In Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid there are multiple references of pain below and above the water. This story is clearly meant to be shared with children and like most fairy tales there is a concurrent of morality and coming of age allegory, in when and how pain is felt for this young mermaid.

When it is time for the the Little Mermaid to visit the surface, to break through the barrier of her world to enter into a broader and more complicated world, adornments of oyster shells are fastened to her tail by her grandmother. These shells symbolize her rank are so painful that the Little Mermaid voices this discomfort. Her grandmother’s response is “pride must suffer pain” (Penguin, 113). This statement has endless connotations such as religious implications, monarcharical responsibility, the mermaid symbolism of pride, or the mermaid’s ascension into womanhood. The story tells us early on that the Grandmother wears a dozen oyster shells in reverence to her noble birth, but not until the Little Mermaid is gifted the symbol do we know how painful they are. This means that the Grandmother has endured this pain as matriarch for a significant part of her life, without complaint because the Little Mermaid did not know it would be painful.

This has been a common denial in history, this discomfort of body in those who menstruate and birth, many times being categorized as a natural occurrence one must just endure. That there is goodness and purity in this endurance. The Little Mermaid is in some ways a 1800s child-appropriate way to explain to those who menstruate what their experience will be in their adult body. What pain is natural and unnatural in these bodies and how one of the most unnatural things to do is to disobey a parents’ wishes.

The pain of the shells is not mentioned again, it is a brief discomfort that the Little Mermaid adjusts to, a pain of the responsibility and pride she has being part of her family. But when she is in an unnatural state the pain is constant. When the Little Mermaid receives her legs, in rebellion of her family and position every step is painful. She experiences this pain all to be near someone who will never rebel against his title or family and who treats her (in my opinion) like a pet. A condition of the Little Mermaid’s task is convincing the Prince to forget about his parents, putting the Little Mermaid first. With the pair both having royal obligations, not listening to their the parent/family is more than a private rebellion it is a political rebellion with larger implications for their court and country. One must be obedient to the greater good. Making the lesson of the tale about how one will only experience pain when betraying your familial obligation, is not only a way to prove parents know best but to covertly imply it is against nature to do so.