Destructively attractive, bewitching with languid melodies, sometimes pale and sad, sometimes laughing uncontrollably, a sea maiden who turns into sea foam after her death... The romantic dreams and aspirations for the ideal of many generations of men were embodied in the legends of mermaids - dreams of an inaccessible woman, unlike an ordinary daughter Eve. Modern psychologists claim that this image symbolizes sexual desire leading to self-destruction. The mermaid is a symbol of the mixture of sexual desire and death, a man’s desire to completely forget himself, even realizing that this sweet oblivion leads to self-destruction. Sexy and voluptuous, and at the same time - cold and elusive, an unattainable seductress, whose eternal youth and beauty, magical voice and art of seduction attract helpless sailors to death. But belief in sea maidens was not the prerogative of sailors who went crazy from boredom and abstinence on long ocean voyages. In world folklore there are many stories about seductive women depths of the sea- half women, half fish. The roots of mermaid legends go back to powerful Babylonian deities associated with the Sun and Moon. The sun god Oannes had the body of a man, his crown was made from the head of a fish, and his mantle was made from fish scales. Gradually Oannes was supplanted by the god Ea, already half-fish, half-man, and it can be assumed that the emergence in Greek mythology myths about newts causing calms and storms are associated precisely with him. And the moon goddess Atargatis, half-woman, half-fish, was the predecessor of mermaids. The Babylonians believed that the Sun and Moon, finishing their daily journey across the firmament, plunged into the sea. And, naturally, the gods who symbolized them had to have suitable bodies for life both under water and on land. The unusual image of these gods - the symbiosis of fish and man brought to the absolute level - and the ability to dive to uncharted ocean depths added to their mystery. Mermaids inherited these qualities. And, perhaps, the mirror with which sea maidens are often depicted symbolizes the ancient night luminary that commands the tides, and thereby expands the magical power of mermaids.
Mermaids are mentioned in folklore of all countries of the world, and if a country does not have a sea, a river or lake becomes its home. Indian river nymphs have a human appearance, skillfully play the lute, and are extremely beautiful and seductive. Fickle and looking for new victories, they, unlike their European friends, never destroy men, but, on the contrary, please them in every possible way. In Slavic mythology, dead girls and unbaptized children turn into mermaids. They live under water in wonderful crystal chambers, and in the week following Trinity, they come out of the water, run through fields, swing in trees, and can tickle people they meet to death or drag them into the water. They are especially dangerous on Thursday - the mermaid's Great Day. Therefore, you cannot swim in the rusal for a week, and in order to scare away the scoundrels, you need to carry wormwood with you, which they are supposedly afraid of. Compassionate women, feeling sorry for the unfortunate mermaids, hang clothes, towels, threads for them on trees, and girls hang elegant wreaths. And mermaids always return kindness for kindness. If you cover the naked mermaid (mermaid baby) with your clothes, the mermaid mother will reward you, at will, with health, money, the gift of a healer and a skilled healer. But their Western European sisters are quite insidious and bloodthirsty creatures. According to some legends, these are fallen angels whose food is living flesh. With singing and wonderful music they lure sailors into their nets. If (which happens quite rarely) this method of attraction does not work, mermaids rely on the unique smell of their body, which no man can resist. (It turns out that sea beauties have been taking into account in the love game since ancient times magical power pheromones - hormones that stimulate physiological and behavioral reactions of the opposite sex). Having caught and tranquilized their prey, they tore it into pieces with sharp green teeth. Less cruel ones took the victims to their underwater kingdom full of treasures. Therefore, for sailors the mermaid was bad omen. Anyone who saw her would soon drown in the sea. But, having fallen in love with a person, these insidious creatures lived for a long time on the shore. Only, in order to marry a mermaid, it was necessary to steal and hide her crown, without which the captive could not return to the sea. If the sea maiden ever found the crown, she immediately disappeared with it into the depths of the sea. In order to keep the mermaid on the shore forever, it was also necessary to steal her second skin - seal. Graceful seals with their sleek bodies have long been associated with mermaids. And many folklorists believe that stories about mermaids are based on impressions from fleeting encounters with these marine mammals. In legends, the seal usually appears as the constant companion of sea maidens. They say that one day a fisherman stunned and skinned a seal, and then threw it, still alive, back into the sea. Taking pity on the animal, the mermaid went in search of leather. But, captured by people, she died, having spent too long in the burning air element. In gratitude for her courage and dedication, the seals began to always accompany and protect the mermaids. In Asia Minor, an entire people traced their ancestry to mermaids and seals. IN ancient legend The sea nymph turned into a seal to avoid the obsessive attention of the son of Zeus. However, he was persistent, and soon the nymph gave birth to a son. They called him Focus - “Seal”. The descendants of Phocus - the Phocians - were proud of their descent from a sea nymph and decorated their coins with the image of a seal. With the advent of Christianity, legends about mermaids appeared new topic: they were described as creatures passionately wanting to get immortal soul. And the mermaids could only find it by promising to settle on land, leaving the sea and all dreams of returning there someday. With such a cruel prospect of an inevitable choice, the modern Little Mermaid should run to a psychoanalyst. But in the 6th century, psychoanalysis was practiced only in the confessionals of priests. And the restless mermaid, who lived near a small island not far from Scotland, visited a monk from the holy brotherhood of Jonah every