Sophia Raya

Ecl 305

Professor Pressman

April 14th, 2024

The Nature of the Ocean in the Merciless Tragedy of Desire

In the “‘Merciless Tragedy of Desire; An Interpretation of H.C. Andersen’s ‘Den Lilly Havfrue,’” a psychoanalytic essay by Jorgen Dines Johansen, the location of the mermaid kingdom and the sea witch’s territory is a horizontal topographical division within the setting of the Little Mermaid and serves to represent two forms of nature: cultivated and demonic. These two spheres of the sea are in opposition to each other with the cultivated nature of the mermaid kingdom reflecting the land above it. On the other hand, the sea witch’s territory is unrestrained and unsettling to the mermaids and is a place furthest removed from Christian influence and control. In a story that also serves as overt religious propaganda for the time, the sea witches’ territory is a place that acts as a warning to the audience and the little mermaid. By entering this oceanic space or spaces like it, an individual is forfeiting their access to heaven and an eternal soul, which is something to be actively avoided. This serves as religious propaganda and encourages the reader to recognize these spaces and actively attempt to avoid them. 

Nature exists on both a physical scale and an ideological scale, each of which has been recalibrated to fit the current societal needs in a given place and period. In Johansen’s work, ‘nature’ includes both, and the specificity of ‘cultivated’ and ‘demonic’ carry certain connotations with it. The term ‘cultivated’ means to foster the growth of something, usually in the form of crops. However, when the phrase is applied to the underwater kingdom, a reflection of the religious human kingdom above it, it can emphasize similarities between the two worlds in terms of social structure. The two kingdoms both have a monarchy and the hierarchical order that comes with it. However, only one has a church and access to salvation. Although the underwater kingdom mimics the land, it reminds the reader that places like the ocean, where they have similar cultural norms but no Christian god, are a space for final destruction (Johaness pg. 206). Final destruction, for the participants of the story and the audience, is a very active threat that must be both recognized and avoided. The reader must be faithful to Christ and follow the Church’s teachings, never straying from the path of righteousness. This encourages the reader to not venture offshore as the physical and spiritual body of a human cannot exist within the ocean. This leads to terracentric ways of thinking and limits the reader by landlocking them. The other participant in this story is the mermaid who can physically exist within the ocean but lacks a soul. Although the possibility of obtaining a soul as a mermaid is incredibly low, it’s not completely impossible within the region of cultivated nature. However, in an area of ‘demonic’ nature, this possibility of obtaining a soul lowers even more. For something to be considered ‘demonic,’ there needs to be a total absence of Christian worship and instead must be dominated by pagan witchcraft. To engage and actively use magic means to outwardly reject Christian teachings and the possibility of salvation. If the audience’s spiritual interest lay elsewhere this would reflect going to the sea witch’s territory. 

The sea witch’s territory truly lives up to the ‘demonic sphere of nature’ as it is oppressive and unsettling to both the mermaid and the audience. In Johaness’s essay, the gigantic polyps that line the sea witch’s territory emphasize death and destructive sexuality and try to strangle anything they can get their hands on (Johaness p. 216). Whatever gets caught in their grasp will never be allowed to escape or be released, including mermaids and humans that are unlucky enough to be captured. A mermaid being caught and killed in the polyps differs from that of a human because of the mermaid’s ability to survive in water. Because the sea witch deals with magical transformations, one might assume that similarly to the little mermaid of this story, a previous mermaid might have gone to the sea witch in search of a potion or spell as it seems like mermaids don’t regularly venture out to this territory unless they need something. Unlike the little mermaid, this mermaid became trapped and died because of this desire, solidifying the notion that the sea leads to one’s eternal demise. This detail also shows that to have desires that fall out of the realm of Christianity can most often lead to falling into sin which can compromise a person’s soul and potential salvation. The ocean environment is made up of both living and nonliving objects which help to increase the offputting demonic sphere of nature. Aside from the slimy polyps, the description of mud characterizes the place as destructive sexuality as it “signifies a realm of faecality” (Johaness p.216-217). Although waste is not physically being produced within the story, it creates the image of the territory itself feasting on food through the form of mermaids and other beings that may have entered the territory to satiate their desires but were caught instead. Once these creatures have served their purpose as sustenance, they are discarded and set to rot on the sea floor with no opportunity for rebirth or salvation. In this instance, the sea witch’s territory largely mimics hell or eternal damnation because of its position on the vertical plane and because it causes total destruction of the body and soul of those who have been trapped in this area. 

In the ‘Merciless tragedy of Desire’ Johaness focuses on the oceanic plane and introduces the concepts of ‘cultivated nature’ and ‘demonic nature’ which relate to the two main oceanic locations in the Little mermaid. Although both the underwater kingdom and the sea witch’s territory are located beneath the waves, the sea witch’s territory lives up to Johaness title of ‘demonic’ and serves as a stand in for a physical hell within the tale. This stand in within the story aids in making The Little Mermaid an effective form of religious propaganda as it cements the belief that the ocean or places similar to it do not have the key to gaining a soul and eternal life. Instead a person must turn towards Christianity found on land and reject desire found in the ocean that falls out of favor with the church.

Works Cited: Johansen, Jørgen Dines. “The Merciless Tragedy of Desire: An Interpretation of H.C. Andersen’s ‘Den Lille Havfrue.’” Scandinavian Studies, vol. 68, no. 2, 1996, pp. 203–41. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40919857. Accessed 14 Apr. 2024.