Mermaid- Drowning

24 October 2003 The Waterline: Drowning p3
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104109

The mermaid loves profoundly, enough to cause self-mutilation. She denies the validity of her own existence in order to risk acceptance and rejection in another's world. The witch warns her of the danger, but she does not listen. She cannot hear the anxiety of others around her that her yearning for acceptance is impossible. She cannot see the barriers that divide the two worlds because water is transparent. The surface of water is seen from an angle or from above, but she believes that because she swims on the surface, she can also live on the surface. She does not understand that the transparent barrier between their two worlds is as real as a the Great Wall of China.

Today, 33% of children in America are homeless. based on a report from 1979. They grow up in worlds, raised by single mothers who are abandoned just like Butterfly or the Mermaid. The consequences on American society are staggering.

Consider these factors :

According to a studies from the Institute for Children and Poverty (http://www.homesforthehomeless.com/reports.html ), The typical homeless family is headed by a single mother who is 32 years old and has two children of about eight years. 50% of these women have no High School Diploma, and therefore do not have the educational skills to provide for themselves or advance their careers. 44% of these families have NEVER RECEIVED welfare support. 14% have receivesd some assistance for less than a year. Many of these women are very work-oriented and have had long-term jobs. Approximately 20% are currently employed but they receive only 86% of the designated amount (11,440 USD) needed to survive at the minimal living standard. Two of Five homeless families were living in their own apartments or homes at the time they became homeless. In addition, the minimum hourly wage fell 17% between 1979 and 1995, so that although these women may be working relentless hours, the money they earn is valueless. They also fill the least stable positions in society as they are disposable in a slack economy. They are picked up and dropped like things, rather than human beings who need support and acceptance from society and government. "The poor shall always be among you" is a frequent excuse for greed.

In addition to this, 23% of these children are raised totally by single mothers. Recalculate that to comprehend that 77% of all children from homeless families are fatherless. This destroys any emotional or financial stability for their lives. A high proportion of these families become urban nomads, moving from one place to another to find shelter and often living in horribly crowded conditions. Those people above the waterline, look down and say that they're as shiftless as fish –they can swim. Leave them lost in their sea. Consider the fathers momentarily, for like the Prince in Mermaid or Rusalka, they do not want any responsibility for their involvement. They turn their backs, cut and leave. The typical father is about 35, a High School graduate and spends no or little time and support on the family he creates. Modern society has a tendency to blame the woman for everything and leave her in a ditch, reminiscent of Dicken's England and the melodrama, No Mother to Guide Her. Men are not responsible for their actions.

Of these men, 30% have acted violently against the partner of the children; 44% have spent time in jail and 33% have a history of substance abuse. 45% of the men have children with multiple women and cut all ties because they want no responsibility or are afraid to accept responsibility for their actions. Men are mavericks and women cows.

Younger men are twice as likely to maintain some relationship with their families, visiting or giving some financial support. Older men over 45 have multiple relationships and give little or no support. Usually they cut and leave. 63% of the fathers spend no time with their children, so that children are condition to insecurity and rejection. They experience little acceptance, love or bonding and therefore are no able to adapt later into society. 79% of men 45 or older spent no time with their families. 44% were employed but spent no time with their families. 68% of working men, gave no financial support to their families and of these 50% had sufficient means to support their families but refused to do so.

Reconsider the elements of Andersen's Mermaid. Is it really a myth or a children's story or does it reflect the attitudes of society. Those who live the hidden lives under the sea can never break through to be accepted above and stand on solid ground. Although the waterline is invisible, it is definitely a solid barrier to acceptance and "successful life."

