The Little Mermaid Sociological Perspective

Ponyo and The Little Mermaid have reflected important societal views on the individuality and standards for women during their time period. Both Ponyo and Ariel display promising female characters within a society where they did not value the individuality of women. The Little Mermaid (by Disney), and Ponyo (by Hayao Miyazaki), share similar storylines. They are both about women trying to become a part of the human world in order to be with the men they love. In order to do so, they make some mischievous and dangerous decisions.

The Little Mermaid is an example of how woman were seen in society. In the fairy tale, women are characterized by appearance rather than personality by both men and women. The little mermaid mentions “But if you take my voice, what shall I have left?” (Anderson 226). In this quote, the little mermaid believes that she cannot just be herself to win the prince’s heart. The prince also looks at women the same way because of how he talks to the little mermaid. He asks her, “You’ve no fear of the sea, have you, my dumb child?” (Anderson 229). He treats her as if she is still a small child just because she cannot speak. The tone helps shape the whole story into a feminist piece. Anderson relays the moral of

In the story, “The Little Mermaid” there are demonstrations that describe what a heroine is. A female character that is noted for special achievements represents the heroine in a story. Therefore, the youngest mermaid “Little Mermaid” represents the heroine throughout the story. The Little Mermaid is a mystical creature that longs only to seek the handsome prince she laid eyes on. “Once she became human, the witch said she could never become a mermaid again” (Anderesens 185). This is an example of how the Little Mermaid chose to do something incredible and dangerous just to accomplish something she only dreamt of. Not only is the Little Mermaid the heroine of the story, but she also exemplifies other archetypal characteristics. An

Disney directly exposes the idea that young girls should make their main goal in life to find their prince charming, fall madly in love, and live happily ever after. Making young girls’ aspiration in life revolve around finding a man of their dreams “transfix[es the] audience and divert[s] their potential utopian dreams and hopes through the false promises of the images [Disney] cast[s] upon the screen” (22). Disney tells the audience that women need a man to be happy. Disney presents the idea that women are dependent on me. Just like in The Little Mermaid, Ariel goes as far as surrendering her voice, to a witch named Ursula, and abandoning her family in order to be with her prince. Ariel also trades in her life as a mermaid, drastically changes her body, and sacrifices her greatest talent all in order to win her prince. Disney sends the message that girls need to give up their talents and lives in order to be with a man. Disney suggests that a woman’s main priority is her lover, no one or nothing else. Disney effectively portrays women in a negative way, depicting them as weak and needy. No attempt to break the stereotypical gender roles of women are evident however, these stereotypes are growing as Disney instills this image of women in the minds of viewers.

In the film The Little Mermaid by John Musker and Ron Clements, a theme that continually portrays itself is how woman are seen in society. In this film, women are defined by their appearance instead of their inner-self or personality by men and women. It also displays that woman are not treated fair. This is expressed in the film through multiple song lyrics and scenes. Ariel, the little mermaid, experiences many occasions where woman in a society are seen differently than men. In the film, Ariel was given an option to live under the sea and live life under the rule of her father, or be on land with her Prince Eric. Although this is clearly not laid out, a man figure is always above Ariel and could convey an idea that

In the song “Poor Unfortunate Souls” that Ursula sings it is telling girls to be quite for men and do what they need, basically telling girls that they are objects. Girls are always shown in movies as someone with no power. They are either cleaning or cooking in the house or they are a damsel in distress needing to be saved by a man. Girls are displayed as objects and there is a certain way they are supposed to look so that they appeal to society’s needs. Ariel fits that description. She is very small and thin, she is pretty, she has nice eyes, and she has very vibrant colors on her. She has red hair, blueish brown eyes a purple top and a green tail. Ariel acts as though she “needs” a man to save her or “needs” a man to be happy.

“The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen is one of the worlds most cherished fairy tales. Through the years, this story has inspired its fair share of different adaptations and spinoffs, as well as intertwined itself in popular culture. Although it is widely considered a children’s story today, upon close examination, we can find various elements of literary devices and themes, all of which provide the seasoned reader with a deep connection to the story. To honor the tradition of story-telling, it is essential that a short summary of the story be given.

Hans Christian Andersen’s story, “The Little Mermaid” talks about a girl who saves a young man from drowning and falls in love with him, and she later learns that the young man she saved was a prince. In this world women believe that they are not capable of doing nothing or being nothing without a man in their lives. Disney’s film, “The Little Mermaid”, by Ron Clements and John Musker, present a version that makes an appearance for children, so it is harder to catch on where a woman needs a man in her life whether it is her father or a husband. In the Disney film the director makes the mermaid (Ariel) look so vulnerable and weak for a young woman. Women now these days say that they were made to believe that they have to depend on a man because they will not make it without them. In the story the author made it seem like all women cannot do want they want or that they are limited to do and say certain things because they are women. Women grow up to believe and to think that they need a man because that is how many men and society made women and young girls look like. So, part of this faulting it the men because they beliefs are that women cannot do what they do or that women and young girls belong at home to behave right and look pretty for the men. Andersen is a good example of Feminist and Gender criticism because women should believe that they can make it without having to rely on a man. Women should start believing that they are as equal as a man whether it’s at a job, relationship, at home, and in society because we are not meant to be looked at as a fragile and weak woman, we are supposed to show everyone that women should be equal to men on all types of levels. Andersen examines representation of gender, dependence, and cultural stability to explore notions of equality in gender.

