Czego pragnie Mała Syrena?
What the Little Mermaid Wants

Summary/Abstract: The well-known 19th century fairy tale, The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen is usually perceived as the story of a mermaid who sacrifices her life for the unrequited love for a prince. Renata Bożek takes a different approach in order to reveal the phenomenon of the mermaid’s femininity. The Little Mermaid feels trapped in the underwater world which deprives her soul of immortality. With passion she visualises the world of people and in order to become one of them she undergoes a painful transformation: losing her tongue and replacing her fish’s tail with legs. She wants a new identity. The unspeakable pain which accompanies every step she makes gives her an awareness of her human existence. In this light the author gives examples of self-destructive behaviour of women who intentionally hurt their bodies in order to feel the lost reality of their own “selves”. This, however, points out the basic difference between the mermaid from the fairytale and the real women who are victims of auto-aggression. The Little Mermaid commits a unique form of suicide which enables achieving immortality and her desired spiritual freedom, whereas the women presented by the author perform self-destructive actions in order to achieve harmony between the physical body and the “self”. At the same time it turns out that the psychophysical balance is often distorted by the patriarchal rules which make the world perceive women in terms of their physical attractiveness. By wounding their bodies women strive at regaining control of their lives and exceeding today’s standards. The Little Mermaid may, of course, be interpreted in a traditional way. The Mermaid falls in love with a prince whom she saves from drowning in the sea and with whom she wishes to spend the rest of her life.

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