- Summary
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- Andersen
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- Mermaid
Year: 1836 Genre: fairy tale
Main characters: Mermaid - the youngest daughter of the sea king, Prince - her lover
The sea king lives with his mother and six daughters. When the youngest of them turns fifteen, she is allowed to surface and falls in love with a prince celebrating his birthday on a ship. The ship encounters a strong storm, and the little mermaid saves the drowning prince, leaving him on the shore near the nunnery.
She yearns for her lover and decides to make a deal with the witch: the girl’s tail turns into legs, but walking gives her unbearable pain, she loses her voice, forever separates from her family and is doomed to die if the prince marries someone else. During matchmaking in a neighboring kingdom, he finds the girl who, he believes, saved him on the shore then, and takes her as his wife. The sisters suggest that she kill the prince to lift the spell, but she lacks the strength and rushes into the abyss, but does not die, but becomes a daughter of the air.
The main idea. The fairy tale teaches us love and self-sacrifice. She shows how important it is to believe in your dream - it was thanks to her that the little mermaid did not die, but found a new life.
Read the summary of Andersen The Little Mermaid
In the deepest place of the sea stood the palace of the sea king. The king had been a widower for a long time, and his six princess granddaughters were raised by their old mother. All day long they played in the palace and garden. Unlike the other princesses, the youngest was quiet and thoughtful. She loved only her flowerbed with bright red flowers that reminded her of the sun, and the marble statue of a boy that fell from a ship. The little mermaid loved listening to her grandmother's stories about the human world.
Only from the age of fifteen were they allowed to go upstairs, but no one wanted this as much as the youngest. Year after year, the sisters surfaced and returned with admiring stories. Finally, the little mermaid had a chance to rise above the water. She found herself next to a ship, from the deck of which singing and music could be heard. The people were dressed smartly, but the young prince seemed to her the most beautiful of all. For a long time she could not take her eyes off him.
A storm began and the ship was tossed about by the waves. The waves swept over the ship and laid it on its side. It became dark, but when lightning flashed, the little mermaid saw the prince fall into the sea. She saved him by taking him to the shore where the monastery stood. Soon the girls ran out of the building, and one of them found the prince. He smiled at the girl, and the little mermaid felt sad, because he didn’t even know about her existence. One day she told her sister about everything, and soon all the sisters already knew everything. One of them led her to the prince's castle. The little mermaid wanted to achieve the love of the young man.
One day, after leaving the ball, she went to the witch. The sorceress agreed to make a potion for her that would turn a fish tail into a pair of slender legs. Her gait would be graceful, but every step would cause unbearable pain. At the same time, she would never be able to return to her family, and if the prince married someone else, the little mermaid would turn into sea foam. The princess agreed, and in exchange for the favor, the witch cut out her tongue.
Having sailed to the palace at night, the little mermaid drank the potion and lost consciousness. The prince found the girl and brought her to his palace. She danced so magnificently that everyone admired her and applauded her. Over time, he became more and more attached to her, but still treated her like a cute little child, with no intention of taking her as his wife. He admitted that his heart was occupied by the one who saved him long ago on the shore. The Little Mermaid was worried that she could not tell him the truth.
The prince's parents sent him to a neighboring king to meet his future bride. In her the prince recognized the very girl he was looking for. They celebrated the wedding and went to the young man’s homeland. The Little Mermaid has one last night left to spend it with the one for whom she left her home. Suddenly she noticed her sisters with cropped hair - they gave it to the witch in exchange for a knife with which the girl was supposed to pierce the prince’s hearts. His blood would turn her legs into tails and she could return to the sea. But the little mermaid did not find the strength to take her lover’s life and threw the dagger into the sea. She threw herself into the water and turned into sea foam. But the girl did not feel death - instead, wonderful creatures, daughters of the air, appeared before her. They took her with them to where the little mermaid would find love and happiness. Invisible, the girl touched the forehead of the prince's wife with her lips, smiled at the young man and ascended to the clouds.
Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Little Mermaid about faith in love.
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Brief retelling. For a reader's diary, take 5-6 sentences
Main characters
In 1837, the fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”, written by Hans Christian Andersen, was first published. It was adapted many times, animated and feature films were made based on it, plays and musicals were staged. When translated into Russian, the title of the work was changed.
From Danish it meant “Little Sea Lady”; the main character had nothing to do with mermaids.
The main characters of "The Little Mermaid":
- Ariel is the youngest daughter of the sea king;
- prince;
- Little Mermaid sisters;
- grandmother Ariel;
- sea witch;
- princess;
- daughters of the air.
The daughter of the sea king fell in love with a handsome young prince and decided to sacrifice her voice in order to gain legs. She is the main character of the entire text. The Little Mermaid saved the young man from death, but he fell in love with another. The prince is described as an honest and noble young man.
Ariel has five more sisters , all of whom live in the underwater world. The Little Mermaid turns to her wise grandmother for advice. She is trying to teach her granddaughter to be kind and attentive. The terrible sea witch helped Ariel find her legs, but forced her to give up her voice in return. The princess is a sweet girl whom the prince fell in love with.
