All that was echoing in my mind while reading “The Day after the Wedding, from Undine” in “The Penguin Book of Mermaids” was like Professor Pressman said in class, “Love with a capital L”. This tale is the holy embodiment of what we typically consider to be love, or rather, what it’s displayed to be for us in the media. So it only makes sense her soul is tied to male validation, right? *crickets* The entire section was full of contradictions! I found it interesting it says, “She continued thus throughout the whole day, quiet, kind, and attentive,- at once a little matron and a tender bashful girl” (103). Even details like this about her personality also hold these major contradictions. Why is it that Undine can only have a soul if she obtains the love of a man? Why does her humanity have to be defined by her marrying a man? Have you guys ever thought about how odd it is that, in our society, for a relationship to be considered real in the eyes of the law you legally have to go through the ritual of getting married? Also, Undine explains she is magical…literally made from the elements, and even says, “Thus my father, who is a powerful water-prince in the Mediterranean Sea…”(105), indicating that she is of some royal lineage…yet none of that matters? She is, for some reason, less than Huldbrand and depicted as incomplete without him. This is important to think about because tales like this reinforce patriarchal standards, but also when looking at them deeper…heavily favor religion. The entire thing has strong religious themes, echoing the Christian sentiment that love is good and redeeming. According to the text, similar to our friend Undine, our souls can also be redeemed.
Hey Janette,
What I really liked about what you wrote was how you made the connection between Urdine’s story to the expectations of love that societies would have as well as religions. I liked how you also questioned why Urdine’s human side depended on male validation, as this added a strong feminist point of view. Last, your point about how marriage defines “real” relationships in our world today was very interesting and made me think about how much value a marriage truly holds.
Hi Janette,
You’re post is echoing my exact thoughts while reading this weeks story of Undine. This quote caught my attention, “The entire thing has strong religious themes, echoing the Christian sentiment that love is good and redeeming”, since these are heavy values throughout christianity. It seems like this story is an AD for promoting this religion and urging women to marry and they, too, will be saved.
Hi Janette!
This was such a great post, I enjoyed reading your take on how the whole story of Undine was contradictory. I think its interesting that you brought up, “ how odd it is that, in our society, for a relationship to be considered real in the eyes of the law you legally have to go through the ritual of getting married?” and how you used the word “ritual”. I think it very well ties into the religion aspect that you ended your post with! As someone in a queer relationship, I do think it’s odd, and the patriarchy we live in feeds into it as well! I loved this post and reading your take on this story!
Hi Janette, your post was very intriguing and I really liked how we both wrote on similar topics because now I can have a different perspective on Undine 🙂 you made really good connections between your own insights and with the text itself.