A short entry in the reader's diary The Little Mermaid. Encyclopedia of fairy-tale characters: The Little Mermaid

"The Little Mermaid" is a fairy tale by the famous Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, which was first published in 1837. This beautiful story tells about a fish girl living in the depths of the sea.

The Little Mermaid is one of the six daughters of the sea king, the youngest of all and therefore the favorite of the lord of the seas. She dreams of seeing the world in which they live above, but according to an unspoken law, only when she reaches a certain age will she be allowed to see what the world above hides. And here is the long-awaited fifteenth anniversary, the day when she will be able to rise to the surface of the ocean for the first time.

The little mermaid, overwhelmed with feelings, goes upstairs, everything around her makes her happy, she is happy with everything. The beauty around her amazes her. And then there is a meeting that will become a turning point in the girl’s fate. When the youngest daughter of the sea king rises to the surface, a ship meets her on the way. People are moving out on it.

Among them she sees a handsome prince, his face amazes her with its beauty and courage. The ship is wrecked and, of course, the little mermaid is unable to leave the young man in trouble. She pulls him ashore, and she swims back to the sea to her family.

Returning home, she asks her grandmother about people, and learns that they cannot live under water. The little mermaid thinks a lot about the young man whom she left there on the shore, she is overwhelmed with a feeling of love, her heart is restless. After much thought, the girl decides to go to land, but she doesn’t know how to do this and therefore, without telling anyone, she decides to take a desperate step.

The little mermaid goes for help to the sea witch, who in turn decides to help the girl and presents her with a potion that will make her tail disappear, and human legs will appear in its place. Of course, the witch sets her own conditions, and if the girl does not fulfill them, irreparable things will happen.

The witch promises her human limbs in exchange for the maiden's beautiful voice. The sea villain gives the little mermaid only a few days so that she can win the heart of the young prince and marry him. If this does not happen, the girl will turn into sea foam and disappear from the face of the earth.

The Little Mermaid is not afraid of anything, she is only waiting for a meeting with the prince. And so the girl drinks the potion and goes to the seashore, where she had recently left the prince. There she meets her lover and charms him at first sight.

The prince invites her to the palace, what more could the young beauty wish for. But the young man does not feel love for the Little Mermaid, he values ​​her only as a friend, she seems special to him. And his father has already found a candidate for the role of his wife. This is a princess from a neighboring kingdom, and it was she who, ironically, found the prince on the shore after a shipwreck. Young people spend a lot of time together and as a result, young hearts fall in love with each other and set a wedding day.

The little mermaid thinks about death every minute and is in a state of despair, her heart is torn to pieces. And at this very time, her sisters turn to the sea witch and persuade her to make a deal. So, they get a knife, which they bring to the Little Mermaid so that she can hit the prince in the heart. But the girl’s love is so strong that she does not doubt for a minute that she must give her life. The main thing for her is that her loved one lives a long and happy life, even if not with her. She decided that the knife would never touch the prince.

Dawn comes and the girl rushes into the sea to her family. She is swallowed up by the depths of the sea, as in principle should have happened, but much later. This is how the Little Mermaid saves her lover for the second time, who doesn’t even know about it. By this act, she shows the highest manifestation of love for one’s neighbor - self-sacrifice. Her love does not require anything in return, she only wants the prince to be happy. The girl does not think about herself, sacrifices the most valuable thing, her life.

The fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" touches on such deep concepts as love, self-sacrifice and the acquisition of immortality of the soul. Hans Christian Andersen shows that the soul can become immortal only if it does good deeds. The Little Mermaid is a shining example of how strong love is.

At the bottom of the endless ocean lived a whole tribe of mermaids. Led by the mermaid king, they frolicked on the blue waves all day long, luring sailors with their songs. The mermaid king had five daughters, each of whom was exactly one year older than her sister. The king loved all his children, but the youngest one, the Little Mermaid, was dearest to his heart. She was extremely beautiful and kind, differing from her sisters in her love of fairy tales and fantastic stories. Most of all, the Little Mermaid dreamed of seeing the bright sun, the warmth of which her grandmother constantly talked about. But to fulfill her dream, the Little Mermaid had to grow up and reach the age of 15 years. It was at this time that the mermaids were first allowed to rise to the surface of the sea waters and sing the first calling song in their lives.