He thought that this cute creature saved him from death. At the end of the book, the daughters of the air appear - magical creatures who took Ariel's soul.
Andersen. Brief summaries of works
- Angel
- Bronze boar
- Elderberry mother
- Magic Hill
- ugly duck
- Girl with matches
- Girl stepping on bread
- Wild Swans
- Daughter of the Swamp King
- Thumbelina
- Christmas tree
- The real truth
- Galoshes of happiness
- The king's new dress
- Flint
- Ole Lukoje
- Shepherdess and chimney sweep
- Princess on the Pea
- Five from one pod
- Chamomile
- Mermaid
- The most incredible thing
- Swineherd
- Snowman
- The Snow Queen
- Nightingale
- The Steadfast Tin Soldier
- Shadow
- Kettle
- Darning needle
Brief description of the heroes
Almost all the heroes of the fairy tale are described in a positive way. They are all kind, honest, they all love in their own way. What characters do you meet in Andersen's fairy tale?
Main characters
- Mermaid . The youngest, most beloved daughter of the Sea King. Kind, open, somewhat naive.
- Prince . A handsome young man, kind in heart and soul, dreaming of finding his savior.
Other characters
- The Sea King is the father of six mermaids, a widower.
- The grandmother of the mermaids, telling them about life on earth.
- The older sisters, the sea maidens, are five girls who are ready to sacrifice a lot for their sister.
- The Princess is a sweet girl who found the Prince on the shore after he was rescued by the Little Mermaid.
- The sea witch is the only negative character; a sorceress capable of performing magical spells for her own benefit.
- Daughters of the air are pure souls capable of recognizing the same creatures.
The plot of the fairy tale The Little Mermaid
Love and self-sacrifice - that's what Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale The Little Mermaid is about. The summary and plot tell about what actions a person who truly loves is ready for. After all, the Little Mermaid made a deal that did not promise her anything good. They took away her voice, giving in return legs that she herself did not need. But they were the necessity that would allow her to be close to her loved one. In addition, the second condition of the deal put her in a difficult position - after all, she was in danger of death. But the fragile but brave girl was not afraid of anything.
Mermaid
Very briefly: Because of her love for the prince, the little mermaid exchanges her fish tail for a pair of slender legs. Unable to achieve reciprocity, she dies and becomes sea foam.
In the deepest part of the sea stands the coral palace of the sea king. He has been widowed for a long time, and his old mother, a worthy and intelligent woman, is in charge of the palace. She loves her six granddaughters very much, pretty little mermaid princesses. The best of all is the youngest, quiet and thoughtful, with sea-blue eyes. Instead of legs, she, like other mermaids, has a fish tail. She loves only her garden with bright red flowers and a marble statue of a beautiful boy that fell to the bottom from a lost ship. Hugging the statue, the little mermaid dreams of ships, cities, people and animals.
According to tradition, the mermaid first rises to the surface at the age of sixteen. The time comes for the daughters of the sea king to see the land. The little mermaid, the youngest in the family, had a chance to rise after her sisters. She emerges not far from a three-masted ship, from the deck of which music can be heard. In the ship's cabin, the little mermaid notices many smart people, and among them a handsome prince with big black eyes, who looks like the marble boy from her garden. The ship's crew and guests cheerfully celebrate his sixteenth birthday. In the evening the fireworks begin. Large suns spin like wheels in the night sky, fiery fish spin their tails, and loud music sounds on the deck.
Late in the evening, after the holiday, a strong storm begins at sea. The prince's ship turns over on its side and breaks into pieces. The little mermaid saves the drowning prince. Supporting him, she sails to the shore with a beautiful grove and a tall white building like a church or monastery, and leaves the prince on the sand. Soon people run out of the white building to help. Having come to his senses, the prince smiles and the little mermaid becomes sad, because he did not smile at her and did not even know who saved his life. She dives into the water and swims away.
The little mermaid tells everything to her sisters and they take her to the prince’s palace. Since then, the little mermaid swims there every evening and looks at the young prince for a long time. She often hears fishermen saying a lot of good things about the prince, and she is glad that she saved him.
The little mermaid asks her grandmother about people and learns that their lifespan is shorter than that of mermaids. But people have an immortal soul, which flies to the sky after the body turns to dust. Mermaids live for three hundred years, but they are not given an immortal soul. After death, all that remains is sea foam. A mermaid can only receive a soul if one of the people loves her and they are married by a priest. But this will never happen, because the fish tail of mermaids is considered beautiful, but people find it ugly. To please a person, you need to acquire two awkward supports - legs, as people call them.
