Tag Archives: Undine

Week 6: Undine

Posted on by
3

Reading Undine brought a different perspective to humans vs. merpeople. The different readings we have explored illustrated mermaids as either symbols of sin, vanity, temptation, or as embodiments of higher power such that we saw in Oannes. Undine made their existence seem almost depressing and merely insignificant.

In Undine, Friedrich De La Motte Fouque, draws a connection between various natural elements and these “soulless” creatures while highlighting some fundamental flaws that come with having a soul. Specifically, he notes how these creatures wish to be human because “all beings aspire to be higher than they are” (Penguin, 105). In other words, human life does not really end. Our bodies are just temporary placeholders of our soul/spirit, and upon death we move on to a higher place. Undine explains how unlike humans, other creatures upon death just “vanish into dust,” highlighting how insignificant existence really is for them. Fouque ties nature into it by highlighting that upon death they just remain on earth with the wind, trees, and waves. Their existence ends and just turns into meaningless dust.

Although Fouque illustrates these creatures’ lives being insignificant, he also points out a how flawed humans are by bringing to light Undine’s husband’s betrayal. Even though he accepts her, he ends up betraying her for Bertalda. It poses the question, would you rather metaphysically exist forever with negative elements or would you rather get one life and make the most out of it before turning into dust?

Week 6: Interconnectedness between humanity and the natural world

Posted on by
2

While reading “The Day after the Wedding” from Undine, I noticed how Undine is described as a “bubbly beauty” (101) that is “as mild and gentle as an angel” (103). Undine’s characterization differs greatly from the stories we discussed earlier this semester. Similar to Melsuine, she is loving and passionate— remaining loyal and kind to her husband. I interpreted Melsuine’s story as a cautionary tale highlighting the consequences of human’s disconnection from nature. Undine’s story seems to parallel this idea.

Despite Undine and Huldbrand’s differences in origin and essence, they remain utmostly devoted to one another. While Undine’s origin may be considered “strange” (104) to humans, Huldbrand continues to embrace his “sweet wife” with “the most heartfelt emotion and love” (106). Their marriage may symbolize the potential harmony between humans and nature. Huldbrand’s deep affection for Undine remains steadfast, illustrating his willingness to embrace her despite her supernatural nature. The natural world is still unknown to humans, but the couple’s love shows that there is an opportunity for cooperation and understanding.

Undine and Huldbrand’s relationship highlights the need for humans to reconsider their relationship with the natural world. Rather than viewing nature as something to be conquered or controlled, perhaps we should learn to accept and embrace its mysteries. As Undine says, “all beings aspire to be higher than they are” (105). Inherent with all beings, whether humans or otherwise, is the inclination to strive for betterment and advancement. Historically, humans have attempted betterment through conquering the natural world. Undine’s quote suggests that all natural and human beings are, in a sense, the same— always looking for more. “The Day after the Wedding” may advise humans to recognize this similarity and urge us to cultivate a deeper connection with nature. Doing so may lead to a greater sense of interconnectedness and fulfillment.

Week 6: Undine

Posted on by
3

In this week’s reading: The Day After the Wedding, from Undine, I though the connection between the natural world and humans was a powerful theme. There is a passage on page 104, that reads, “There are beings in the elements which almost appear like mortals, and which rarely allow themselves to become visible to your race.” This suggests the presence of mystical and supernatural forces intertwined with the natural humans. It highlights the ever longing idea of a hidden realm that is populated by beings that are not within human perception, but are existing alongside our reality. Undine mentions that there are spirits that exist within the air and bodies of water, as well as in creatures such as salamanders and gnomes. The mention of these mythical beings expands the mythological world that mermaids and sirens exist. This also makes Huldbrand question his own perception of reality and he must question Undine’s existence. He is forced to reflect on the boundaries between these two worlds as well as his complex relationship with a non human.