day. She prayed for a soul, and the monk prayed with her to give her strength to leave the sea. The mermaid passionately fell in love with the monk and really wanted to have a soul, but she was unable to betray the sea element either. In the end, crying bitterly, she left the island forever. They say that the tears she shed turned into pebbles and have since been called “the tears of a mermaid.” In Holland, at the beginning of the 15th century, one mermaid was nevertheless sent on the righteous path. She penetrated through a destroyed dam into the river, where she was caught. She lived among people for 15 years. I learned to spin and listen to my mistress. After her death, she was buried according to Christian customs. And residents of the Welsh port of Milford Harbor at the end of the 19th century believed that mermaids regularly visited the city’s weekly fair along the underwater road to buy the tortoiseshell combs they desperately needed, and disappeared until the next fair day. For famous travelers and sailors such as Christopher Columbus and Henry Hudson, encounters with mermaids on the high seas were quite commonplace. But sailing ships were gradually replaced by steamships, sea voyages became much shorter, and sailors talked less and less about how they were seduced and teased by sea sirens. Perhaps the last such exciting encounter occurred in 1957 during the voyage of Eric de Bishop on his model of a reconstructed ancient Polynesian raft from Tahiti to Chile. The sailor on watch proved to everyone that he had seen an incomprehensible creature with hair like the finest algae jumping out of the water onto the deck. Touching uninvited guest(guest?), the sailor received such a blow in response that he sprawled on the deck, and the creature disappeared into the waves. The sailor's hands were left with sparkling fish scales... Slavic mythology Let's remember that Mermaid Week was from June 19 to 24, right before the Kupala holiday. The beautiful girls took off their bracelets and unraveled their long sleeves, turning into “birds.” Either like birds or like little mermaids. During the holiday, they danced a smooth dance, waving their long sleeves like wings and sang: On the dirty week, the Mermaids sat. Oh early! The mermaids were sitting, asking for shirts: Hey girls-friends, Give me the shirts. Give the shirts, Curl the wreaths, Curl the wreaths on the holy horns. Oh early! On to the brass! It turns out that you need to curl a wreath, and also buy clothes, that is, give them to the mermaid. And the wreath was curled so that the boys would say hello, and this is a marriage spell, the wreath must be red love flower curled - asked the goddess Lelya to help find her betrothed. They were also responsible for the fertility of the little mermaid. They were very fond of dew; wherever a mermaid runs or flies, there is a better harvest. And where there is fertility, there is a wedding, and prosperity, and children will be born. People of old say that mermaids are connected with water, just like swans. During mermaid week, they hung threads, yarn, towels, and shirts on “crying” branches, bent toward the water, that is. That is why the fish tail came in handy for some of them. Swimming is more fun with a tail. They were called Beregins and helped to get to the shore. And the shore is called the shore because they escaped from the water on it. Oh, those little mermaids were beautiful! Only their hair is unusual - long, long, and green, too. However, it is not clear why this is so, sometimes with the wings of a little mermaid, like a bird of God, sometimes with a fish’s tail? Yes, that's why. The Slavs called Nebushko the heavenly okiyan, which means they called it. The little mermaids flew from heaven to the sinful earth. Everything is covered in feathers, but when they moved to the oceans, rivers, and seas of the earth, they threw off their feathers and acquired a fish tail. It still is today. Which of them remained in the sky - those with feathers, with wings, all fluttering. And which mermaids looked at rivers and forest lakes for their homes - they became half-fish. Vasilisa the Wise - the daughter of the King of the Sea, was also a mermaid, however, when she got married, she hid the swan's wings for the time being... And the Princess - the Frog of the same family - tribe. Just not for everyone, the maiden of heaven or the sea will go, she deserves it. Little mermaids love to listen to music. Yes, and the craftswomen sing like the Greek sirens, but they are not as evil as those non-humans. “After the rain on Thursday,” they say, and for good reason. Maundy Thursday , they say, and also not for nothing. This day is dedicated to earthly and heavenly water. The ancient Slavic god Perun is responsible for this day. Perun is the god of thunder and rain, as well as the daring army and the just prince. He rules this during the day. And not only him. Beautiful girls have their own hope on this day. These are the little mermaids. On this day, at the red dawn, the girls plunged into the water three times, then rolled on the damp earth three times, on the healing dew. Yes, they did it with intelligence and cunning - they rode from east to west, following the course of the red sun, adding its strength to their beauty. And then they climbed up to the roofs of the huts in the corners, got closer to the sun and praised the red spring with a song. And the old people also say that the breadwinner should be born better, a mermaid, all in flowers and a wreath, and dress up the most beautiful girl. They led her to the field with songs and pushed her into the rye. She then ran out of there and caught everyone who came to hand. And they ran away laughing. And it’s boring for the little mermaid to run around the field alone. And the rye became thick after this ritual. In the Slavic rusalia, wise men discover features reminiscent of the cult of Dionysus in Thrace, the Euclesinian mysteries in Athens, rituals in which dedicated mystics and priests participated. The dance of “swords” among the Germans and the dance of the “Maruts” - the thunder gods among the Hindus - came from the same place, from the Rusalia. This holiday is ancient and revered in all cities and towns. As we said before, the little mermaids were different. They will be born, like the Pitchforks (the mermaids of our southern brothers the Slavs), from rain, illuminated by the sun, from dew. They live differently. Those who have their eye on a place in reservoirs live in crystal