The book would have had kids screaming in sorrow at the end. Here is my comparison of the two; http://thatwasnotinthebook.com/diff/the-little-mermaid
shareI personally liked the Disney film better but I only have vague memories of reading the original book.
Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath is a Brony
The book ending sucked. And not because it was a sad ending but Because it was sexist.
"Stay at home ladies and do what your told or you will end up dead"
How exactly was the ending sexist? It was more about religion than anything else.
shareI already explained with the quote earlier but since you didnt bother to read it or it went right over your head.
Here it is pay attention. In the ending the Little Mermaid ends up killing herself and turns into sea fart because the Prince married someone else. Its quite clear Hans Christian Anderson is telling women dont follow your dreams, dont have sex, and do what your told or the same will happen to you.
I have no clue what kiliing yourself and turning into sea fart is religious to you.
I read your quote and it simply failed to explain why the ending is supposedly sexist.
Your explanation also shows how you failed to understand the story and its ending. In no way does Andersen say that about women. Did you miss the part about gaining a soul and going to heaven? Eternal salvation is a major theme. It's not a story about the oppression of women, but about unrequited love (when is there even sex?) and a desire to belong, which Andersen himself experienced many times. She also does not "kill herself". Maybe you should go back to school and learn how to read.
. I read your quote and it simply failed to explain why the ending is supposedly sexistThats your fault not mine. I made it simple enough.
Your explanation also shows how you failed to understand the story and its ending. In no way does Andersen say that about women.
Did you miss the part about gaining a soul and going to heaven?Nope i saw that and it to me sounded like a cheap cop out. Anderson was trying to use it as his happy ending which I call bs on. I agree with the the other poster. The Mermaid should have gone to hell for taking her life over a guy. Such a horrible message to send to young girls.
Eternal salvation is a major theme.Lol no it isnt. Maybe only to you.
It's not a story about the oppression of women,Eh wrong. It's a cautionary tale for women who want to be independent thinkers and pursue what they want. In the case of the story pursuing love.
(when is there even sex?)lol are you kidding me? Sex is part of the whole story. The idea of the Mermaid wishing for the legs just becuase she wants a man is filled with sexual symbolism. Her getting legs and becoming human symbolize A girl growing into a adulthood. And of course her relationship with the prince clearly implies her need to do what couples do "Have sex".
and a desire to belong, which Andersen himself experienced many times.]why because he was gay? Oh please Anderson hated himself being gay which is why he like to punish his protagonist and teach them a lesson. Mainly woman because he likely identified with them.
She also does not "kill herself".Yeah she does. She threw herself from the ship and dissolved. Last time I checked willingly drowning yourself is suicide. Unless you can prove the butler did it.
Maybe you should go back to school and learn how to read.Eh no thanks. I dont want to join you in kindergarten child.
Thats your fault not mine. I made it simple enough.
Haha you obviously have no clue what your talking about. Fyi Anderson has a history of it. Most of his stories with female protagonist has a very sexist slant to it.
Nope i saw that and it to me sounded like a cheap cop out. Anderson was trying to use it as his happy ending which I call bs on.
Lol no it isnt. Maybe only to you.
Eh wrong. It's a cautionary tale for women who want to be independent thinkers and pursue what they want. In the case of the story pursuing love.
lol are you kidding me? Sex is part of the whole story.
why because he was gay? Oh please Anderson hated himself hence for being gay which is why he like to punish his protagonist and teach them a lesson.
Yeah she does. She threw herself from the ship and dissolved
Eh no thanks. I dont want to join you in kindergarten child.
Well, you did get it right but only caught a part of the picture. In both the movie and original story, merpeople were told to not interact with the human world because it was dangerous and could corrupt and harm them - and this applies to ALL merpeople, not just the women. The Little Mermaid explicitly disregards the warnings - both the merpeople and the Sea Witch's - because of curiosity and decides to join the human world.
TLM doesn't kill herself because the Prince married someone else. She chooses to die because she realizes he never truly loved her but, being still in love with him, she is ultimately unable to give his life in exchange for hers. In essence, she decides to accept the consequences of disregarding the warnings. The result would have been the same if it was a merman and a princess instead, the Sea Witch didn't give TLM a potion especially for women or anything.
