The Little Mermaid: What Did It Teach Us About Love?

Mermaids and unicorns are extremely popular today. I loved them when I was a kid. I loved anything that had The Little Mermaid printed on it. I loved swimming when I was younger. I loved watching mermaid shows and movies. I loved the freedom that a mermaid stood for.

Princess Ariel wanted to be with a human, Prince Eric, but she was a mermaid. She was engulfed in a fantasy of her own. She thought of the human world to be above her own. Why did she want to be a part of the human world? That exact reason wasn’t revealed to us. She was fascinated with human life and collected items that humans used from sunken ships. She did have an unquenchable curiosity watching Prince Eric on the ship having fun.

Because she wasn’t a human, she couldn’t live on land or walk.

Sometimes when we are so obsessed with something, we are consumed with it and it separates us from other things going on in our lives. Ariel was bored with mermaid life. It was already familiar to her.

At one point in the story, Ariel was very depressed. Flotsam and Jetsam, the two eels, told her that there was a “friend” that would help her. She followed them to Ursula, a sea witch. She agreed to sign a contract making her a human for three days in exchange for her voice. If after the three days, Prince Eric didn’t love her or hasn’t kissed her, she would belong to Ursula.

She couldn’t talk to Prince Eric because she didn’t have a voice. Ursula had many deceitful motives behind the scenes to prevent Prince Eric and Ariel from connecting. The eels tipped over the boat before Prince Eric and Ariel could kiss. Ursula had used Ariel’s voice using another identity to trick Prince Eric into marrying a girl called Vanessa, who was actually her in disguise.

Ursula was stopped in the end. This sea witch that represented deceit and evil was gone forever. King Triton allowed Ariel to become human forever. Prince Eric and Ariel ended up marrying aboard a wedding ship. She committed herself to the human life.

She did some extreme things to get what she wanted. She compromised with losing a part of herself, her voice, to make her dreams come true. She made a deal with a sea witch. This parallels our human lives in that sometimes we want something so bad that we will do anything to get it. This can mean acting without thinking in an impulsive manner. This can lead us to more trouble if we head down the wrong path and allow deceitful energy into our lives. Luckily, in the case of The Little Mermaid, everything turned out in her favor.