Why Hans Christain Andersen’s Darker Version of the Fairy Tale May Be Better Than The 1989 Disney Adaptation
Hans Christan Anderson’s The Little Mermaid
In Hans Christian Andersen’s original dark fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, the unnamed little mermaid longs for a soul. She rescues a prince and leaves him at a temple to heal. Curious, she asks her grandmother about the lives of mortals and learns that the only way the merfolk can gain a soul is through marriage to a mortal. She decides her greatest desire is to marry the prince she rescued so that she can have a soul.
The little mermaid bargains with a sea witch for legs so that she can woo the prince. In exchange, she must give up, not only her voice but her comfort and potentially her life. Every time she takes a step on her new legs, she feels pain like daggers shooting up her feet and if the prince does not marry her, she will turn into seafoam and die.
The little mermaid finds the prince, but he does not love her. He sees her as a cute, childlike friend rather than a potential bride and becomes engaged to another princess who had nursed him back to health inside the temple. On the day of the wedding, the little mermaid’s sisters bring her a magical dagger they bought from the sea witch with their hair. They tell her that if she kills the prince with the magical dagger she can turn back into a mermaid and return to the sea.
The little mermaid cannot bear to harm the man she loves even after he has wed another. Instead of following her sisters’ advice and freeing herself from the sea witch’s curse, she throws herself into the sea, accepting her death. Because of her sacrifice, she is granted a soul. Her body turns to seafoam but her soul lives on forever.
Meaning of The Little Mermaid
At its core, The Little Mermaid is the tale of someone who is willing to take risks to be true to themselves. It’s the story of a literal fish out of water, desperately wanting to belong in a world not meant for them. Any reader who has ever felt they didn’t quite fit in can relate to the little mermaid’s quest to belong. She longs for a soul — something her family doesn’t care to understand — and is willing to sacrifice her own comfort to obtain one. Hans Christain Andersen may have been writing about his own longing for acceptance when he crafted the fairy tale.
Hans Christian Andersen was bisexual. Living in the 1800s he would have often had to hide his liaisons with lovers. Hiding who he was may have felt like he was being forced to give up his voice and walk on knives. Meanwhile, the objects of his affection often saw him as a friend rather than a lover, and he would be required to attend their weddings.
Hans Christain Andersen is also speculated by some historians to have been an undiagnosed autistic person. The mermaid heroine shows quite a few autistic traits. She has an intense interest in the human world and a lack of awareness of the danger involved in making a pact with the sea witch (Jessica Kellgren on Autism tropes). In this interpretation, the little mermaid’s loss of voice and dagger-sharp steps are an apt metaphor for autistic “masking” or hiding one’s true self in order to be accepted by society.
The story of someone longing to change their body in order to find their true self can also be a very elegant metaphor for being transgender. Unlike the other merfolk, the little mermaid is not satisfied with her life in the sea and is willing to risk the pain and awkwardness of transitioning to become her true self. (For a more in-depth analysis of the transgender themes in The Little Mermaid watch this video by Lindsay Ellis).
Whatever Hans Christain Andersen’s intent, anyone who has ever felt like an outsider trying to find acceptance can relate to the themes in The Little Mermaid. The almost universal craving to belong may be why it is still such a beloved fairy tale almost 200 years after it was written.
Disney’s 1989 Adaptation of The Little Mermaid
The intense feeling of longing in The Little Mermaid is beautifully expressed in the classic song “Part of Your World” from the 1989 Disney adaptation of the fairy tale. In this song, the little mermaid expresses her desire for more. For a world that accepts her the way she is. Despite its siren musical score, however, the 1989 Disney adaptation of The Little Mermaid makes a lot of changes to Hans Christian Andersen’s original story.
Disney names the little mermaid Ariel and changes her desire for a soul to a deep curiosity for human life. She falls in love at first sight with the prince who Disney names Eric. In Disney’s version, the prince’s bride is actually the sea witch in disguise. Rather than sacrifice herself to the sea, Ariel rescues Eric from the sea witch’s deceit and marries him herself.
On the surface, this Disney adaptation appears to be much more satisfying. Everything is ultimately restored to the little mermaid. She lives happily ever after in wedded bliss instead of turning into seafoam. In Hans Christian Andersen’s original fairy tale, however, despite turning into seafoam, the little mermaid does obtain what she wanted all along — her soul.
The Little Mermaid’s Sacrifice
In Hans Christain Andersen’s original, despite the tragedy of her sacrifice, the little mermaid doesn’t need the prince to have her desire for a soul granted. She gives her life to save him, but obtaining her heart’s desire is dependent on her own actions rather than who will or won’t choose her as a bride. Her soul is her own, earned by her own innate goodness, not borrowed through marriage. It shifts the narrative from a love story to a story about finding one’s true self, which more accurately fits the themes of seeking belonging embedded into the story from the beginning.
The older, darker version of the fairy tale resonates with more hope than Disney’s “happier” ending because it is when the little mermaid is her truest self, regardless of the acceptance of others, that she ultimately transcends her pain and becomes all that she desires to be. She actualizes herself with her own agency rather than earning the love of others. Hans Christian Andersen’s little mermaid pays the ultimate sacrifice in order to be herself and, in the end, that was all she ever needed.
You can learn more about Taryn Tyler’s dark fairy tale retellings here