Here we go. The Little Mermaid, aka the movie that made me wish as a child that if I prayed hard enough, I would turn into a mermaid. 

As a disclaimer, there is room for legitimate criticism of The Little Mermaid, and this is not going to invalidate any valid criticism of the film or of Ariel, but rather offer a different perspective on her film and specifically on Ariel as a character. 

Ariel gets a really bad rap, none of which she deserves. She is a full character: she makes mistakes, she learns from them, she grows. She does not ditch her family just for some guy; that’s legitimately the most simplified, reductive understanding of the story I can imagine. 

Ariel’s story is the classic struggle of almost every teenager (hence why the film repeatedly emphasizes that she is sixteen) in a coming-of-age story: she is searching for an identity and floundering (heh, pun intended) in that search. She doesn’t know who she is, but she knows some of what she wants. 

In other words, The Little Mermaid is the story, quite literally, of a teenager finding her voice. It’s messy and it’s filled with mistakes, but it’s also filed with hope. 

So one of the most common critiques of Ariel is that she completely abandons her family and culture for Eric. That isn’t true on any level.

Firstly, the opening spoken lines of the film are literally Eric talking about how wonderful it is to be out at sea on his birthday (in contrast to other characters, who are puking) and asking for information on King Triton. Eric is interested in the world Ariel comes from. 

As for her interest in the human world, well, Ariel is literally introduced to use gathering relics from shipwrecks instead of singing with her family. The interest in the human world is very much there, and choosing it over her family is a thing long before Eric entered the picture. And the film does not condone this at all. 

See, when Ariel and Flounder look through the shipwreck, Flounder raises the very realistic concern of sharks. She teases him and doesn’t take it seriously (Ariel’s naivete is something I’ll touch on later). Her urging Flounder to come along results in him getting caught in a porthole, and then knocked on the head and almost eaten by a shark. The film is very clearly warning Ariel that while her interest in human things is all well and good, her choosing it above her family and loved ones is a problem. 

However, Ariel doesn’t consciously do this. She forgot the concert of her family instead of just not caring, and while she risks her own life to save her dropped bag of goods as the shark chases them, when the shark later attacks Flounder, she willingly drops her bag of human relics to save him. And she outsmarts the shark to do so. 

Ariel’s family, for their part, though, is not free of issues. For starters, of course, there is Triton’s virulent hatred of humans. However, in his hatred of humans and his complete dismissal of Ariel’s curiosity in his desire to protect her, he leaves her vulnerable to the danger lurking in the supposed safety of the sea: Ursula.

Triton destroys everything Ariel works towards. She’s already expressed a desire to be human in “Part of Your World,” sung before she met Eric. Eric just gives her the extra encouragement to work towards her dream. She likes learning. She wants to experience what she learns about. 

Of course, we as viewers know Triton just wants to protect Ariel, and expresses to Sebastian that he worries he’s too harsh on her, and we see his guilty face after ruining Ariel’s collection. But he still did it, and didn’t say anything. 

Her family commodifies her voice, showing it off. It therefore makes perfect sense why it’s what Ursula asks for, and why she sells it. Ariel does worry about not being with her family if she becomes a human. And Ursula taunts her for it, and gives her the bargain of belonging to her should Eric fail to fall in love with her. Why does this work on Ariel? Because, quite clearly, Ariel already sees herself as belonging to her father, as being completely under his control. He just destroyed the thing she loved to do, what she worked towards. He gives her no control over her life. But, the viewer is supposed to see it as a stupid choice. 

Ariel legit almost drowns after being turned into a human. Flounder and Sebastian save her life by dragging her to the surface. Additionally, as a human, Ariel has no voice. She thought she’d find her identity as a human. But instead she has lost her voice, and she doesn’t get the guy because of her bargain. 

Ariel’s biggest flaw is her naivete. She needs to learn that the world, both above and beneath the waves, is a place with kindness and with danger. She really doesn’t believe there will be sharks until there are. She buys everything Scuttle tells her without a second thought. She insists that “I just don’t see how a world that makes such beautiful things could be bad” about the human world. Ursula claims she has “repented,” and Ariel believes her. It’s almost like in his attempts to keep his daughter safe, Triton set up a tragic situation in which it directly led to danger. And this happens all the time in real life. 

Anyways, Eric is a Good Guy and genuinely falls in love with Ariel without her voice–because he can see who she is even without it. He sees her adventurous spirit in the carriage race, the dancing, etc. The only reason Ursula becomes Vanessa with Ariel’s voice is because she expresses that Eric is definitely going to kiss her and Ariel will win their bargain otherwise. 

And what’s so fitting about Ariel finally catching them and stopping the wedding is that Vanessa/Ursula is attacked by both land and sea creatures. Dolphins, birds, seagulls, starfish, and Max (Eric’s dog) all attack her. The land and the sea join together. Because Ariel is both human and mermaid; her identity is not in one or the other, but in both. 

When Ursula drags Ariel below the waves again, Triton appears and literally offers to take his daughter’s place. He loves his daughter. It’s Ariel’s naivete’s fault, and she expresses as much, telling him “I’m sorry Daddy; I didn’t mean to!” But her naivete is in part on him. Yet Ariel’s lack of consideration for her family has now caused a terrible consequence: her father becoming Ursula’s prize. 

And Ariel refuses to let Ursula get away with it. She and Eric both fight the sea witch to save her father, not just to save each other. They want to save the earth and the sea. They swim to the surface so Eric can breath and cling to each other, and then Ursula literally comes between them…

…and grows into the size of a mountain, proving that the problems you ignore in life are going to come back to destroy you. You can’t be naive and pretend they don’t exist. You have to face them. And sometimes, like Eric, you have to grab the ship that you almost drowned on and use it to defeat your now monster-sized demons.

The next scene is a legitimate repeat of the scene after Ariel saves Eric. She sits on the same rock. Eric lies on the same shore. The only difference is that this time, Triton is watching. 

And he makes the mature decision to let her go. He cannot protect her, but he can hope that she’s learned her lesson and will make wiser decisions in the future since she didn’t run away after her decisions led to disaster but instead worked with Eric to save the world. 

So, they marry. And guess what the last line Ariel speaks is? It’s also the last line anyone speaks in the film (a few song lyrics are sung, though).

I love you, Daddy. 

Basically, Ariel’s journey is about learning to balance her family love with her own desires. At first she gives too much weight to her own desires, and Triton gives too much weight to his desire to protect her, and they pull and they pull like it’s a tug-of-war. But it was never either/or, and it’s not land or sea. They can work together to understand each other. They can take risks, and by allowing Ariel to take risks, she finally learns just how much she values her family and the sea. 

Thanks for reading! Up next: Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. Hint: it’s not Stockholm Syndrome.

For previous entries in this series:

• Snow White’s Self-Esteem
• Cinderella’s Courage and Compassion
• Aurora’s Autonomy