I almost cried reading Hans Christian Andersen's "Den lille Havfrue", or better known as The Little Mermaid. Such a beautiful story about a true love, yet unrequited.
Lucky are those who never experience it, but most of us do.
Forget about Ariel, the Disney’s mermaid, mind you. I’m talking about the original little mermaid story. Somehow I could relate to her, she was the youngest, quiet and wistful (yeah, most of you would protest at the latter two. Most people think I have a cheerful disposition).
But like me, she also spent most of her time dreaming, and wondering, what it was like to finally see the world above, hear the clatter and clamor of the city, and experience things that she only had heard from others’.
But little she knew about the tragedy that would follow when her biggest dream finally came true, when she turned 15. I wish her birthday had been the day after, or before she actually went up to the surface, and saw the prince charming, whom she helplessly fell in love with.
She risked her life to save him from drowning, and he mistakenly thought it was another girl who saved him.
And she made many other sacrifices just to be near him (just like how love often makes a fool of us). She sold her most beautiful voice to the witch, for a potion that could turn her fish tail into legs. And it hurt her so much. So much that she felt like dying.
And she danced for him, though even to walk, it felt as if she thread on many knives. And she was just like a dumb doll, merely a toy for the prince, to kill his loneliness.
"Yes, you are most dear to me," said the Prince, "for you have the kindest heart. You love me more than anyone else does.”
But he never said that he loved her back, because he never did.
She left every good thing she had: her royal family, her fun deep inside the sea, her 300 year life span, in search for a true love and an immortal soul (that she could only get when a human loved her enough to marry her), and that was not without a risk. If the prince married another woman, the mermaid’s heart would break on the very next morning, and she would become foam of the sea, and cease to exist.
After all she had done for him, she had to witness his wedding day to another girl he loved the most.
But she also had a chance to take revenge, when her five siblings came with bald head, because they had sold their hair to the witch for a dagger to stab the prince with, so she could be a mermaid again. Instead, she kissed his forehead, and heard him murmur his bride’s name, and threw the dagger out of the sea. Slowly, she started to feel her body dissolve in foam.
Tragic, isn’t it?
Yeah, of course there’s another last chapter to console the reader, in which she turned into a daughter of air, who eventually would get the immortal soul, and she could cry for the first time (for mermaids had no tears, they only could sigh when they’re sad).
But still, there’s nothing worse than unrequited love, though it always makes great and inspiring stories!
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