Environmental literature has branched into many different areas, yet its next evolution may be its most important, as it focuses on humanity’s attempt to understand and coexist with its environment. Environmental literature, even before the term existed, has appeared throughout literary history and has often focused on uncovering what recedes around us. It is frequently perceived through the perspective of the mystical creature, the mermaid. These beings seem enchanted with humanity and gently guide humans toward brighter endings. While these human hybrid creatures embrace moral values similar to those of humans, they also possess the capacity to act, influence, and shape events throughout much of our literature. Although many analyze these texts from the mermaid’s perspective, the stories are actually filtered through the murky lens of the ocean itself. This perspective positions the reader to understand how the ocean influences these myths and why they remain important in modern times. In Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, the story’s development relies on the agency of the ocean, a force that cannot be controlled and that exerts its influence on characters such as the unnamed mermaid and the prince’s kingdom. When The Little Mermaid is examined through the lens of environmental literature, it becomes clear that much of mermaid folklore does not rely on human characters. Instead, forces such as the environment and the mermaids themselves serve as literary devices that emphasize how entities beyond humanity can possess agency and deserve to be listened to. As a civilization that continues to develop, we are beginning to understand that the resources within our environment are not meant to be wasted but managed carefully as finite gifts that must be sustained collectively. Failure to do so risks not only environmental destruction but also the extinction of countless species, including ourselves, who remain the primary beneficiaries of the environment.
The story begins by giving the ocean human like characteristics: “the water is as blue as cornflowers, and as clear as the purest crystal. But it is very deep, indeed, that no rope can fathom it.” This detail matters because the narrative does not begin from an individual’s perspective. Instead, it creates the image of a humanistic ocean, one with blue “hair” and a deep, unknowable personality. The narrative then shifts from a story told through the mermaid’s perspective to one shaped by the ocean, establishing environmental agency. It is through the ocean’s permission that “sea folk dwell” within it, suggesting that the ocean is selective about what inhabits it and protects its possessions in a manner similar to humans. As the story progresses, Andersen builds on this idea by describing characters without names, defining them instead by appearance, personality, and clothing. The reader is invited into a space rather than a simple location and is introduced to a being that mirrors human qualities through familiar markers such as hair and clothing. The absence of names can be understood as Andersen’s way of suggesting that the ocean itself is a presence that resists rigid definitions. It is not a singular character but a collective force shaped by the environment it contains, and its influence extends to everything living within it.
The ocean’s shifting personality emerges through weather and currents. When the ocean feels jealousy and there is “rumbling and grumbling in the heart of the sea” after the mermaid turns her gaze toward a human, it reacts with anger and unfurls into a “raging sea” that lashes out at the prince’s ship. This theme continues into the prelude, when the sun “rose out of the sea; its beam threw kindly onto the cold foam, and the little mermaid did not experience the pangs of death.” Here, empathy, a human emotion expressed by a force of nature, parallels the mermaid’s self sacrifice and shows how the ocean offers aid in another’s suffering. Andersen creates a narrative cycle not through a traditional hero’s journey but through the ocean’s actions. The cycle begins with the ocean nurturing its ecology, described as containing “the most curious flowers and trees,” with “fishes, great and small, gliding through the branches as birds fly through trees here upon earth.” This demonstrates that, like the human world, life within the ocean is thriving and abundant.
The cycle then shifts into destruction, as the ocean ravages the prince’s ship, which “gave way from beneath the lashes of the ocean,” while “water kept filling the hold.” This destruction prompts the mermaid to realize that the crew is in danger. The storm demonstrates the ocean’s will by presenting the natural disaster as intentional rather than passive. When the sea unleashes its fury upon the prince’s ship, Andersen emphasizes not only the physical destruction but also the emotional impact. The wave that lashes the vessel and then withdraws its support reads as deliberate, as though the ocean intentionally escalates the chaos. This moment becomes one of moral intervention: the ocean responds to the mermaid’s conflicted desires and to the human intrusion that draws her away from its world.
The mermaid is aware of the ocean’s emotional state and the growing danger around her. This awareness reinforces her role as an intermediary between the ocean and the forces within it. Andersen constructs the ocean as a dynamic character, one capable of altering the course of the narrative, shaping human fate, and influencing mermaid agency. As a creature attuned to the ocean’s personality, the mermaid recognizes that the ocean carries danger even for her and remains cautious despite having lived within it her entire life. The final stage of the cycle is transformation: “she jumped overboard and felt her body dissolve into foam,” a change that allows her to transcend into an aerial spirit and eventually earn “an immortal soul after the lapse of three hundred years.”
