Monday, 17 August 2020

(Book Review) "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen


                      

 1.Introduction  


   'The Little Mermaid' was published in 1837 by Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen.

   The Little Mermaid gives up everything because she loves the prince. It's like our relationship with Jesus. The Little Mermaid's love leads us to the love of Jesus. Now it is our turn. What about our love for Jesus?


2.Summary


   The Little Mermaid lives with her father, a sea king, grandmother, and five older sisters. Mermaids have permission to rise out of the sea when they reach their fifteenth year.
 
   It was finally the youngest princess's turn. As she swam up the water, she saw a ship holding a banquet. It was a birthday party for a prince. The moment the Little Mermaid saw the prince, she fell in love.

   The girl hid nearby and waited for someone to help him out. A young woman from the monastery found the prince and took care of him. The prince, coming to life, mistook the woman for a lifesaver. The Little Mermaid was heartbroken with grief.

   She came down to the sea and asked her grandma, "Can humans live forever?"
The old lady replied that mermaids sometimes lived up to three hundred years, but the span of human life was even shorter.

   The grandma also said that when a mermaid died, it became a sea bubble, while humans lived with immortal eternal. The Little Mermaid wanted to be a human. She wished she would love the prince forever as a human.

 

   She went to the sea witch and asked for her help. Instead of giving a potion for making human legs, the sorceress demanded the princess's tongue, which allowed her to sing beautiful songs.

   In addition to that, The eternal soul of a human being that the Little Mermaid wanted was not easy to obtain. It was only possible to get it when she reached marriage with the prince, being loved by him. If the prince married another woman, the mermaid would turn into a bubble.

   Moreover, once she had become a human being, she could never come back as a mermaid forever. The Little Mermaid accepted all this.

   She approached the beach close to the palace where the prince was and drank a draught of the potion. When she fell unconscious, the fish's tail was gone, and she had a pair of human legs.

   The prince discovered her. He liked her, who was pretty and kind despite being unable to speak. He took her anywhere he went. The prince was fond of seeing her dancing. The desperate girl for love danced for the prince with all her heart even though she felt pain and shed blood at every step.

   The king wanted the prince to marry the princess of a neighboring country. Surprisingly, the princess turned out to be the lady, the prince believed, to save his life on the coast. The prince didn't hesitate to accept the marriage a moment. They threw a party on the ship to celebrate the wedding.
 
   The poor girl did not get the prince's love. As the sea witch warned, she was about to become a foam. At that time, her sisters came up and gave a knife they got from the sea witch. If the Little Mermaid plunges it into the prince's heart and his blood falls upon her feet, she will be once more a mermaid.

   The Little Mermaid sneaked into the cabin and raised a knife at the sleeping prince by the bride, but she could not stab him. She went back out of the cabin, threw the knife away into the waves and jumped into the sea.

   The heroine of this tragic love turned into a bubble. But that wasn't the end of the story. Afterwards, she became a spirit of the air, feeling the warm sunshine.
Thanks to her kind heart, she will have a chance to obtain an immortal soul one day in the next three hundred years.

3. Lessons

 

   When we read 'the Little Mermaid' through the Biblical perspective, we will easily attempt to connect the prince in the story with Jesus because the Bible compares Jesus to a groom, the church to a bride.

   However, as we read the story, we rather feel the deeper fragrance of Jesus from the Little Mermaid.

   Read one of the monologues of the Little Mermaid after she rescued the drowning prince and laid him on the beach. (among the quotes in the Disneyland animation)

   "What would I pay to stay here beside you?"

   This word of the Little Mermaid directs our eyes straight to Jesus. As Revelation 5:9 says, He is the Savior Jesus who purchased persons for God. In other words, Jesus paid His blood to set us free from prisoners of sin.

   What price did the Little Mermaid pay to stay beside the prince? Above all, she gave up her status as the sea princess.

   It reminds us of Jesus, who abandoned the glory of heaven to come down to this earth because he loved us who were sinners.

   The Little Mermaid also paid her tongue and voice to the sea witch instead of getting human legs. Moreover, she even accepted the worst-case scenario of dying when not getting love.

   We take the scent of Jesus' love from Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." It is an amazing love that has reached the terminal of the Cross, starting from the dishonor of incarnation.

   The Little Mermaid, who is destined to become a bubble, gets a chance not to die. If she kills the prince with a knife of the witch, she could go back to a mermaid.

   But the Little Mermaid didn't go that way. It's because of love. The choice has led her to lose the mortal life, but to gain the chance for immortal life.

   "What would I pay to stay here beside you?" The Little Mermaid asked so and dedicated everything of her, even life.

    If so, what about me? What can I dedicate to love?

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