So the book ending wasn't "sexist", and doesn't apply solely to women (even though the protagonist happened to be one). Barring the religious undertones, the lesson is that warnings are there for a reason, and once you have chosen to ignore them you must live with the consequences of your actions until you make things right (depending on the ending, TLM either turns into sea foam or is given a chance to redeem her soul).
pandemonium91 Could not have said it better myself
shareHonestly, I liked the Disney version far better than the original. If anything, I actually hated the original tale, and not because the mermaid died at the end (honestly, speaking as someone who likes Mega Man Zero 4 and Under the Red Hood, I have zero problem with sad endings so long as there's at least some point to it). Actually, I had a massive problem with the original mermaid herself, as she came across as being a downright selfish brat, not to mention, unlike Ariel, it's heavily implied that pretty much the only reason she fell for the prince is simply because he coincidentally resembled a statue that was her most treasured possession and the narrative doesn't even mention any actions the prince did before she saved him (seriously, at least Ariel actually observed Eric's overall behavior before saving him). Not to mention her actions caused needless suffering to her family and everyone she supposedly cared for. Yes, her sisters sacrificed their hair in an attempt to save her sister, but considering what happened afterwards, it was a waste of a sacrifice, and they had it a bit easier than their grandma and dad, who died and had grave misfortune thanks to her running away from home, and unlike with Ariel, she ran away from home because of what was essentially a tantrum about not having a soul, with her family playing absolutely no negative action towards her beforehand. To be honest, the means where the mermaid could get a soul also frankly disturbed me, since it sounded more like the Dementor's Kiss from Harry Potter. And the whole plotline there reminds me, another reason I disliked the original tale immensely is just how stupid the whole idea of merpeople outright lacking immortal souls was, considering they not only looked roughly like human beings, they even acted like humans more or less, meaning they if anything would be just as applicable to immortal souls as humans are. I mean, I can understand if the mermaid were, say, a literal fish, because animals lack immortal souls, but merpeople were pretty obviously not animals. Even Angels only lack a body, and are otherwise spirits. And that's ignoring that her desiring the prince for an immortal soul made her no different from the likes of, say, Lord Farquaad from Shrek or even Hans from Frozen. But what REALLY grinds my gears was the ending, NOT the fact that she died, but that she was a Karma Houdini. She was essentially allowed to enter purgatory at the very least, despite all the selfish actions she conducted throughout the story, with only two actions at most having any relation to selflessness. Had I been Hans Christian Anderson and I wrote the tale, I'd do the ending very differently: I'd have God give her a soul, then damn her to Hell for all eternity for all the selfishness she displayed throughout the story, all of which outweighed any good she did there. Oh, and she made absolutely no attempt to rectify her wrongdoing, not even when she committed suicide, which benefitted absolutely NO ONE (not even the prince whom she spared, because by committing suicide, she broke his heart, since he did love her like a sister).
The Disney version was MUCH better, not simply because Ariel survives, but because in Ariel's case, she actually got to work for her actions, not to mention actually cleaned up her messes. I also especially like how the Disney version actually implies that mermaids actually have souls as well. Heck, I wouldn't have minded if the Disney version DID have Ariel dying since at least there, she would have sacrificed her life to stop Ursula in that case, and in that case would have more than earned an immortal soul with that kind of sacrifice, IF she lacked an immortal soul beforehand that is.
And anyways, a sad ending is not any guarantee that the story's going to be good. The Matrix Revolutions had a sad ending as well, yet that movie was actually downright terrible, especially when it implies that things are pretty much going to be the same as before. I also don't see how the original tale was even remotely Christian. So, just because she commits suicide, that automatically makes it Christian? There was a Spartan story about a guy who basically gave his own life trying to keep a stolen fox under his tunic during training, with his being treated as a hero as a result, yet that wasn't remotely Christian in any way (heck, it predated Christianity). And the Matrix Trilogy had quite a bit of Christian references in it, yet that series of films if anything was explicitly anti-Christian (Cornel West even indicated that the whole Architect scene was meant to be a devastating critique on Salvation Stories). Japanese culture also praises suicide for a mission, and Japan isn't even a Christian country.
I also don't see how the original tale was even remotely Christian. So, just because she commits suicide, that automatically makes it Christian?