I also found the quote, “His only daughter should become possessed of a soul, even though she must then endure many of the sufferings of those thus endowed.” I found this really intriguing because it first indicated that she now possesses the soul of a human which makes her different from her father and the rest in the supernatural realm. In a religious context, having a soul is often associated with consciousness, morality, and having the capacity for deeper emotions and experiences. Souls may experience joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, love and loss, in ways that are uniquely human. So, in this case, Undine having a soul makes her more vulnerable to the struggles of human existence, including having the capacity to love someone. This duality in her nature contributes to her sense of otherness and her struggle to find her place in the world.

Week 6: from Undine

Posted on by
1

A close study of this chapter reveals that Fouqué employs a variety of literary approaches to illustrate the psychological complexities of his characters and to examine the tension that develops between them. The characterization of Undine, the water sprite who marries the knight Huldbrand, is a key aspect in Fouqué’s portrayal of jealousy. Undine’s jealousy is obvious as she deals with the presence of Bertalda, a human lady who causes problems in her marriage. Undine’s actions and language reveal her envy, as she strives to reconcile her otherworldly origins with the human feelings she feels. For example, when Bertalda expresses admiration for Huldbrand, Undine reacts with a mix of uneasiness and possessiveness, indicating the depth of her mental anguish. Furthermore, Fouqué uses subtle narrative tactics to create a sense of uncertainty around Undine’s motivations, confusing the reader’s understanding of her character. Fouqué uses unreliable narration and subtle foreshadowing to suggest Undine’s capacity for both compassion and malevolence, blurring the distinctions between protagonist and adversary. This ambiguity gives dimension to Undine’s character, prompting readers to consider the nature of her jealousy and its ramifications for the story.

Week 6: Thoughts about Undine

Posted on by
Reply

I found the story of Undine entertaining. I am starting to notice some similarities between these mermaid tales, especially between this one and Melusine. First, both stories mention that the mermaids are under some spell or evil, for Undine it was having no soul and Melusine a serpents tail. Second, both women are required to find a man to marry them in order to break the “curse”. Third, both stories end in some tragedy stemming from the man betraying the woman in some way, haven’t read a tale where the woman betrays the man, yet. Fourth, both women lead the man to a body of water. I find the requirement of a man marrying a woman to save her quite interesting because it kind of shows that a woman is dependent and needs to be saved. I can see how this relates to Christianity because I know marriage is a big thing in religion, (weddings are often held in churches with a pastor) not to mention that Undine was written by Christian minister, George Macdonald. In Undine, a part that caught my attention was Huldbrand’s foreshadowing dream, “…disguise themselves as beautiful women, and from beautiful women, they all at once assumed the faces of dragons…” (pg102). I get that this piece was a foreshadow to Undine’s true nature, what I don’t get is why in every one of these tales it’s beautiful women who are seen as evil. I’ve never read a woman who’s described as “unappealing” of committing these acts of deceit. If I were to live in those days, these tales would have me question every beautiful woman’s intentions/nature, I wonder what the reasoning behind this is. 

Week 6: Undine and Marriage

Posted on by
3

The way that the story of Undine discussed marriage was very telling about the way that women were looked at during this time. Throughout the section of the story that we read, how Undine changes and defers to her husband shows how women, no matter how powerful they might have been before, needed to become secondary to their husbands. I first noticed this when the story mentions how the three people who knew Undine best were waiting for “some whimsical vagary of her capricious spirit [to] burst forth” (pg. 102). The paragraph goes on to mention that she was “mild and gentle” (pg.102) which is a complete change from her previous personality. This change only comes the day after she is married to the knight Huldbrand, which hints that marriage has caused her change of spirit. The shift in Undine has two different representations because she is both a woman and a water spirit. I believe that calming her personality can represent men taming both women and nature. This story places men at the top of all hierarchies, they are the ones who control the estate and can impact how nature itself acts. During the 19th century, the man was the head of the family and the woman was supposed to answer to him, but this show of power was also extended to nature in some ways. As a water spirit, Undine acts like water, she’s unpredictable and wild. But once she is married and gains a soul, she calms and is “tamed”. Huldbrand notices this when they go to a stream and see it “rippling along in gentle waves, without a trace of its former wildness and swell” (pg. 103). Since Undine can control a certain body of water, that water would represent how she is feeling and her personality because it is an extension of her. In this case, this stream represents Undine and her new disposition. Before being married, the stream and Undine were free and wild, as nature tends to be, but after they are both subdued. This shows that men at this time were trying to find ways to control women and nature.