The Disney Renaissance era from 1989 to 1999 (Kearns) was the time when Walt Disney Animation Studious produced successful well-known stories into animated films that brought a lot of critical and public interest to the Walt Disney Company. One example is the article written by Laura Sells “Where Do the Mermaids Stand?” In the article she quarrels and critiques the narrowness of the representation of women in society and how they are assigned value based on the traditional practices of women and not accepting change or new ideas of new acceptable positions for women in the American culture (Sells, 176). She based the article on the Disney movie The Little Mermaid. Susan Jeffords focuses on another Disney movie “Beauty and the Beast” in her article “Curse of Masculinity”. Jeffords says that for a man to change into a good guy they must lose their hyper masculinity and transform their masculine heroisms. They need kindness, love and affection from loved ones to motivate change in a man (Jeffords, 163). After careful reading and analyzing these two movies, Walt Disney has a powerful force to send a message across about representation of gender roles and gender stereotypes on men and women depending on their looks, education and power in a form of entertainment that is fun to watch and never needs to be questioned. Children are raised on Disney and learn from these Walt Disney films how they should think, act, dress, speak... how to

My father eats the core of his apples. Every time he goes for his usual afternoon snack, I watch with disgust and fascination, as he begins his snack in an ordinary fashion: crunching down on the red skin, orbiting the surface until only the northern and southern hemispheres retain their original size, then he adjusts and continues to munch through another orbit, crunching and munching on the pale yellow spikes of juicy flesh until he reaches the center of the planet, then, from bottom to top, in a measly six bites, seeds and all, the planet is reduced to a stem. His outlandish behavior signifies the thought that, just as apples, humans are made of skin, flesh, and a core, and no one should truly want to reach the core.

The purpose of this essay is to watch a movie and try to view the main character from three personality theorists perspectives. In the movie The Little Mermaid, Ariel is a mermaid princess who makes a deal with an evil sea-witch to meet a human prince who lives on land (Clements/Musker, 1989). In this essay, I will analyze the movie The Little Mermaid through Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Carl Jung’s theory of Archetypes, and Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development. While these theorists have much in common in terms of self-concept, their views on the main issues at hand vary accordingly.

A little girl sits on the floor with her gaze fixed on the television screen in front of her, watching magical images dance before her eyes and catchy songs flow through her ears. Even though she had seen it at least twenty times before, she still loved The Little Mermaid just as much as she did the first time she watched it. As she watched it, she longed to be a beautiful mermaid with a curvy body and wonderful singing voice like Ariel. She longed to be saved by the handsome Prince Eric, and fall in love and live happily ever-after like Ariel did. In today’s society, women strive to achieve equality between the sexes. Despite the tremendous steps that have been taken towards reaching gender equality, mainstream media contradicts these

If “a dance is like a conversation,” as is wonderfully expressed by the broadway musical Disney’s The Little Mermaid, then why, for school dances, don’t we actually dance? There’s nothing wrong with it, at all, so why don’t we do it? School dances have become more like social get-togethers where people bring a date and listen to the most popular music of the day. The problem with this is that it creates a very bad environment, and students lose a valuable social skill, but, if we gave instruction of how to dance and the opportunity to dance, these problems would be solved and school dances would be safer and more fun.

The original draft more generally based and less clear of what the exact thesis and argument was because I focused on other dynamics, such as patriarchy, in which I needed to narrow. Overall in the final prospectus, I argued that there are sexist themes portrayed in The Little Mermaid and the importance of analyzing and identifying these are because it is so prevalent and affective in real life society. Every argument has a purpose and a goal, and the goal with writing this paper is to bring awareness of this type of rhetoric in films in order to avoid falling or accepting its skewed

I went to watch The Little Mermaid with my parents. The playwright of this story was Doug Wright. We saw the play at Fossil Ridge High School on Saturday November 18th at 2 o’clock. It was an amazing play that gave a fun twist on the movie you know and love. Act 1 was almost completely under water. It introduced you to the setting, which is King Triton’s palace. You see curiosity and wonder in this part. In Act 2, Ariel spends most of her time in Prince Eric’s palace to win over his heart. You get to feel the love between these two at this point. There are also many characters that I fell in love with on the way. Some mains ones are Ariel, Prince Eric, Ursula, Flounder, Sebastian, and Scuttle. There were also some minor characters like King Triton, Ariel’s sisters, the maids, Chief Louis, and so many more. Each one adds something small, but together they create a great play.