The little mermaid loves the prince and is ready to do anything to get an immortal soul. Leaving her sisters to dance at the ball, she goes to the sea witch. She agrees to make a drink, after drinking which the little mermaid’s fish tail will turn into a pair of slender legs. At the same time, her graceful gait will remain, but walking will cause terrible pain. The Witch warns that, having taken on a human form, the little mermaid will never return to her native element. If the prince marries someone else, the little mermaid's heart will break into pieces and she will become sea foam. In payment for the magic drink, the witch demands the beautiful voice of the little mermaid. She will be left with a pretty face, an airy gait and expressive eyes, “enough to conquer the human heart.” After giving the little mermaid the potion, the witch cuts off her tongue.
Having sailed to the prince's palace at night, the little mermaid drinks a magical drink. A sharp pain pierces her. and she loses consciousness. Waking up during the day, she sees the prince in front of her, and when she lowers her eyes, she discovers, instead of a fish tail, two small legs, like those of a child. The prince tries to find out who she is and how she got here, but she is silent. Taking the little mermaid by the hand, the prince leads her to the palace, and she patiently endures the pain, and her gait remains airy.
In the palace, the little mermaid is dressed in silk and muslin, and she becomes the first beauty. Still remaining mute, she dances like no one has ever danced before. Everyone admires her, and the prince calls the little mermaid his little foundling. He becomes more and more attached to the little mermaid, but loves her only as a sweet, kind child. It never even occurs to him to make her his wife.
At the request of his parents, the prince goes across the sea to a neighboring king to meet his daughter, and takes the Little Mermaid with him. A prince and a beautiful princess fall in love, celebrate their engagement, and then their wedding. Soon the time comes to go to the prince's homeland. A luxurious tent for the newlyweds is pitched on the deck of the ship.
After death, the little mermaid joins the daughters of the air, who fly without wings thanks to their own lightness. Like mermaids, they do not have an immortal soul. But they can get it for the good deeds they do to people. The Little Mermaid sees the prince and his bride looking for her throughout the ship. Invisible, she kisses the beautiful bride, smiles at the prince and, together with other children of the air, rises to the pink clouds.
A condensed retelling of the tale
For those who do not have time to read the entire fairy tale, we present a short retelling of it. But we hope you read The Little Mermaid in its entirety.
In the deep blue sea, in a beautiful coral palace, live mermaids - creatures with a human body and fish tails. Their father, the Sea King, cares for the entire blue sea, but above all for his six daughters. And the youngest of them, the Little Mermaid, is dearer to him than anyone else in the world.
The mermaids' grandmother tells them stories about the life of people on earth, and the younger sister dreams of seeing it all with her own eyes.
On their fifteenth birthday, sea maidens are allowed to rise to the surface of the sea for the first time. The young beauty floats up impatiently and sees a huge ship on which the fun is going on. Among the beautifully dressed people, she liked the young man most of all.
Suddenly a storm begins and the ship is caught in a storm. The Little Mermaid saves the young handsome Prince and falls hopelessly in love with him with pure, tender love. But she is not human, so she has to hide and not tell anyone about what happened.
In order to be closer to the object of her love, the Little Mermaid agrees to a deal with the Sea Witch. She gives the sorceress her beautiful melodic voice, while gaining a pair of slender legs and becoming outwardly similar to a person. Every step on the ground echoes pain in her, but the girl in love is ready to do anything just to be close to the Prince.
But the Sea Witch sets one more condition for her - if the young man does not love her, she will die and turn into sea foam.
The little mermaid meets her love, dances with him, but cannot say a word. The prince treats the girl very warmly and tells her that he has long been in love with the one who saved him after the storm. But at the same time he does not know who she is and where to look for her. He cannot even imagine that this is the sweet Little Mermaid, and she cannot tell him this.
The Prince's father finds him a more suitable match. It seems to the prince that it was this girl who became his savior, so he decides to marry her.
The Little Mermaid's sisters are also ready to give everything to bring their beloved sister home. They exchange their precious hair with the Sea Witch for a magic knife. The girl is offered to kill the Prince in order to find a tail and return to her family and the sea.
The little mermaid enters the newlyweds' bedroom, but looks at them and realizes that she cannot kill the young man. The girl does not make this sacrifice - for her, the happiness of her beloved is more valuable than her suffering and even her life.
When morning comes, the Little Mermaid goes out onto the deck to throw herself into the sea and turn into sea foam. But the daughters of the air take her to them, because such a pure soul should be happy even after death.
Little mermaid among people
And then the sea maiden in an instant turned from a fish-man into a real person. Unfortunately, a brief summary does not allow us to describe her feelings. The little mermaid was invited by the prince to the palace. It would seem, what more could a young girl wish for, because now she was next to her lover! However, her love did not find a reciprocal feeling. The young man did not love her, but treated her as a friend. And to top off all the troubles of the poor Little Mermaid, he also marries a princess from a neighboring kingdom.
Love and its highest manifestation - self-sacrifice - are presented in the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid". A summary of the tale cannot ignore this main idea of the story about the sea girl. She sacrifices herself in the name of love. Her love does not demand anything for herself; she wants to see her loved one happy. She is not selfish and does not demand reciprocal feelings from her beloved.
