History Literature / TheLittleMermaid

* BlowYouAway: The Daughters of the Air can manipulate the wind.

* NatureSpirit:The merfolk are water elementals while the Daughters of the Air are air elementals.

* AlchemicElementals: The merfolk are water elementals while the Daughters of the Air are air elementals.

* BittersweetEnding: The mermaid is given a LastSecondChance to kill the prince and return to the sea. She chooses death instead. However, the sacrifice earns her a provisional afterlife as a sort of ministering spirit, and when her time is done she will gain an immortal soul and go to heaven.

* WickedWitch: The Sea Witch in many adaptations.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: The mermaid is the daughter of the Sea King and the youngest of seven. The prince's fantasy girl turns out to be a princess too.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: The mermaid is the daughter of the Sea King and the youngest of seven. The prince's fantasy girl turns out to be a princess too.

* ReallyRoyalityReveal: The object of the prince's unrequited love -- the temple maiden -- was actually a princess being fostered out. He doesn't realize it until he arrives in her kingdom for his ArrangedMarriage to her.

* ChildMarriageVeto: The prince tells the mermaid he won't marry the princess his parents have chosen for him, because she won't be the girl he really pines for (the temple maiden) nor the mermaid who reminds him of her. Unfortunately, that all flies out the window when the princess actually ''is'' the temple maiden (she was being fostered out).

* FashionHurts: The Little Mermaid had oysters attached to her tail by her grandmother to show her great rank. They hurt, but her grandmother tells her that "Pride must suffer pain."

* SpeciesSpecificAfterlife: Humans are the only animals with souls. Mermaids cease to exist when they die. The titular mermaid is horrified by this. She finds out that mermaids can gain a soul (and thus have an afterlife) if they marry a human. As a result, the little mermaid tries to marry a prince.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The prince ends up in an ArrangedMarriage with the princess from another kingdom. Even if he had loved the mermaid -- or hadn't been [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage happy with his new bride]] -- he never really had the option to marry for love.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: The mermaid loves the prince, but he has already lost his heart to a temple maiden who (he thinks) rescued him from drowning. When it turns out that the maiden is actually the princess to whom he is betrothed, he is overjoyed -- the poor mermaid, of course, cannot tell him that ''she'' is the one who saved him.

Then he is betrothed and sent unwillingly off on a ship to meet his intended bride. Lo and behold, she is the temple maiden! The prince is overjoyed, but the mermaid silently mourns. The wedding takes place on the return voyage, with the mermaid thinking of nothing but her impending death. But that night, her sisters appear to her with a dearly-bought LastSecondChance -- if she kills the prince with the enchanted knife they have brought her, she can become a mermaid again and live out her centuries under the sea. The little mermaid considers it, but ultimately she is unable to murder the man she still loves. She throws the knife away and jumps from the ship, dissolving into sea foam.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: It's implied that the only reason the Little Mermaid does not dissolve into sea-foam at the end is that she refused to kill the prince. Killing him would have lost her her chance at an immortal soul forever.

* UnrequitedTragicMaiden: The titular mermaid, who ultimately chooses the prince's happiness over her own life and turns into sea foam. Unexpectedly, she is rewarded for her sacrifice by becoming an air sprit, who will earn an immortal soul and go to {{Heaven}} after three hundred years of doing good deeds for mankind.
* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: The Little Mermaid wishes to be a human and marry the prince. Because she gave up her mermaid life and became a human not being able to ever speak again and feel pain when she walked and danced and the possibility that she will die, it seems it would have been better for her to keep wanting instead of getting it. On the other hand, her actions do put her in the position where she can gain an immortal soul, which she might have wanted even more than the prince.

* UnscaledMerfolk: The Sea Witch in many adaptations.

* ActOfTrueLove: The mermaid is given one last chance to save herself by killing the prince as he lays sleeping. She refuses it, allowing him to live happily with his new wife. In doing so, is rewarded by being transformed into a daughter of the air.

* ActOfTrueLove: The mermaid is given one last chance to save herself by killing the prince as he lays sleeping. She refuses it, and in doing so, is rewarded by being transformed into a daughter of the air.

* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: The Little Mermaid wishes to be a human and marry the prince. Because she gave up her mermaid life and became a human not being able to ever speak again and feel pain when she walked and danced and the possibility that she will die, it seems it would have been better for her to keep wanting instead of getting it.

