Tag Archives: Romance

The Modern Era: 19th C Industrialism & Capitalism

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For this week’s reading I found it to be a fairly easy to understand and straightforward reading. I really enjoyed reading the story of Undine, and its parallels to the story of The Little Mermaid. Being such a big fan of the film and the story of The Little Mermaid it was interesting to see kind of similarities and origins of that story in the reading this week about Undine. “In both stories, a beautiful mermaid is loyal to her human love object and inspired by the prospect of acquiring a soul,” although in Hans Christian Anderson’s version we don’t see that side of acquiring a soul and more of giving her voice to be able to be with her love (Penguin, page 101). As well we saw a parallel with Undine and how she portrays her true form to Huldbrand and how although she is not human he still loves her, similarly to Hans Christian Anderson’s version. But the part of her story that stuck out to me is when she says to Hulbrand, “Our condition would be far superior to that of other human beings, – for human beings we call ourselves, being similar to them in form and in culture, – but there is on evil peculiar to us. We and our like in the other elements, vanish unit dust, and pass away, body and spirit” (Penguin, page 105). I thought this quote stuck out to me because it reminded me a lot of what the Bible says about humans, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). I think this is important and connects to point of the class because as much as people want to separate humans from mermaids and other beings and argue that they are different, they are still half human and because of that they as well like us return back to dust; and thus we have to be able to respect them and treat the idea of mermaids (and to an extent the environment) with equality as we do with people. 

Week 6: Undine

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The story Undine from the Penguin Book of Mermaids was the most interesting of the readings this week. While the other readings focused more on accounts of mermaids in the past few centuries, this story was of romance between a human and a mermaid. What I found most important in this story was the connection between mermaids and nature. As we have discussed in class, there are many connections between mermaids and nature throughout many stories. Mermaids often embody or represent nature, and how humans interact with them can represent their attitudes toward nature and the environment. This story has some of the most explicit connections between nature and mermaids that we have seen so far. During Undine’s speech, she states: “We and our like in the other elements, vanish into dust, and pass away, body and spirit, so not that a vestige of us remains behind; and when you mortals hereafter awake to a purer life, we remain with the sand and the sparks and the wind and the waves. Hence we also have no souls” (p. 105). This quote shows the difference between mermaids and humans, and the connection that mermaids hold with nature–they are one and the same, and mermaids will eventually return to the earth. Another important part of this quote to note is the choice of words ‘purer life’. This reveals the Christian nature of the text, as purer life is implied to be heaven. Toward the end of this chapter, Undine also makes a comment about her uncle that furthers strengthens this melding of mermaid and nature: “I will dive into this brook, which is my uncle; and here in the forest, far removed from other friends, he passes his strange and solitary life. He is however powerful, and is esteemed and beloved by many great streams” (p. 106). This quote also reveals the deep connection between nature and merpeople. Not only is Undine’s uncle a brook, but she is also able to recognize him in his nature form (unless this knowledge was acquired previously). It seems to imply that when a mermaid dies and goes back to the earth, they become some sort of water, as Undine will do on her husband’s grave when he dies. Perhaps the overarching storyline described in italics at the beginning of this chapter is supposed to represent man’s troubled relationship with nature–at one moment, in love and full of respect, the next having betrayed her.

Another interesting part of this story was the elements of Christianity–the gaining of a soul, the inability to go to Heaven/any sort of afterlife without one. I also found it interesting that similar to Melusine, Undine is not upfront about who she is to her romantic partner. Although she does willingly tell her husband of her mermaid side (unlike Melusine), she still decides to hide her true self before they marry. Is this to add a lack of trust to mermaids? Or to make commentary that one does not need to fully divulge every bit of one’s self to be in love? That some things can be kept secret without hindering a relationship?

Week 5: Medieval Melusine

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For this week’s reading I found it fairly interesting in regards to” mermaids” finally being incorporated into the lives of individuals. As well as finally having that sense of a fairytale story and falling in love. In past week’s readings it has been more based on individual stories about mermaids and their own individual stories but not really intertwined with the lives of regular people and their connection. I particularly liked the sense of romance in this week’s reading with the legend of Melusina. I think this will now open the door for how we see, “Mermaid stories that focus on a water being’s life in the human social world” (Bacchilega, page 85). Although the story of Melusina and Raymond was not lengthy, their interaction can still be discussed, I particularly thought that their love for one another was almost superficial. For one, Raymond didn’t even know Melusina’s name after their interaction; as well during their interaction Raymond was paying fairly close attention, “From her beautiful breasts his gaze descended” (Knight, page 26) conveying him focusing more on her exterior and not paying attention to her and what she’s saying. Their love and eventually their marriage seemed very transactional, since Raymond was going to be able to hide his crime of murdering his uncle and Melusina would be able to get married, so their whole interaction seemed very fictitious and occurred very quickly. But I am excited to finally get into reading with individuals’ direct interactions with mermaids. Also, I did not see the deeper understanding or themes in this story so I hope to come more enlightened and be able to see the deeper meaning.