Final Project: The Myth of (Human) Superiority

Posted on December 14, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

In the stories of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, Agnieska Smoczynska’s film The Lure, and André Lebey’s version of Melusine the characters embark on journeys away from their home environments with aspirations of establishing their lives in new homes and bringing the talents they possess to benefit their new community as immigrants, but they are unable to bridge the social barriers of their new environment because of all they must sacrifice to assimilate. In these stories this rejection from their chosen environments with their designation of “other” preserves the power of hierarchical systems and serves as an allegory of outsiders and immigrants being a threat.

In Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, for the title character “there was nothing she delighted in so much as to hear about the upper world. She was always asking her grandmother to tell her all she knew about ships, towns, people, and animals” (109). The little mermaid idealized and revered the human world like immigrants who dream of joining another community. Her interest in the world above water predated her interest with the prince, making the human world her first infatuation and aspiration. The little mermaid impatiently waits for her access to this land of her dreams and is further enthralled on her first visit to the surface by seeing the human experiences of celebration and mortality. The prince’s birthday party shows new experiences that the little mermaid has not encountered such as dancing and fireworks, “large suns were throwing out sparks…and all these wonders were reflected in the calm sea below” (Andersen 114). This comparison shows how the little mermaid sees the brightness and life of the human world that does not reach into her world. She stays late into the night, not wanting to let go of this experience and inadvertently becomes entangled in the lives of humans.

When the prince almost drowns during the storm, she remembers humans’ inability to survive under water like her. This is when the first of her abilities benefit the human world. Not only in the single life of the prince, but also the kingdom he reigns over. The little mermaid’s choice to save him and carry him to shore more than likely saved a kingdom’s power in the political world. The little mermaid saves the prince as an individual, not as a political act but she soon sees in the land-based rescue of him contributing to the happiness of the community around him. “And the mermaid saw that the prince came to life again, and that he smiled on all those around him. But he did not send her a smile, neither did he know she had saved him, so she felt quite afflicted” (Andersen 116). She understands her contribution, how she has added value to the human world, but because she is separate from the space of humans, her contributions are not recognized by the population she hopes to be considered equal to.

In Andersen’s story the little mermaid believes the possession of an immortal soul is another quality of humans that puts them in higher position than mermaids. Her grandmother explains to her that only the love of a human and a Christian marriage would grant her the same status as a human, “But this will never happen! Your fish’s tail, which is a beauty amongst us sea-folk, is thought to be a deformity on earth…” (Andersen 119). This additionally deepens the little mermaid’s belief that her form and species is beneath humans, making her willing to reject her world to be part of the human world that is depicted as superior.

The cost of having human legs is the little mermaid’s voice, as a stranger to a new land this immediately puts her at a disadvantage. She cannot assert her personality or identity without a voice and much like her grandmother had explained a tail was a deformity, her absence of speech will also be considered another type of deformity to humans. As Pil Dahlerup states, “but, being mute, she, who in her former element was the foremost singer in the whole world of land and sea, cannot express her feelings of love and longing, and her exquisite looks and expressive dancing turn her into a mere pet for the prince” (413). The little mermaid even after having crossed the boundary between being an inhabitant of water and then of land is still considered inferior to the humans around her. Her lack of voice is similar to what immigrants experience in their chosen homes as language and political standing prohibits their participation in the environment around them.

The little mermaid understands the importance of a voice and knows that her voice is one of the talents she could bring to the world of humans, she will have to relinquish not only her tail that made the rescue possible but the voice that is a unique talent. When the Sea Witch asked for it as payment, the little mermaid answers, “but if you take away my voice…what have I left?” (Andersen 122). She is told by the Sea Witch that her new human body will be all that she needs to complete her task and obtain an immortal soul. The human form and status are set up as the ideal that can conquer all obstacles, both to reader and the characters of the story.

When the human form does not negate the little mermaid’s payment of the talents she sacrificed, she is presented with a new moral problem. Through the further sacrifices of her sisters, the little mermaid can choose to resume her own life as a mermaid by killing the prince that rejected her or die herself. With being underestimated by humans in what they determined to be her inferior state she has access to the prince and can easily kill him while he sleeps. This exemplifies the threat some see of the “other” in their community, that the unassuming and subordinate people from outside can cause substantial harm to the people in the community they join.

