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Final Essay

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Sophia Raya

ECL 305

Professor Pressman

May 9th, 2024

The Verticality of the Little Mermaid

In The Little Mermaid (1837), written by Hans Christain Andersen, the high and low design of the story’s landscape maps onto the vertical ascension of Christianity associated with hell, earth, and heaven. Each ascension correlates to its respective vertical plane and leads the mermaid closer to a heavenly life. The little mermaid first appears within the ocean, a place located furthest away from the heavens which she seeks. As she moves upwards and makes her way onto land, she gains legs and can move through the realm of humanity where both God and earthly desires reside. By sacrificing her life, the little mermaid’s body transforms into an air spirit and resides in the aerial plane where she has the possibility of entering heaven in 300 years. This transition from plane to plane involves sacrifice and encompasses the Christian tenet that the body may die but the soul lives on. Within the frame of Christianity and the religious sentiments of the little mermaid, sacrificing one’s own life in the name of a higher power is noble, and elevates your position in the spiritual world.  

In The Little Mermaid, the setting of ocean sets the story up for the vertical journey that the little mermaid is about to embark on. The kingdom is far out at sea and located at an unimaginable depth, where not even a rope could fathom it; and many church steeples need to be piled on top of each other to breach the surface (Andersen 108). The exclusion of rope as a unit of measurement is deliberate. Rope is a common tool used by sea farers and others who regularly traverse the ocean. Church steeples, on the other hand, are not commonly found within the ocean but instead are largely found on land. This addition of steeples reinforces verticality within the narrative as they are located on top of a church’s physical foundation, and serve as a focal point for the gaze of a worshipper. Their height fills the viewer with a sense of awe towards the Church as a religious institution and as a source of spiritual power. By placing these steeples beneath the waves, the texts illuminates the spiritual defiency of the ocean and by extension its inhabitants. The direction of the placement of these steeples also implies a direct upwards  movement away from the ocean which weaves in the importance of verticality within the narrative. If these steeples had descended instead of ascended, this would have implied a movement away from the Church and mimicked a descent into hell. 

Within Christian theology, hell is a place where God’s light does not reach and where souls go to die, which denies them a heavenly afterlife. Even though hell is never explicitly mentioned within the little mermaid, heaven as a place can only exist as a reward if there is a location that opposes it. On the vertical scale, hell is the lowest spiritual realm while earth and heaven are located directly above it. This also maps onto the vertical scale of the mermaid’s physical world with the ocean on the lowest level while the land and air are above it. Because the mermaid seeks a heavenly life, she needs to ascend onto land in order to fulfill this goal. 

This change from the aquatic realm to the terrestrial realm also requires a change in form. Her tail, which distinctly marks her as a mermaid, would be viewed as demonic and unholy by the Church. In order to be accepted onto land, she would have to give up her tail and obtain two legs to fit into human society. This rejection of her initial form mimics the spiritual sacrifices that Christians must enagage in to enter the kingdom of heaven. Splitting her legs into a tail involves both a physical sacrifice and a cultural sacrifice, without a tail the little mermaid will never be able to fully inhabit the ocean and its realm. Before this can even occur, the little mermaid seeks out the sea witch for a spell to transform her into a human. Besides the physical splitting of her tail, the mermaid’s voice and tongue are physically cut out of her. In the essay, “The Merciless Tragedy of Desire: An Interpretation of H.C. Andersen’s “Den lille Havfrue’” by Jørgen Dines Johansen, Johansen points out that by cutting off the little mermaid’s tongue, she is unable to emotionally live through and act out inner conflicts (Johansen pg. 211). As soon as she cuts off her tongue, she cuts herself off from the rest of the mermaid and obtains the status of other despite her outwards appearance as a mermaid. Although she never runs into another mermaid who can categorize her as other, her body is in the midst of a change. 