Homes for the Homeless
Institute of Children and Poverty
http://www.homesforthehomeless.com/reports.html

RELATED
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22 June 2003 The Ugly Duckling
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/101567
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/06/ugly-duckling.html

1 December 2004 Nix of Mill Pond
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/112524

3 November Silence of Longing part 2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104342

part 2: Rusalka, Berg and literary social criticism
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p2-1-november.html

1 November The Silence of Longing p2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104349

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104342

reposted on 3d November was deleted
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p2-1-november.html

2 November Silence of Longing Part 1
http://www.suite101.com/articles.cfm/16568
intro

1 November The Silence of Longing p1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104352
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p1.html

24 October The Waterline p1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104111
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-waterline.html

24 October The Waterline Going Deeper p2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104110
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-going-deeper.html

24 October 2003 The Waterline: Drowning p3
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104109
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-drowning.html

Mermaid- Going Deeper

24 October The Waterline Going Deeper p2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104110

Sur la Lune- The Little Mermaid
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/littlemermaid/index.html

Illustrations at Sur la Lune
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/littlemermaid/index.html

A closer look at the story reveals great understanding for the trauma that may accompany personal rejection. A person can become so infatuated or "in love:" with another person that he or she becomes absorbed into the other person's identity. Psychologists talk about the Ego and ID and SuperEgo, etc, but Ego actually indicates the person, whereas a close friend or beloved is identified as the AlterEgo. The other self. The Christian rite of marriage is binding two people to become one—and although the terminology is symbolic there is profound depth to the concept. The two no longer act completely independently, but are dependent on each other and their lifes meld into each other.

Such relationships are found outside marriage because they are emotional and psychioloical and do not necessarily need the official recognition of social or religious acceptance. The rite of marriage though gives foundation for the relationship to grow as a community recognizes the pair and offers them emotional and social support to sustain the relationship. marriage includes the legal responsibility of providing support for the partner and lends a framework for life.

The mermaid loves profoundly, enough to cause self-mutilation. She denies the validity of her own existence in order to risk acceptance and rejection in another's world. The witch warns her of the danger, but she does not listen. She cannot hear the anxiety of others around her that her yearning for acceptance is impossible. She cannot see the barriers that divide the two worlds because water is transparent. The surface of water is seen from an angle or from above, but she believes that because she swims on the surface, she can also live on the surface. She does not understand that the transparent barrier between their two worlds is as real as a the Great Wall of China.

As the story involves symbol, these two worlds may be identified as variants. The story can be turned to represent the hardships and rejection of inter-racial marriages and the prejudice that often becomes insurmountable barriers in achieving close relationships or marriage. How easy is it for someone from an all-white town to marry a black? Even though the two may be devoted to each other, the pressures and tides of society is like an ocean of influence against their intimacy if the storm of prejudice is very great. Each war brings it's own form of the mermaid's story of rejection. In the WWII, American soldiers were involved with oriental women, but many of these women were abandoned; often destroying the security and acceptance they possessed within their own environments. They were lost. Each war is similar. Vietnam followed the pattern, with the additional complexity of importing refugees and boat people and displacing them in the unfriendly oceans of America where frequently they faced exploitation, rejection and resentment. In Mother Courage, Brecht understands the pedicaments of the displaced and the women who become camp followers in order to survive.

Puccini based his opera, Madame Butterfly, on this conflict a generation earlier. The opera with text from Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica was based on the drama of D Belasco version, which in turn was based on J. Long's story. Although the opera open in 1904 at LaScala in Milan; it is still a staple of opera repertoire around the world. Criticised frequently for being anti-dramatic, the opera is nearly Wagnerian in its dialogue: A ship comes, a ship goes and Butterfly is dead. Unable to cope with the rejection of her own culture and the fickleness of Pinkerton, Butterfly commits suicide. Like a man, he can't understand a woman's mind, insulting her with the introduction of the other woman.

Guess Who's Coming for Dinner
http://imdb.com/title/tt0061735/

Puccini, Madama Butterfly
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/June05/Puccini_Butterfly_0734037.htm
Vienna State Opera- Karajan cond, Freni, Domingo

othe great recordings: Freni, Caballe
http://www.marbecks.co.nz/classical/cd.lsd

Brecht, Mother Courage
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/mother2141.htm
Jean Cocteau production

A Model of Courage
http://www.amrep.org/past/courage/courage2.html
historical background of Brecht's work

Woyzeck (at the Barbican)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/review/0,1169,801616,00.html
Michael Billington , The Guardian 30 September 2002

"As Good A Murder As You'd Ever Want To See"
Human Reduction in Georg Buchner's Woyzeck
http://www.io.com/~jlockett/Grist/English/woyzeck.html
Joseph L. Lockett, Modern Drama: Ibsen to 1940 20 December 1989

