Comparison Of The Little Mermaid And The Little Mermaid

Many children’s stories have thousands of versions, each one using literary license to change things. Some versions of stories change the culture, the lessons learned, and sometimes even change them to completely different stories. Either way, through time children’s stories have changed. How and why have children’s stories changed overtime? This is best seen through two different versions of The Little Mermaid, the Disney version and the original Hans Christian Andersen version. Each follows the journey of a little mermaid who dreams of being with a prince who lives on land.
In the Hans Christian Andersen version of the story the little mermaid is not yet old enough to go to the surface. When she is, she sees a prince celebrating his birthday …show more content…
One of the big things that the Disney version of the story teaches is listen to your parents. Because Ariel doesn’t listen to her father she gets tangled up in a deal with Ursula. In the original version of the story however, the little mermaid has no problem obeying the rules. She does not go to the surface (no matter how desperately she wants to) until she is old enough and has permission. The next moral that changes from the original story is the concept of making a deal with somebody. In the original version of The Little Mermaid, one of the morals that is seen is when deals are made, that deal is to be kept. In this version of the story the little mermaid makes a deal with the sea witch and there wasn’t really a way for the mermaid to get out of the deal. The deal that she makes requires her to leave her family and never live with them again, to lose her tongue so that she can never speak or sing again, to feel as if she is walking on knives every time she takes a step, and to turn into sea foam if the prince does not fall in love with her. The mermaid deals with all of these consequences because she made a deal with the sea witch, there were no loopholes. Even when her sisters bring her the knife to kill the prince, the only way they got it was they made their own deal with the sea witch. In the original they don’t have any loopholes, they are just stuck with the deal. There is no way for the little mermaid to get her tongue back after it is cut out. However, this lesson changes in the Disney version of the story. Ariel makes a deal with Ursula, gives Ursula her voice, and promises that if the prince does not fall in love with her within three days she will belong to Ursula. Instead of being stuck with this fate Ariel, the prince, and her father find a loophole to get out of the deal. Ariel gets her voice back when she goes to stop the wedding and the magic sea shell breaks. Eric then helps