palaces; heavenly mermaids - they built castles in the clouds (“bungled” is a heavenly construction. “Sva” is the sky in ancient Indian, and our wedding originates from there, i.e., sanctified by the sky). But that's another story. Little mermaids - noondays - run through the rye, across the field. In the spring they will pour rain on Mother Earth, there will be prosperity in the homes of the farmers, but they may also become angry, then they will send a storm. I also know that the little mermaid has a magical comb. She decorates and combs her green hair with it. With the comb of those, the nets of too greedy fishermen are torn, or a millstone, riding on it in the moonlight, can be damaged. So that he doesn’t muddy the waters in vain. With this comb the little mermaid can live in the forest without her beloved water. But woe to the guy who wants to spy on a mermaid like a village girl. It will tickle him to death. Here, either run away, or throw dry henbane-wormwood powder into her eyes - she really doesn’t like it. But if a mermaid takes pity on someone and falls in love, be it a boy or a girl, and if a cruel death happens to him, she will cry over him. And her tears are living water, giving life. The blue lights over the graves are the souls of people. Through the efforts of mermaids, these souls ascend to heaven. If someone sees such a light, it means that the mermaid carried the soul of the deceased to the heavenly garden of Iriy. At ancient wells, they say, the queen of mermaids stores living water. Any soul will not come to life, will not go to heaven without this magical drink, brought from heaven by a mermaid, just like that. Not only girls could get help from the mermaids, but they didn’t forget the guys either and didn’t ignore them. This was a difficult matter for the guys. The squad gathered like a mermaid, spent the night outside the house, could not speak, not a word. But for a whole week, if they come to a house and perform a round dance with jumping around a sick or ill person, he will be healthy with the power of a mermaid. Moreover, if they don’t forget to put a wreath on their head, as a sign of respect for the little mermaid. But the little mermaids loved the girls more. Any girl who accidentally dies before the wedding could be restored to life in human flesh during the mermaid week, although the villagers were afraid of such revived girls. And after the mermaid week ritual funeral They arranged for such “mermaids” so as not to embarrass the people. Effigies depicting them were burned or thrown into water, in different places in different ways. They were still afraid of mermaids, as well as knowledgeable and strong women. And they, the little mermaids, could go out and save a lost child, and if they help her in any way, she will thank her and give her a gift for life, and if they take care of her baby, then even more so. The little mermaid knew how to turn herself into a white swan. And sometimes she visited the Sea King as a daughter. They are relatives with swans. And let’s remember our children’s swings, and so, our ancestors swung on them on holidays, like mermaids on branches, in honor of the goodness bestowed by the mermaids, and through swinging they saw communion with heaven. Mermaids loved this fun. Even water mermaids loved to swing on the waves. At the mermaid festival, beautiful girls looked for suitors for themselves, and, sometimes, in our opinion, they “committed sin” with their betrothed-mummer. It was not the boys who chose the girls at this festival, but the girls who chose the boys. It's a mermaid week for girls. It was customary to throw water on everyone. Do a round dance around the wells. They made a straw horse, it meant the sun. The guys carried this horse around the village and pretended that it was charging at everyone who passed by. Whoever this horse touches will have good luck in all matters. Old people or crippled people were hovered like “evil” roots in the bathhouse, and carried to the bathhouse on nettles. Let them be patient. But the little mermaid will give you strength and health. A sacred drink was also brewed from young grass. They cooked it, changing it three times, seasoned it with honey, hops, and dry raisins. On the third day they bottled it and served it on the table for Trinity. The drink was 7-8 degrees, but it was no worse than other fortified wine, and it treated well. And if the beautiful girls were deceived by their fiance or betrothed, they knew what to do. They went to a spring or a forest lake and cried and complained about the offender to the little mermaid. That husband or fiancé was miserable later. Until now, there is such a sorcery: to reproach your insult with water, throw into that water the ring given by the adversary and throw it. Then he, the offender, will have no fun. You just need to remember the little mermaid with a kind word. It’s better not to complain in winter, but in summer, spring or autumn. Old women say that mermaids sleep in winter and wake up on Christmas, when “the lads are chasing Kaladino Kolo.” If you tell fortunes on a river, or ask what a girl wants from the flowing water, let her throw a feather into the water and let it float. And then he asks what he wants for his female part. A feather is a gift for the little mermaid. You can hang beautiful threads on the bushes and quietly sing a song to the joy of the mermaid: At the gate there was a green birch tree, Green birch stood, waving a branch, On that birch tree the Mermaid was sitting, The mermaid was sitting, asking for a shirt: “Young girls, give me shirts! No matter how skinny or white!" And after singing, say three times: “Take, little mermaid, a gift, give me a gift.” And express your request by hanging scraps or threads on a bush or tree, and don’t be sorry, then and a white shirt. From green melancholy, if it’s stuck, you also need to whisper to the little mermaid: “Water, you are water, spring water!” Just as you, water, wash away steep banks, stumps, roots, so wash away the sadness and sadness from your white face, from your zealous heart. Be my words light and strong (you need to read the water with which you wash your face)." And they also say that a mermaid is called a mermaid because in ancient times the river was called blond, the word "bed" from the river "lo" - bed comes from. Isn't that where "is the Rus tribe called? Maybe our ancestors understood themselves as people connected with rivers, with the power and magic of water, women."