RELATED
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22 June 2003 The Ugly Duckling
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/101567
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/06/ugly-duckling.html

1 December 2004 Nix of Mill Pond
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/112524

3 November Silence of Longing part 2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104342

part 2: Rusalka, Berg and literary social criticism
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p2-1-november.html

1 November The Silence of Longing p2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104349

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104342

reposted on 3d November was deleted
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p2-1-november.html

2 November Silence of Longing Part 1
http://www.suite101.com/articles.cfm/16568
intro

1 November The Silence of Longing p1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104352
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p1.html

24 October The Waterline p1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104111
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-waterline.html

24 October The Waterline Going Deeper p2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104110
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-going-deeper.html

24 October 2003 The Waterline: Drowning p3
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104109
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-drowning.html

Mermaid- The Waterline

Mermaid - The Waterline p1

24 October The Waterline p1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104111

Sur la Lune- The Little Mermaid
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/littlemermaid/index.html

Illustrations at Sur la Lune
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/littlemermaid/index.html

Andersen's story of the mermaid was not completely original in it's content. The story of teh water-sprite who falls in love with a passsing prince is far older than Andersen's Mermaid. The best-known variant is found in Dvorak's Rusalka, written as an opera. And although Rusalka never has a fishtale, she is a sprite and in the end she dies. There is no redemption for her. The prince's rejection kills her.

Another version is found in Jan de Hartog's, Lost Sea relating the tales of the Zuider Zee of a mermaid who fell in love with a passing sailor. Not all mermaids and water-sprites fall into the catagories of sirens luring sailors to their deaths or water-sprites who drown men in ponds. There are also the tales of the Willies and Syphlids who become water-nymphs because their betrothed jilted them on the eve of their wedding and left them languishing into an endless death that suspended them between heaven and earth.

Although historically, there are volumes of literature regarding this, the western society became scientific in the 19^th century with the rise of industrialism, capitalism and Darwinism. With the Rise of Darwin, came the Fall of Man. Man became only another "thing" exploited mercilessly by industry and governments as he no longer had any soul or divine spiritual nature. If there is no God, then it's ipossible to say that man was created in God's image, easily nullifying 5000years of thinking. Science combined with commerce justifies exploitation of resources. Man is just another factor for economic thinking, formulas and projections. He loses his identity and value on the tables and statistical charts. He's no longer a bit lower than the angels, but rather counted along with the cattle, the hogsheads and lambchops. The Judeo-Christian Economist can refute any argument and justify greed by citing, "the poor shall always be amongst you.." or "he who does no work, should not eat;" thereby ignoring all the injunctions and provisions for the widow, the poor, the orphan, the shirtless, the ill, the imprisoned, etc. They do no work, so let them suffer: "their misery is not my responsibility". And if confronted, then the polemics change to "their work is of no value, so they have no food," as if the rich did not benefit from the exploitation of those who bear their throne.

The government is worse, propagating the propaganda inscribed on the Statue of Liberty and writing within the Bill of Rights while creating mass round-up, ignoring the hardships of the impoverished and making Congress –approved packages to dump billions on foreign governments while th poor in America have no guaranteed food, shelter of healthcare.

Surprisingly after a century of scientific thought and Freudian psychology and all manner of psychological models to compartmentalize and analyze people according to pet theories, modern neurological science has finally validated the pain people suffer from rejection. Until then, a person could be described as dysfunctional, hysterical, neurotic and numerous other psycho-jabber terms to shove him in a box as an interesting object. Now if someone ridicules you for the pain you suffer because your husband walked out on Christmas morning, or he abandoned you with a thousand dollar telephone bill created by a connection to his other woman, your suffering is now scientifically proven. It's not just in your head, it's really in your brain. Hopefully women will be able to use such exams in the future to lay claims on those who have so cruelly abandoned them as proof of undue mental and phyusical suffering and cruelty.