While readers often interpret The Little Mermaid as a human centered morality tale emphasizing the mermaid’s sacrifice, desire for love, and pursuit of an immortal soul, this reading overlooks the environmental forces shaping the narrative. In the traditional interpretation, the mermaid is treated as the primary agent, and the ocean is viewed merely as background. However, this perspective fails to acknowledge the ocean’s active role in guiding events. Storms, currents, and emotional reactions repeatedly influence both human and nonhuman characters. These interactions demonstrate that outcomes do not rely solely on individual choices. When the ocean is recognized as an agent with its own personality and influence, the story becomes one in which natural forces shape morality, action, and consequence alongside human will.
Hans Christian Andersen is a leading writer of what we now call ocean literature, and his work challenges the belief that humanity is the sole proprietor of everything within the environment. Michelle E. Portman and Jordan Portman, in their article “Taking Ocean Literacy Literally: Reflections on Literature’s Influence on Ocean Literacy,” argue that humanity has grown disconnected from the needs of the ocean and must address the impacts we have on it rather than focusing solely on profit. Portman argues that ocean literacy is necessary to make educated decisions and to communicate environmental concerns effectively. Their article discusses the Ocean Project’s 1500 person survey, which found that although respondents acknowledged the importance of protecting oceans, “for the most part, individuals do not understand how oceans benefit humans or how humans negatively impact ocean health.” Advancements in environmental writing have shifted from a return on investment mindset to one emphasizing emotional connections, access and experience, adaptive capacity, and trust and transparency. Portman argues that this disconnection stems from a lack of a clear vision of the ocean as a whole. She reviews works such as Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone (2000) and Lulu Miller’s Why Fish Don’t Exist (2019), which push back against the generalization of marine life and advocate for unity rooted in deeper environmental understanding.
Andersen’s work aligns with these claims, especially through the prince’s and sailors’ interactions with the sea. The sailors enjoy their time on the ocean: “there were musical instruments playing and voices singing,” and many evenings the mermaid sees the prince sailing “in his pretty boat, adorned with flags, and enjoying music.” It is not the music that connects them; it is the ocean, which creates the environment where unity becomes possible. Fantasy based writing is a more accessible method of encouraging environmental awareness compared to the scientific writing of modern environmental texts, which rely heavily on statistical data. Andersen understood that most people would not engage with scientific texts. Instead, he embeds a romance within a narrative that cultivates an emotional bond not only with the mermaid but with the ocean itself. Andersen depicts the ocean as a being that punishes those who wrong it, such as the prince unknowingly drawing the mermaid away from her world, and rewards those who respect it, such as the mermaid, who observes and values the environment around her.
The witch within Andersen’s tale, while generally labeled the villain, functions differently when viewed through the lens of environmental literature. She represents the counterforce and the embodiment of natural consequences. The witch remains neutral in her relationship with the mermaid. She offers a fair exchange: the mermaid’s “charming voice” in return for “a pair of legs” and the appearance, according to the witch, of “the most beautiful mortal ever.” Although the witch entices the mermaid with the opportunity to stand beside the one she loves, she also warns that the transformation will bring great suffering: “it will hurt you as much as if a sharp sword were thrust through you.” The witch clearly lays out the terms of the deal and does not hide the consequences of the mermaid’s desire, acting more as a natural force than a malicious antagonist. While Andersen suggests that the witch values the mermaid’s voice for its beauty, it also holds symbolic worth as the means by which both humans and mermaids communicate. Both societies in the story rely on speech yet fail to use it effectively, as many of their conflicts could have been resolved through communication. Like nature, the witch sees only cause and effect and does not promise the mermaid love, only the chance to earn it. The mermaid’s relationship with the witch reflects the ideal vision of environmental literature, in which a figure is given the reasoning behind why the environment is falling apart and must then decide how to use that knowledge to help nurture the oceans.
Andersen also warns of human hubris, primarily through the prince. After the mermaid saves him, he becomes fascinated with the ocean only in hopes of encountering his mysterious savior. He fails to realize that the one he longs for has been beside him for most of the story. His arrogance blinds him, causing him to view the mermaid in human form as a “dumb foundling” with “expressive eyes.” His assumption that he would not marry his savior and instead chooses a girl he deems more fitting causes the mermaid immense suffering. She loses her voice, feels excruciating pain when her fins split into legs, and endures heartbreak knowing how the prince perceives her. Andersen’s warning is not directed solely toward children but toward humanity as a whole. We must be humbled and reconsider the belief that we stand above others, whether human or environmental.