In The Lure (dir. Agnieska Smoczynska) the threat of the “other” is more evident because unlike the little mermaid, the mermaids in the film do not have to sacrifice their tails to participate in the human world. The mermaids Silver and Golden in the film bounce back and forth between being considered dangerous animals and innocuous sexual objects by the humans around them. They are suspected to be threats and kept in dependent positions in their life and work. Even after their talents have brought money and success to the band they join on land, they are kept under a restricting level of the human’s control. Silver confronts the humans saying, “we can’t go to restaurants or bars. We work, but we don’t get any money,” (The Lure 53:37). The response from the character of a Krysia, a mother-figure and vocalist of the band, infantilizes the mermaids by replying, “You’re still kids. Kids can’t have everything they want” (The Lure 53:50). The treatment and approach to Silver and Golden by humans in the film does not reflect an opinion of the mermaids being kids, but because of their unfamiliarity with the human world they have started to make their lives in, the human band members are able to exploit them with presumed authority.

Reducing them to children makes the humans feel superior to the mermaids, while also being terrified of them. This and other physical impediments make the human world experience muted for the mermaids. Mietek, the love interest of Silver tells her “to me you’ll always be a fish, an animal,” (The Lure 33:59). This causes Silver to see herself through a perspective of not being worthy of the human world. Silver wants to participate fully in the human world so she can enjoy it in the same way as other humans. Golden wants to maintain her mermaid nature as she plans for their current home to be just a visit not a new home. For Golden, the talents her and Silver have of singing and enchantment are a way for them to access the human world, not become members of it. Golden still hunts humans and uses the oceanic language with Silver without the concern of how uncomfortable it makes humans, even after it leads to violence against them.

With this divergence of their approach towards the human world it shows the challenges of maintaining identity in new surroundings with people who do not trust them for being outsiders. Silver hides her power and tries to share it with humans to be accepted while Golden refuses to deny her power or abilities. Golden is considered more of a threat for her unwillingness to accept humans as being superior, reflecting that the “other” or immigrant who does not assimilate is a threat to the community they are residing in.

Visiting the human world does not mean a mermaid has to give up being a mermaid. It is a temporary state that they have the power to flow in and out of, but to assimilate they must cut off their tail like the little mermaid. In the world of the film there are several mermaids on land, all of them aware and most believing that “…if you cut off your tail, you’ll lose your voice” (The Lure 1:09:13). This creates an experience of not being able to truly assimilate into the culture of humans they are living around because they lose their strength and talent to be there. Cutting off a tail isn’t about participating or having a presence in the human world, it’s about joining the human world permanently and cutting themselves off from their mermaid world. It is a transition from visitor to resident. When immigrants are forced to reject or cut off their connection to the lives they lived before, it becomes a loss in identity and truly a loss for the new places they have decided to call home.

Silver choses to cut off her tail so she can be with her lover Mietek, but it comes at the great sacrifice of her voice. Her interactions in the world become strained and as a singer it does take away her ability to participate in all the things she enjoyed as just a visitor. The operation makes her disabled both physically and professionally, without these talents her worth in the community she has joined is diminished. She is unable to bridge the transition to being part of the human world because she had to give up all the talents that granted her entry to the human world. Soon after her transition to human, her lover rejects her and marries a human. This puts Silver in mortal danger as it was for the little mermaid, and she must choose her life or Mietek.

Silver makes the same choice as the little mermaid. Believing her rejection is justified, she sacrifices herself for a human, keeping the hierarchical system of human superiority over all others in place. While Silver is reduced to sea foam, her sister Golden who did not endorse the system of humans, kills Mietek before returning to her home in the water. The threat of the unassimilated visitor is portrayed as a scarier risk in this story because it is resilient to propaganda of ranked systems. It relies on exclusion to bring a sense of inferiority, pressuring the visitor to commit to the ways and structures of the land they occupy and become the subordinate to the structure or leave. The story in The Lure shows how the “other” or immigrant who does not conform to the model of being inferior can lead to disruption and danger in a new chosen environment.

In the story of Melusine she is able to bridge the barriers of the human world for a longer span of time than the little mermaid or the mermaids of The Lure. This is in part because she maintains her talents in the human world and is protected through her marriage to Raymondin. Having her talents of magic and political understanding she can create her own secure territory. He gives her residency in the human world with his position as a lord over land and she has more protection with this marital commitment than the other stories’ mermaids. Though eventually her position as an “other” and immigrant ruling over land puts her in the position of a political target when her power is challenged.