Undine

Posted on by
Reply

While reading Undine, it is evident that there are some parallels between human and non-human relationships amongst various mermaid stores. It is interesting to me that most of these tales of love pertain to a female mermaid and a male nonhuman and their attempt at romance. If we are supposed to be learning a lesson from the patterns, it is understood they don’t mesh well. I am curious to know how dynamic character development will be surrounding these relationships. Will human non human romance always fail? Don’t mean to make a generalization, but from analyzing the texts we have already read and the films we have watched we can gather this as a common theme. Having talked about the idea of love and the different perspectives we create that come from influence, I am eager to see if these ideas connect. To be even more abstract, does the love fail in order to prove Undine’s connection with the natural world is too strong? She exclaims how the natural world is and “wonderful salamanders glitter and sport in the flames: lean and malicous gnomes dwell deep within the earth: spirits, belonging to the air, wander through the forests: and a vast family of water spirits live in the lakes and streams and brooks”(p. 104).

Week 6: Anthropocentrism in Undine and The Little Mermaid

Posted on by
1
Something I noticed within the stories of Undine and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” are how anthropocentric these stories can be, especially when it comes to seemingly-simple concepts like tears and the human soul.

Undine tells Huldbrand that “there is one evil peculiar to [nature spirits]” (103) and this “evil” refers to the fact that nature spirits like her have no soul. Because of this, when they die, they are simple reborn back into the cycle of life on Earth rather than passing over into the afterlife, as human souls do. Undine goes on to say that while it is a satisfactory existence to live through, “all beings aspire to be higher than they are,” (103) which is essentially what drives her father to seek out a human for her to be wed to and thus gain a human soul in order to become a higher being than that of a spirit.

Anthropocentrism refers to the ethical belief that humans alone hold intrinsic value and hold power and importance over everything else in nature. Much of European/Western thinking tends to be very anthropocentric, especially with the ideas of “conquering the land” and seeing nature as something to be tamed rather than worked with. The concept of humans alone possessing souls and animals and nature possessing none is also an idea upheld by the Christian church. By placing the possession of a human soul as being above that of a powerful nature spirit, the character of Undine directly promotes these anthropocentric, Christian ideas.

Week 6: Undine

Posted on by
1

Right off the bat I can see the similarities between Undine and Melusina: two water spirits/mermaidesque creatures who get married to mortal, human men and then eventually reveal their true selves. But it deviates because Undine willingly revealed it to her husband, whatever his name was (Huldbrand?) after they had gotten married. There’s still that strong element of The Other infiltrating (through the dreams): “Wonderful and horrible dreams had disturbed Huldbrand’s rest; he had been haunted by spectres, who, grinning at him by stealth, had tried to disguise themselves as beautiful women, and from beautiful women they all at once assumed the faces of dragons….” (102)

This could be some sort of premonition, but also to me it reflects the fear the patriarchy has with women who are also pretty. Thats a very surface level interpretation, I know. At the same time, I think it’s also a reflection of how people are afraid of their true selves, or the true selves of other people. That there is a nasty side, a dangerous side. There’s a huge contrast between these really scary nightmares Huldbrand is having, and then how pretty and dainty and lovely Undine is. It could be a testament to how the true nature of things is something people fear? Coming back to comparing Undine and Melusina, the thing they have in common is this fear of the Other, even when a couple are married. Discovering your wife (because we have only seen stories where the wife is a Creature and not the husband) is not what she seems is a reoccurring thing.

Also side note: very interesting seeing this story and having played Undertale becuase there is an NPC called Undyne who is a fish monster (could you call her a merperson?) who is the literal opposite of how Undine is described in her folklore. Interesting to see how meanings deviate or how people take inspiration from old things and make them into new things.

The Modern Era: 19th C Industrialism & Capitalism

Posted on by
1

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.