Composition
THE LITTLE MERMAID (Dan. Den Lille Havfrue) - the heroine of the fairy tale by H.K. Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" (1836-1837). The origins of the plot are in the folklore theme of the love of a mermaid for a person (for example, Melusine in Celtic mythology). Several of Andersen's poetic works were devoted to this topic. R. is one of the six daughters of the widowed sea king, of course, the youngest, as befits the heroine of Andersen’s fairy tale: the smallest and weakest. Upon reaching the age of 15, the mermaid sisters received permission to go up, to the shore, to the ground, to look at the world of people. This journey marked the coming of age of the daughters of the sea king. When R.'s turn came, she realized that she wanted to live among people. The heroine saw and fell in love with a handsome prince, she decided to live a short human life (mermaids live for three hundred years) in order to later gain an immortal soul (mermaids, when they die, turn into sea foam). She succeeded, paying exorbitantly high price sea witch, to be among people. She lost her magical voice, and every step of her lovely legs, which grew in place of her tail, caused her acute pain. But the main condition for achieving immortality was the love of the prince. When he fell in love and married someone else, R. died. She did not use the only chance for her salvation: by piercing the prince’s heart, she could, by sprinkling his legs with his blood, become a mermaid again. Of course, R. spared her beloved and died herself. R. is one of Andersen’s rare tragic heroines, among whom she stands out for her special melancholy charm. But she is close to such heroines as Gerda from “The Snow Queen” and Eliza from “Wild Swans”, with their courage, perseverance, and generosity. The image of R. became a symbol of Denmark. Created in 1913 by sculptor E. Eriksen, “The Little Mermaid” is installed in the Copenhagen port.
Lit.: Braude L. Hans Christian Andersen and his collections “Fairy Tales Told to Children” and “New Fairy Tales” // Andersen H.K. Fairy tales told to children. New fairy tales. M., 1983. P.279-321; Braude L. Creation of a literary fairy tale // Braude L. Scandinavian literary fairy tale. M., 1979. P.44-98.
The magical world of the Danish storyteller's fairy tales is bewitching and beautiful. His fabulous magical creativity is dedicated to all people, regardless of age. The works of Hans Christian Andersen are filled with deep philosophical meaning, giving food for thought. One such fairy tale is The Little Mermaid, whose main idea is self-sacrifice for love. The main characters of “The Little Mermaid” are sea creatures and living people, their similarities and differences in behavior and feelings. “The Little Mermaid” is a touching tale about how dreams come true and are broken.
Characteristics of the characters “The Little Mermaid”
Main characters
Mermaid |
A little underwater inhabitant, an inquisitive and smart little mermaid. Receives the right to swim to the top of the ocean when he reaches the age of fifteen. The little mermaid saw the prince and fell in love with him. The ship goes down and she saves the prince. Having laid it on the sand, she saw how some girl found it. The little mermaid wants to be with the boy, and in exchange for her voice, she gets legs. But the prince chose another girl, and the Little Mermaid's heart is broken. |
Prince |
A young man gets into a shipwreck during a strong hurricane and begins to drown. Having observed this incident, the little mermaid rushes to save him. She saves the young man and leaves him on the sand. Waking up, the young man sees the princess next to him and thinks that she is his savior. The prince meets the little mermaid, he is delighted with her beauty and ability to dance, and does not pay attention to her muteness. The young man confesses to the little mermaid that he will give his heart to the girl who saved him. |
Minor characters
Sea king |
Lord of the sea, father of many children. He has long been a widower, and his mother manages the estate. |
Old mother |
A wise, elderly woman, the grandmother of the little mermaids. She is very proud of her high origins, and teaches this to her granddaughters. Grandma loves mermaids very much, especially the youngest. The little mermaid loves to hear about people, and the old grandmother told her everything she knew about life on earth. She told her that people die, but their soul is immortal, so they do not die forever. And mermaids live only three hundred years, and then they become foam. |
Witch |
In The Little Mermaid, the heroine gave the little mermaid her legs, taking her enchanting voice for herself. |
In the first edition, the little mermaid died, and in subsequent editions, according to the story by Hans Christian Andersen, he changed the ending of the fairy tale. The characteristics of the heroes of “The Little Mermaid” for grade 4 can be used for a reader’s diary.