On the first meeting of Melusine and Raymondin he comes to her in a position of weakness. Raymondin “too broken to have any pressing need for the unknown” (Lebey 23). He has killed a family member and fears the retribution of his family, leaving him isolated and ready to flee his homelands. Perhaps becoming an immigrant to different lands himself and understanding his loss in position in the human world. Melusine offers him an alternative to this fate by joining in a marital alliance with him, promising “without me, without my counsel, you cannot escape being accused of murder…if you listen to me, and take account of what I say, I promise to make you the greatest lord of your line and the wealthiest” (Lebey 25). She is offering a partnership that will not only save him from the consequences of his actions but also improving on the position he held before the crime he committed. The little mermaid, Silver, and Golden could not offer this level of power to their suitors because of what they had to give up being in the land of humans. In return Melusine asks for a marriage between her and Raymondin as well as his acceptance of her maintaining a boundary of her body and time. Melusine acts with the power she knows she possesses “these tales offer a catalogue of behaviors that exemplify the power that husbands wielded over their wives and how they were prepared to use it… These are notmutually exclusive desires as both could co-exist, but the presence of the pact shows that the fairy woman did not seek belonging at any cost” (Shaw 113).

When Raymondin does agree to her terms, unlike when he first meets her “he began to feel a man again, full of vigour” (Lebey 26). This alliance has strengthened him, not only in his mind but in his position in the world. Both he and Melusine understand the hierarchical system of humans and place themselves at the top so they may rule and not be subject to it. Instead of believing in a lesser position as an immigrant to the human world like the little mermaid and Silver, Melusine does not subscribe to non-humans being subordinate though most around her will.

Melusine does keep her promise of the alliance. Raymondin and the heirs she births into the world accomplish and conquer many things, pursuing their own journey of the unknown and placing themselves in positions of power around the land. Her talents build and preserve their castle Lusignan, a neutral space. “In Melusine’s case, while she appears to create a third space protected by ownership, once these boundaries are secured, she introduces alternative ways of thinking that trouble traditional understandings of ownership and the boundaries upon which they depend” (Shaw 119). Melusine secures for herself and the people of the land a place where she is not the “other” but connector of community.

Her upholding of their alliance benefits both as well as their family. Still the marriage is not without problems as the children of the ruling couple have various forms of deformities, but Raymondin is still made happy by the marriage and the success it has given him. This shield of power covers both members of the marriage; he does not need to be beholden to any other power, and she maintains the image of being human like her husband and thus not suspected as an “outsider” threat.

Though as time passes Raymondin grows too comfortable in this position of power and forgets the position he once occupied which his wife secured for him with her talents and resources. He has conquered parts of the world as has his sons, which he is reminded of while reading a letter from them before he breaks the boundaries of his wife’s territory. This coupled with the suggestion of his family member about Melusine reignites this desire to conquer unknown territories, because Melusine with her boundary was not entirely his possession like he hoped for when they first met. His family member reminds him of this inadequacy, setting off the events that will lead to the destruction of the marital alliance. As the beginning of The Romance of the Faery Melusine implies humans often go looking for fights when idle, “it seemed that the one existed to give rise to the other, for humans do not show their mettle if left to themselves” (12). With no new lands to conquer Raymondin sets out to prove his dominion over Melusine.

The power of Melusine’s autonomy was also her weakness, as it conflicted with the human hierarchal system that places husbands in power over their wives. While Lusignan is a neutral space she built, in it are people from other backgrounds that uphold the systems of inequality. When Raymondin is confronted with her Saturday-serpent form, Melusine’s “otherness” erases the image he has held for her for years. “But then saw her husband lying there at her with a look of hatred” (Lebey 138). Raymondin then retroactively blames Melusine for all the lives and actions of their children, “serpent always…you are only a phantom, and so is your fruit! None of those who have come from your cursed womb know how to come to a good end, because of the sign of reprobation with which you have marked them by you sin” (Lebey 139). Now Raymondin has the opportunity to blame the “outsider” for any misfortune as he has now separated his feeling that they were “themselves one” (Lebey 121). This translates to the threat of Melusine or any outsider bringing the pollution of her “otherness” to be inherited down to her children who will inherit the land and position of their father.

