The Little Mermaid .. A Woman's Quest for Wholeness

The tale of the Little Mermaid is a typical heroine’s quest. Although Ariel, the Little Mermaid seems to have it all, she comes from a beautiful place, has the love of her father and sisters and grandmother she yearns for something more. Something outside of what she has. She is blessed with many things in her life; she has the most beautiful voice in her kingdom, she is the most beautiful dancer and her beauty is astounding. However, she doesn’t feel whole. She desperately wants to grow a pair of legs like the humans she hears about and to have new experiences and to experience love. However, it is forbidden for her as a mermaid to interact with humans. Her yearning itches away at Ariel until, against the wishes of her family and friends she sets off on her quest. In order to do this, she has had to make a huge sacrifice. She goes to the dark witch who takes her voice from her in return for a potion that will change her mermaid tale into a pair of legs. The dark witch warns her that it won’t be easy and that she will suffer excruciating pain in her legs when she walks. And true to what she has been told what follows for Ariel is a series of trials and challenges. Without her voice she cannot tell the handsome prince she has fallen in love with that it was she who in fact had saved him from drowning. Instead, she has to watch as he falls in love with a beautiful girl who was the first woman he saw when he was washed up on the beach where Ariel had left him. He in fact believes it was this girl who saved him. He does fall in love for Ariel but it is more of a sisterly nature and when he finally meets the girl he remembers seeing on the beach he marries her. Because Ariel has lost the challenge of making a human man fall in love and marry her she is destined to die on the prince’s wedding day. Hearing about her demise her sisters visit the dark witch and ask for something to save her. The dark witch gives them a knife to give to Ariel. Ariel is faced with a choice; kill the prince and save herself or die (mermaids don’t have immortal souls). She cannot bring herself to kill the prince and instead decides to forfeit her own life. On seeing her brave deeds of first saving the prince and not killing him to save herself she is taken by the elements of the air. There she gets her voice back and has the opportunity to become a immortal soul by doing good deeds for 300 years (with a few extra few deeds she can reduce the number of years!). What lessons can we learn from the Little Mermaid. She was courageous and in the end her quest brought her closer to what she wanted an immortal soul or the hope of it.