Werther, be thou vindicated, it aint just the bullet in your head or heart, but the pain in both places. I bet Goethe is jumping in his grave with jubilation over these findings.

rejection causes pain

Jan de Hartog, The Lost Sea
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0848809823/002-9958825-9044810?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance

Wikipedia- Jan de Hartog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_de_Hartog

Jan de Hartog Biography
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:MruvbdidOTwJ:www.ibiblio.org/maritime/Scheepvaartnieuws/Pdf/scheepvaartnieuws/2002/specialeedities/hartog.PDF+%22jan+de+Hartog%22&hl=en

Movie listing at NYT
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=241858

Antonin Dvorak, Rusalka
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2003/Aug03/DvorRusa.htm
Vaclav Neumann, Czech Philharmonic with Benackova, Soukupova, Ochman, Drobkov

Antonin Dvorak, Rusalka
http://www.artsworld.com/music-dance/works/a-c/rusalka-antonin-dvorak.html
synopsis by Opera News

Massenet, Werther Libretto
http://www.karadar.com/Librettos/massenet_werther.html

Werther at Vienna State Opera
http://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/Content.Node2/en/10898.php
historical notes of the premiere

Goethe, Werther Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/goethe/werther/1wert001.htm
Guenberg Deutsch

Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
http://www.bartleby.com/315/1/

Kirjastro- Goethe
http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/goethe/werther/1wert001.htm

Goethe's Werther and the Critics
http://www.boydell.co.uk/71132848.HTM

Werther links
http://www.geocities.com/wertherfilm/Links.html

Ballet : Les Syphlides
http://www.australiadancing.org/subjects/4461.html
history of the ballet

Royal Ballet and Nureyev
http://www.ballet.co.uk/nureyev/rn_rb_roles.htm

Royal Ballet on DVD
http://films.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/cpc_149201_vtl_actor_c15498964.html

Swan Lake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake

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22 June 2003 The Ugly Duckling
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/101567
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/06/ugly-duckling.html

1 December 2004 Nix of Mill Pond
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/112524

3 November Silence of Longing part 2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104342

part 2: Rusalka, Berg and literary social criticism
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p2-1-november.html

1 November The Silence of Longing p2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104349

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104342

reposted on 3d November was deleted
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p2-1-november.html

2 November Silence of Longing Part 1
http://www.suite101.com/articles.cfm/16568
intro

1 November The Silence of Longing p1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104352
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p1.html

24 October The Waterline p1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104111
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-waterline.html

24 October The Waterline Going Deeper p2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104110
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-going-deeper.html

24 October 2003 The Waterline: Drowning p3
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104109
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-drowning.html

The Little Mermaid

21 October 2003 The Mermaid
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104067

The Little Mermaid
http://www.denmark.org/mermaid_June96/Captured.html
fulltext

Little Mermaid
http://hjem.get2net.dk/OSJ_INDEX/hybenrose/havfruen/eng/drawings.htm
has the illustrations from the original edition by Pedersen and Lorenz Frolich

After a search on the internet, I found that scant attention is paid to Andersen's Mermaid. There are reviews and websites dedicated to Walt Disney's Mermaid, but not essays or insights to Andersen.

And although, Andersen is hailed as creating the literary fairytale, he's more aptly described at reviving the art of creative myth taking and mixing from the past, rather than being novel. A careful look into Mermaid, reveals it to be a rerun of Romeo and Juliet which is a rehash of Troilius and Cressydae, a rehash of Ovid's Pyramus and Thisbee. True, Beauty and Beast is more easily recognized as a rehash of Ovid's Echo and Narcissus, than the Mermaid. The reader's vision is clouded so that he does not recognize the source material by transferring the characters into different worlds. Instead of warring families of Verona, the tragedy opens under the sea with a delightfully realistic description. The reader buys it and enters into a fantastic world, hidden from human eyes. The extraneous characters are stripped from their supporting roles. Here we need no Mercutio, Thybalt, bumbling Friar John or meddling nurse, but the chief conflicts are still the same. Just as Romeo belonged to the wrong side of town and wrong family, the Mermaid belongs to the inacceptable world. The difference between the two tragedies though is immense. Romeo and Juliet are reflections of social problems; but the Mermaid is allegorical with elements of myth, giving it far greater room for interpretation. Although the plot can be easily summarised as based on love and rejection, the elements are heavily symbolic or imbued with symbolic meaning freeing the interpretation.

