Innocence is a poison. Love kills. And fairy tales actually are little lies candy.
The Little Mermaid is one of those stories that we would not want to read in bed. Because before Disney take her to the screen between festive rhythms and colors of thousands of fish, the fate of Ariel was quite different.
He met a prince, yes.
He changed his beautiful voice for a pair of legs, yes.
Highest aspiration was to go outside and fall in love with a human, too.
But none of these things went well. In the classic story by Hans Christian Andersen Lumen which has just reissued in an illustrated tale and accompanied by the siren voice of Carme Riera edition we realize the cruelty and brutality to which marine teenager had to face.
Nicole Arce
The real story, then began: a siren turned fifteen and then was allowed to climb the outside. Until then, as with the rest of her sisters, young mermaids could not go to the dangers of the
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So, once he had permission to visit the area, he left home and took the water head first.
What we found him was very nervous, and inevitably love. Among rockets and fireworks, a beautiful boat bobbed between songs and laughter. Within it, a lot of sailors celebrating the birthday of a young very beautiful. The prince met 16 years, and this was his big party.
via Pinterest
Amused, The Little Mermaid looked at his beloved prince, until a terrible storm caused a wreck. She swam to save him, and took him to the shore where awakening, he also fell in love with the great beauty and beautiful voice of this strange girl . the siren went back to sea, and both she and the young prince were obsessed with each other.
How tempting fate to follow your heart?
How to achieve an almost impossible dream?
Why go on living under the sea, if only love beats provokes a
“The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.” – Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild
The first reason why Ariel is most like myself is because of her love for adventure. In the film, The Little Mermaid, Ariel wonders off to ship wrecks and swims up to the surface to speak to birds to identify human objects. She is always on the run for an adventure, much like myself. If I am not at home taking care of my family, we are out at the Kermit sand hills, taking last minute trips to Indiana, or spending the weekend at my families’ lake house. Like the quote in The Little Mermaid and on “IMDb” says, “If only I could make him understand. I just don't see things the way he does. I just don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad,” I too agree, the world is a beautiful, magnificent place and taking adventures and exploring is something that has always been appealing to me.
In addition, this film explores a new way to love, breaking the trope of Disney’s traditional and antiquated love stories. Beauty and the Beast is not about love at first sight, but rather a more realistic representation of love, when two equal people learn to know and appreciate one another. As Charles Solomon explains in his insightful article "Animated Heroines Finally Get in Step With the Times” in the Los Angeles Times:
Throughout the novel Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie explicitly illuminates gender stereotypes and paternal and maternal qualities of the Victorian era. In the early 20th century, patriarchal society strictly defined men and women’s roles in the community. Traditionally, men were expected to attain manhood in the eyes of other men in society, find a spouse, achieve success and respect, provide for their wife and family, work through hardships, live adventurously, and financially succeed. A woman’s main role in life was her responsibilities to her family- primarily seen as wives, mothers, and caretakers, with her place being in a domestic setting. Through Peter Pan, Mr. and Mrs. Darling, Wendy, and Peter Pan each adhere to the classic gender stereotypes and paternal and maternal characteristics of the early 20th century in their own unique way.
The ocean is mysterious to mankind. The unfathomable vastness of the ocean intrigues humanity into exploring it. In life, the immense possibilities that lie in the future compel us to reach for the stars. In the poem “The Story” by Karen Connelly, an individual willingly swims into deep waters even though they are fearful of what may exist in the waters. The swimmer later finds out that their fears were foolish, which illustrates the human tendency to venture into the unknown. The theme conveyed in this poem is that life is like a rough, uncertain, uncontrollable ocean that we must find get through with experience.
