Fairy Tale: The Little Mermaid

Overview
Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 fairy tale follows the youngest daughter of a sea king, known only as the little mermaid. Living in a coral palace under the sea, she listens as her grandmother tells of the human world and its greatest gift: an immortal soul. Merfolk enjoy long lives but dissolve into sea foam at death, while humans, though short-lived, possess a soul that endures. The little mermaid’s longing to see the surface deepens into a desire for love and an immortal soul, setting her on a path of perilous transformation.

Plot
When she turns fifteen and is permitted to rise to the surface, the little mermaid witnesses a birthday celebration aboard a prince’s ship. A storm wrecks the vessel; she rescues the prince and leaves him unconscious on the shore near a temple, where a young maiden finds him. Drawn by love and the promise of a soul, the mermaid seeks the sea witch, who offers a potion to give her legs in exchange for her voice, cutting out her tongue. The witch warns that every step will feel like walking on knives and that if the prince marries another, the mermaid will die and become foam at dawn.

She drinks the potion and awakens on shore, mute but radiant, her movements graceful beyond measure despite the constant pain. The prince delights in her company, calls her his "foundling", and has her stay by his side. He confides that he loves the maiden he believes saved him, the girl from the temple, and views the mermaid with tender friendship rather than the love that would secure her soul. When diplomacy sends him to meet a neighboring princess, he recognizes in her the same maiden from the temple and, believing fate has returned his savior, loves her openly.

Turning Point
The prince marries the princess, and a wedding voyage is held on a ship. The little mermaid dances for the couple though every step cuts her like knives. At night her sisters rise from the sea, their long hair shorn; they traded it to the witch for a knife. If the mermaid kills the prince before sunrise and lets his blood fall on her feet, she will become a mermaid again and live out her three hundred years. She enters the bridal chamber, seeing the prince asleep with his bride, and cannot strike. At dawn she throws the knife into the sea, kisses the prince's forehead, and leaps overboard, expecting to become foam.

Daughters of the Air
Instead of perishing, she feels herself lifted among invisible spirits, the daughters of the air. Unlike merfolk, these beings can earn an immortal soul through three centuries of good deeds, bringing cool breezes and comfort to humankind. The mermaid, made one of them by her selflessness, is given a chance to gain what she sought without taking a life. The tale ends with a moral address: kind children shorten the daughters’ penance through their good behavior, while wickedness lengthens it, aligning personal conduct with the mermaid’s hope.

Themes and Resonance
The story blends yearning and sacrifice with Christian-inflected ideas of the soul, presenting love as both earthly attachment and spiritual aspiration. The mermaid’s silence and pain embody the costs of transformation, while her refusal to harm the prince redefines victory as moral integrity rather than possession. Andersen contrasts bodily beauty and fleeting happiness with the enduring value of compassion, framing loss as a passage toward grace. The ending’s airy reprieve neither negates the tragedy nor grants a simple reward; it reframes desire as service to others, offering a path to immortality through tenderness and self-denial.