Disney’s The Little Mermaid made us believe that fairy tales could be real and that impossible loves were more than possible.
But behind the fantasy lies the dark story written by Hans Christian Andersen, which shows us a world where torture, pain, and heartbreak are the protagonists.
The True Story of The Little Mermaid
It was in 1837 when the author released this story, which, although it shares similarities with the 1989 animated film, has a very different plot.
The movie portrays the life of a teenage mermaid who falls in love with a human prince and, in order to be with him, makes a deal with Ursula, the sea witch.
Ariel manages to exchange her tail for a pair of legs, but not for free – she gives her voice to Ursula, and if she fails to make the prince fall in love with her within a certain time, she will return to being a mermaid.
As in all princess movies, there is also a “and they lived happily ever after” in this one, and even a sequel was released, with her daughter as the protagonist.
Unfortunately, this story as we know it is nothing like the original. Hans Christian Andersen presented it in a much darker way.
The story portrays a young woman who, regardless of the risks and warnings, sacrifices everything not for a man, but for her desire to be immortal.
The Little Mermaid goes to the Sea Witch to become human and thus have an eternal soul. She gets her legs, but every step causes her terrible pain, as if something were stabbing her.
As in the Disney movie, the deal is to give up being a mermaid for her voice, but in the story, the witch cuts off her tongue.
Tormented by the prince’s heartbreak, who marries another woman, the young woman, advised by her sisters, decides to stab him to return to her life in the sea.
In a final attempt, the young woman forgives him and throws herself into the sea, ready to accept her fate. It’s not the happiest ending, but it is what she wanted. For her good deed, she is rewarded and joins the metaphorical paradise of ‘women in the air.’
Hans Christian Andersen died in 1875, but his famous work of ‘The Little Mermaid’, which has inspired more than one project, lives on. Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, keeps his memory alive with statues in his honor, but also of his story, which will make us never see the Disney movie the same way again.
Story originally written in Spanish by Nayeli Párraga in Cultura Colectiva.