The Little Mermaid waited a long time for her to come of age, and she wept bitterly when her older sisters set off to sea. She just couldn’t come to terms with the idea that she still had to wait so long to meet the gentle rays of the sun and living people. Finally her time has come. The little mermaid was dressed in a beautiful festive outfit and, together with other inhabitants of the ocean, she rose to the very edge of the water.

The first thing the Little Mermaid saw was the bright sun and a magical ship rocking on the waves. Her sisters surrounded the ship and started a calling song. The little mermaid was in no hurry to sing, because she knew that, obeying the magical voice of her sisters, people rushed into the sea and never saw sunlight again. She felt sorry for these unusual creatures, so the Little Mermaid settled down comfortably on one of the waves and began to observe life on the ship. The sailors tightened the ropes, fastened the sails, and scrubbed the deck. A young captain stood at the helm and sadly peered into the distance, where gloomy thunderclouds were gathering at the horizon.

Towards evening, a strong thunderstorm began, the ship lost half of its sails and was beating against powerful waves. Frightened sailors, hoping to escape, threw themselves overboard, where they were picked up by the gentle hands of mermaids and pulled into the depths. The Little Mermaid watched what was happening with tears in her eyes, hoping to save at least one of these unfortunate people. Suddenly she saw the body of a young captain touch the water. The little mermaid immediately rushed to the man, grabbed him by the arms and did not let him drown in the abyss. Deciding to save this man’s life, the Little Mermaid pulled his unconscious body ashore, unable to take her eyes off the beautiful face of the young man. For the first time in her life, she fell in love, experiencing such a strong and bright feeling that no earthly woman could experience. The little mermaid kissed the captain and, making sure that he was alive, rushed away, trying to get away from this place.

But it is impossible to drive away true love. Days passed, and the Little Mermaid appeared more and more often near the shore, where she left the young man, secretly hoping that he would remember the girl who saved his life. One day she really saw her captain, he was walking around in a new suit, surrounded by the same young women and men. Seeing how happy they were, how they enjoyed the sun and life, the Little Mermaid decided to visit earth at all costs. Driven by this desire, she went to the sea witch, who agreed to cast a magic spell for her, demanding the Little Mermaid's magical voice as payment. In addition, the witch warned that the spell she created would not last forever. It will turn the mermaid's tail into two charming legs, but if the guy whom the Little Mermaid loves so much does not confess his love to her, everything will return back, and the Little Mermaid herself will die.

Forgetting about everything, the Little Mermaid in love accepted these conditions and turned into a beautiful slender girl. She immediately went in search of her betrothed, but when she saw him, she almost fainted with happiness. The wonderful captain picked her up in his arms, but she could not tell him about her love, she could not tell him her name or where she had so suddenly come from. The Little Mermaid's magical voice disappeared, and she became mute. The captain took pity on the innocent child and settled her on his ship, caring for her as if she were her own sister. He did not know how painful it was for the Little Mermaid to watch how beautiful girls hovered around him, how close his named sister was to imminent death.

One day, the captain brought a beautiful young lady to the house and introduced her as his bride, as he was sure that she was the one who saved his life. Soon the wedding day was set. The captain's bride fell in love with his named sister with all her heart, but quiet sorrow lurked in the eyes of the Little Mermaid; she understood that the day of her beloved's wedding would be the day of her death.

And so it happened, surrounded by a crowd of happy guests, the Little Mermaid suddenly disappeared, melting away like ghostly smoke. No one else heard anything about her, and only in the evenings, when only loving couples remained on the shore, a sad song was heard over the waves.

The plot of the tale

In an underwater palace lived a little mermaid - one of the daughters of the Sea King. She had five sisters. And she was the youngest of them.

When the sea princess reaches the age of fifteen, she is allowed to rise to the surface and admire what is happening there. Each of the little mermaids at one time surfaced and told her sisters about what she saw there. And finally the youngest princess waited her turn.

