Transportation~
In the depths of the vast sea, there is a kingdom of the Little Mermaid. The King of the Sea has 6 beautiful daughters. The youngest daughter is the most beautiful, kind and pure, and has a beautiful voice. . Their grandmother often tells them stories about the sea, but they are only allowed to surface when they are 15 years old.
Here, 15 years old means adulthood, and adulthood means that a person begins to have independent values, knows what he wants, and has the right and ability to pursue happiness. We can see in a previous detail what happiness the Little Mermaid wants to pursue. While her sisters decorated their garden with many strange things, the Little Mermaid only placed a marble statue, which was a person. The Little Mermaid's lifelong pursuit has been clearly shown at this time: to become a person.
We usually think that the Little Mermaid developed a yearning for love after meeting the prince. But Andersen has clearly told everyone here that no, the Little Mermaid has already buried her yearning for the human world in her heart before she reaches adulthood. Because of this yearning, she fell in love with the prince, and there was a series of stories that followed.
What does it mean to be a human being? The Little Mermaid was full of curiosity about this, and she looked for every opportunity to learn everything about humans. Her old grandmother had to tell the Little Mermaid all the knowledge she knew about humans. Speaking of which, have you ever thought of your own childhood? Every child is full of curiosity and expectation about adulthood, because after adulthood, he can arrange his own life independently. Adulthood means independence and freedom.
Finally, at the age of 15, the Little Mermaid was allowed to float to the surface. She looked around excitedly, when a large ship approached her. There were many people in gorgeous clothes celebrating the prince's birthday. When the little mermaid saw the handsome prince, she was deeply attracted to him. She fell in love with him. She saw him as she saw the marble statue in her garden. Suddenly there was a violent storm, and a shipwreck occurred. The wind and waves destroyed the ship, and people fell into the water and sank to the bottom of the sea. Risking her life, the little mermaid struggled to hold up the prince's head and push him to the beach. But she did not stay by the prince's side, but hid in the water far away, waiting for someone to rescue him.
After all, the mermaid is not a human being. She is instinctively afraid of humans. She has no legs but a fish tail. This situation makes her naturally inferior. Here we can understand it as a person who yearns for a better world, and the prince is the representative of that better world.
At this time, many people came out of the church. A young girl discovered the prince. She called some people and rescued the prince. When the prince woke up, he thought that the girl had saved him, and he didn't know anything about the little mermaid. Back in the sea, the little mermaid told her sisters what was on her mind. The sisters told her who the prince was and showed her where he lived.
For many days and nights, the little mermaid hid in the sea and looked at the prince's palace from a distance. Gradually, she fell in love with humans and looked forward to living with humans. She wanted to know more about human beings, so she went to find the old grandmother who was very old and experienced.
The old grandmother told the little mermaid that human life is very short, much shorter than that of mermaids, but human beings have an immortal soul. When mermaids die, they turn into foam on the sea, leaving not even a grave. However, even if the human body turns into clay, the soul lives forever.
What does it mean to have an eternal soul? The old grandmother explained it this way:
It lives forever, even if the body turns to dust, it is still alive. It rises to the clear sky, to the shining stars! Just as we rise above the water to see the human world, they rise to mysterious, gorgeous places we will never see.
Why is the human world so wonderful? Because human beings have independent consciousness, the human spirit can last forever. Although the life of mermaids is simple and happy, if they disappear, they will disappear and will leave nothing in this world. The old grandmother told her that only when a person falls in love with her and is loyal to her, that person's soul will part with her, giving her an immortal soul.
But is having a soul necessarily a good thing? That's not necessarily the case.
Having a soul means having joy, anger, sorrow, obsession and pain. How can there be any happiness in being a simple mermaid? So the old grandmother advised the little mermaid to give up the idea of ??becoming a human.
02 Love: A Road to Eternity
Everyone knows the next story. The little mermaid is unwilling to give up. She still can’t forget her beloved prince, and she can’t give up to get the one she doesn’t want. Destroyed soul. She went to the sea witch and asked the sea witch to help her realize her wish.
The sea witch prepared a medicine for her and told her to drink it before dawn, and the fish tail would turn into a human leg. This was very painful, like a sharp knife splitting the body, and every step she took The road and feet will hurt like a knife. Once you become a human, you can never return to the sea as a fish. As a reward, the little mermaid must give her beautiful singing voice to the sea witch and lose her voice.