The origins of the plot are in the folklore theme of the love of a mermaid for a person (for example, Melusine in Celtic mythology). Several of Andersen's poetic works were devoted to this topic. The Little Mermaid is one of the six daughters of the widowed sea king, of course, the youngest, as befits the heroine of Andersen's fairy tale: the smallest and weakest. Upon reaching the age of 15, the mermaid sisters received permission to go up, to the shore, to the ground, to look at the world of people. This journey marked the coming of age of the daughters of the sea king.
When it was the Little Mermaid’s turn, she realized that she wanted to live among people. The heroine saw and fell in love with a handsome prince, she decided to live a short human life (mermaids live for three hundred years) in order to later gain an immortal soul (mermaids, when they die, turn into sea foam). She managed, by paying an exorbitantly high price to the sea witch, to find herself among the people. She lost her magical voice, and every step of her lovely legs, which grew in place of her tail, caused her acute pain. But the main condition for achieving immortality was the love of the prince. When he fell in love and married someone else, the Little Mermaid died.
She did not use the only chance for her salvation: by piercing the prince’s heart, she could, by sprinkling his legs with his blood, become a mermaid again. Of course, R. spared her beloved and died herself. The Little Mermaid is one of Andersen’s rare tragic heroines, among whom she stands out for her special melancholy charm. But she is close to such heroines as Gerda from “The Snow Queen” and Eliza from “Wild Swans”, with their courage, perseverance, and generosity.
The image of the Little Mermaid has become a symbol of Denmark. Created in 1913 by sculptor E. Eriksen, “The Little Mermaid” is installed in the Copenhagen port.
Abstract of GCD in the senior speech therapy group on the topic: Furniture... Goal: Enrichment, consolidation of vocabulary on the topic. Objectives: 1. Enrich children's vocabulary: seat, armrest, tabletop; 2. Clarify and...
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Summary of physical education entertainment in the senior group Description of the material: Summary of thematic physical education entertainment in the senior group (5-6 years old) called “Jumper’s Day.” The material will be useful...
The Little Mermaid is the daughter of the sea king. She's just like a person. Since childhood, the Little Mermaid has been striving to enter the human world and idolizes the marble statue of a boy, brought to the seabed during a shipwreck. Having fallen in love with the prince, she dreams of becoming a man herself. The little mermaid sacrifices her beautiful voice and gives her mermaid tail to the sea witch in order to be close to her lover. She becomes the first beauty at the prince's court.
The Little Mermaid has a father - the sea king, sisters, and an old grandmother. Mermaids can also gossip, like people. The king's mother is proud of her ancestry and therefore always wears a dozen oysters on her tail, while others are only allowed to wear six. Despite all her nobility, the grandmother does not disdain work and manages the entire palace economy. Her little mermaid granddaughters plant flowers in the flower beds themselves.
The little mermaid strives for the wonders of the earth, for sun rays, to the singing of birds, the life of the seabed depresses it with everyday monotony - after all, it is only for us that underwater trees and shells seem something extraordinary!
The love of the little mermaid for the prince is the main, central theme of the fairy tale. This is the theme not of ordinary human love, but of romantic, doomed love, love - self-sacrifice, love that did not make the heroine of the fairy tale happy, but which did not disappear without a trace for her, because it did not make her completely unhappy. In mythology, a mermaid, having lost her immortal soul as a result of evil committed against her as a person, can gain this soul if she makes a person love her. The love of a mermaid and a person does not have to be mutual. A mermaid may not respond to a person and destroy him by falling in love with herself. But a person’s love for her is the main step towards the mermaid acquiring an immortal soul. Therefore, she must provoke a person, evoke this love in him by any means and ways.
In Andersen, this theme is both preserved and rethought. The little mermaid wants to achieve the love of a person, wants to find an immortal soul. “Why don’t we have an immortal soul? - the little mermaid asked sadly, - I would give all my hundreds of years in one day human life, so that later he too can rise to heaven... How I love him! More than father and mother! I belong to him with all my heart, with all my thoughts, I would willingly give him the happiness of my whole life! I would do anything - just to be with him and find an immortal soul!..” The Little Mermaid needs an immortal soul because she is given only three hundred years, this big life, but this is the only possibility of existence, and the immortal soul makes it possible to live forever.