Similarities between fairy tales are evident all throughout the tales. A specific similarity that I thought was important was the element of some kind of deal made between the protagonist and the antagonist of the story. For example, in Rapunzel, The Little Mermaid, and Jack and the Beanstalk. In Rapunzel, the two parents were stealing a plant called a rampion from an old witch and she didn’t like this. She made a deal with them that they could take as many plants as they wanted as long as when their first born child was born, they would give it to the witch. In The Little Mermaid, a mermaid named Ariel is sick and tired of living under the sea. She observes all the fun that humans get to have and she wants to be apart of it. She makes
...depicts human love as a product of maturity, whereas Disney depicts it as a cause of maturity” (Trites 4). This fundamental change of maturity in Disney’s version is where the problem rests, teaching audiences that seeking a mate is the path to maturity and independence for women, when in reality love is complicated and ever changing. The “disneyfication” of The Little Mermaid perpetuates negative aspects of American cultural ideals, losing the moral integrity and lessons intended to be taught from the original fairytale.
In both Hans Christian Andersons “The Little Mermaid,” and Disney’s version of the story, the main character— a young and beautiful mermaid— waits anxiously for her fifteenth birthday to venture from her father’s underwater castle to the world above the water. As the story carries on the mermaids priorities change; her modest and selfless nature is revealed towards the end in Andersen’s version. However, Disney’s version encompasses a rather shallow ending and plot throughout. The theme found in comparing the two versions reveal that Andersen’s substance trumps Disney’s entertainment factor in fairy tales.
The tales, more often than not, were always about the life of a princess in search of her prince charming. In line with the stories, one can never deny the fact that there would always be a villain or an antagonist. Those were the characters that would do anything to destroy the lives of the princesses or protagonists. Walt Disney films are known as one of the most prominent developers of fantasy stories and characters, and most of these made use of films as a tool to expose such movies. Evidently, children have always been exposed to this kind of films, films that have the “never-ending-tale-of-love-story” concept.
No matter how much we try and do everything right, some things just are not meant to be and the mermaid was not meant for the prince (Ingwersen). Love can make people go crazy and they will do anything to receive that same love and passion back from them (Cravens). In this story, the little mermaid is madly in love with the prince and she does everything and anything to gain love back from him. “Stick out your little tongue, and let me cut it off in payment, and you shall have the potion." "Let it happen," whispered the little mermaid” (Andersen).
According to A. Waller Hastings Ariel didn’t have to face her consequences. The movie ends with Ariel’s father trading his life to the sea witch in order to save her. “Once again Disney’s heroine survives to find happiness thanks solely to the heroism and sacrifice of male characters” (O’Brien). Because of this, Ariel doesn’t grow or mature. Instead, everyone lives happily ever after thanks to the men in Ariel’s life (Hastings). Now, there’s nothing wrong with living happily ever after. However, this perpetuates an unrealistic expectation of life for impressionable viewers that abide by Mulvey’s theories on narcissism and how viewers may relate themselves to the object on the screen (Storey, 110). The image of a helpless damsel in distress being saved by men with no further consequences to her life is harmful because it may give viewers a distorted view of reality. The damsel in distress stereotype erases all of Ariel’s prior independence due to the fact that she has to be
Over the years, fairytales have been distorted in order to make them more family friendly. Once these changes occur, the moral and purpose of the stories begin to disappear. The tales featured in the many Disney movies - beloved by so many - have much more malignant and meaningful origins that often served to scare children into obeying their parents or learning valuable life lessons.
...s, J (1988) a scary thought considering that most of us believe that these Fairy Tales are wholesome moral messages crucial for a child’s development. Which brings me to my next point.
In the procedure of growing up, the fairy tales played a very important role in my life. I always think that childhood is too short for people to prepare for growing up. Even your parents can’t teach you all the things they’ve ever learned, so I have to admit that most of the life lessons I was taught by the fairy tale. And even now, I’m already an adult. And I’ve already realized what “real life” is, but to be honest I never blame the fairy tale which makes me believe how wonderful life is. Because all the lessons that fairy tales taught me still benefit me for life. And there are three fairy tales I would like to discuss about: The theme of The Little Mermaid, the character of Snow White, and the setting of Peter Pan.
A person can take a story and look at it from many ways. Fairy tales represent the transformation of young people. Beauty is transformed into a young woman; she passes through the stages successfully and in turn is able to love. Every story teaches a lesson and in this case more than one lesson is taught. Not only is the lesson of sexuality and maturity taught, an even more important lesson is taught. Beauty and the Beast shows that true love comes from within the inside and if it is meant to be it will prevail.