The Little Mermaid

"Again she looked at the prince; her eyes were already glazed in death. She threw herself into the sea and felt her body changing into foam." It is with these final words, the Little Mermaid commits suicide. This version, by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, is a stark contrast from the famous Disney movie, where the Little Mermaid not only marries her prince, but they live happily ever after and, in the sequel, they even have a daughter. However, few people know that the Disney film was based on the 1837 fairy tale by Andersen.

Hans Christian Andersen uses an immense amount of detail and imagery in his tale, "The Little Mermaid". In Andersen's version it is repeatedly emphasized that mermaids have no soul, and stresses that in order for mermaids to have a soul that lives forever, they must marry a human being. The Little Mermaid (who remains nameless in the text) sells her voice to the sea witch (who chops off her tongue) for a pair of human legs that put her in pain so intense that "every time [the Little Mermaid's] foot touches the ground it will feel as though [she] were walking on knives so sharp that [her] blood must flow."1 and is told that "If you cannot make the prince fall so much in love with you that he forgets both his father and mother, because his every thought concerns only you, and he orders the priest to take his right hand and place it in yours, so that you become man and wife; then, the first morning after he has married another, your heart will break and you will become foam on the ocean."2 After the Prince marries another princess, due to the fact that he mistakenly believed she saved him and not the mermaid, the Little Mermaid's sisters, hand her a magic knife telling her, "Before the sun rises, you must plunge it into the heart of the prince; when his warm blood sprays on your feet, they will turn into a fishtail and you will be a mermaid again."3 The Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill her one true love and commits suicide and is saved by the "daughters of the air".

Disney's "The Little Mermaid" uses some concepts from Hans Christian Andersen, such as the mermaid falling in love with the prince after saving him and the evil sea witch obtaining the mermaid's voice as payment for human leg, but overall it is modified to be a more child-friendly fairy-tale by removing the vile parts, like chopping off of the tongue and spells that give her terrible pain with each step she takes. Ursula, the sea witch, only takes her voice, "I'm not asking much. Just a token really, a trifle.

You'll never even miss it. What I want from you is... your voice."4 Ariel only has three days to have Prince kiss her and the witch pulls a lot of trick to try to stop that from happening, such as sending her eel minions to stop them from kissing during the "Kiss the Girl" scene and changing herself into a beautiful woman and using Ariel's voice to trick the prince into almost marrying her. However, as with almost all Disney movie, the story ends in "happily-ever-after" fashion causing this version of "The Little Mermaid" to be the most well-known and beloved version of this tale.

Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Little Mermaid, made the main mermaid the youngest of all the daughters of the King of the Sea. When adapting the story for Disney's movie, the little mermaid was named "Ariel" and was kept as the youngest of King Triton's daughters. The decision of the little mermaid to be the youngest sister symbolizes the struggle as a woman to grow from adolescence to adult-hood. We see the desire in Andersen's original tale for the little mermaid, who is 10, to reach 15, meaning she is viewed as a young lady, and therefore old enough to venture to the surface of the ocean.