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Undine Vs. The Little Mermaid
By Richard Jones
Summary The story of Undine begins in a remote forest that has a strangely supernatural presence to it. In the forest lives a couple with a small cabin close to river. They give birth to a daughter who falls into the water and presumably drowns. As the couple grieves their loss, they find an unexpected visitor at their door. It is young girl whom they don’t recognize, but takes in as their own. She insists that her new parents call her Undine. As the girl grows up she talks about a faraway place of mystery, but mentions little about her real parents, and how she arrived at her foster parents door step. Time passes and a knight shows up in the forest and is offered a place to stay by Undines father. The knight stays longer than anticipated and falls in love with Undine, and they marry. The marriage is met with a unique surprise. Undine explains to the knight that she is a water spirit who has received a chance to live with humans and posses a soul as long as he loves her. He accepts her the way she is and venture to his castle. Upon arriving they meet with Bertalda. Bertalda had been the reason that the knight arrived in the mysterious forrest in the first place. The knight had intended to marry Bertalda, but she challenged him to prove his courage and love by going into the forest and returning to tell her of his encounters. She was surprised when he arrived with Undine and announced their marriage. She was surprised yet again when Undine proclaimed that Bertalda’s real parents were the couple that lived in the forest. Betalda didn’t take the news very well. She had been raised by her foster-parents and had always dreamed of expanding her nobility, instead she faces the reality that her parents are a poor couple living in a shack. Her pride cannot take it and her anger raged. These humbling experiences lead the knight and Undine to have pity on Bertalda, and they allowed her to live in the castle with them. On a trip to Vienna, the three were plagued with many unfortunate events, the waters didn’t co-operate as they sailed. The knight got very angry and blamed Undine for their troubles. He sent Undine away with harsh words; she was forced to return to the water with her parents. The knight was saddened at first, but then recovered and married Bertalda. After some time Bertalda ordered the castle well to be unsealed, it was through this well that Undine arose and enter the castle. She killed the knight and mourned his death at the funeral. Compare and Contrast When The Little Mermaid is mentioned most of us think about the Disney movie, or perhaps the Hans Christian Anderson story. However both of these received their inspiration from a less known work by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque. In his story titled Undine, a young girl is willing to risk losing a familiar life, for one she perceives to be better. Undine is a young girl very similar to the main character in the Disney version. The obvisous main difference is that one is a mermaid, while the other is a Water Spirit. However their personalities coincide in stubbornness and self-willed attitudes. Both refuse to listen to their parents, but later come to find a new respect for them. Both characters also desire human qualities in which they lack. Undine and Arial’s desire for human traits compels them to go to extraordinary means to have their way. Both characters are connected to their desire to be more human because of a magnetic pull to love. Arial wants to leave the water to pursue a relationship with the prince, while Undine also leaves the water to find love. In both cases they are dependent on true love to keep them in a human state, should love fail, they must return to their former life. Arial would no longer have legs to walk on the surface, and Undine would no longer have a soul to live among humans. When comparing the two characters and the story lines, I find them to be very similar; however they do have their differences. The differences between The Little Mermaid and Undine can be just as easily seen as the similarities. While both have characters in the stories that try to pursue the prince / knight to marry them instead of the main character, Fouque uses an approach to the story that creates a more interesting climax for the reader. In the Little Mermaid, Ursula uses Arial’s voice to persuade the prince to marry her instead of Arial. However in the story of Undine, Bertalda is a more developed character that adds interesting twists to the story line. These twists continue until the story reaches an unpredictable end, unlike the Little Mermaid. The end of the Little Mermaid was meant to end happily, whereas the story Undine ends quite sadly. This is one of the biggest differences between the two stories. Fourque is not reserved in presenting death and an unhappy ending. At the end of Undine, she returns to the knight and kills him, whether this is an attempt to be with him again, or simple revenge is unknown, his death is grieved non the less. Bertalda is left alone grieving, perhaps just as Undine was when the knight rejected her love. Conclusion Over the years the story of a water spirit aching for a soul has transformed into a Mermaid desiring limbs. Both of the stories reflect a main character that is stubborn and self-willed, with an intense desire to be more human for the sake of love. The differences can be seen by how culture views death in a story and a movie, but also in how climaxes are used and characters are developed. Bibliography Brian Stableford. "Undine." Masterplots, Revised Second Edition. Salem Press, 1996. eNotes.com. 2006. 13 Nov, 2009 http://www.enotes.com/undine-salem/undine-9330000348
Frouque, Fredrich de la Motte. “Undine”. SurLaLune Fairy Tales. 13 Nov, 2009 http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/littlemermaid/stories/undine.html
The Little Mermaid. Dir. Ron Clements. Walt Disney Films, 1989. |
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Hi Richard,
Another great read and enjoyable intel.
Thanks for sharing.
Frederick
I'd never heard of Undine until I read this. I like the story. She killed the knight and mourned his death at the funeral. A realistic fairy tale. 
 | | nick Dec 29, 2009 01:42 | |
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