On the surface she saw a ship and looked out the window of one of the cabins. There she saw a handsome prince, with whom she immediately fell in love. But then a storm began, the ship rocked violently, and the young man found himself in the water. And then the little mermaid saved him and helped him get ashore. When he woke up, she had already hidden, and he did not see her. But he saw one of the girls who found him on the shore and decided that it was she who saved him.

Mermaids, unlike people, do not have an immortal soul and, when they die, they turn into sea foam. The young sea princess fell in love with the prince so much that she wanted to find a human immortal soul. And then her grandmother told her that it was possible if one of the people loved her. But they don't like the fish's tail and consider it ugly.

Having made up her mind, she went to the sea witch and asked her to make her legs appear instead of a tail. She agreed, but warned that, despite the fact that she would move beautifully, it would hurt her as much as if she were walking on sharp knives. Moreover, if the prince does not love her and marry her, then she will not receive an immortal soul. And after he marries someone else, her heart will break and she will become sea foam. She demanded her wonderful voice as payment for her work.

The little mermaid agreed to everything. Then the witch brewed a magic drink for her, after drinking which the sea princess was able to walk on earth. She went to the palace. The prince found her and took her in, calling her his foundlings. He fell in love with her, but not as a future wife, but as a sweet child. And he dreamed about the one who, as it seemed to him, saved him, the one he saw first when he woke up on the shore.

One day he went to a neighboring kingdom, where he was supposed to meet the king’s daughter, whom they wanted to marry him. As it turned out, this was the very girl he dreamed of. And they got married.

The first ray of sun the next day after the wedding day was supposed to kill the little mermaid. Then her sisters gave the witch their beautiful hair, and she gave them a knife. If the little mermaid kills the prince before dawn, then she will return to the sea and live her life as long as it is measured out for her.

But the little mermaid could not kill the prince because she loved him very much. With the first ray she turned into foam. But she did not die for good, but became a daughter of the air, who can earn an immortal soul through her good deeds.

How unusual was the man who brought the magical world of fairy tales to Denmark - Hans Christian Andersen! “The Little Mermaid”... The summary of this work is familiar to us since childhood. A touching love story. Great love that settled in the soul of the sea beauty and transformed her world. She made millions of children's eyes shine when reading her story.

Coral Castle

Andersen begins to expound from the author in a classic narrative style. The introductory part of the work introduces us to the life of the underwater coral royal palace. The main character is the youngest of six mermaid sisters, daughters of the lord of the waters of the sea, the dowager king Triton. The prettiest of all mermaids is the blue-eyed sea princess. In the underwater world, she has her favorite corner with red underwater flowers and a marble statue of a boy that sank to the bottom as a result of a shipwreck. The grandmother who lives with the family helps her son manage the palace. The sisters (she has five of them) are friendly and have a fun time playing games, despite the difference in age (they were all born a year apart). According to the customs of the underwater world, after the little mermaid turns 16 years old, she is allowed to surface and examine the above-water world.

Upper world

Thus, as befits an experienced storyteller, Andersen sets the intrigue already in the title itself: “The Little Mermaid.” The brief content of the scene of the fairy-tale sea girl observing the upper world comes down mainly to her contemplation of the handsome prince on board a three-masted ship. The ship makes a pleasure voyage, the little mermaid hears music. The young man looks like a marble statue that Ariel has played with for years. When she first saw him, she fell in love with the black-eyed prince. A sudden storm causes a shipwreck. The prince drowns, the little mermaid saves her beloved by independently dragging him to land, who has lost consciousness. Leaving the prince near the temple, she, hiding, waits until the girl who came out of the gate finds him, and then swims away.

Unhappy love of a mermaid

Did Andersen include this fairy tale, “The Little Mermaid,” among his optimistic creations? The summary (5-6 sentences can already make it clear that there is a place of sadness here) is sad, and probably cannot be otherwise. The Great Dane believed that joy always coexists with sadness: both in life and in fairy tales.

Various, sometimes insurmountable obstacles stand in the way of love. This is perhaps the most famous fairy tale of the great Andersen. The Little Mermaid, a little blue-eyed sea beauty who later became a symbol of Denmark, is ready to make any sacrifices and hardships in the name of her love.

