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The working title of the story was "Daughters of the Air,"[1] which are spirits who, as Andersen conceived them, can earn souls by doing three hundred years' worth of good deeds. One of these spirits explains to the mermaid that they do as many good things for humankind as they are able so that, at the end of those years, they can receive an immortal soul and "take part in the happiness of mankind."[2] The spirits also explain that because the Little Mermaid refused to kill the Prince and has spent so much time in pain while still doing good things for man, the Little Mermaid has "raised [herself] to the spirit-world" and can participate in the three hundred years of good deeds alongside the Daughters of the Air.
P. L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins and noted folklore commentator, wrote, "This final message is more frightening than any other presented in the tale. The story descends into the Victorian moral tales written for children to scare them into good behavior... Andersen, this is blackmail. And the children know it and say nothing. There's magnanimity for you."[1][3] Andersen, however, felt that his revised conclusion in which the mermaid is empowered to attain an immortal soul through her own agency was a decided improvement over the original ending, which climaxed in the mermaid's dissolution. In 1837, Andersen wrote to a friend that "I have not, like de la Motte Fouqué in Undine, allowed the mermaid's acquiring of an immortal soul to depend upon an alien creature, upon the love of a human being. I'm sure that's wrong! It would depend rather much on chance, wouldn't it? I won't accept that sort of thing in this world. I have permitted my mermaid to follow a more natural, more divine path."[4]
Other scholars like Jacob Bøggild and Pernille Heegaard notice the ending's shift away from tragedy as well. They point out that the events leading up to the mermaid's death should culminate in tragedy but that the sudden twist allows the narrative to finish on a hopeful success. Bøggild and Heegaard argue that this disjointed ending was not the result of Anderson's sentimentality and religious beliefs, which have been attributed to his choice to stray from the tragic path he established in the rest of the narrative, but a conscious choice for ambiguity that stemmed from Anderson's skepticism towards idealized physical and religious symbols.[5]
In Maria Tatar's The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, the transformation of the little mermaid from sea creature to mermaid in human form, and then to a creature of the air, is believed to reflect Andersen's constant engagement with mutability and changes in identity.[6] Tatar also suggests that the Little Mermaid did not give up everything for love alone. Tatar's interpretation of the tale is one that presents a rare heroine with investigative curiosity which is shown through the mermaid's fascination of the unknown, the forbidden, and her intent on broadening her horizons from the start. Even before she sees the prince, she displays an intense longing to visit the world above the sea through her actions such as: arranging the flowers in her garden into the shape of the sun, listening to her grandmother and sisters' stories of the surface, and peeking in through the window of the prince's cabin during his birthday celebrations. Tatar argues that the mermaid wants, above all, to explore the world and discover things that are beyond what she already knows. The world above seems larger than her own and holds a greater range of possibilities to exercise her adventurous spirit. This is demonstrated in some versions of the story when the prince has a page boy's costume made for her so that she may ride on horseback and explore the land with him. Here, her willingness to cross-dress implies a willingness to transgress gender boundaries and take risks to be able to see the world. Tatar feels this also comments on Andersen's interests in changes in identity.[7]
In her analysis, Virginia Borges concludes that the story contains a message about love and self-sacrifice, and the dangers of accepting abuse or inconsiderate treatment in the name of love.[8]
Susan White interprets the story as the difficult liminal passage of the girl into the order of speech and social symbolism (power, politics and agency) which is symbolically understood as masculine.[9]
The artist Pen Dalton has made use of Laura Mulvey's interpretation of fetishism in art to link The Little Mermaid to the wearing of fetishistic clothes, and obsessive cosmetic surgery with masculine fears of loss.[10]
Rictor Norton, in My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries, theorizes that The Little Mermaid was written as a love letter by Hans Christian Andersen to Edvard Collin.[11] This is based on a letter Andersen wrote to Collin, upon hearing of Collin’s engagement to a young woman, around the same time that the Little Mermaid was written. Andersen wrote ”I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench... my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery.”[12] Andersen also sent the original story to Collin.[13] Norton interprets the correspondence as a declaration of Andersen's homosexual love for Collin, and describes The Little Mermaid as an allegory for Andersen's life.[14]
A statue of The Little Mermaid sits on a rock in the Copenhagen harbor in Langelinie. This small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and a major tourist attraction.
The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, after he had been fascinated by a ballet based on the fairy tale. The sculptor Edward Eriksen created the statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. His wife, Eline Eriksen, was the model for the body. Ellen Price, the ballerina who danced the Little Mermaid in the 1909 Royal Danish Ballet production, was the model for the head and face.[15] The statue has been severely vandalized several times.[16]
In May 2010, it was moved from its Copenhagen harbor emplacement for the first time ever, for transport to Expo 2010 in Shanghai, where it remained until 20 November 2010.[17]
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