The little mermaid’s second act of bodily transformation occurs on the marble steps where the ocean and land meet. These steps help to connect these lower and higher levels to each other, bridging this vertical distance in an upward manner. By taking the potion on the marble steps after she crawls out of the water, she is separating herself from the oceanic and by extension the demonic realm. This second transformation continues to emphasizes the element of bodily sacrifice as the little mermaid felt as if a double-edged sword was run through her (Andersen pg. 123). The inclusion of a double edged sword emphasizes the physical duality of the little mermaid as her more human top half remains unaffected while her bottom more demonic half splits into human legs. This taxing physical agony that the little mermaid endures for a soul is also found within the bible. Philippians 1:29 states that in order to follow God, an individual is required to both believe in him and suffer on his behalf (Philippians 1:29, BibleHub). Although the little mermaid suffers physically from this transformation, she does not suffer emotionally nor spiritually. Instead, once she’s found by the prince, she bears this pain willingly and glides as she walks, making both the prince and others around her marvel at her gate (Andersen pg. 124). This bodily sacrifice isn’t just a one time feeling but instead it’s a constant reminder of what she has lost and what she stands to gain. 

On the terrestrial plane, the little mermaid’s transformations continue to be an obstacle in her path towards a soul.  Although the mermaid possess human legs instead of a tail, she is unable to verbalize her desires towards the prince and can only communicate through movement and facial expressions. When the little mermaid and the prince journey up the mountain, the pain that she experiences is physically seen by both the readers and other agents in the story by having her feet bleed (Andersen pg. 124). Despite this outward injury, she ignores the sensation and enters a physical space where she is high enough to reach the heavens but not holy enough to enter them. This physical space captures the crux of her current predicament: she longs for a soul but she experiences limitations that are imposed on her because of her initial sacrifice towards said soul. The pain that she experiences on a day to day basis from this transformation continues to serve as a test her desire for a soul through marriage. 

When the prince marries the princess, her marriage pathway and her route towards directly obtaining a soul is lost. This leaves the little mermaid with two choices: either kill the prince and save herself or sacrifice herself and save the prince (Andersen pg. 129). Had the little mermaid decided to save herself, she would have been able to reverse her transformation and live out her natural lifespan as a mermaid. However, as a mermaid and therefore a non-human creature, she would have to descend from the terrestrial plane into the aquatic realm, sliding down on the vertical scale back into hell. However, the mermaid would arrive at the same fate if she sacrificed herself, but at a much quicker rate. Because of her love for the prince, she prioritizes his life over hers and throws herself overboard, her human body dissolving into foam and transforming for a third time (Andersen pg. 129). The little mermaid’s path follows the biblical verse of Mark 8:35 where whoever decides to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for Christ shall also save it (Mark 8:35, BibleHub). Even though her human body dies, her form develops into that of an air spirit because of her good deeds and sacrifices made in the name of obtaining an eternal soul. As an air spirit, the little mermaid’s form is no longer bound to the terrestrial plane and rises into the aerial realm, which mimics the upwards movement of a Christian soul after death. This transformation from human to air spirit also undoes her first sacrifice as she is able to speak in a sweet and ethereal voice after an extended period of muteness (Andersen pg. 129). This conveys a sort of mercy and reward from God because the little mermaid had a very real possibility of experiencing a permanent death from her actions, but was instead saved and spiritually elevated for the choices she made. 

 The Little Mermaid is a story where religious themes of biblical sacrifice and obtaining a soul bleeds into each section of the text including the topographical settings, which directly correlate to the vertical arrangement of hell, earth, and heaven. Each terrain that the mermaid resides in requires a sacrifice in the form of transformation in order to exit and enter another terrain. These sacrifices comes at the cost of her physical wellbeing which reinforces the biblical influence through the form of bodily sacrifice. Because of the stories overt religious themes, self-sacrifice and pain endured in the name of a religious power will be rewarded. 

Works Cited 

Andersen, Hans Christian. “The Little Mermaid.” The Penguin Book of Mermaids, edited by Christina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown, Penguin Books, 2019, pp 107-130.

“Colossians 3:2-4.” Bible.Com, www.bible.com/bible/114/COL.3.2-4. 

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.