Andersen's tale includes Christian motifs. Andersen reinterprets ancient pagan mythology from the point of view of Christian mythology: ideas about the soul, about the afterlife, about life after death.
The combination of two motives is where the story of the little mermaid and the prince is born. The little mermaid saves the prince, she does good for a man who dies in the waves. Often, by the way, according to mythological beliefs, women who died in the water became mermaids. A person cannot live in an element that is not typical for his habitat. On the one hand, the little mermaid saves the prince, and on the other, she would like him to end up in her father’s palace. “At first the little mermaid was very happy that he would now fall to their bottom, but then she remembered that people cannot live in water and that he could only sail to her father’s palace dead. No, no, he must not die!.. He would have died if the little mermaid had not come to his aid... It seemed to her that the prince looked like the marble boy standing in her garden; she kissed him and wished him to live.”
For saving the prince, the little mermaid, of course, has the right to expect gratitude, but the fact is that the prince does not see her. He sees a girl standing above him on the shore and thinks that it was she who saved his life. The prince liked this girl, but she turns out to be unattainable for him, since she was in a monastery at that time.
If the task of the mythological mermaid is to make a person love herself, then the little mermaid cannot force anyone; her desire is to be close to the prince, to become his wife. The little mermaid wants to please the prince, she loves him and is ready to sacrifice everything for their happiness. For the sake of her love, she gives up her home, her beautiful voice, she gives up her essence, herself. The little mermaid completely surrenders herself to the power of fate in the name of her love.
But the prince sees in her “a sweet, kind child, it never occurred to him to make her his wife and queen, and yet she had to become his wife, otherwise she could not find an immortal soul and had to if he married on the other, turn into sea foam"
The little mermaid’s dream is a dream of happiness, an ordinary, human dream, she wants love, warmth, affection. “And he laid his head on her chest, where her heart beat, yearning for human happiness and an immortal soul.” For the little mermaid, love is a constant overcoming of physical and moral torment. Physical - because “every step caused her such pain as if she was walking on sharp knives,” moral - because she sees that the prince finds his love; but this does not harden her. Love should not overshadow a person’s true vision of things and the world. “The little mermaid looked greedily at her (the prince’s bride) and could not help but admit that she had never seen a sweeter and more beautiful face.” The little mermaid lost her voice, but gained visual acuity and perception of the world, because loving heart sees more sharply. She knew that the prince was happy with his bride, she kissed his hand and it seemed to her “that her heart was about to burst with pain: his wedding should kill her, turn her into sea foam!” .
But Andersen gives the little mermaid a chance to return back to her family, to the palace of the sea king, and live for three hundred years. The little mermaid realizes that all her sacrifices were in vain, she loses everything, including her life.
Love is a sacrifice, and this theme runs through Andersen's entire fairy tale. The little mermaid sacrifices her life for the happiness of the prince, her sisters sacrifice their beautiful long hair sea witch to save the little mermaid. “We gave our hair to the witch so that she could help us save you from death! And she gave us this knife - see how sharp it is? Before the sun sets, you must thrust it into the prince’s heart, and when his warm blood splashes onto your feet, they will again grow together into a fish’s tail and you will again become a mermaid, go down to our sea and live your three hundred years. But hurry! Either he or you - one of you must die before the sun rises! Here Andersen returns us again to the mythological theme. The mermaid must destroy a person, sacrifice him. The theme of shed blood is reminiscent of pagan rituals and sacrifices, but in Andersen’s fairy tales, paganism is overcome by Christianity, its ideas and moral values.
For Andersen, love makes irreversible changes to a person. Love always does good; it cannot be evil. And therefore, the little mermaid, holding a knife in her hand, still sacrifices her own life, and not someone else’s, chooses her own death, giving the prince life and happiness. “The little mermaid lifted the purple curtain of the tent and saw that the head of the lovely newlywed was resting on the prince’s chest.”
The first thing the little mermaid sees is the happiness and love of the prince. It would seem that this picture should arouse jealousy in her, and jealousy is unpredictable, jealousy is a force of evil. “The little mermaid bent down and kissed his beautiful forehead, looked at the sky, where the morning dawn was flaring up, then looked at sharp knife and again fixed her gaze on the prince, who in his sleep uttered the name of his wife. She was the only one on his mind!” The human world is beautiful for the little mermaid. He so beckoned her underwater, so enchanted on the day of her coming of age; she feels sorry for this world, she’s afraid to lose it, but she sees the prince who is pronouncing his wife’s name at this time. “The knife trembled in the hands of the little mermaid.” Love cannot kill another love - this is Andersen’s thought. “Another minute - and she (the little mermaid) threw it (the knife) into the waves, which turned red, as if stained with blood, in the place where it fell. Once again she looked at the prince with half-extinguished gaze, rushed from the ship into the sea and felt her body dissolve into foam.” The little mermaid abandoned herself entirely, but she had one more dream - to find human soul. This dream both came true and not. Love itself already gives a person a soul. It is no coincidence that the little mermaid does not turn into sea foam, love gave her the opportunity to move into another state, she becomes one of the daughters of the air.