Consider first the symbols that are intrinsic to the environment. The language is highly crafted, yielding metaphor and simile like apples on a tree. Where does a mermaid live but in the sea? And the Prince on land. The mermaid is at home in water. It is her element, but the Prince needs solid ground and air to breathe and live. They are opposing qualities. A fish cannot live on land unless a notorious Chinese walking catfish, and it needs water to remain alive. Water can symbolize dreams or the unconscious, just as air can represent conscious thought, but the Prince lives and walks on solid ground. He is a practical, down-to-earth man. Art might be beautiful and having a birthday party on the sea with the Royal Fireworks and Water Music by Handel may be very pleasant, but it's only for diversion. He's not one to live in a garret and starve for a living. His concept of life is above mankind. He rules and doesn't particularly like getting his feet wet. He lives above and she below the waterline. And although the waterline seems to be transparent like the glass ceiling for women executives, it's still very difficult to break through and creates a very realistic barrier. The two worlds are irreconciliable.

There are other hidden problems. The mermaid lives in a different world, therefore, she speaks a different language. She comes from a different culture with different values. In her world, shells on the tail amount to prestige, but in his world, she would be only something for scorn. Andersen evokes an image of a person with the face pressed against the glass, but unable to communicate and touch the beloved. All the sisters have little gardens in which the create silhouttes and shapes of sea-related things, but the mermaid dreams of something outside her limited world—and creates a garden shaped like a sun she has never seen and places the figure of a man in the center.

Even before she sees the shipwreck, she is doomed. She loves what she cannot love and longs for the impossible, and has not the power of speech to ease her suffering. How many romantic poets have written about the beloved, to the beloved or for the beloved. The controversy over Shakespeare's sonnets continues. Catullus committed suicide. Brahms never married. Schubert is inextricably associated to Clara and what about Andersen? Caught in the social expectations of his age, he stepped back into the shadows, while Oscar took the stage. Although the conflict may be hidden in symbols, the silence of the Mermaid echoes in our thoughts. What if she could talk? Would it have been different? Would she still be rejected? It's hard to say. Selective mutism happens in reality, usually among children when they feel that what they have to say, or what they are is rejected. Teach a class, and you'll find that there is someone who hides his thoughts in silence. Silence is very hard to break. Have a quarrel with someone and later, it's very difficult to say "hello" although you were always good friends. Silence makes people awkward. And even if the mermaid could speak, what could she tell him? She came from a different world with different perspective and understanding. How can someone from a foreign country truly tell you how different his world and life was?

Or perhaps, the sea and the mermaid are only a symbol of dreams embeddded in the Prince's mind. It's nice to have a fantasy, but in real life, it's better to keep your feet on the earth and do things in a very practical way. People can drown in dreams and fantasies, get lost in drugs.

Sur la Lune- The Little Mermaid
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/littlemermaid/index.html

Illustrations at Sur la Lune
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/littlemermaid/index.html

Sur la Lune History
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/littlemermaid/history.html

Sur la Lune- related stories hyperlinked
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/littlemermaid/other.html

The Little Mermaid
http://hjem.get2net.dk/OSJ_INDEX/hybenrose/havfruen/eng/fairytale.htm
notes about the sculpture

H C Andersen site
http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/register/info_e.html?vid=16
University of Southern Denmark

Variants on Sea-Maid
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/student.projects/mermaids/faerietales.html

A History of Mermaids
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/student.projects/mermaids/homepage.html#contents

http://hjem.get2net.dk/OSJ_INDEX/hybenrose/havfruen/eng/sculpture.htm

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22 June 2003 The Ugly Duckling
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/101567
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/06/ugly-duckling.html

1 December 2004 Nix of Mill Pond
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/112524

3 November Silence of Longing part 2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104342

part 2: Rusalka, Berg and literary social criticism
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p2-1-november.html

1 November The Silence of Longing p2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104349

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104342

reposted on 3d November was deleted
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p2-1-november.html

2 November Silence of Longing Part 1
http://www.suite101.com/articles.cfm/16568
intro

1 November The Silence of Longing p1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104352
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/11/silence-of-longing-p1.html

24 October The Waterline p1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104111
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-waterline.html

24 October The Waterline Going Deeper p2
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104110
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-going-deeper.html

24 October 2003 The Waterline: Drowning p3
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/104109
http://pogoland.blogspot.com/2003/10/mermaid-drowning.html