Reading Diary B: Hans Christian Anderson (Week 14)

Illustration by Dulac

• “We must not imagine that there is nothing at the bottom of the sea but bare yellow sand.”  The story goes on to talk about all the things that live down, deep in the ocean.  It doesn’t really mention anything scary, but I imagine there are some extremely scary things down there.  It’s almost unfathomable.
• I loved the Little Mermaid growing up, so it is really interesting to see the differences between the original story and Disney’s version.  She is quiet in the original and also is uninterested in trinkets from shipwrecks.  Instead, she enjoyed flowers.  Also, her grandmother has a very large presence in the original. 
• She was not allowed to dress as she wanted. ““Pride must suffer pain,” replied the old lady. Oh, how gladly she would have shaken off all this grandeur and laid aside the heavy wreath! The red flowers in her own garden would have suited her much better”
• When the prince falls into the water, she is excited at first.  “she thought he would now be with her; and then she remembered that human beings could not live in the water, so that when he got down to her father’s palace he would be quite dead. But he must not die.” 
• The prince didn’t know that the little mermaid had saved him.
• Her sisters play a bigger role than expected. 
• I wonder how the grandma knows so much about things on land when she too is confined to the waters
• The story really is quiet sad.  And it’s not really the prince’s fault either. 
• The ending is sad, but it is actually a lot more hopeful than I expected.

Hans Christian Anderson - The Little Mermaid part 6