The Story Line Of The Little Mermaid

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Ankita Rane
May 29, 2019   •  24 views

Remember the stories we grew up with, the stories with cute happy endings and a moral tagged along. Well, not all of them ended that happily, few stories have their very own different original versions which most of us are not familiar with.

One such popular tale with the altered storyline is
The Little Mermaid:

The Little Mermaid was introduced to us by Walt Disney Animations in 1989. In Disney's The Little Mermaid, the mermaid Ariel daughter of Triton-the ruler of Atlantica falls in love with a human prince named Eric when she saves him from drowning when a storm hits his ship. Ariel's desire to be with Prince Eric results in her making a deal with a sea witch Ursala who gives Ariel legs, to be more of a human and less of a mermaid for a time span of three days in exchange of Ariel's voice. In these three days, Ariel must receive a kiss of true love from the prince. If Ariel fails her life will belong to Ursala.

The story further molds into a situation wherein Ariel fails to get a kiss of true love before the third day's sunset resulting in her belonging to Ursala. When the occurred events come in the notice to Triton he asks Ursala to leave Ariel in exchange of his own life also granting the undersea kingdom to her. As the story progresses it is seen that prince Erin achieves success in defeating Ursala, thus, everything turns back to as it was earlier. Triton then also realizes that his daughter truly loves the prince and thus makes her human permanently so she could have her happy ending with her prince. This is the Disney version of the little mermaid.

Originally, The Little Mermaid was written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in 1837. In Hans Christian Andersen's tale, the little mermaid does fall in love with the prince when she saves him from the storm just like Ariel falls for Eric but the prince never gets to see his savior. The little mermaid is very curious about humans and she gets to know from her grandmother that humans have a life span shorter than that of mermaids, for mermaids live for 300 years but when they die they turn into a seafoam whereas humans have an immortal soul which rises up from their dead body to a place where mermaids could never see (here the author probably talks about the idea of heaven). The little mermaid is amazed by the thought of an immortal soul and feels sorrow that she couldn't have one. Her grandmother tells her that if a man marries and loves her his soul could descend into her and she could share the happiness of humans but the possibilities are none as they have a tail and not legs.

The love for the prince and fondness for the immortal soul leads the little mermaid to seek help from the sea witch, the little mermaid pays a huge price by sacrificing her voice just as Ursala takes Ariel's voice but the story doesn't pause here the sea witch warns the little mermaid that the legs will cause immense pain as if swords were passed through her and on every step she'll feel like she is stepping on knives, the sea witch also warns her that she could never turn back to her old self and if the prince marries a different human girl the little mermaid will turn into a seafoam and wouldn't have an immortal soul either.

The Little mermaid agrees to the things she gets herself into. Later when she meets the prince he tells her about the girl he saw when he was saved from the storm, the prince has no memory of the little mermaid but the girl he sees at the shore. The prince later gets to marry the exact same girl who is also a princess of a neighboring kingdom. The story tells us that the prince only loved the little mermaid as a little child and nowhere near to a wife. The day the prince marries the princess the little mermaid understands that she is going to turn into a seafoam and she has no happy ending that we are more familiar with.

To change the fate her sisters sacrifice their hair to the witch and in exchange get a sharp knife which if the little mermaid stabs the prince with will be able to get her mermaid life back. The mermaid isn't able to kill the prince as for her the love she has for the Prince is more than her life and she throws away the knife. She accepts her death but the end reveals that as she has suffered a lot and did try her best to get a soul she turns into a daughter of the air who could receive an immortal soul on doing all good in her power

So no, the little mermaid does not have a happy ending with the prince like a fairy tale but a list of tragic misfortunes in her way. Ariel's story also does not cover the immortal soul part which Hans Christian Andersen has narrated in his story. But both the stories talk about love and sacrifices one makes for love in a captivating way.

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