This is the perceived ultimate threat of the “other” and immigrant, a continuation in the community containing an outside influence in the form of future generations. Inclusion results in the loss the structure that thrives on categorizing and establishing superiority. In the stories of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, Agnieska Smoczynska’s film The Lure, and Melusine mermaids joining the human world is a clear reflection of how human communities require the sacrifice of identity and talents to gain access to their environment because they fear their self-designated importance being challenged. The little mermaid was stripped of all the things that made her distinctive and exceptional for the promise of a body that was portrayed as the pinnacle of lifeforms on land and sea, only to be treated as an inferior. Silver had power that was used by others, while they still demeaned her non-human qualities until they shamed her into giving up her advantages so she would be as mediocre as the humans that surrounded her. Melusine shared and used her talents with the support of humans as long as it put them at an advantage, but the first time her magic could not protect she was expelled from the world she had built. These stories demean and vilify the outsider or immigrant as threats to give justification for the exclusion and mistreatment a hierarchal system is designed to prosper on. Assimilation is presented as way to bridge the regulated barriers of inclusion, when it only provides support to the concept of inequality that is built within the myth of human superiority.

Works Cited

Anderson, Hans Christian. “The Little Mermaid”. The Penguin Book of Mermaids, edited by Bacchilega, Cristina, and Marie Alohalani Brown. Penguin Books, 2019.

Dahlerup, Pil, et al. “SPLASH!: SIX VIEWS OF ‘THE LITTLE MERMAID.’” Scandinavian Studies, vol. 62, no. 4, 1990, pp. 403–29. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40919202. Accessed 14 Dec. 2025.

Lebey, André, and Gareth Knight. The Romance of the Faery Melusine. Skylight, 2011.

The Lure. Directed by Agnieska Smoczynska, Janus Films, 2015.

Shaw, Jan. “Belonging in the Borderlands: Narrative, Place-making, and Dwelling in Jean d’Arras’s Mélusine.” Exemplaria, vol. 36, no. 2, 2 Apr. 2024, pp. 109–130, https://doi.org/10.1080/10412573.2024.2406698.

Extra Credit-Halloween Costume

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

For Halloween I dressed up as a werewolf because like mermaids they are considered both a hybrid and a monster. Werewolves have a symbolic nature of the animal or the “uncivilized” part of humans that still lurk in the dark corners of the psyche that can still be summoned by events of the natural world. The topic of distancing from nature and how that is a human concept I believe is reflected in the werewolf. It is fear of the animal or inherit nature taking over and destroying the barriers between the domesticated and the wild. Werewolves are often depicted as male and with torn clothing, almost as though their lunar transformation was unplanned or unexpected. I chose to wear a (red) dress as an almost extra-feminine interpretation, while in “werewolf form” to show that the link we have to the natural world does not need to end when we are going about our daily lives.

Reflection

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

Before taking this class my mermaid knowledge was not very deep. It was centralized around Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” and “Splash” with other media off-shoots and some casual knowledge of non-western mermaids like Mami Wata. I picked up on the transgressive nature of the hybrid creatures as a kid and the one world existing next to another world, internalizing the “superiority”of the human world but really thinking Sebastian had a point when he said “life under the sea is better than anything they’ve got up there”. I still agree with Sebastian, but now having dove deeper into mermaid lore I understand the world of mermaids I was shown was only a reflection of the “up there”.

Mermaid stories tell us more about humans and about how we think about our environment and the ones we don’t have access to, than about mermaids. Studying some areas of the Blue Humanities has made me reframe how I see the land I inhabit and the water that has felt like a neutral space. The language used in western contemporary discussion is still centered on our land experience with, as often as we can, categorizing nature in straight lines and championing the importance of borders. This course taught me even more how deep the roots of colonization run, not just in a cultural or political sense. It has changed how we interpret and interact with what we consider nature, making lines and borders out of convenience and cruelty.

In the last few weeks of class with reading “The Deep” it has also reframed the concept of the mermaid story and the oral traditions that kept mermaids in the conversation. Yes it was helped along with Christianity, but not in the same light and I kind of love how the things mermaids were vilified for are one of the reasons we still love them and have them representing strength and connectivity. “The Deep” is an amazing and heartbreaking story that changed how I looked not only at the stories we read in class, but the nature (or environment) of creativity. Much like how land is designated as “my space” or “your space”, creating art and stories is a collective that does not exist in a vacuum. It is a layer upon layer, a story on top of a story.