“Mark 8:35.” Bible.Com, www.bible.com/bible/1/MRK.8.35.KJV. 

“Philippians 1:29.” BibleHub, biblehub.com/philippians/1-29.htm. 

Conclusion/reflection:

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ECL 305 has been one the most transformative classes that I’ve ever taken. The first day of class I shared that I wanted to improve my close reading and analysis skills when it comes to interacting with the texts. With each blog post, in person discussion, and essay, I do believe that I’ve been able to meet this goal. Although it will take a lot more dedication on my part to continue to refine my skills, I think this class has given me the tools I need to continue this journey. Literature, just like the ocean, is incredibly vast and I feel like I’m still on a surface level of understanding everything that it has to offer. Other than honing my own understanding, simply being exposed to a variety of ocean centric literature has helped to open my mind and be more receptive to different forms of texts and the past and present histories behind them.

We Are Mermaids

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In the poem, “We Are Mermaids” by Stephanie Burt, different sets of pronouns in the form of ‘we, us, they, you,’ weave throughout the poem to involve the speaker, the audience, and others outside the stage of the text to invite them as a collective into the world of mermaids, a symbol for multitudes, and allows the collective to exist as they are. In the title of the poem ‘We Are Mermaids,’ those who fall under ‘we’ are gathered under the mermaid umbrella with ‘are’ emphasizing the action of simply being. Being a mermaid, like more oceanic ways of thinking, is not constrained to rigid structures that have been imposed on them by society and other terracentric ways of thinking. Instead, mermaids and any other aquatic creatures can occupy any space or even become a part of that space where fluidity and water is found. Whether this is at the bottom of the ocean where benthic water is found, or at the esturaries, where salty sea water and fresh water come together to create a brackish mix, a mermaid can come take up this space. The ‘you’ portions of this poem are particularly powerful and connect back to mermaids as an agent outside of the realm of humanity. The poem tells the reader that ‘you don’t have to be useful, you are not required to come up with something to say.’ In a terracentric world, a humans value originates from what they are able to perform and communicate to the rest of the world. This can be through labor, gender, and other social expectations and norms that make up daily life. However, the second half of the stanza negates and outright rejects this belief. Instead of a grueling day-to-day performance, which many people of marginalized lgbtq+ identities experience, as a mermaid, an individual can simply exist within the solitude and comfort of the sea.

The Deep

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In River Solomon’s “The Deep,” the concept of memory and the stories associated with it can take on a life of it’s own. Depending on the context of these memories, they can ground the person experiencing them and give them context that informs their identity as wajinru. However, these same memories can also leave wajinru untethered and hollow, like a pried open clam shell who’s meat has been scooped out by a predator. In Yetu’s case, she is the actual vessel for these memories. Both her sense of self and the remembrances fight for control over her body. In a way, these memories are almost parasitic as Yetu has to fight to keep herself from slipping into them, and at times gives in until she can break free from their grasp.  On page 69, Yetu states that she left the Wajinru to endure the full weight of their history, and that for the first time in many years her body felt weightless. The history and the memories associated with this history have a living dimension to it, they are physical agents that can press or interact with the bodies of the Wajinru. As a historian, the memories need Yetu’s body to be physically alive in order to carry them. However, this doesn’t account for both the mental and physical anguish the Rememberances have on her as she states that “it’s killing me (p.94),” when referring to the memories. Because memories themselves are alive, they encompass the duality of suffering and understanding and can cause a palpable effect on the people experiencing them.

The Water Will Carry us Home

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In the stop motion animation ‘The Water Will Carry us Home,’ the water serves as a tool to help transform the spirits of enslaved Africans in the Middle Passage into mermaids, and helps to transport them back by setting them on a path to find freedom within the ocean. The ocean in the context of transatlantic slavery and the Middle Passage is interesting because the concepts of ownership, specifically the ownership of human bodies, are terrestrial-based; you can’t physically own anything in the ocean. 

