Giselle Lee Hosler

Professor Pressman

ECL305

May 9th, 2024

The Pisces, written by Melissa Broder,  is an unconventional love story that turns the standard tropes in the mermaid story on their heads, displaying how the stereotypes and gender roles presented within the mermaid story are a product of their time. This story is contemporary and relies upon, in order to over turn more traditionally patriarchal, misogynistic views of the mermaid s displayed in earlier texts The unconventionality of The Pisces centers female sexuality, as opposed to stories such as The Little Mermaid, written in the 1840s by Hans Christian Andersen,  and Melusine, written in the19th century by Jean d’Arras , which neglect the female and focus on male desire . The Pisces is special because the woman is not the sexual object, but it also doesn’t objectify the merman. These two characters are allowed to mess up and be messy, and therefore portray more realistic experiences.

To begin, a synopsis of The Pisces is in order; our protagonist, Lucy, is a 38 year old woman who is stuck in a rut- writing a dissertation on Sappho and grappling with a failing relationship as well as her own wants and needs, she is asked to house sit for her sister. It is here that she meets Theo, a merman who lives in the ocean right by the house, and the two start a romance and sort-of relationship with each other. Lucy grapples with herself, what she wants out of men, and what she wants out of Theo. She comes out of the end of the book with more assurance about herself and her path, even though she doesn’t quite get her happily-ever-after. 

In contrast, The Little Mermaid has a much younger and unnamed protagonist. She is a mermaid princess, who yearns for the surface and for her human prince, after she saves him from a storm. This yearning is so great that she willingly drinks a magical potion that gives her legs, in exchange for her beautiful voice. The little mermaid suffers for her love of the prince until it eventually leads to her untimely demise. She, too, does not get a standard happily-ever-after. Granted, this story is a product of its time- being written in the eighteen forties. 

The Pisces was written in the 21st century, as evident by much of the modern references scattered throughout the book. But it was also evident in the way that the characters were portrayed. Lucy is a woman who seemingly defies a lot of what society thinks of women- she is promiscuous, she is messy, not put together, unsure of herself, but she is also defiant in her quest to finding herself. She frequently pushes the boundary of the sort of womanly standards society seems to have, and pushes back against the societal norms for men, as well. This is evident in how her relationship to the merman Theo is portrayed; “I felt great and noble, like a woman coming to claim her man in battle, or perhaps a man who was coming to rescue his woman. I had to be the rescuer, because he was more handicapped than I was.” (192) The stereotype of the merperson-human relationship is flipped here, as she is the one who has more control and power, in a way. She is the one who goes to him, yes but she is the one who can help take him to shore. Theo is more at her whims than she is to him

This is heavily contrasted with The Little Mermaid, too- then again The Little Mermaid has the “canonical” mermaid-human relationship seen in a decent chunk of mermaid stories. To even get close to her prince, the little mermaid gives up a lot of what she has to go to the surface; “ ‘Now, you must give me this beautiful voice. I choose to have the best of all you possess in exchange for my valuable potion’.” (122, Penguin Book) And so the little mermaid gives up her voice, her tail and her place amongst her people in order to ascend to the surface and live amongst the humans and her prince. When she first arrives to the surface and meets the prince again, one of her main feelings is the pain; “Every step she took was, as the witch had warned her it would be, like reading on the points of needles and sharp knives; but she bore it willingly…” (123) Already there is a vast difference between her and Lucy, who doesn’t suffer as much as she does in her relationship with the unknown. 

There’s also something to be said about how Lucy and the little mermaid are sort of foils to one another. The little mermaid, while she is with the prince on land, does not have her voice and cannot properly vocalize any of her feelings to him. While Lucy, who does struggle with her inner wants, has no problem with talking to Theo or trying to reason out some of her own emotions. Granted, the two books were written across a large gap- in between both of their publications, women’s suffrage took place, and some of the waves of feminism also happened. Women at the time of The Little Mermaid, and Melusine,  had less of a voice within their society as they do against women at the time of The Pisces. 

On the subject of women and the female, The Pisces centers more on female sexuality than other mermaid mythos. This could be argued that the time period is relevant, which is correct. In The Pisces, Lucy is almost rewarded and validated for her sexuality, or going through the trials and tribulations in having relations with different men before she settles on Theo. “The way I felt when we kissed or when he went down on me- I wanted to create that feeling and live in that for as long as I could.” (one5one). She is constantly having sex with Theo- there is mutual attraction between them for a good chunk of the novel. Her wants are placed above his, in a way- Theo indulges her in coming into her home to spend time with her, away from the ocean, even though that in itself is a task. They fuck on the beach a lot, too. Other mermaid mythos are not so kind to the woman in the relationship; the Legend of Melusina, written by Jean d’Arras, for example, is a fine display of how female sexuality was not a priority. All she had asked of him was for him to “never desire to see her on a Saturday” (87). And even when she had given him everything, and endured ridicule for their hybrid children, he still could not oblige her. The one day a week could be interpreted as Melusina obliging herself, which she could not even have due to her husband’s mistrust of her.

At the very end of The Pisces, Lucy finds out that Theo had brought down more women with him in the past, and she rejects his offer to go under the depths with him. While she doesn’t have such a happily ever after, she still retains herself and her autonomy, a far cry from Melusine (who flies around in pain and suffering, 88) and the little mermaid (who becomes an air spirit dependent on the behavior of children, one 30). And yes, she is a woman, but she is not dependent on men, nor is her life absolutely ruined by them. Stories like The Pisces, that pull away from the canonical mermaid story, can help teach better lessons to future readers.