The sea witch also told her that if the prince forgot his parents and married her because he loved her, she would get an immortal soul. If the prince marries another woman, the little mermaid will die on the first morning of the prince's wedding and turn into foam in the sea.
The meaning of the sea witch is that only by getting love and having love can you have an immortal soul and obtain an immortal soul.
Have you noticed that in the descriptions of the old grandmother and the sea witch, having an immortal soul is closely tied to the word "love"? Why can you have an immortal soul only if you have the love of one person?
Think about it, love is really a wonderful thing. When you meet a complete stranger, from acquaintance, acquaintance, to falling in love, this series of chemical reactions creates new sparks in your life. This stranger is different from your parents. If your parents' love shaped you, then love will make you whole.
Because love breaks into your world with a sense of strangeness. In this person, you will find that the world still has that side, which will break the recognition you innately gained from your parents. Know. When he loves you and you love him, the hearts of the two people are exchanged, and your original world and the strange world he brings will blend together. And his eyes will make you re-examine yourself, and his world will become a part of you.
In the world of The Little Mermaid, this is also the case. The Little Mermaid has lived in the ocean since she was a child, surrounded by mermaids like her. The appearance of the prince, a human being, made her feel the magic of a strange world. What's more, although mermaids are carefree, they are also ignorant. Human beings, advanced creatures with emotions, angers, sorrows and joys, made her yearn for a richer world.
Is the Little Mermaid afraid of the Sea Witch’s proposal? What choice will she make?
The little mermaid is not afraid of being far away from her parents' home, nor is she afraid that every step she takes will be like walking on a knife's edge. She is not afraid of such a fate. There is only one thing that makes her a little worried and... To hesitate is to lose your voice.
We know that voice is a way of communication. Losing voice means losing the most conventional possibility of communication. So here, fate has put forward new requirements for the little mermaid, requiring the little mermaid to communicate with her lover not through sound, and to obtain love and understanding without self-expression.
So is there any other way for the little mermaid? Some of the ways she has are beauty, dancing, and eyes. So, when the little mermaid asked the old witch, what else do I have left besides the voice? The old witch said, you still have a beautiful figure, light steps and expressive eyes. With these things, you can easily charm a man's heart.
The little mermaid agreed. She would probably agree to whatever the old witch asked, because nothing could compare to her pursuit of becoming a human being and gaining the love of a prince.
She bravely asked the sea witch for the potion. In return, the sea witch cut out her tongue and took away her beautiful voice. Late at night, the little mermaid threw a thousand kisses to her sleeping relatives. Her heart ached so much that it seemed to break into pieces, and she left quietly.
She came to the prince's palace and drank the medicine given by the sea witch on the stone steps. A sharp pain caused her to faint. When she woke up, she saw the prince. She could not answer the prince's questions because she was mute.
From then on, she followed the prince as a mute. She danced for the prince, her dance was soft and elegant, and everyone was fascinated. No one knew what kind of pain she endured.
The prince liked her very much and did not want to be separated from her for a while. He let her sleep on a velvet cushion at his door and named her "Orphan" because this orphan had nothing but the prince, not even clothes. It was the prince who made her successful. The prince was her parents, her kingdom, and everything to her.
The prince loved her like a child, but he had never thought of marrying her because the wife he wanted to marry was the one who had saved him. He didn’t know the truth. It was the little mermaid who saved him.
The king and queen chose a bride for the prince, who was a princess from a neighboring country. The prince took a boat to pick her up and found that the princess was the girl who rescued him on the beach. The prince was about to marry his beloved girl. The little mermaid danced for them regardless of the severe pain. This would be her last day with the prince.
Here, let us read the original text together. This text is very beautiful and very sad, revealing the mood of the Little Mermaid at that time:
She has never danced so beautifully. , the sharp knife seemed to be chopping her delicate feet, but she didn't feel the pain, because her heart hurt even more than this. She knew this was the last night she would see him - for him, she left her tribe and family and gave up her beautiful voice. She endured endless pain every day, but he didn't know it at all. . This was the last night she could breathe the same air with him, the last night she could see the deep sea and the starry sky. Meanwhile an eternal night without thoughts or dreams awaited her.
Night fell, and the poor little mermaid stood alone on the side of the ship, thinking of her relatives and hometown in the sea. Suddenly, her sisters appeared. It turned out that in order to save her sister, they went to ask the sea witch, and the sea witch asked for help. He removed their hair, gave them a sharp knife, and asked the little mermaid to stab the prince in the chest, so that she could regain her fish tail and return to the ocean. This was the last chance.
