The Little Mermaid Archetype, Script Climax

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The archetype of the Little Mermaid can manifest itself in a woman's life with its Dark Side, and we talked about its fatal component, as well as manifesting with its Light side, exert a destructive influence on a woman's life. We know the story when the little mermaid becomes a victim of indivisible love. Let's take a look at the tale of Hans Christian Andersen. Isn't her story the culmination of a recurring archetypal tale of all the mermaid heroines? Perhaps it was she who was destined to change the generic scenario - destroying men, and through love to find an immortal soul. After all, it is not for nothing that he describes his heroine as the seventh daughter of the sea king: “the youngest, delicate and transparent, like a rose petal, was the best of all,” and we immediately feel her peculiarity.

The meaning of the number seven is purification, repentance, the union of unity, the number of the Great Mother and female dedication. She feels her destiny, "no one was drawn to the surface of the sea as much as the youngest."

As her sisters did on the surface: "when a storm began and they saw that the ship was doomed to perish, they swam up to it and sang in gentle voices about the wonders of the underwater kingdom and persuaded the sailors not to be afraid to sink to the bottom." Here, the influence of the generic script is vividly described, bypassing our personal experience (mermaids knew that men only enter the father's kingdom when they are dead), we are unconsciously led by our roots and the experience that they have accumulated. But the Little Mermaid acts differently, she saves the Prince, risking her life. She is enchanted by his beauty and falls in love with him. She has a desire to find an immortal soul next to him.

Grandma tells the Little Mermaid the conditions necessary for this:

1) The little mermaid should become dearer to the Prince than her father and mother.

2) He must surrender to her with all his heart and all his thoughts.

3) The prince must marry the little mermaid in the church as a sign of eternal fidelity to each other.

For the Little Mermaid, this is a transition to a new level of development, her initiation:

“And then, a particle of his soul will be communicated to you, and someday you will taste eternal bliss. He will give you a soul and keep his own”.

But such as it is, with a fish tail, the Mermaid does not suit the Prince. She needs to change.

Let's analyze how and when the Little Mermaid script can begin to be embodied in the life of a girl, a woman.

The father, the king of the sea, became a widow, lost his Anima, his female part, and does not play any role in the life of the Little Mermaid. It can be a father who abandoned his family, an alcoholic, or just a detached parent, which is why the Little Mermaid grows up without him.

Mother died. In real life, the girl does not feel the Light Mother Figure. She lacks an example of femininity that she would like to match. She does not know about her uniqueness and originality, and from this looms low self-esteem and self-dislike.

The little mermaid is waiting for the Prince to appear in her life as a source of acceptance and love, in fact, he must fill the void of such objects as Mother and Father.

At some stage in the relationship between the Little Mermaid and the Prince, the girl realizes that she does not need her as she is (the little mermaid goes to the witch to get her legs).

“How I love him! More than father and mother! I belong to him with all my heart, with all my thoughts, I would willingly entrust him with the happiness of my whole life! I would do anything, if only I could be with him and find an immortal soul!"

The Witch, the Dark Mother Figure, appears on the scene and changes the Little Mermaid into a human.

Instead of a tail, it has legs, but every step is given by pain, as if it steps "like on sharp knives." The legs are responsible for our forward movement.

What can this relate to in real life? Lessons are learned only through painful experiences. Each advance is personal, career, path to a dream, goals are all thorny.

The little mermaid, taking on a human form, will never see her father's house and sisters. Lack of moral and psychological support in life.

The witch takes away the "wonderful voice" from the Little Mermaid. Our speech is the embodiment of will in action, defending our beliefs and ideas. This is an inner clue, our individuality and uniqueness.

The witch warns that from the first dawn of the Prince's marriage, not on the Little Mermaid, she will die, but this does not stop her.

Has it ever happened in your life that the illusion is more important than life itself, and we do not immediately notice that we are not going our own way and that, clinging to our dreams, we are losing real life?

So, the Dark Mother Figure deprives the Little Mermaid of the opportunity to grow, develop and move forward, to express her individuality, to listen to her inner voice. The little mermaid becomes the one that the Prince longs for in her eyes. It is interesting how the transformation of the little mermaid into a girl takes place: "After drinking the drink, it seemed to her that she was pierced with a sword and she lost consciousness, falling dead." Often people describe such a somatic reaction when they learn about betrayal, frustration of hopes, or in those moments when they abandon their uniqueness, thereby devaluing themselves.

And what she gets in return from the Prince: "Day by day, the prince was attached to the Little Mermaid more and more, but he loved her only as a sweet, kind child, it never entered his head to make her his wife and queen."

Behind the mermaid's self-denial, the Prince does not see the woman in her. Her admiration for him is like the admiration of her daughter or the complete acceptance of her mother. Having performed many feats for the sake of her beloved, the Little Mermaid did not come close to family happiness. The prince marries another, and the Little Mermaid dies.

The formula of love - “as it is, he does not need me, plus love can be earned by sacrificing oneself,” does not work.

If you feel the closeness of this scenario or similarity with the events of your life, then, first of all, you need to change the focus of your attention from the Prince to yourself:

- to love yourself (This is expressed in the realization of your desires, the satisfaction of your “want.” The Little Mermaid had no other desires except the Prince. I'm sure you have!).

- conduct an audit of your life, or rather all its areas and find out where you are not satisfied with yourself today;

- the formation of a positive introject of the mother within oneself. Become a caring and supportive mother for yourself.

And then you won't need a Prince to make you a queen. You will be the Queen, and where to direct your royal gaze is up to you …