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The famous Disney story “The little mermaid” was originally written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837. The story is the folklore which acquires different social or human element within it. For instance, the writer has identified the elements including sexuality, love, the attitude of human, pain, and decision making. The main feature that relates the story with the tradition or real life is the ending. Unlike other fiction story which shows happy ending, intimacy between loved ones, author "Hans Christian Andersen", develops a different ending where mermaid rejuvenates soul and saves her life without killing her love of life. A story can be deemed a folklore that comprises realistic traits regardless of their presentation in an unrealistic manner as a wide range of symbolic representation is offered in the story by Hans Christian Andresen.
A story becomes folklore when it represents a particular culture or belief of a community and is repeatedly shared by people. Folklores travel through generations, and with time communities or groups of people start taking pride in that. In addition, folklores are often based on fictions and myths, yet they penetrate the society, and people make it the part of their beliefs. In the story "The Little Mermaid", the author used two main motifs of folklore. The first and main motif of the story is the concept of the mermaid ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"XiT1FJYH","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Andersen)","plainCitation":"(Andersen)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":227,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/8B2CE8TY"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/8B2CE8TY"],"itemData":{"id":227,"type":"paper-conference","title":"DISNEY ' S SUB / VERSION OF ANDERSEN ' S THE LITTLE MERMAID By Roberta Trites 1 Although","source":"Semantic Scholar","abstract":"1 Although Hans Christian Andersen's \"The Little Mermaid,\" published in 1837, contains many patronizing nineteenth-century attitudes toward women a value system that at least acknowledges the legitimacy of feminity shapes the fairytale. Unfortunately, Walt Disney's 1989 film version of \"The Little Mermaid\" eliminates the values that affirm femininity in the original story. Disney's changes result in characters, images, and conflicts that rob women of integrity, making the movie even more sexist than the original story.","author":[{"family":"Andersen","given":"Hans Christian"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Andersen). A woman whose lower part have the tail and she lives in the sea. In reality, there is no such sense of the existence of the mermaid not in the past or future. For instance, there is the concept of women with supernatural power and some extraordinary skills. In addition, there are various accounts of women of being living in the water but there is no concept of evidence of being half fish or tailor mermaid appearance of any women. However, this concept becomes the part of society as various evidence indicates where women tried to be like mermaid the most common example is the mermaid concept using in the circus. The popularity of the mermaid is continued and now it uses in movies, cartoon, jokes and party themes.
Furthermore, Folklore and myths are strongly linked. Moreover, folklores have sometimes become sacred, and often people associate them with religion. When some religious touch is given to folklore, people become emotionally attached with such tales, and these stories are passed on to generation. Even if myths are included in the religious folklore, people do not bother to investigate as to whether the story is true or not, they just start believing in that. For instance, the other motif of the folklore used in the story is substituted or false bride. The narrative of the author showed that the mermaid saved the life of the prince but was unable to reveal her identity or to tell the truth as her tongue was cut off. The prince was unaware of reality and misunderstood reality. He thought the princess of the neighbor kingdom was the one who saved his life. In Disney, story myth was added at this point where witch of sea transformed her into a beautiful young woman and told Prince that she was the one who saved him. It was because she was attracted to the voice of the price. This motif has prominently hindered the analysis of the fundamental symbolic content of the story.
According to the author, there is the vast symbolism works to tell the story and pursue the lesson. There is a series of symbolism represented by the development of the mermaid. The first attitude of jealousy and love came in her childhood. The little mermaid developed specific feelings and love for her father and due to this feeling she developed the attitude of jealousy for her mother. It symbolizes the common attachment found in reality. For instance, it is one of the facts that sons remain closer to their mothers while the daughters establish a close connection with the father. Therefore, the father becomes the love object in the story where daughter love was the normal development course. The other symbolism term used in the story is the sexism. This aspect is defined in detail and from a different prospect. For instance, the initial story indicates that mermaid had no soul and they are free from sexual desire, however, it was not defined through the story that how they reproduce. In addition, her father assumed that she will marry mermen which mean permanent virginity. However, when the little mermaid desired for the lower half of the body similar to that of a human, it symbolized the desire of sexuality. Her tail was replaced by the legs which indicated the availability of human-sexual availability. It can be understood through other prospects that by losing the tail for being human, the little mermaid pays a price to get virginity or female sexual part.
Another symbolism was represented by the concept of the tongue being cut. The story tells that due to the tongue being cut, mermaid was unable to tell the truth. However, it also represents the sexual component. This is because the voice is considered as sexual beauty. It can attract the opposite gender. For instance, in Disney story, the sea witch was attracted to the beautiful voice of the prince and tried to be his wife through fraud. With the same prospect, the little mermaid can be desirable by the prince if he got attracted to the mermaid beautiful voice. The author identified several self-realization ways for women. Another symbolism of the story was the marriage. The little mermaid was told that if she wants to live, she has to marry the prince. It indicates that the life of the woman can be completed only when she gets married. It can be understood by the context that as she asked for the legs, she has to sacrifice her purity or virginity by making sexual relation with the prince ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"VbyPVSu6","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Dundes and Dundes)","plainCitation":"(Dundes and Dundes)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":232,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/325SIYU6"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/325SIYU6"],"itemData":{"id":232,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Trident and the Fork: Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ as a male construction of an Electral fantasy","container-title":"Psychoanalytic Studies","page":"117-130","volume":"2","issue":"2","source":"Taylor and Francis+NEJM","DOI":"10.1080/713692451","ISSN":"1460-8952","shortTitle":"The Trident and the Fork","author":[{"family":"Dundes","given":"Lauren"},{"family":"Dundes","given":"Alan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2000",6,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Dundes and Dundes). However, the authors developed the story by giving the message that a woman can live happily and independently without harnessing a relationship comprising marriage. The author aspires to symbolize the woman as the independent creature caused by the dependency on the male partner. This is one of the reasons that the author did not develop the typical ending where two partners get together or get married to make a happy ending. Instead, the author gave the twist, where mermaid became the daughter of air and got the soul. Getting the soul was an explicit notion to symbolize that the woman or mermaid got independent.
The story of the little mermaid is not just a fairy tale. It has a social implication as well. As moral of the story provides a lesson which individuals can apply in their lives in true letter and spirits. In this story, the author directly focused on the typical behavior of the society where the male is dominant and female somehow rely on them as the mother, daughter and love. We live in a male dominant society and the theme of the story and fear of the mermaid within the story indicate the unconscious anxieties of the males. For instance, in the starting of the story mermaid had unconscious anxiety because of her father and later the prince also became the object that symbolized the same problem. All the situations, feelings and decision making of the little mermaid was directly linked to the male character of the story ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"WtDflm2J","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Altman and Altman, Anne E., DeVos, Gail)","plainCitation":"(Altman and Altman, Anne E., DeVos, Gail)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":230,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/C9ZPWLI4"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/mlRB1JqV/items/C9ZPWLI4"],"itemData":{"id":230,"type":"book","title":"Tales, Then and Now: More Folktales As Literary Fictions for Young Adults","publisher":"Libraries Unlimited","URL":"http://books.google.com/books?id=TK0fOeuFiA0C&pg=PA187&dq=little mermaid Disney differences&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hR7QUPPUHIGuigKqlYG4Bw&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=little%20mermaid%20Disney%20differences&f=false","ISBN":"978-1-56308-831-5","shortTitle":"Tales, Then and Now","author":[{"family":"Altman","given":"Anne E."},{"family":"Altman, Anne E., DeVos, Gail","given":""}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2001"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Altman and Altman, Anne E., DeVos, Gail). For instance, mermaid loved her father and was jealous and afraid of her mother which caused her to abandon home. The later events she witnessed in her life were a manifestation of being associated with the prince. She had to make a decision about whether to kill the love of her life or else embrace death. In the society, the primary identity of the females is embedded in the family and the especially male member of the family. She has to be obedient and submissive to her father, elder brother, and husband. The character and qualities are being judged by noticing how much male member of her family is pleased with her. It indicates the male dominance where the life of female moves around them. The author at this point developed a great moral. He started from describing the characteristics and consequences that a female faces during her development. However, the twist came at the end when she did not kill the prince or marry her. Instead she got the soul and became the daughter of the air. In the context of social implication, author advances to pursue the message that female of the society should seek for her independence. She should not be dependent on male whether he is the father or lover, or husband. Female should seek for the real happiness which pleases her. She should not spend her life for pleasing other male members her entire life. In short, the author wants to spread the essential message that female should find out her own identity.
Works Cited
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Altman, Anne E., and Altman, Anne E., DeVos, Gail. Tales, Then and Now: More Folktales As Literary Fictions for Young Adults. Libraries Unlimited, 2001, http://books.google.com/books?id=TK0fOeuFiA0C&pg=PA187&dq=little mermaid Disney differences&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hR7QUPPUHIGuigKqlYG4Bw&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=little%20mermaid%20Disney%20differences&f=false.
Andersen, Hans Christian. DISNEY ’ S SUB / VERSION OF ANDERSEN ’ S THE LITTLE MERMAID By Roberta Trites 1 Although. 2012.
Dundes, Lauren, and Alan Dundes. “The Trident and the Fork: Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ as a Male Construction of an Electral Fantasy.” Psychoanalytic Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, June 2000, pp. 117–30. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, doi:10.1080/713692451.