Final Paper Proposal

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

For my final essay I am planning to write about the parallels between the story of Melusine and Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. Examining the concept of “otherness” to the environments they journey to after psychological and physical expense still does not give them access to the environment of their choosing. Their dehumanization and the infantilization of their bodies by their chosen homes safeguards a concept of superiority by imperialistic and patriarchal systems.

I have been researching my chosen texts and have dropped using The Lure as there has not been much academic mention of it. I believe there could be a connecting point of between the two remaining stories with how hybridity equates monstrosities and aids in the exclusion the characters feel from their chosen homes.

Thesis:

In the stories of Melusine and The Little Mermaid the characters embark on journeys away from their home environments with aspirations of establishing their lives in new homes and bringing the talents they possess to benefit their new community, but they are unable to bridge the social barriers of their new environment. In the stories this rejection from their chosen environments with their designation of “other” preserves the power of hierarchical systems and serves as an allegory of outsiders being a threat.

A Greater Good?

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

A line that stood out to me in this week’s reading was from a memory Yetu had with her amaba as she tried to help her understand the weight of the role of the Historian. “Her amaba didn’t want to believe that things Yetu spoke about were true. I they were, what would it say about her as a parent to have consented to her becoming a vessel of such ugliness?”(99-100).

It caught my attention not because of the question of parental responsibility, but from the systemic structures that are trusted but still inflict pain that is not shared or understood. The role of the Historian is honored and exalted by the wajinru. The role’s importance keeps their community together and brings them history that nourishes their present and future. But it is also a heavy burden that Yetu must carry alone, as it has been done for generations.

When Yetu tries to share her experience with her amaba, her mother is confronted with the truth of this role that her daughter endures. She denies it could be like that, because it is so horrible. Her amaba was told by the system that Yetu is part of that it is necessary role and at this point amaba believes that the system is there to protect all of the wajinru. It is an honor to do this, taxing but something that must be done and needs to continue. There is also the threat that her daughter’s refusal to do this chosen role would result in the predicted end of their people. So Yetu’s amaba must believe that it is for a greater good, but still she is not trusting the individual.

When Yetu approached other wajinru about giving up this role, they rejected as an act of “blasphemy”. Does their system function on the elongated sacrifice of the chosen? Why is this not a term of Historian, so that one life might not be sacrificed in its entirety? There is an element of this dynamic that makes me ask where that last Historian is and why is there not a shared process, also was there any type of training for this role?

This book discusses generational trauma and how it is held and weighted in the body and mind. Yetu has been the Historian for 20 years, but it seems to be breaking her down faster than previous Historians. The system of the wajinru have her believing it is a personal failing, her struggle to hold this history alone and feed her people in measured sips, but I have my doubts.

Final Project (Essay) To-Do

Posted on November 23, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

For my Final Project (Essay) I need learn more about The Little Mermaid in reference to crossing of borders and the sociopolitical implications. There are a few academic papers I have been reviewing to better understand the more political elements of the story I am not familiar with. I plan to compare the Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid to the story of Melusine and possibly to the film The Lure, which has comparable elements of The Little Mermaid’s lore of the lives of mermaids. I also need to learn more about how the story of Melusine is depicted in sociopolitical academic analysis.

Before I begin my Final Project (Essay) I need to reread The Little Mermaid and the Melusine readings. After making my own notes I will research academic papers that address my approach and compose my thesis. I hope peer review will help me better establish my claims. Once that is set, I will select the references that best support my thesis and then compose an outline.

At this point I am not planning to do a visual or alternative media accompaniment to the essay.

The Allure of Power

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

In Agnieska Smoczynska’s The Lure, the mermaid Silver’s human male love interest Mietek’s refusal to touch her mermaid tail depicts a theme in mermaid lore of men’s desire for women being dependent on the control patriarchy exerts over women, rejecting power and strength in feminine bodies. His sexual rejection forces Silver to choose between keeping her power or his love, making her conform to a human dynamic of patriarchy where he will have power over her, leaving her to be entirely dependent on his affection for survival.