The mermaid is often interpreted as the voice of humanity, but in reality she functions more as a shaman who speaks for the ocean rather than for humans. This challenges the self centered beliefs of modernism and refocuses attention on how the ocean shapes our living space. In the epilogue, the mermaid, now an aerial spirit merged with the environment, is tasked to “fly to warm countries, and fan the burning atmosphere, laden with pestilence, that destroys the sons of man. We diffuse the perfume of flowers through the air to heal and to refresh.” She is eventually rewarded with “an immortal soul,” which humanity strives to earn throughout the tale. Andersen includes this transformation to demonstrate that humanity must show empathy toward the environment to be considered truly human, a trait the mermaid works her entire life to achieve.
The environment appears as an agent capable of nurturing humanity but lacking the emotional intelligence to communicate directly. Instead, it communicates through subtle signs: fragrant winds, warm currents within cold waters, and the behaviors of its creatures. Its relationship with humanity resembles that of a parent and child, with roles that constantly shift. Andersen writes that for each good child “that smiles, a year is deducted from the three hundred we have to live. But when we see an ill behaved or naughty child, we shed tears of sorrow, and every tear adds a day to the time of our probation.” This signals that we, as caretakers of the oceans and the environment, must answer its needs. It also reveals how our actions affect both the environment and those around us. When we harm the environment, we delay its ability to ascend to greater heights.
This symbiotic relationship challenges the belief that life is a one way highway in which we only receive. Instead, it presents a relationship of mutual understanding. We provide care for the environment, and in return we gain the satisfaction of knowing that the ocean will remain a resource for future generations. Andersen believed that no one person truly owns the resources of the ocean but instead shares them, demonstrated through the prince and sailors enjoying their time at sea and the mermaids being fed and sheltered by the ocean. Environmental literature under modernism demonstrates that the ocean provides for those above its surface as well as those within its depths. Its reach extends around the world, and all living beings should nurture this force, not just for their own era but for all the eras yet to come.
When examined through the lens of environmental literature, The Little Mermaid reveals that the ocean is the true protagonist of Hans Christian Andersen’s work, one whose agency often equals and even exceeds that of the mermaids and the humans. All of Andersen’s characters bend to the ocean’s will, revealing a narrative driven by natural forces rather than human desire. Andersen challenges the belief, common in modern culture, that agency belongs only to humans and instead shows that every being, including the environment, has a voice even if it is unspoken. By allowing the ocean to speak within The Little Mermaid, the story becomes one of reciprocity, urging readers to acknowledge the nonhuman world as an active participant in shaping human fate. In doing so, Andersen anticipates contemporary environmental discourse and offers a literary reminder that the forces we depend on are also the forces we must learn to respect. Andersen’s work functions as a post modern literary device that suggests the environment quietly whispers its needs to us, urging humanity to take notice and respond. If we remain ignorant as a community, we will see the continuing decline of the environment. Instead, we should focus on building a community of ideas that blends human insight with environmental awareness, a vision that reflects Andersen’s early understanding of what we now call the Blue Humanities.
Works Cited
Portman, Michelle E., and Jordan Portman. “Taking Ocean Literacy Literally: Reflections on Literature’s Influence on Ocean Literacy.” Ocean and Society, vol. 3, no. 1, 2024, pp. 1–15. Cogitatio Press, https://www.cogitatiopress.com/oceanandsociety/article/view/9484/4269
Anderson, Hans Christian. “The Little Mermaid”. The Penguin Book of Mermaids, edited by Bacchilega, Cristina, and Marie Alohalani Brown. Penguin Books, 2019.
Untold Depths
As I feel Feet touch my cold foam,
The tide stirs with stories I’ve guarded for years,
stories untold to man but whispered to inhuman creatures,
their gazes are cast onto a horizon I can’t reach.
Within my hair they lie, hoping to cherish memories unseen.
The depths of me patient but tired,
the current whisper and tell of their desire,
to part from me,
Cast their back from me,
My tears crash into planks,
awakening memories scattered through my feet.
Borne on the wind that moves against me ,
I feel the ripples as they drift onward,chasing echoes no tide can hold.
Some vanish,destined never to stand in their world again;
Others reach back into my arms, learning of harsh truths.
That of what I embrace can never be understood .
notes: This was probably the most challenging academic work I’ve done so so far, but it was so much fun after getting to see the end result. I hope Everybody has a good break