Ancient mythological beliefs, having lost their power over human consciousness, were preserved in folklore and artistic images of writers different countries. In our work, we turned to only one such image and saw how complex and individual the writer’s relationship with mythology and the mythological image is. Interpreting the image of the mythological mermaid, turning it into the little mermaid heroine of his fairy tale, Andersen partially preserves her mythological features and capabilities. But at the same time, the mythological image under the writer’s pen acquires human essence, human character, human destiny. The little mermaid, with the help of the witch's witchcraft, turns into a person, she selflessly loves the prince, this love turns out to be unrequited and even tragic, she sacrifices her life for the happiness of the prince.
Starting from pagan mythology, Andersen affirms the values and ideas of Christianity, affirms the power of human love as the greatest moral strength all over the world, regardless of whether this world is real or fantastic. And such metamorphoses in Andersen’s fairy tales occur not only with one mermaid. Any mythological characters, be it gnomes, a snow queen, an ice maiden, acquire individual characters and destinies under the writer’s pen, become like people, and are endowed with human dreams and desires. Mythological fairy-tale images are reinterpreted by the writer and used by him for the artistic reincarnation of such important moral ideas as the ideas of humanism, spiritual purity and selfless and devoted love.
Let us place special emphasis on the path that the mermaids had to go through in order to receive an immortal soul: “Let only one of the people love you so much that you become dearer to him than his father and mother, let him give himself to you with all his heart and all his thoughts and tells the priest to join your hands..." Why, in addition to human love, was a priest also needed? For Andersen, his presence is absolutely natural. A person's love must be sanctified. There must be God's love-blessing, which is transmitted through the priest.
When did the Little Mermaid decide to go to people? Then, when I admitted to myself: “How I love him! More than father and mother!..” But the Little Mermaid was not only drawn to the prince; she also had another goal on earth: “If only I could be with him and find an immortal soul.” That is, the Little Mermaid’s love for the prince and the desire to have an immortal soul stand side by side.
What was the Little Mermaid’s path to people? First she went to the sea witch for advice and maybe help. Andersen describes the Little Mermaid’s path to the witch, and thanks to precise epithets and comparisons we can easily imagine it - seething whirlpools, peat bogs, “disgusting polyps”, “like hundred-headed snakes”, “white skeletons of sunken ships”, “animal bones”. Why does the writer recreate in such detail the path to the witch that the Little Mermaid had to overcome? In order to show how difficult it was and, most importantly, scary - “her heart began to beat with fear,” “it was the worst thing of all.” And yet the Little Mermaid did not turn back, although she had such impulses, but then she “remembered the prince, the immortal soul and gathered her courage.” It is again emphasized that it was not only the prince who pulled the Little Mermaid to earth, but also the immortality of the soul. This is confirmed by the perspicacious sea witch - “you want the young prince to love you, and you would receive an immortal soul!” .
To get to people, the Little Mermaid had to exchange her tail for human legs - “it will hurt as much as if you were pierced with a sharp sword.” She will have to abandon her native environment, her father's house, her sisters, and lose the opportunity to ever become a mermaid again. The Little Mermaid also had to give the witch her “wonderful voice” as payment for her help. Note that the “voice” is what determines the image of the mermaid, her essence. That is, the Little Mermaid gave a part of herself to the witch.
What was the Little Mermaid's condition during her visit to the witch? She was scared. She answered the witch’s terrible warnings with a “trembling voice” and “turned pale as death.” Even this comparison itself is scary. What made the Little Mermaid endure all her fears? Only thoughts about the prince and the immortal soul.
The Little Mermaid’s sacrifices are enormous, both physical (voice, legs) and psychological (refuses her native environment and herself). But true love always involves sacrifices.
The Little Mermaid could not tell the prince about her love. But the prince did not doubt her love at all, because “her eyes spoke more to her heart.” “You love me so much,” the prince asserted. Andersen is also convinced that real love doesn't need words.
But how did the prince feel about the Little Mermaid? “Yes, I love you,” said the prince. “You have a kind heart, you are devoted to me more than anyone else...”, “You will rejoice at my happiness. You love me so much!” . It is easy to notice that the words “me” and “me” dominate here. The Prince loved the Little Mermaid primarily for his love for himself. But he also had love and gratitude towards the Little Mermaid. After all, he told her: “You look like a young girl I saw once.” He thought that this girl saved him when he was drowning.
