Metaphysics – My World View December 10, 2009

“Goodness and hard work are rewarded”

I believe this is how the world works. If you are hardworking, earnest, and kind, then things will work out the way they are suppose too. The Little Mermaid is a perfect example of this.

The Little Mermaid wanted to live on land with the handsome Prince and gain an immortal soul. So the Mermaid did what she had to in order to live outside of the sea. Although she had to sacrifice her voice and with every step her feet ached as if she were walking on glass, she kept doing what she had to do.

However, the Little Mermaid was unable to win the Prince’s love. On the evening of the Prince’s wedding, the Little Mermaid have they chance to returned to the sea, but only if she killed the one she loved. The Mermaid refused, and her good deed was ultimately reward with an immortal soul. Had the mermaid shed the Prince’s blood, she would have lived a long life, but she never would have earned a soul. One must work hard and do the right things, it can’t be one or the other.

 The Little Mermaid did have each of her dreams realized. She lived on land with the Prince and she was able to attain an immortal soul, albeit not exactly as she had hoped. The Little Mermaid shows use that by working hard and doing the right things, one will be rewarded.

Felt – Mermaids October 14, 2009

There is the obvious connection between My fourth birthday party watching the mermaid show and the story “The Little Mermaid”, but the connection goes deeper then that. When I saw the mermaids, I wanted to be a mermaid too and partake in all their fun. When the little mermaid saw all the people on the ship, she wanted to be apart of their world. The mermaid was a sea creature that always felt a strong connection to the land, where I am a land creature who has always been pulled towards the sea.

The Little Mermaid – Conflict October 12, 2009

“Conflict is actually created not by histrionics and excessive behaviors but by a character wanting something that is difficult to get or achieve.” – The Tools of Screenwriting 

As stated in objective, what the little mermaid wants is clear: she wants to be with the prince. What makes her objective difficult to achieve is the simple fact that she is a mermaid and he is a human. 

The little mermaid goes to a sea witch, and the witch already knows what the princess wants. “You want to get rid of your fish’s tail and have two legs instead, like human beings on earth, so that the young prince will fall in love with you, and you may gain an immortal soul.”

While the sea witch is able to give the princess a potion to make her have two legs, nothing is ever too easy in fairytales…

The Little Mermaid – Objective October 12, 2009

“The character’s want or desire or pursuit usually focuses and intensifies as the story evolves; it is not a static, unchanging want.” - Tools of Screenwriting

What began as mere curiosity of the world above the sea, evolved into a full-blown infatuation. The little mermaid princess is head-over-heels in love with the prince and is obsessed with finding a way to be with him. 

After her encounter with the prince, her only comfort is sitting in the garden and gaze at a marble statue that resembles her prince. One evening, her sisters take her to the palace where the prince lives. Every evening after, she spends in the waters near the palace.

One day, she asks her grandmother if humans didn’t drowned, if they could live forever. Her grandmother said, “they too must die, and their lives are much shorter than our own. We sometimes love to three hundred years, but when we die, we become foam on the surface of the water. We do not have immortal souls. Human beings have souls that live after their bodies have turned to dust. Their souls rise up through the clear, pure air beyond the glittering stars. As we rise out of the water and behold the earth, they rise to unknown and glorious places that we shall never see.”

The little mermaid said that she would give up hundreds of years to have an immortal soul, and asked how she might gain an immortal soul.

Her grandmother said, “unless a human being loved you so much that you were more precious to him than his father or mother. All his thoughts and all his love would have to be fixed upon you, and he would have to take you for his bride. Only then would his soul glide into your body, and you would obtain a share in the happiness of mankind. He would give a soul to you and retain his own as well.”

After this conversation with her grandmother, the little mermaid’s objective is clear: get the prince to love and marry her so she can win an immortal soul.

The Little Mermaid – Protagonist October 12, 2009

“The chief characteristic of the protagonist is a desire, usually intense, to achieve a certain goal, and it is the interest of the audience in watching him move toward that objective that constitutes its absorption in the story” – The Tools of Screenwriting

The central character of the The Little Mermaid is the little mermaid princess. She is the youngest and prettiest of all the sea princesses. The little princess loved to hear about the world above the sea. She made her grandmother tell her all she knew of the ships and the towns, the people and the animals.

When a mermaid reached her fifteenth year, she is allowed to rise up out of the sea. So the little mermaid watched and waited as each of her sisters, all six one year apart in age, take their turn to rise to the surface of the ocean. After six years it was finally the little princess’s turn.

Her grandmother adorn her with a wreath of white blossoms in her hair, and in every flower she placed a pearl.  When she rose to the surface of the water, she saw a large ship. The little mermaid peers into a cabin window. Though the porthole she observed a handsome prince celebrating his sixteenth birthday.

After a while the waves rose higher as a dreadful storm approached. The ship groaned and creaked under the lashing of the sea as the waves broke over the deck, and the thick planks began to give way. The little mermaid swam among the beans and planks that floated on the sea, looking for the handsome prince. When at last she found him, she brought him to the surface and laid him on the beach.  She waited near the shore for him to awake, and when he did she swam back to the palace, longing to rejoin her prince on land.