In the beginning of the stop motion animation, enslaved Africans are lined up and bound, their bodies confined in a way that maximizes the ship’s space instead of prioritizing the comfort of the people within it. The ship acts as a vessel for land and terrestrial based concepts as it carries out the act of enslavement by stealing people away from their homeland and taking them a new world where they would face terrible conditions. On the boat, the enslaved Africans cannot move but as mermaids, the spirits are able to move freely within the water as they are not chained or constricted. In the title of this animation, water and transportation are once again linked through the phrase ‘carry us home’. The water and the Yoruba Orisha associated with it help to guide the mermaids back to their homeland after being violently taken from it. 

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One of the components of the Sirenomelia film project that really stood out to me was the way each section of audio helps to mentally transport the viewer into desolate landscapes displayed on screen. The first 15 seconds of the project are filled with white noise as the word ‘Nowness’ appears on a simple white background. The lack of sound feels strange and a bit jarring because of the lack of auditory input. This absence helps to center the viewers focus before the sound abruptly starts on the 16th second. The sound that begins to play is eerie and unsettling which adds to the desolate and isolating feeling that the vast snow covered island imparts on the viewer. The project states that the sounds being recorded come from quasars that come from a Norwegian Observatory. Quasars are not found within the deep ocean but are still found within another desolate and unsettling landscape, outer space. The sound feels almost otherworldly and inhuman, as if the audience is not supposed to hear it. This specific sound lasts for more than a minute before it reaches a crescendo that sounds like a far off cry being distorted, increasing the feeling of unease within the viewer. At around the two minute mark, you can slowly hear the sound of water rippling on the surface emerge from beneath the mechanical/unnatural sound before the sound of the water gets overpowered again. In less than 30 seconds, this distortion continues and it sounds like a human voice is being projected to the viewer rather than the sound of the quasar. Although the noise sounds vaguely human, it’s difficult to discern if there are any words being spoken at all or if it’s a trick being played by the viewers brain.

Week 10: Deterreiorializing Preface

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In ‘Deterritorializing Preface,’ the text reveals how descriptors and common word associations with the land are a conscious act that centers land over the ocean. This reading offers precise language to recenter the ocean as a place with its own merit and agency outside of its proximity to land. Even before presenting these alternative definitions, the author states that ‘moving offshore reshapes our vocabulary (xv),’ which allows for the structure of the text itself to also deterritorialize as it provides a mental shift that moves the reader’s focus from the land to the ocean. In all seven alternative vocabularies, the author places the word ‘formerly’ next to the terrestrial-based vocabulary and is enclosed within a parenthesis. This confined position within the parenthesis minimizes the presence of the terrestrial vocabulary and highlights the aquatic/ocean-based vocabulary. This visual focus on the oceanic word continues to shift the gaze of the reader toward the ocean and further pushes them into the open waters of a new way of interacting with language. In the last section of the text, the author states that they nearly wrote down the phrase ‘change the world’ instead of ‘change the ocean.’ The phrase ‘change the world’ has been used as a call to action to inspire individuals to try to fix injustices or problems that Earth faces. However, the ‘world’ usually calls to mind images of land and solid ground and largely excludes the 70% world that’s covered in water. By changing this common phrase to ‘change the ocean,’ the text once again centers on the ocean as a physical place where an active change can occur, especially one that involves connotations that certain vocabularies can bring.  

Steve Mentz, Ocean (Bloomsbury, 2020): “Deterritorializing Preface” (pgs. xv-xviii)

Week 9: Blue Humanities

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In the blue humanities reading, the author showcased how Western attitudes towards the sea/ocean changed over time from disinterest and fear to one of fascination and awe. This mimics the attitudes that individuals held towards the “wilderness” as the cultural values associated with both these natural spaces changed to suit the desires of a western audience. I believe that the coast and sea shore itself became a kind of frontier myth for those living in the 19th century. In both the terrestrial and aquatic frontier myth, people looked back to these places as a romanticized version of the past. In the reading, the author states that, “pristine nature now in short supply in the industrialized heartlands, found a refuge in the oceans…Simultaneously, the sublime, previously associated with mountains and forests, came to be associated with the wild water.” In this quote, the author is mentioning how people are once again searching for a space that is untouched/unaltered by humans which is highlighted by the addition of the words ‘industrialized heartlands’. This phrasing positions the sea as something that people saw separate from them and because of their separation, there was a type of sacredness to it, which matches the sacredness that people felt towards national parks. The use of the phrase ‘wild water’ is interesting as well because the water is being personified and altered to fit this idea of untouched wilderness even though people had utilized the open ocean and other bodies of water for hundreds of years.