First of all, I wasn't even specifically talking to you this time around, I was talking about in general (and yes, there are PLENTY who took it to mean it was specifically Christian in nature, not just religious). And I have read it, quite a few times (heck, I even have it as part of a Hans Christian Anderson anthology book, if that's anything to go by), and guess what, I STILL hate it. If it were truly religious, God would have damned the Mermaid specifically BECAUSE of her selfish actions, not to mention the fact that her final actions if anything left EVERYONE hurt as a result, some even dead thanks to her like her grandma who died of a broken heart because of her running away from home.
Second of all, the fact of the matter is, she chose to kill herself, ergo, suicide. And in any case, the fact of the matter is, she still did far too many selfish actions to even get into Purgatory, let alone Heaven.
I was the only one who made a reference to religion in this thread, so ofcourse it's a response to what I said. And I don't care if you hate it, the story and its ending are religious. It doesn't matter if you think it doesn't follow the Bible or what you believe to be Christian morals.
She did NOT kill herself. She let herself die. Terminally ill people don't commit suicide either if they stop their treatment.
No, when I saw the thread long before you even made a post in this topic, I already was deeply considering responding to the topic anyways. Your reference to religion was coincidental to my post at best. If I wanted to specifically address your comment about religion, I would have specifically replied to you about it, NOT to the TC. At the very least, I would have specifically referred to you by name. No, when I brought up Christianity in there, I was thinking of other people who have read the fairy tale, like the author of "The Landscape of Dragons".
And for the record, people also claimed that the Matrix Trilogy was religious in its ending and its story, yet guess what, the Wachowskis made it very clear that it, if anything, was promoting Nietzschean philosophy, and Cornel West, who played a role in the movie and was even one of the inspirations for the trilogy, made it very clear that it was definitely anti-religion, certainly anti-Christian. Heck, even Final Fantasy had religious themes in the games, and yet several of them were most certainly anti-Religion (those that come to mind in particular are Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance).
Ah, yeah, actually, she DID kill herself. She did far more than just "let herself die", she ran to the edge of the ship and jumped off. Just letting herself die would have her just stand there as she melts into flotsam.
You said "I ALSO don't see how the original tale was even remotely Christian", which was clearly a response to racy's response to me. So yeah, it did concern my comment.
Either way, yes, the story and the ending are religious. It's literally said, so nothing obscure like The Matrix. And since we know that Andersen considered himself a devout Christian, we know this is a fact.
Jumping off a ship into the water is not automatically going to kill a mermaid. And since she knew she would turn into foam even before the sea could kill her, she was not killing herself.
You said "I ALSO don't see how the original tale was even remotely Christian", which was clearly a response to racy's response to me. So yeah, it did concern my comment.
Either way, yes, the story and the ending are religious. It's literally said, so nothing obscure like The Matrix. And since we know that Andersen considered himself a devout Christian, we know this is a fact.
Jumping off a ship into the water is not automatically going to kill a mermaid. And since she knew she would turn into foam even before the sea could kill her, she was not killing herself.
This has absolutely nothing to do with you disliking something.
You clearly said "also", in agreement with racy's response to me. So yes, it did concern my comment, especially since I specifically called the ending religious. Otherwise you wouldn't have mentioned it, because you've never mentioned it before. And I doubt that anybody calls the ending Christian because the mermaid commits suicide.
The Matrix contains references, The Little Mermaid is ABOUT eternal salvation in the Christian sense and gaining a soul to enter heaven. Andersen himself has said this.
I doubt she would've drowned. But she didn't drown and knew she wouldn't drown because she would turn into foam before she did. So she didn't kill herself! It doesn't matter what you would do. She's not you and what she did was more dramatic for the story. How absolutely anti-climactic if she turned into a puddle of foam on the deck of a ship. She probably thought it was more appropriate to return to the sea.
This has absolutely nothing to do with you disliking something.
You clearly said "also", in agreement with racy's response to me. So yes, it did concern my comment, especially since I specifically called the ending religious. Otherwise you wouldn't have mentioned it, because you've never mentioned it before. And I doubt that anybody calls the ending Christian because the mermaid commits suicide.
The Matrix contains references, The Little Mermaid is ABOUT eternal salvation in the Christian sense and gaining a soul to enter heaven. Andersen himself has said this.
I doubt she would've drowned. But she didn't drown and knew she wouldn't drown because she would turn into foam before she did. So she didn't kill herself! It doesn't matter what you would do. She's not you and what she did was more dramatic for the story. How absolutely anti-climactic if she turned into a puddle of foam on the deck of a ship. She probably thought it was more appropriate to return to the sea.