A mermaid princess is deeply curious about the world above the waves, but she isn't permitted to go to the surface until she turns fifteen. She is the youngest of her sisters, and when each of them comes of age, she returns with stories about the wonderful sights to be seen up there. When her turn finally comes, the youngest mermaid rescues a young prince from drowning. She leaves him unconscious on shore, near a temple where he can be found, but she has already fallen in love with him.

Unable to enjoy life below the waves, the mermaid makes a deal with the Sea Witch to become human. The cost is steep. The Sea Witch can grant her legs and inhuman grace, but every step will feel like she is walking on knives. The mermaid must also give her voice as payment. And her humanity is only temporary: if she can make the Prince fall in love with her and marry her, she can gain a share in his soul and be human all her life, but if he marries another, she will die on the following dawn. And without a soul of her own, she can expect no afterlife.

The prince she loves finds her and takes her in. She becomes his favorite companion, accompanying him on many of his outings and dancing beautifully for him despite the excruciating pain in her feet. But while he is fond of her, he does not love her; he has lost his heart to a temple maiden who (as he believes) once saved him from drowning.

Then he is betrothed and sent unwillingly off on a ship to meet his intended bride. Lo and behold, she is the temple maiden! She was merely being fostered out at the temple. The prince is delighted, but the mermaid silently mourns. They are married on the return voyage, with the mermaid thinking of nothing but her impending death. But that night, her sisters appear to her with a dearly-bought LastSecondChance -- if she kills the prince with the enchanted knife they have brought her, she can become a mermaid again and live out her centuries under the sea. Unable to murder the man she still loves, the little mermaid throws the knife away and jumps from the ship, dissolving into sea foam.

But instead of dying, the mermaid rises from the water in the company of the "Daughters of the Air," benevolent spirits who, after 300 years of good deeds, will [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn an immortal soul and go to Heaven]]. Whenever they see good and obedient children, their sentence is shortened, but disobedient ones make it longer.

** Andersen's second revision adds a more explicit moral: Be good, you children who hear this story, because the time the mermaid must serve gets shorter every time she sees a good child but longer every time she sees a bad one.

** The mermaid is given the chance to kill the prince so she can continue her life, but she turns it down and dies instead.
** The mermaid's older sisters cutting their hair would have been understood as a great sacrifice, too. In Hans Christian Andersen's time, long, flowing hair made a woman beautiful -- short hair was socially unacceptable and utterly taboo. Thus the sisters giving up their long hair to save the little mermaid meant sacrificing all of their earthly beauty and femininity.
* IfICantHaveYou: {{Invoked}} by the mermaid's sisters and the sea witch. They give her a dagger to use to kill the prince on his wedding night, and then let the blood drip to her legs so she will become a mermaid once more. Ultimately {{defied}} by the little mermaid herself, who chooses to spare the prince at the cost of her own life.

A mermaid princess is deeply curious about the world above the waves, but she isn't permitted to go to the surface until she turns fifteen. She has several older sisters, and as each one comes of age, they return with stories about the wonderful sights to be seen up there. When her time finally comes, the youngest mermaid finds a human prince unconscious and close to drowning. She carries him to shore and leaves him near a temple where he can be found, but she has fallen in love with him.

Unable to enjoy life below the waves, she makes a deal with the Sea Witch to become human, but at a heavy cost. The Sea Witch can grant her legs and inhuman grace, but every step will feel like she is walking on knives. The mermaid must also give her voice as payment. If she can make the Prince fall in love with her and marry her, she can gain a share in his soul and be human all her life, but if he marries another, she will die on the following dawn. And mermaids, lacking souls of their own, have no afterlife.

She surfaces near the prince's palace. He takes her in and makes her his favorite companion, accompanying him on many of his outings and dancing beautifully for him despite the excruciating pain in her feet. But while he is fond of her, he does not love her; he has lost his heart to a temple maiden because (as he believes) she once saved him from drowning.

Then he is betrothed and sent unwillingly off to meet his intended bride. Lo and behold, she is the temple maiden! She was actually a princess being fostered out at the temple so she could have a proper upbringing. The prince is delighted, but the mermaid silently mourns. On their wedding night, her sisters appear to her with a dearly-bought LastSecondChance -- if she kills the prince with the enchanted knife they have brought her, she can become a mermaid again and live out her centuries under the sea. Unable to murder the man she still loves, the little mermaid throws the knife away and jumps from the ship, dissolving into sea foam.