beautiful and a dream for the future of mankind, but the Mermaid is young, inexperienced and eager to learn about the human world, and she even wishes to have a human souls, which would render her powerless, ordinary and susceptible to death, decay, weakness and disease. She is also imperfect as she needs to learn a lot from her grandmother, who is the wise and all-knowing archetype of the Earth mother and the good witch. She snubs the child and tells her ‘Not to say such things’, and while decorating the child explains that ‘One must suffer for beauty’. This would suggest that the little Mermaid is the one searching for perfection, and according to her view an upgrade in existence and living would be to posses a soul and not evade death with a long and meaningless life. But what pulls her out of the ‘Trans’ element is that at least in the story she is an organic being and is not physically associated with machines or technology, but remains a nature and water based character who just wants to experience a different life out of a emotional and personal need, that is free from greed and material gain.

Further on it is revealed that the mermaid keeps a statue of a perfect man in a private garden, which she idealizes and almost worships and brings ‘red corals and flowers’ to as an offering. This does come forward as something aligning her with ‘Transhumanism’, as she has set her ideals of a body, and that to a Euro-centric art piece of manliness, which is always extreme in depicting strength and beauty. From this we may derive that she has developed a notion of beauty and existence above her because as a mermaid she has no legs, she lives in the water, and this is a purely man and extremely masculine image, and is far beyond her, so metaphorically she is looking to achieve from her own body, like a man wanting to be robot would do.  She is definitely insecure and not satisfied with what she is and it  fuels her self-disdain, and pushes her to later change her body.

When she wishes to be the prince, who she looks up to and wants to be with she goes to a sea witch, and in order to get legs and be a human, she has to have her tongue cut out. This on face value does have a lot of trans humanistic tones, because she is literally changing her body and getting something that serves her purpose, but it comes at a huge price, she is unable to act fully like a normal human, she is always in pain and cannot fully fit with the real humans. This carries a similar critic on the movement as to question what is better, and the humanist acceptance and ethical question when it comes to the discourse, asking is the pain and humiliation worth it. The way the people treat her also gives a bad look about humans as it shows their evil side and their inability to accept and short-sightedness.

In her journey to find and win over the love of the prince, gaining his human emotional love is the goal, or else she will die for nothing. This again shows a unique a holistic, altruistic and comprehensive debate and narrative regarding humanity and what people want to change about it. The fact that honest love is that important, adds dignity to human life, and to the heartbreak and futile living of people, her whole body change was for futile and sexual-romantic reasons which the theory is against. Even in science fictional movies like ‘Ghost in the Shell’ the female body and need is based o n compulsive and dignified dedication to humanity, while it is the male essence that wants destruction and an end to the weakness of people, the female essence goes out of its way to accept, perform and defend humanity and humanness.

Lastly, her growth is amplified by pain and life’s reality, not by having an escape from death. It is because she is weak, powerless and vulnerable and yet holds decency and sacrifices that she instead of  becoming fully human by either marrying or killing the prince, she transcends humans and the mermaids by becoming an air fairy, as a gift from the power of god, which denotes that a drop of that humanness is better than a lack of ethics and a disregard for the sanctity of life, and her gender is crucial to making this decision, as to perhaps that people should respect the knowledge and wisdom of the earth and not be impressed by industrial prospects.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the story truly a body of questions and opinions on the overall notion of Trans humanism, if not exactly being a text typically associated with the genre and movement. It puts in to question the whole discourse and favours nature and natural living and points out the faults of technology and the ideology of going against nature, but it also is a deeply human and emotional story with a  very developed character who is human and unique because she questions, defies and experiments so much, and flips the system of nature for a good cause.

So this story really does prove woman and womanhood the ideal narration and narrative of technology, the earth and the future, and implies that there must be a balance in life, not a complete dependence on technology and respect for life.

 

 

 

 

Life Has Been a Fairy tale: The Charm of Hans Christian Andersen’s Stories

Parents begin with loving their children, they go on with raising them in the best  way they can.And sometimes they do something magical. They give their children Fairy tales.

Hans Christian Anderson is a name synonymous with wonder, fantasy, beauty, magic and endurance, all due to collection of fairy tales which for years have enchanted  the imagination of children and adults alike. Oddly enough,  in our modern world, fairy tales are  considered as children’s literature and ignored by the majority of readers. Which is  a shame even If Anderson himself had young children  as a basic audience.

Even if people have never found the chance to actually read his work,  but they have probably  seen some  films, plays; musicals based on them or simply know the names. After all this is the man who wrote classics like The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid ,The Princess and the Pea and The Brave Tin Soldier .

It is hard to imagine a world that has not been  influenced by him, and multiple  still reference him; perhaps most famously for the Disney movie Frozen, which won the Oscar for best animated film, which is loosely based on The Snow Queen. There is also the story line in the Daft Punk music video, Instant Crush, which shows the love story of The Brave Tin Soldier.

But is the reason behind this love? Why are people still enchanted by the work of a Danish writer who lived during the Victorian Age, who rose to fame from poverty? What is it there, in his stories that have lived through time and become such a huge part of our culture?