The Lure is a modern mermaid story, taking place in 1980s Poland but filmed in the mid 2010s. It operates in a similar vison of the myths and rules of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. One exception being that mermaids can change back and forth between their mermaid form into a terrestrial form, which includes legs but not genitalia. This changes the position of the mermaids in The Lure as mermaids have more freedom and strength on land. Elements of Anderson’s tale that remain are gaining human legs and genitalia makes a mermaid lose their voice. Additionally, if the human they love falls in love with someone else the mermaid will turn to sea foam. While some of these elements are considered a superstition by some characters, it does demonstrate that on land there are threats to mermaids’ power.

The scene of Mietek’s rejection begins with Silver transforming from her sexually restricted terrestrial form to her mermaid form in the bathtub while Mietek watches. Silver makes her sexual desires for him known with a direct statement. As he observes her, his expression changes from tantalization to uneasiness. While she does this in preparation for a sexual encounter, Mietek is confronted with truth of her form that reveals her strength and power, which makes him scared and sexually uninterested.

This is stated in his response to Silver’s sexual advances as he says to her “don’t to be angry, but to me you’ll always be a fish, an animal. I can’t do this, as much as I’d like to,” (33:59). While his declaration of her inadequacy for him is the devastating emotional statement, he begins his rejection with admitting to his fear of her physical power. He tells her to not be angry because he understands her anger could be an actual physical threat to him. Her mermaid otherness is a threat to the terrestrial experience he has been part of where human women are smaller and typically are not as physically strong as Silver.

It is important to note that this includes Silver in her terrestrial form, she is shorter and more petite than Mietek. It contradicts the experiences he has had with her on land to see her in her mermaid form, revealing how powerful she always is but conceals to participate in terrestrial activities.

Silver understands their contrasting power dynamic bothers him, that his sexual desire is dependent on him not feeling weaker. To soothe his mindset, she offers him a piece of her power in the form of one of her scales. It is a painful action even for her strong body, she shows the pain in her expression and in the blood that is left behind. She promises him power and talent in his music playing with this scale, which he is eager to accept but before he takes it she asks from him a kiss in trade. With the scale almost in his grasp he carefully maneuvers around touching her tail to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek, before accepting this gift. Like the pain she showed in removing the scale, her disappointment in this offer of power to him is expressed.

He avoids her tail in this scene, not out of physical respect but in an act of supporting his comment that she is not human enough for sexual interest to him. In Silver’s terrestrial form he also avoids any touching below the waist before her surgery, even in physically intimate moments. This causes sexual and emotional frustration for Silver because he participates in a physical relationship with her but reminds her of the inadequacies he sees in her.

In contrast to this relationship’s dynamic there is an additional sexual scene between Silver’s sister Golden with a woman. Unlike Mietek’s avoidance of Silver’s tail, Golden and her female lover invite the presence of Golden’s tail in their sexual experience with each other. With the sexual anatomy of mermaids only being accessible when they are in their mermaid form, Golden does not have the same frustrations as Silver and is not motivated to cobble her power or identity.

The behavior from Mietek of keeping Silver at a distance and lacking in value to him, he resets the power dynamic between them. She is now in the weaker position within their relationship because he does not consider her to be an equal to him. This mirrors the relationship of the Little Mermaid and the prince in The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid was a semi-immortal member of royalty, and the prince made her sleep on a pillow outside his door (Penguin, 124). In the situation Mietek frames for her, in ordered to be loved by this human, she must be a human which means up giving not only her power but her identity.

Silver begins planning to have her fin replaced with a lower half of a human, which she is warned will make her lose her voice and make the terrestrial world her permanent home. The influence of the terrestrial patriarchal system inclines her to be compliant to the will of her love interest. Her experience on land has made her doubt her own power as she has been met with exploitation and violence, but not directly from Mietek. He has been supportive and has enjoyed the profits of her power in song and in his music. Even so, he only appreciates her power when it benefits him. After her surgery with her voice and powers muted, he loses interest in her when she cannot provide these benefits for him and is now repulsed by her in this powerless form.

With his rejection Silver’s life is now entirely in the power of Mietek. She relinquished her power, voice, and strength to contort and conform to his desires. But his desire was never for her, it was always for the power she had that he did not which he pursued. Now he can dispose of her in a way that he never could when she was a mermaid. He has truly achieved the power he always wanted, to not be scared of a feminine body that wanted and loved him.

