Honor C. Appleton
Friday, August 3, 2012
Cassandra Golds on Little Mermaid
I have to draw your attention to this exerpt from Cassandra Golds' entry on Little Mermaid over at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles (albeit a bit late...). Over and over recently I've been struck by how things that seem anti-feminist to us now were actually relatively liberal for their time, and not to say that this was Andersen's intent, but I really enjoyed this take on Little Mermaid:
"Many people seem to think that this story of
Andersen’s is deeply anti-feminist. I think that is a profound misreading. I’m
not arguing that he was a feminist in our terms or that he was anything other
than a man of his time. But it astonishes me that such people haven’t noticed
that he has identified himself completely with his female hero — she’s not the
Other (as women continue to be for so many male authors), she is himself.
Furthermore, she is doing something completely atypical of traditional fairy
tale heroines (or at least those belonging to the canon of the best known) — she
is the lover, not the beloved, the active, not the passive one. Indeed, it is
she who saves the prince from drowning in a feat that would take almost
impossible strength and stamina, even for a mermaid. She’s only a
fifteen-year-old girl with a fishtail, after all, and yet she holds the
insensible prince above the waves during the entirety of a terrible storm at
sea, which has wrecked his ship, and which rages all night. Then, as the story
develops, she pursues him — but, lacking the voice she has given in payment
to the Sea Witch for the magic that will split her fishtail into legs (and less
obviously but just as importantly, being a foundling with no family or earthly
breeding) — she is unable to win his love. (And incidentally, what an
unforgettable character the Sea Witch is — laughing in scorn at romantic love,
and cutting, with the Little Mermaid, one of the most chilling devil’s bargains
in literature. And the Little Mermaid’s grandmother — what a marvelous creation!
— with all her wise counsel against reaching too high, and being discontent with
what she believes to be the pretty good wicket of mermaid-hood.) It is also
crucial to note, not only that the Little Mermaid makes her own independent
choices, creates her own destiny, throughout the story, but also that in the
overwhelmingly powerful denouement, which is to some extent a twist, the Little
Mermaid beats the Sea Witch and even the strictures of the story itself, at
their own game. Two possible endings have been laid out for her by others;
instead — by staying utterly true to her self, her principles and her conception of genuine love —
she invents her own."
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I linked the very same article! Great minds think alike.
ReplyDeleteI loved her take on it.
I can see why feminists would bash the Little Mermaid, but then again,most of them don't look at it in the light it was meant to. I'm a guy and I wish that I was capable of the selflessness and true love that the Little Mermaid exemplifies.
ReplyDeleteA mermaid agrees to give her voice to the witch, so that she can exchange her tail for a pair of legs. The princess mermaid did all these so she can live on land with her love, the prince she's seen from her visits to the shore. This is certainly a dazzling story that would be remembered for all time.
ReplyDeleteIn accordance with Francisco's comment about the feminists' insight: Each of us has his/her own way of interpreting a certain book, Francisco. We can't blame the feminists if that's how they see Ariel, like how I can't blame you if you wish to be capable of the selflessness and true love that the Little Mermaid exemplifies.