An Analysis of Monstrosity in “The Little Mermaid” With Respect to Christian Theology and Western Ideology

Abstract

The Little Mermaid is a story of monsters – or, at the very least, it is a story full of creatures that many might construe as monstrous in the Western understanding. Oftentimes, monsters are described as being outside of what is deemed as normal. This distinction “others” the creatures in a way that is evidently non-human, and in this inhumanity, they become lesser beings. Society paints these supposed monsters with perceived deformities, disabilities, or otherings – contrivances that we don’t recognize or understand, and thus become fearful of.1 In the case of Hans Christian Andersen’s land under the sea, we encounter creatures with fishes’ tails and bare breasts, seafoam souls, and serpentine dwellings. These descriptions are vastly different from what we have been conditioned to understand as human and good: beyond the fish tail, we see a nudity that we condemn for its supposed impurity. Similarly, a soul made of seafoam does not adhere to the idea of the ghostly spirits we’re familiar with in Western understanding, and, as Eve’s story in Genesis would have us believe, a serpentine home is one to be feared