Humanities: The Journal of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Web. 2013

The Little Mermaid Reading Response

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Sophia Raya

ECL 305

Professor Pressman

March 3rd, 2024 

The Search for a Soul

In many stories involving mermaids and other aquatic creatures, the mermaid’s monstrous nature is highlighted by their lack of a soul and aversion to Christianity. During the 19th century, many people were concerned about the welfare of their souls and were still largely devoted to Christianity. In Hans Christan Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, the little mermaid yearns to have an immortal soul and will do anything in her power to obtain one. She decides to leave her watery home behind and rises onto land in search of a soul. As the story progresses, the little mermaid eventually transforms into an air spirit that inhabits the sky and will be eligible to obtain a soul in three hundred years. Within the structure of the text,  Andersen uses each section of the story to represent three different planes on the vertical scale: the aquatic plane, the terrestrial plane, and the aerial plane. This vertical ascension maps onto the biblical ascension of the soul to heaven. As the little mermaid travels through these different planes, she comes one step closer to obtaining a soul. 

Andersen begins the tale of the little mermaid in the depths of the ocean, far below any human development. This introduction is purposeful and places emphasis on where the initial physical setting occurs, and shows the placement of the mermaid world beneath that of the human world.  “Many church steeples need to be piled upon one another to reach the bottom to the surface. It is there where the sea folks dwell…” (Andersen, pg. 108). The use of church steeples as a unit of measurement adds a Christian layer to the setting, and the direction of these church steeples is purposeful as well. Instead of going from the surface of the ocean to the bottom of the sea, they are heading upwards. This upward motion paired with the steeples suggests that as one moves further away from the bottom of the ocean, they are getting closer to God which mirrors a soul’s upward motion to heaven. In some literary texts involving mermaids, the area below humanity’s domain is considered to be hell or the underworld. It is here in this place furthest from God’s reach where the little mermaid first inquires about obtaining an immortal soul. The little mermaid’s grandmother reveals that the only way to gain an immortal soul is to forfeit her life beneath the ocean and have a human fall in love with her (Andersen pg. 118-119). This information reveals that the direction that the little mermaid needs to go in order to obtain her soul is up which reflects in her transition from the aquatic plane to the terrestrial plane. 

When the little mermaid reaches the prince’s castle and undergoes a painful transformation to become human, she finally has the potential to gain a soul but she is not guaranteed it. In finally meeting the prince, there are only two directions she can potentially move to. If she wins the love of the prince and becomes his queen, she would be able to secure a soul and eventually move upwards to heaven when she died. If she didn’t win his affection, she would melt into sea foam where she would go down the vertical plane and forfeit any chance of eternal life. With these two options facing her, she attempts to win the princes favor and exists as a human being on land for some unspecified time. The prince and the little mermaid form a bond together and on one occasion, he takes her to the top of a mountain where they could see clouds rolling beneath them (Andersen, pg. 124). In this event, the little mermaid is still connected to the earth but she is also located in the sky due to how high up they are in the mountain, inhabiting both planes. At this point in the story, her potential for a soul is high due to the princes favor, and she is in arms reach of the heavens. As the story progresses, the prince and the little mermaid never go back to that high point together which marks the downturn of her probability of obtaining a soul through matrimony. 