I don't believe you would've mentioned it, because there is nobody who claims the ending is Christian because the mermaid commits suicide. What did happen is that I called the ending religious, while racy questioned what was religious about her committing suicide.
It IS about eternal salvation. The story explicitly states that if she'd marry a human, she'd become one with him and gain a soul. The mermaid wanted a soul to ultimately enter heaven. Pay attention! This is exactly what makes the story and ending religious. I don't care what YOUR idea of Christianity and eternal salvation is.
She ALREADY returned to the sea by that point.
I don't believe you would've mentioned it, because there is nobody who claims the ending is Christian because the mermaid commits suicide. What did happen is that I called the ending religious, while racy questioned what was religious about her committing suicide.
It IS about eternal salvation. The story explicitly states that if she'd marry a human, she'd become one with him and gain a soul. The mermaid wanted a soul to ultimately enter heaven. Pay attention! This is exactly what makes the story and ending religious. I don't care what YOUR idea of Christianity and eternal salvation is.
Please read. I said that she would end up as a puddle on the deck of the ship. How poetic...
In fact, here's ANOTHER place that specifically cites Christian themes to the original story as well
Yeah, I did pay attention, and it was STILL not eternal salvation at all because that was not how you get eternal salvation AT ALL, nor, for that matter was her actions at the end.
And where do you THINK the ship would be at? The SEA!
EVERY expert on Andersen says there's Christian or religious themes to the story. But nowhere in that link does anyone say that the mermaid committing suicide is a Christian theme. The connection between suicide and religion was made in this thread by racy because I said the ending was religious.
Again, it's not about what YOU believe, it's about what Andersen believed and intended. He was the one who wrote the story, remember?
You are really dense, aren't you? I said that she jumped from the ship because she felt that being in the sea would be more appropriate. I'm talking about physically returning to the sea. You know, because that's where mermaids come from and because the grandmother said that when mermaids die they become foam on the surface of the sea. Mermaids do not belong as puddles on the deck of a ship. Jeez!
Actually, a lot of people were thinking it was a Christian story simply because the Mermaid chose to kill herself rather than killing the Prince and basically was allowed into heaven. I've seen these claims long before racy even brought them up in this thread.
Yeah, he wrote it. And Hideo Kojima wrote Metal Gear and believed that America's coming close to placing the world into global mind control. Doesn't mean that actually IS the case. And I'm not going by what I myself believe, I'm going by what the bible and catechism itself specifically states.
So why was there a skeleton of a mermaid near the Sea Witch's lair?
And I don't care if you hate it, the story and its ending are religious.Thats just your opinion doesnt make it fact.
e It doesn't matter if you think it doesn't follow the Bible or what you believe to be Christian morals.Why doesnt it matter? Because the facts of the bible doesnt line up with your opinion lol. The universe doesnt center on your beliefs.
Lol whats the difference between killing herself and letting her self die? Nothing its still suicide.
She did NOT kill herself. She let herself die. Terminally ill people don't commit suicide either if they stop their treatment.
No need to answer for otness, I'm sure he can do it himself.
Thats just your opinion doesnt make it fact.
Why doesnt it matter? Because the facts of the bible doesnt line up with your opinion lol. The universe doesnt center on your beliefs.
You think people randomly walk around the world and say "gee I what to be infected with a fatal disease today" lol your clearly insane.
Its no different then jumping off a high building.
WELL Alot to read here
First off went to where the mermaid story began for me
The animated Reader's Digest version made back in the early seventies which is a more faithful adaptation of the original story
And there are alot of "messages" there from religious to moralism
The transcendence of mermaid to human human to angel
and the hope that the final journey is truly paradise especially for those who had/have hardships undeserved or otherwise
Though "flawed" the Disney film also has it's points including transcendence
and the fact that just because viewpoints differ does not mean no love lost between anyone
I like both versions for I live(d) the Anderson version some many years now yet hope for the Disney one and in today's screwed up world MANY need that
not selfstyled one note idiots in life on network and you tube
BUT
that is the price of Democracy
Well, I happen to hate the original story with every fiber of my being.
It is bleak for no good reason and reactionary and has nothing likable about it.
Clearly, Disney were totally right to change it for their movie.