The prince also loved the Little Mermaid “like a dear child.” What does it mean? The fact that the prince treated the Little Mermaid as funny toy, which touched and entertained him. We find confirmation of this in the text. Let's remember how the Little Mermaid was dressed in the palace, what she usually did. “The little mermaid was dressed in silk and muslin,” the prince “ordered her to sew a man’s suit” to take part in his walks, she danced beautifully, people admired her dances. And “she was allowed to sleep... on a velvet pillow in front of the door of his room.” If we highlight the dominant verbs, we will see that they always express the will of the prince, and not the Little Mermaid. They love her, but only as a wonderful, expensive toy.
Did the Little Mermaid need such love? No, because in order to gain an immortal soul, she only had to become the prince’s wife, and it “didn’t even occur to him to make... her his wife and queen.” The Prince did not love the Little Mermaid as much as she needed. It turns out that even great love - and this is exactly what the Little Mermaid carried - is not always able to evoke a reciprocal feeling.
Why was mutual love between the Little Mermaid and the Prince impossible? Sometimes they say: “He is a prince, and she is just a foundling girl.” At the same time, they forget that the Little Mermaid is also a princess, albeit one of the sea. That is, the Prince and the Little Mermaid are socially equal, but another inequality separates them. The fact is that the Little Mermaid and the Prince belonged to different worlds. She is to the sea, he is to the earth. And they lived different lives. She is spiritual (let us remember her hobbies, interests, aspirations, especially in comparison with her sisters). And the prince lived straight and figuratively earthly life(we meet him on the ship, celebrating his birthday, on walks, worrying about his marriage and other similar matters).
The Little Mermaid loved, but was she happy? How does Andersen answer this question? Love and happiness, according to Andersen, are not synonymous at all. Moreover, they are not compatible. back side love is not happiness, but suffering, as was the case with the Little Mermaid. We will find evidence of this in the text: “her legs were cut like knives, but she did not feel this pain - her heart was even more painful”; her “heart that longed for human happiness and immortal love”; “The little mermaid laughed and danced with mortal torment in her heart”; “It seemed to her that her heart was about to burst from pain: his wedding was supposed to kill her.” In relation to the Little Mermaid, the words “heart” and “pain” are in inextricable unity - “heart pain” does not fit in with the word “happiness”.
The little mermaid, despite the strength of her love, did not achieve reciprocal love from the prince and, according to the witch’s prediction, had to die. But why didn't this happen? Who turned away the death sentence from her? Her sisters did it. To save the Little Mermaid, they gave the witch their beautiful hair. Note that hair, like the voice, is the defining element of mermaids. Without hair, mermaids are incomplete. But the sisters made this sacrifice to save the Little Mermaid.
"The Little Mermaid" is also a fairy tale about great power kindred (sisterly) love - the one that does not even spare itself for the sake of a loved one.
To escape, the Little Mermaid had to plunge a knife into the prince's heart. His death is her life. Why didn't she do what was required of her? Why did “the knife tremble in the hands of the Little Mermaid”? She heard him say the name of his wife in a dream - “she was the only one in his thoughts.” The author does not use the word “love,” but it was the prince’s love for his wife that stopped the Little Mermaid’s hand. True love always respects the feelings of others.
The little mermaid could not kill the prince and threw the knife into the waves, “which turned red, as if stained with blood.” How to understand this metaphor? Together with the knife, the Little Mermaid threw her life into the sea. Blood here is a symbol of life. Again the Little Mermaid sacrifices for the prince. Is there a difference between the first victims and the last? Yes, and it’s huge. At the beginning of her journey to people, the Little Mermaid made unheard-of sacrifices - torment, but then she still gave only part of her body and soul and hoped for luck. At the end of her earthly journey, the Little Mermaid sacrificed her entire life, and there was no hope left for her. Why does Andersen build the Little Mermaid's love story in such a way that it begins and ends with her victims? Has the Little Mermaid changed during the earthly period of her life? Yes, she changed, because she understood the main thing - the prince did not love her. So the Little Mermaid had to die. “She thought about her hour of death and what she was losing with life.” What did she have to lose? The opportunity to receive an immortal soul through the prince's love for her.
The little mermaid changed in her understanding of her situation, but remained the same in her love for the prince. The composition of the fairy tale is precisely intended to emphasize the inviolability of this love. The little mermaid did not regret anything - she remained the same in her love.
The little mermaid did not achieve the love of the prince, but she retained the opportunity to find an immortal soul. What is the difference between the first and second path to the immortality of the soul? She received the answer from the daughters of the air, to whom she ended up after throwing away the knife: “Now you yourself can good deeds earn yourself an immortal soul and find it in three hundred years.” Why do you have to work for so long - three hundred years? Is this number random? There is nothing accidental in Andersen's text - every detail works for main idea. Mermaids live for three hundred years, and then they turn into sea foam. After three hundred years, the little mermaid can receive “an immortal soul as a reward and... experience the eternal bliss available to people.”