The author talks about the sorrows that love for a person promises a mermaid. At the same time, the Great Dane wrote in detail, about things understandable to his compatriots, since he took advantage of the folk beliefs of his homeland about mermaids - characters of Danish folklore. It is believed that they live longer than humans - three hundred years. However, these sea fairies are deprived of the main human wealth - an immortal soul. However, Scandinavian, Mediterranean, British, Germanic, Slavic epics keep stories of marriages of sea nymphs (mermaids) with people. In a happy family life, as follows from legends, sea nymphs become ordinary mortals, acquiring a human soul.

Self-serving sorceress

Having decided to love a person, our fairy tale heroine had to resort to witchcraft, says Andersen. The little mermaid Ariel goes to a powerful sea witch who can help her marry her beloved prince. She asks her to use witchcraft to replace the swift and irreplaceable tail in the sea elements with a pair of slender female legs.

The sea witch is far from selfless. In exchange for her services, she demands the magical crystal voice of the little mermaid - her main wealth. This turn of events was invented by Andersen; it no longer occurs in the epic. In this turn of action the author's intention is visible. Andersen writes “The Little Mermaid” as a multi-layered, not only magical, but also philosophical, deeply psychological work. A summary for a reader's diary can express the main idea in two words: love and self-sacrifice.

Ariel plunges into a maelstrom of feelings

To emphasize this aspect of the work, to make it more prominent, the author forces the wayward sorceress to present conditions more radically: if the little mermaid’s love does not evoke a reciprocal feeling in the prince, then this will threaten her with death - at sunset she will become sea foam. However, this does not stop the sea beauty. She acts emotionally, deciding to sacrifice everything to find love. At the same time, Ariel doesn’t even remember her father or sisters. The whole world, the whole meaning of life for her has come down to one thing - finding the love of a prince, and in comparison with this goal, everything, even her own life, is perceived by her as something secondary.

Boy with a Heart of Stone

Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" further follows the logic of commercialism: the prince does not stand the test of the love of the sea princess. His soul was not touched by the “talking eyes” of the numb little mermaid who was in love with him. He follows the wishes of his parents, because he believes that he “must marry” the passion they have long chosen for him - a princess from a neighboring country. She, by chance, turned out to be a girl from the temple who discovered the prince saved by the little mermaid. At the same time, tactlessness is obvious: the crowned egoist calls on the little mermaid to be happy for him!

“The Little Mermaid”... Andersen... The content of the fairy tale leads the reader to the obvious conclusion: the little mermaid was deceived, the handsome prince turns out to be, in essence, only a cold marble boy, unable to feel the beating of a loving heart nearby.

He marries someone else, the little mermaid's heart is broken.

Bravo, storyteller!

This is where the real magic of the pen is hidden! This is what makes the hearts of readers feel the true heights of love. It would seem - a plot completely divorced from life... Just think, a creature that does not exist in nature - a little mermaid in love... Andersen is an awkward, lanky old man who writes his fairy tales with a myriad of grammatical errors...

So why, having reached this point in the tale, did the reader’s heart beat again? Why do the eyes of children sparkle so much that they cannot be pulled away from a book? Hans Christian Andersen, a storyteller for all times, “simply” forces the reader to look at the blue-eyed little mermaid Ariel not from the standpoint of reason, but with special vision, the vision of the soul.

The Little Mermaid is doomed. However, it is precisely at this moment, in suffering, that an immortal human soul is born within her. She is now ready for self-sacrifice. She is ready to forgive the prince and wishes him happiness.

Indeed, one of those books that helps a child become purer was written by Andersen - “The Little Mermaid”... A summary (“School Knowledge” is one of the sites for posting the works of this author) will certainly help guide the child to read this particular fairy tale.

The little mermaid resigned herself. She made a choice of fate. She dies for love. Is everything lost for her?