Works Cited

Anderson, Hans Christian. “The Little Mermaid”. The Penguin Book of Mermaids, Bacchilega, Cristina, and Marie Alohalani Brown. The Penguin Book of Mermaids. Penguin Books, 2019.

The Lure. Directed by Agnieska Smoczynska, Janus Films, 2015.

The Grey Archive

Posted on November 9, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

In Derek Walcott’s poem “The Sea is History” there is a conversation within the poem that analyzes the concept of origin stories and what is marked a history as opposed to myth. What is considered history is framed in terrestrial markers by the speaker of the question at the beginning of the poem. The question is answered with elements of the reoccurring concept in our mermaid readings of the below surface ocean being a locked up and restricted place, but the poem will unlock that history that has always been there. While the themes of religious myth work as an entry point for comparison Walcott blends the events that happened on and within the ocean to link the land events that was remembered in the ocean. Walcott brings History as being measured outside the confines of imperialist definitions.

What stood out to me was his play on language with the ocean creatures and oceanic elements carrying double meanings to aid in the historic importance of the ocean. He links oceanic terms to the terrestrial, bringing balance and attention to a connection the terra-dominant language typically denies. Lines such as “the white cowries clustered like manacles on the drowned women…”. Yellow cowries (on land) were used as a shell money in Africa (“cowrie”). Being made into manacles also known as handcuffs, references the enslavement of African people who were monetarily measured in their worth to the system they were violently dragged in to.

The designation of “white” cowries, carries with it the meaning of the monetary price placed on black African people enslaved by white (European/imperialist) forces. As Walcott characterizes the sea as grey, it brings not only imagery of the ocean in stormy conditions but of the result of the colors of black and white combined together. This not only holds the meaning of the acts witnessed by the ocean, but integrates the ocean into being part of the human experience, not just the other or a setting.

Work Cited

“Cowrie.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/animal/cowrie. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.

Walcott, Derek. “The Sea Is History.” Poets.Org, Academy of American Poets, 28 Mar. 2025, poets.org/poem/sea-history.

Remembered

Posted on November 2, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

In Gabrielle Tesfaye’s film The Water Will Carry Us Home the artist shows a vision of the people murdered in the Middle Passage during the slave trade as still being part of this world even after their deaths. As the ocean is often depicted as the void of Earth, the act of killing in this way left little physical evidence of the atrocities committed compared to the terrestrial that proceeded and followed the path of the Middle Passage. This film shows how those murdered are still part of Earth even when they are not part of the terrestrial plane.

Being stolen from their homes and land, Tesfaye depicted a life in the ocean where the water deities of mermaids welcome those murdered by drowning to a new home in the water. Many of the people in the film who are killed are pregnant women, with their deaths it shows the end of lineage that happened during the heinous act of enslavement.

Tesfaye included in her film not only the second or next lives of those murdered but the continuation of life in the ocean. There is love, community, and descendants; all of the things enslavers thought they ended by throwing people into the void of the ocean to cover their crimes. These murderers at the time viewed this as minor disruption to the surface world, but no matter what they believed the bodies and souls of those killed stayed in the world and are still part of it. These brutal acts are remembered and those lost are honored and live on in the world that they will always be a part of. Tesfaye also shows a person with white hair who is murdered by drowning, there is generational significance to this as elders are often the source of knowledge and explanation. Without elders’ generational exchanges, knowledge will be stopped and in turn strength in cultural understanding and beliefs. But Tesfaye shows that the knowledge was not stopped.

Tesfaye bookends this vision depicted in paintings and stop-motion with filming herself in spiritual practice, adding not only that there is a terrestrial remembrance but shifting the images away from the imagined images and grounding it in a reality that this happened to real people. She connects to the sand and water and can hear the voices of those whose next lives are within the ocean, showing the continuation that happened not only in the ocean but on land.

swallowing up

Honouring Boundaries: Marital Alliances Reflecting in the Political Environment

Posted on October 19, 2025 by Melissa Vincent

In The Romance of the Faery Melusine the violation of Melusine’s boundaries when her husband Raymondin disregards their agreement of her seclusion on Saturdays, reflects the patriarchal fear of autonomy in women and the unknown. When boundaries are violated domestically or politically it creates distrust in partners, severing a relationship which brought prosperity and safety to them and their society.

