Character Analysis & Adaptations || The Little Mermaid

A week or two ago, my friend Alyssa mentioned doing a feature that highlighted one of our favorite characters in literature and some current adaptations. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I'm clearly quite obsessed with fairytale retellings. One of my favorite fairytale characters is The Little Mermaid, and today it's her that I'm choosing to spotlight.

Source

The Little Mermaid is the story of a young mermaid with a desire to live above land with the prince she loves. The original fairytale goes that, at the age of 15, a mermaid is allowed to swim up to the surface and see the world above. On the night that The Little Mermaid goes, she spies a ship and the handsome prince on it and falls in love with him. There's a great storm and she goes ahead and saves him from the shipwreck, bringing him to shore and waiting until a girl from the temple finds him.  

The Little Mermaid returns to her home, but is discontent and decides that she must find a way to live in the world above. She takes a potion that gives her legs and the ability to dance, although not without its consequences, particularly pain. Plus, there's a catch - she only gets a soul if the prince falls in love with her and marries her. Otherwise, she's doomed to die as sea foam. She makes it to the surface, meets her prince and he likes her. But he's still looking for the girl from the temple - who he ends up marrying. 

Instead of dying straightaway, The Little Mermaid is given the chance to save herself if she can murder her prince. But, because she loves him so ardently, she cannot do it and instead throws herself into the ocean and becomes a spirit of the air for her sacrifice.

Not quite the happy ending that Disney boasts, yes?

I've always found The Little Mermaid's story quite fascinating. Initially, of course, it was because I was fascinated by the idea of living under the sea, in a world that sounded so magical and wonderful and different from ours. I know that I can probably closely approximate it by learning how to dive, but seriously, how interesting would it be to live under the sea?

But more than that, what really makes her stand out to me is her desire to go against the norm and to do something different for herself. She could have chosen to be content and stay under the sea with her big family (another tidbit I loved), but instead, she chose a path fraught with difficulty and unknowable consequences. I love that she took the risk, I really do. 

Plus, it is clear that her love is deep and ardent, despite being unrequited. She sacrificed a lot for love, and anyone who is willing to give up that much for something she's not even sure of earns a certain amount of respect from me.

The Little Mermaid has been adapted in a couple of ways - ballets, movies, books and even a Broadway show. While I'm sure there are many out there, I'm just going to share the ones that I've enjoyed and can personally vouch for below.

Books

There is nothing like the original fairytale, to be honest. But I do like the way it's retold in Midnight Pearls, and I also think it was creatively done in Fathomless.

Movies

Apart from the Disney adaptation (which was done the year I was born), I've also enjoyed Splash (which was out even before I was born, but is still pretty cute) and Aquamarine (which is just plain fun).

Broadway

When I discovered that The Little Mermaid would be on Broadway, I got super excited! As a theater geek and a Disney fan, this was definitely something I looked forward to. I actually really enjoyed the performance (though I only watched it via YouTube clips) and the songs!

Feel free to share more adaptations of The Little Mermaid in the comments! I'm always on the lookout for new ones to love.