The little mermaid came to the tent of the prince and princess. She saw the prince calling the bride's name in his sleep. She was the only one in his heart. The little mermaid kissed the prince again on the forehead, threw the knife into the sea with trembling hands, and jumped into the sea herself.
At dawn, people could not find the little mermaid, and there was a piece of white foam dancing on the waves beside the boat.
03 Expression of Love: Awakening and Singing
At this point in the story, the story of the Little Mermaid is a story of unrequited love and a story of misunderstanding. Here, we need to analyze what love is.
The love the old witch talks about is getting the love of the prince. If she doesn't get the love of the prince, then kill him and she can still survive. The love that the little mermaid follows and practices is "giving love". She lost her tail and voice for the prince, left the sea and her family, danced and accompanied the prince, all of which she was giving. Fromm believes that love is a positive rather than a negative emotion. It is something that grows in the human heart, rather than a captive emotion. It can be expressed in another way, that is, love is first "giving" rather than " have to".
What is "give"? If a person is more passive, he will think that "giving" means having things taken away by others, or that it means self-sacrifice, so they think "giving" is painful, and the virtue of giving is to prepare for sacrifice. However, creative people believe that "giving" is the highest expression of power, and experiencing the sublimation of vitality fills me with joy, because "giving" is not a sacrifice, but an expression of my vitality through giving.
Fromm said this in "The Art of Loving":
By giving, he enriches others, and while he improves his own sense of life, he also Improves the other person's sense of life.
So can it be said that the Little Mermaid has achieved what Fromm believed to be "giving"? The little mermaid is indeed "giving", but because fate has set limits for her, taken away her voice, and prevented her from expressing her vitality.
If you want your love to be vital, you must be able to arouse the love of others. Love is not a one-way expression, but an arousal and arousal. In this process, communication is very necessary. In the process of communication, you understand each other, tolerate each other, and gradually become in tune with each other. This is the real magic of love.
The tragedy of the Little Mermaid stems from the fact that she lost her voice, and thus lost the necessary communication for love, resulting in misunderstandings that hindered love, and was unable to arouse the love of the prince.
Therefore, her love is weak.
04 Losing love, self-fulfillment
What is the ending of The Little Mermaid? Did she really turn into bubbles and disappear completely? If so, the story is a complete tragedy.
In fact, the fate of the little mermaid did not end there. What we must be sure of is that although the Little Mermaid failed to arouse the love of the prince, at the same time, she was kind. At the last moment of her life, she did not stab the prince's heart with a knife, but chose to give up her precious life to fulfill the prince's wish.
Let us not forget that behind love is eternal kindness. Unknowingly, she has approached eternity and completed her own redemption. Therefore, fate also opened another door for her. When she was thrown into the sea and turned into foam, she did not disappear completely, but "saw the bright sun, and at the same time countless transparent and beautiful creatures flew above her". The balance of fate was already unconsciously changing Lean to her side.
Where will the Little Mermaid go? A voice told her:
Go to the daughter of the sky.
A mermaid does not have an immortal soul, and there will never be such a soul unless she obtains the love of a mortal. Her eternal existence depends on external power. The daughters of the sky do not have eternal souls, but they can create one through good deeds.
"Through your own good deeds", not through love. We should note that this is Andersen's final point of view in this story. Because obtaining the immortal soul through love still requires external help, and when we cannot obtain this support, we can only save ourselves.
The story of the Little Mermaid is a metaphor for a woman's growth process. Before the age of 15, she was a young girl, carefree and supported by her parents. But after the age of 15, if you want to gain freedom and independence, you can first choose a lover. Beautiful love can make a person successful and solve people's loneliness. It is an important way of self-growth, but it is by no means the only way.
And more importantly, after not getting love, you can still fulfill yourself through long-term self-efforts. This is the final ending of Andersen's fairy tale. Unfortunately, this ending is always ignored.
The Little Mermaid threw herself into the sea at the end and became the daughter of the sky. After doing good deeds for three hundred years, she can also obtain an immortal soul. This implies that she no longer needs to go through a man. To achieve perfection through love, but to achieve self-perfection through one's own labor.
Whether we are male or female, whether it is ancient times or today, whether we are in the sea or among humans, we are the same in the pursuit of the immortal soul. Therefore, the story of the mermaid happens to be a journey of our growth and exploration.