On the first meeting of Melusine and Raymondin he comes to her in a position of weakness. “too broken to have any pressing need for the unknown” (Lebey, 23). He has killed a family member and fears the retribution of his family, leaving him isolated and ready to flee his homelands. Melusine offers him an alternative to this fate by joining in a marital alliance with him, promising “without me, without my counsel, you cannot escape being accused of murder…if you listen to me, and take account of what I say, I promise to make you the greatest lord of your line and the wealthiest” (25). She is offering a partnership that will not only save him from the consequences of his actions but also improving on the position he held before the crime he committed. In return she asks for a marriage between the two and his acceptance of her maintaining a boundary of her body and time.

He agrees to this martial alliance, in part for its favorable promised outcome but also because he is enamored with her beauty. It is a beneficial relationship, marriages of his position were often made for the alliance of two families and territories, desire for the spouse was not necessary. Though in his reasoning he is pulled by the thoughts about her of “whom he wanted to know more and more, and above all to possess” (27). This attitude towards Melusine as being a possession was and is a mindset of some who dehumanize women or wives, as they do not find them to be equal to men. A woman can be to some another territory to conquer and rule over.

When Raymondin does agree to her terms, unlike when he first meets her “he began to feel a man again, full of vigour” (26). This alliance has strengthened him, not only in his mind but in his position in the world. He is not alone, but now part of team.

In political alliances, while each partner maintains their own territory it does present a united front that is larger than they are on their own. Like in the marriage of Raymondin and Melusine, political alliances give access to shared monetary and defense resources. If a foreign or domestic threat strikes at the alliance, they are attacking a united front. When kingdoms and countries form alliances it is to benefit both and within this political relationship there is an emphasis of mutual respect for each other’s autonomy.

Melusine does keep her promise of the alliance. Raymondin and the heirs she births into the world accomplish and conquer many things, pursuing their own journey of the unknown. Her upholding of their alliance benefits both as well as their family. The marriage is not without problems as the children have various forms of deformities, but Raymondin is still made happy by the marriage and the success it has given him.

Raymondin has kept his vow as well, respecting Melusine’s boundary of not seeing her on Saturdays. Though as time has passed Raymondin has grown comfortable in this position of power and forgets the position he once occupied which his wife secured for him with her power and resources. Relationships both personal and political evolve with time but also can stagnate when not nourished. It is only when a cousin of Raymondin, a part of his family he once feared for retribution, calls into question Melusine’s fidelity in claiming this time for herself does Raymondin think to violate his marital vow.

This is an interesting departure of commitment for Raymondin to Melusine. Raymondin has had the privilege to age, he is no longer fueled by a need for the unknown in the world outside of the castle Melusine built for him. He has conquered parts of the world as has his sons, which he is reminded of while reading a letter from them before he breaks the boundaries of his wife’s territory. This coupled with the suggestion of his cousin about Melusine reignites this desire for the unknown, because Melusine with her boundary was not entirely his possession like he hoped for when they first met. She still maintained the autonomy of her own body, her territory. She had not been conquered and enveloped into his territory. His cousin reminds him of this inadequacy, setting off the events that will lead to the destruction of the marital alliance.

Raymondin often refers to honour, in his first meeting of his wife and then while he prepares for the violation of their agreement. Later Raymondin declares, “women do not know, know nothing of what we call Honour!” (138). While he has thought of Melusine and himself as one, he conveniently separates her from himself in this statement. Implying woman do not have the capability of honour like men, it categorizes Melusine’s position as his partner as not being equal. After she sees this disrespect towards her and all she has provided him in their long relationship the alliance is broken and the power they both held together.

There are consequences of this broken alliance with violating her boundary, Melusine’s fate is now to be separated from Raymondin and her soul unable to reach a Christian afterlife. She then explains after Raymondin is out of power, “no man will be able to hold the country in such peace as we have seen” (142). Outside of him not having the same strength as their united front, betraying her reflects on his character and will change the perception of any alliance he hopes to make after. Raymondin is now isolated and not trustworthy in the political and personal realm. He is a now target for those who were not strong enough to conquer his empire when it was strengthen by his marital alliance. Making Melusine’s prophecy true, because once a great territory loses its footing it is nearly impossible to recover. There will be stain of his betrayal in his life and heirs with the fallout of the turbulent political environment he created by not honouring the sovereignty of another.

Work Cited: