June 12, 2011

  • The Little Mermaid

                                  

    I always thought of Ariel from the Disney mermaid story as being conventional and beautiful.  Ariel, in search for her true love, risked everything to be with the prince of his dreams, and in the end, succeeded so by her love and determination.  Love over-rules everything, we learn.  As long as you are willing.

    But today as I researched places to visit in Copenhagen, I discovered the true ending to the Little Mermaid story, the original version by Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish writer and Poet.  Because of this story, a statue was built on a rock in Copenhagen Harbour. 

    The story was one that brought chills and sorrow to the ends of my spine.  As with a lot of other stories written by famous authors in the 1800s. The little mermaid did not end up marrying the prince.  She watched him marry another princess and threw herself into the waters to die and dissolve into foam.  She had not gained his love but instead, only added to her own sorrow by becoming a human. And when she was transformed into a human by the wicked witch, her feet were not real in the sense that every step that she moved it felt like a double edged sword had poked through her whole body.  And worst of all, she could not cry because mermaids possessed no tears.  How awful and how pitiful the story ended.  She lost everything she owned by trying to find her true love.  Was it really worth it?  If she had the chance to choose again, would she do the same?
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