I have a few theories, but to understand fully we will have to understand  a few things regarding fairy tales in children’s literature and Andersen’s life also. In modern times we look at fairy tales as a source of entertainment only for children, but originally most of these tales were meant for all ages and were a means to discuss human nature and educate the masses , especially during the times or oral tradition . In some cases they were written to speak out against the corruption in European courts, and later in time during the 1800s, in Germany the preservation of fairy tales, became a way of protecting and defining culture. This was done by the Grimm brothers, and we get the Grimm fairytales from them, which include Snow White, Rapunzel , The Boy who went out in search of fear  and Cinderella .

Then from earlier in time, we have from France, Sir Charles Perrault who wrote extensively and wrote the original version of Sleeping Beauty. Perrault and the Grimm brothers are the two big and basic names when it comes to western fairy tales. Them I think Aesop’s fables are also pretty popular .

And it wasn’t until Hans Christian Anderson came along that such a mass majority of people were so interested in fairy tales again. Obviously other writers wrote for children to but they never got to enjoy the same celebrity like Andersen did. A good example would be, Oscar Wilde who wrote stories for children which were wonderful but when we think about him, his plays and one novel come in mind, like the Happy Prince. Andersen also wrote novels, poems, travels memoirs but nothing made such a wave in Denmark and later the world as his fairytales.

They are unique and all his own, and they stand out from most of the conventional fairy tales before him. The Grimm fairytales   have a strong moral tone and follow a simple structure of the protagonist going through a tragedy and coming through for themselves. The language is clean and simple but full of color and most of them include some really good poems. Aesop’s fables are simple yet complex, in the sense that they all have this basic lesson which is the center of the story and it’s always serious, like a good friend telling you about the harsh reality of life. The Anderson stories are his own original stories; even if they are a child of the stories he heard growing up. They have emotion in them and are original. Unlike the Grimm tales which are a bunch of common legends collected.

 

Anderson’s tales come from his own personal experiences and are multi layered, so they keep on expanding once you begin to understand them. They reach out to all the senses with the way he fully describes an action or scene.

So Death gave up each of these treasures for a song ; and the nightingale continued her singing . She sang of the quiet churchyard , where the whites roses grow , where the elder-tree moistened by the mourners tears . Then Death longed to go and see his garden , and floated out through the window in the form of a cold white mist .

The Nightingale

 

His work is very diverse when it comes to characters and cultures. With the Grimm tales one normally encounters princesses, witches and cursed animals in a strictly European setting. But Anderson travels far out in the world, from Africa to China, from a rose to a Nightingale to a Mermaid deep in the sea.

His characters have a personality and their pain is sensitive and deep. With previous fairy tales you read about bad things happening like falling to ones death or having to chop their toes or and kissing decesed bodies, but they are written very casually and slightly gruesome. When the little Mermaid or Ducking go through heartbreak the language evokes tears and makes their pain relatable.

Thus  the little mermaid drank the magic draught , and it seemed as if a two edged sword went through her delicate body : she fell into a swoon , and lay like a dead one.When the sun arose and shone over the sea, she recovered , and felt a sharp pain; but before her stood a handsome prince.

His stories do have a generic stance but they make statements about human nature, which he noticed as he moved up the social ladder. I have noticed how most fairy tales talk a great deal about royalty and have them as central characters. Anderson has that feature to but he takes a jab at them, and exposes their superficial nature also. The little Mermaid may be the good character, but the Prince she loves is a love-at-first -sight jerk. The Princess and the Pea is basically a satire that sounds like the real deal. A shade, that feels like a compliment. The little boy in The Emperor’s New Clothes is the only one in the village with a brain. I think it did good to bring a new range of characters in stories and give people a reality check.

Fairy tales may be criticized for being unrealistic for making it look like love and goodness always prevail, but not Andersoen. His characters go through rejection, isolation and failure, which is normal in children’s literature. Yet they don’t magically have the world at the palm of their hands. They don’t get the happy ending they wanted, but they do get one. The Ugly Duckling is not accepted by the ducks or the children but he finds swans who take him in. He gets to be beautiful. The Mermaid does not get to be human or the Prince, but she becomes immortal. She gets it .

He speaks to everyone and about everyone , without such a hard moralistic lens. Most of the time, his stories don’t even feature villains that have a stake in the outcome, but just represent evil. His main characters have flaws which can or cannot be over looked but are understood. Like Kay from The Snow Queen, who becomes rude towards those who love him.

But that’s because he has a cursed piece of glass in his heart, which Gerda destroys with her love and tears .

As for the Snow Queen, she like the Sea Witch does not really have much of a role, but is a choice. Kay decides to leave his safe home for the ice palace and the Mermaid decides to give her voice away. Yet by the end both of them have been redeemed.

And they both sat there, grown up , yet children at heart; and it was summer ,-warm,beautiful summer.

He does not leave much to the imagination, as are told what everything looks and feels like. How the characters are feeling and what the atmosphere is like. This is something is his fairy tales because the Grimm fairy tales and other collections often lead a lot to the reader, which is probably why they have such diverse film adaptations. It is debatable which style is better for a good story , but both seem to work in their own way .

 

To conclude, Hans Christian Anderson wrote marvels which have  enchanted people . With intricate settings, lovable characters and stories which are no less than an adventure. He did more than just write something , he expressed himself In a way that humanized toys enough for people to feel bittersweet .  He made Denmark proud and made his dreams come true , without the full effect . Just like the Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid . If nothing  besides that he gave us a piece of our childhood.