Overcome temptation

The sisters find her. They found a way out. The mermaids asked the same witch to help. The witch agreed. But the girls cut their hair, they gave their braids and curls for this help. The sisters give our little mermaid an enchanted dagger given by the sorceress. It is now also possible for her to return to the appearance of a mermaid, to regain her carefree life in the coral castle. You just have to kill the sleeping prince with a dagger. And everything will return. This is a temptation.

Will Ariel be able to commit such a crime by regaining her mermaid nature? No, she chooses an immortal human soul and, having kissed the prince, she herself turns into sea foam.

Fairy tale appeal

The key is to make our sometimes gray world around us rainbow, to help it suddenly shine brightly, reflecting the gentle sun in different tones. The Little Mermaid Ariel is trying to shake people back to real life who have forgotten that they themselves owe their birth to love, and should also love...

Unusual and unusual is this man himself, who made his name sound like music for millions of people in different parts of the Earth - the name of the creator and the title of his work: Andersen, “The Little Mermaid”... A brief summary of this exciting, childishly touching story about how The little mermaid in love exchanges her silver voice for a pair of slender legs, and then dies, turning into sea foam, without the reciprocal love of the prince, she cannot leave the reader indifferent.

Conclusion

For many, many generations of people on Earth, this is one of those fairy tales that shape the world of childhood.

At the same time, for any Dane, this work that Mr. Andersen wrote - “The Little Mermaid” - is a high cultural heritage. Since 1913, ships entering Copenhagen harbor have been greeted by a bronze sculpture of the little mermaid - one of the symbols of the country: a touching, gentle, loving sea nymph.

Hans Christian Andersen, through the image of the little mermaid, convincingly shows his readers that he always relies on the readiness to sacrifice for a loved one, that true purity of the soul is the willingness to positively perceive the happiness of this person even if he is not with you.

In the fairy tale “The Little Mermaid,” the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen touches on one of the most important issues for a person: about love and self-sacrifice, about the ability to spare the feelings of people dear to you to the detriment of your own, about the fact that sometimes in the name of love you have to die in order to be happy. beloved even without you.

The Little Mermaid is the youngest daughter of the sea king, who is not allowed to swim to land. She lives in complete prosperity in her father's palace at the bottom of the sea, but she is bored with such a life. One day, during a storm, the Little Mermaid sees a beautiful young man drowning after being shipwrecked. The sea princess's heart trembled; she could not allow his death and therefore managed to pull the young man onto land on her own. She liked the victim unusually, the Little Mermaid falls in love, but she is forced to return to the bottom.

The little mermaid cannot stop thinking about the beautiful young man. But the tragedy of the whole situation is that mermaids cannot love mere mortals. Their fate is to live three hundred years at the bottom and turn into sea foam. Love is deadly for a mermaid.

But the Little Mermaid finds herself under the control of her emotions. She makes an agreement with the sea sorceress and gives her her vote, in return receiving human legs (and, therefore, the opportunity to go ashore). However, the sorceress sets a condition: if within a few days the Little Mermaid fails to achieve mutual love from the prince, then at sunset she will die and turn into sea foam. The mermaid in love agrees, because life is not sweet to her without the prince.

Selfless love of the Little Mermaid

However, fate plays a cruel joke on the Little Mermaid: she actually manages to meet the prince, he invites her to his palace... however, the feeling he feels for her is rather the affectionate sympathy of his older brother (and he calls the girl “my dumb foundling with talking eyes "), but not the love of a man. He is forced to marry a princess from a neighboring country because his parents want him and expects the Little Mermaid to be happy for him. She is in despair because the prince’s wedding means death for her.

And the Little Mermaid accepts this death calmly, not succumbing to temptation: after all, her sisters, who also signed an agreement with the witch, offered her to kill the prince before the wedding, then she would become a mermaid again and live at the bottom of the sea for the three hundred years allotted to her. But the Little Mermaid does not agree; the happiness of her beloved is more important to her. She waits for their wedding, which is just at sunset, and quietly and imperceptibly disappears, turning into sea foam.

Thanks to this ending, Andersen leads his readers to the idea that the main thing in love is the ability to give your life for another and sincerely rejoice in the happiness of your loved one, even if he does not belong to you. The Little Mermaid in this sense is an ideal of self-sacrifice.