Nowadays, many fairy tales are overrated by society. What do they teach girls?
Keira Knightley, for example, forbade her daughter to watch Cinderella and The Little Mermaid.
“Cinderella”, according to the actress, sows harmful illusions in the child’s mind, because, I quote, “she is waiting for a rich guy to save her. Obviously, you have to save yourself on your own."
And the "Little Mermaid" looks even worse from this angle. Give your talents, health and, as a result, life for the prince, even the most beautiful …
I remember that as a child I was regularly choked with tears when reading a book and watching a beautiful Soviet film version of a famous fairy tale.
I always wanted to shout to her: run from him (swim)! He's not worth your nail (fin)! But the unfortunate undine died every time, turning into foam.
"The Little Mermaid" is even worse than "Cinderella": the latter has nothing to lose.
But the water lady initially has everything one can dream of. She is the daughter of a ruler, lives in a beautiful palace surrounded by loving relatives - her father, sisters and grandmother. Its life span is 300 years.
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She could easily marry a newt, give birth to many cute Rusalats and spend the rest of her life singing songs with her beautiful voice and counting the treasures of sunken ships in chests.
But she abandons both her family and the luxurious palace, setting off in pursuit of the young (16 years old) prince. For his sake, she gives her voice, exchanging it for her feet, and every step causes her unbearable pain.
As a result, the undine dies. The prince receives no reward for her death. No one even filed any overwhelming complaint against him with the environmental prosecutor's office.
A very sad and ridiculous story. At the same time, she was told with masterful, bewitching rhythmic prose, which ensured her world fame.
Why did the author treat the little mermaid so cruelly?
It turns out that the "villain" is not the author at all, but the translator.
Initially, Andersen's tale had completely different accents. In the paper version available to me in childhood, the fairy tale was very roughly cut. The essence was mercilessly emasculated from it.
At the beginning of the tale, the little mermaid talks with her grandmother about the differences between people and undines. And then it turns out that mermaids do not have an immortal soul.
It takes the love of a mortal person to get a soul.
I don't know the Danish language, but I looked into the text of the fairy tale in English: the combination immortal soul (immortal soul) occurs in it 14 times!
In the version that I read as a child, exactly zero times.
I vaguely remember the Disney cartoon, but, most likely, the question of the immortality of the soul was also discarded there as unnecessary. You can't make money on philosophy. But on a love story - another matter.
In Russian translation, the mermaid says to her grandmother:
There is no logic in this fragment. At first, the little mermaid admits that she is afraid of death, and then expresses a desire to take a tour to those who live on land. Where is the connection?
And in the English version, the phrase looks like this:
This means that I will die too (a lyrical digression about waves, flowers and the sun follows). Is there anything I can do to find an immortal soul?
And here, you see, everything is logical …
At the end of the tale, the mermaid still does not die, but joins some "daughters of the air."
Air Virgins report that they carry out various "small but important tasks" - for example, they cool the air in hot countries, preventing the spread of infection - for this, over time, they will be presented with an immortal soul.
This information, too, as you might guess, disappeared from the Russian text of the tale. Apparently, so that Soviet children are not led to "religious intoxication." Andersen's text did not get through the eye of the vigilant Soviet censorship …
Therefore, the story is not about youthful love, but about the search for immortality.
As a result, the sacrifices of the little mermaid were not in vain, she was given another chance to find a soul.
PS It is a pity that the grandmother did not immediately tell the mermaid about "plan b" - to retrain as a sylph and do good deeds.
