Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid depicts the lives, but more importantly, the inner thoughts and perspectives of Merpeople. Andersen wrote about what he can only imagine it would be like to look into our world from such an unimaginable viewpoint. Somehow, he still managed to integrate Western Christianity into a fairy tale about a young woman who lived separate from all things “worldly”. This proves that, as much as we try to understand the incomprehensible, and walk in the shoes of or (swim in the tails) of others, our own learned perspectives will often prevail.

On page 108, he writes, “It was the little birds that her grandmother called fishes, or else her young listeners would not have understood her, for they had never seen birds”. According to this logic, the young mermaids had no concept of the world on land whatsoever, yet in basically the same breath, he mentions how enticing the church bells are to the girls. On page 109, he mentioned the church three times, and yes, mostly intended as an example of the sounds of humans, heard from afar, but nonetheless, it was mentioned. Andersen takes the time to point out that they don’t know what dogs are, yet skims past the fact that they’d never been inside a church and still had a full understanding of what they were. If these young girls could understand the reason for church bells, and not birds singing, then well, they were clearly written to be religious mermaids.

This may seem to be very insignificant, but I felt I needed to point out such a minute detail because it really does play a larger role in this story. If this young mermaid knew the significance of the church or religion, or in some ways, morality, then she would, in turn, also know shame. Organized religion has been a tool in inducing shame for centuries, and it was especially potent at the time of this telling. Although shame is a less intense theme in this story than it is in other merpeople tales, its presence is more interesting when it relates to a LITTLE mermaid. A 15-year-old child feels shame for wanting love, for wanting beauty, and for wanting human connection.

I do not think this distinction was necessarily purposeful or intended to be significant, but I do think it points to writing about unknown beings in general. That is my point, I suppose. Andersen was submerging himself in this perspective, over-explaining the way things look to someone who had no concept of them, down to little details. Yet he subconsciously or consciously decided that, of course, mermaids would inherently have a concept of religion, the church, or God.