The little mermaid’s transition from the terrestrial plane to the aerial plane did not go as smoothly as one would have hoped. Because she was unable to secure the princes love and by extension her immortal soul, she is faced with the choice of either killing the prince and remaining on the terrestrial plane, or sacrificing herself and dissolving into foam, leaving behind all possibilities of entering heaven. Because her love for the prince overpowers her desire to exist as a human, she decides to jump overboard and go back down to the aquatic plane, which would be akin to descending into hell. After this scene occurs on page 129, there is a large blank space before the scene continues, which is a point of transition for both the little mermaid and the text itself. This pause is purposeful and jolts the reader out of the story and may cause them to ponder the direction that their own soul is heading towards. After this space occurs, the little mermaid rises out of the water and slowly ascends high into the air like a soul going to heaven. It is here where she finally enters the aerial plane and becomes an aerial spirit. As an aerial spirit, it is here where her form more closely resembles a soul. In the Christian religion, souls are intangible and have no physical form despite being connected to the body. Once the body dies the soul is judged and may rise into heaven or descend into hell depending on the outcome of the soul’s judgment. This judgment depends on a number of factors including how closely one follows Christian values. One of these values includes loving one’s neighbor and doing good unto others. As an aerial spirit, the little mermaid has an actual shot at entering heaven by spreading good deeds across the world and following Christian teachings for the next three hundred years (Andersen pg. 130).  Despite the increased length of time it will take the little mermaid to gain a soul, her spot in heaven is essentially guaranteed. As an aerial spirit, the terrestrial plane and the aerial plane blend into one, there are no harsh boundaries that separate the two. As long as she continues to perform good deeds, she will not run the risk of losing her spot in heaven. Near the end of the story, the little mermaid mentions gliding into heaven (Andersen pg. 130). By using the phrase gliding, it implies that heaven is in the same plane as them. Because she’s an aerial spirit, she is already at the highest level vertically and doesn’t need to rise any higher to reach the Kingdom of God. 

Just as the soul ascends upward, so does the little mermaid herself also rise to the heavens. Despite some setbacks, the little mermaid rises into the aerial plane from the terrestrial and aquatic planes beneath her. Each vertical plane builds upon the previous one in both a textual sense and as a place where the little mermaid has learned to inhabit and explore. As she goes up through the ocean, terrestrial, and aerial planes, she displays care towards others and embodies Christian values which help to gain her a position in heaven in the future. 

Works Cited:

Andersen, Hans Christian. “The Little Mermaid.” The Penguin Book of Mermaids, edited by Christina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown, Penguin Books, 2019, pp 107-130.

Melusine and the Importance of Privacy and Personal Boundaries

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In this weeks story, Melusine and her relationship with Raymondin highlight the importance of respecting someones personal boundaries and their privacy. When Melusine and Raymondin first meet, the two outline certain expectations and objectives for their relationship. This includes never seeing each other on a Saturday. In this scene, Melusine explicitly says, “You must swear by all holy sacraments as  a christian that on each Saturday, from sundown till the following day, never – and I will say it again so there is no doubt about it – never must you try to see me in any way whatever, nor seek to know where I am” (pg. 27). This isn’t a simple request or suggestion. Instead there’s a heavy weight of responsibility to Melusine’s words, especially through using the term ‘holy sacraments’. This implies that to break this oath is akin to breaking a promise to God, which usually carry severe punishments. She didn’t say this once, but twice in order to further emphasize this clause in their agreement. This statement is unbreakable and leaves no wiggle room for potential change in the future. With all this laid out, Raymondin agrees to marry her. The two share a prosperous life together and are deeply committed to each other which makes Raymondin’s betrayal of their promise and Melusine’s privacy all the more heart breaking. When Raymondin uncovered this secret, he didn’t bear it alone, but instead revealed it to all those who were in the castle. Because of this public spectacle and exposing of her secret, she would never again get to be with Raymondin as husband and wife. This reveal captures the nature of secrets: once revealed, the circumstances surrounding the secret will forever be altered. Had Raymondin kept the discovery to himself, Melusine would have been able to die as a mortal Christian woman besides him. By violating these boundaries, these actions lead to the downfall of both their happiness and contentment, which shows the importance of treating boundaries in relationships with respect and continued acknowledgement. 

Knight, G. The Romance of the Faerie Melusine. Skylight Press, 2011.