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Little Mermaid and Feminism

In: English and Literature

Submitted By ambermorgan
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Lit Theory In The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson is very different to the familiar Disney version, but something that they both have in common is the underlying idea of feminism. Both versions are mainly about women and the male characters have to depend on these women to save their lives. The main character is female and so is the villain and both, in their own way, have a lot more power than the men in the story. A main observation that supports feminism in The Little Mermaid is that there are almost no male characters in the story. There is a sea king who is the little mermaid’s father but he is only mentioned. The only male character that has even the slightest meaning to the story is the prince that the mermaid falls in love with and he’s not really developed as a character at all. He’s really just there for plot purpose, and it’s the little mermaid and the sea witch that actually have a personality. Another point of feminism is the fact that the women in the story have all the power. This is first observed in the fact that the king of the sea is mentioned but it is his mother that has an actual role and gives words of wisdom to the main character which sets off the entire plot. Then there is the little mermaid herself. First she demonstrates her power by rescuing the prince from drowning, usually it’s the prince that has to rescue the princess but here it was the other way around. Also she has all of these hopes and dreams of becoming a human, gaining an immortal soul, and finding true love with the prince and she actually does something about it to make her dreams come true, she doesn’t just sit around and wait for something to happen. Then of course there’s the evil sea witch that “helps” the mermaid get what she wants. With her magic powers she can make potions and cast spells that could easily defeat any man. In all

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