Summary of the novel - The Little Mermaid · 1837

In my childhood I was reading a book of fairy tales, traveled to fabulous worlds with its characters, from the Grey neck, Thumbelina, the little Mermaid. Andersen has a lively, interesting manner of presentation, which allows you to add vivid images of the plots of his fairy tales. And now I am happy to sometimes re-read these stories. If you read them carefully, you can make some conclusions for yourself for real life.

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Very briefly. Because of the love of the Prince, the little mermaid changes the fish tail for a couple of slender legs. Unable to achieve reciprocity, she dies and becomes a sea foam.

In the deepest part of the sea is the coral Palace of the sea king. He has long been widowed, and hosts the Palace of his old mother, a worthy and intelligent woman. She loves her six granddaughters, pretty mermaid princesses. Best of all-the youngest, quiet and thoughtful, with blue eyes like the sea. Instead of legs she has, like other mermaids, fish tail. She loves only her garden with bright red flowers and a marble statue of a beautiful boy who fell to the bottom of the dead ship. Embracing the statue, the little mermaid dreams of ships, cities, people and animals.

Traditionally mermaid for the first time rises to the surface in his sixteen-year-old. It's time to see the land and the daughters of the sea king. The little mermaid, the youngest in the family, had to rise after her sisters. She emerges near the three-mast ship, from the deck of which you can hear the music. In the cabin of the ship the mermaid notices many elegant people, and among them a handsome Prince with big black eyes, like a marble boy from her garden. The ship's crew and guests celebrate his sixteenth birthday cheerfully. In the evening the fireworks begin. In the night sky big suns are spinning the wheel, fiery fish are twisting their tails, and loud music is playing on the deck.

Late in the evening, after the holiday, the sea begins a strong storm. The Prince's ship rolls 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 a monastery, and leaves the Prince on the sand. Soon people run out of the white building to help. Recovering, the Prince smiles I. the little mermaid is sad because she does not smile and did not even know who saved his life. She dives into the water and swims away.

The little mermaid tells all the sisters and they take her to the Prince's Palace. Since then, the little mermaid every evening swims there and looks at the young Prince for a long time. Often she can hear the fishermen talk about the Prince a lot of good, and rejoices that saved him.

The little mermaid asks her grandmother about people and finds out that their age is shorter than that of mermaids. But people have an immortal soul that flies to the sky after the body turns to dust. Mermaids live for three hundred years, but they are not immortal souls. After the death of these, one is sea foam. A mermaid can only get a soul if one of the people loves her and is married by a priest. But it's never gonna happen, because the tail of a fish mermaids are considered beautiful, but people find it ugly. To please a person, it is necessary to get two clumsy props-legs, as they are called by people.

The little mermaid loves the Prince and is ready to do anything to get an immortal soul. Leaving the sisters to dance at the ball, she goes to the sea witch. She agrees to make a drink, after drinking which, fishtail mermaid will turn into a pair of slender legs. While maintaining her graceful gait, but walking will cause terrible pain, the Witch warns that, taking human form, the little mermaid will never return to their native element. If the Prince marries another, the heart of the little mermaid will break apart, and she will become sea foam. To pay for a magic potion witch requires a great voice of the little mermaid. She will have a lovely face, air gait and expressive eyes, "enough to conquer the human heart." Giving the little mermaid a potion, the witch cuts her tongue.

Having come at night to the Palace of the Prince, the little mermaid drinks a magic drink. She is in acute pain. and she's losing consciousness. Waking up in the afternoon, she sees a Prince, and lowering his eyes, finds instead of a fish tail two small, like a child, legs. The Prince is trying 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 air.

In the Palace, the little mermaid is dressed in silk and muslin, and she becomes the first beauty, while Still mute, she dances like no one else danced. Everyone admires it, 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 occurs to him to make her his wife.

At the request of his parents, the Prince goes across the sea to the neighboring king to meet his daughter, and takes a Mermaid. The Prince and the beautiful Princess fall in love, celebrate the engagement, and then the wedding. Soon the time comes to go home, Prince. On the deck of the ship is scattered luxury tent for the newlyweds.

Only one evening remains the little mermaid to stay with those " for whom she left her family and father's house, gave her wonderful voice and suffered endless torments every day, while he did not notice them. ... Long after midnight continued on the ship dancing and music, and the little mermaid laughed and danced with a deadly flour in the heart."

When the ship calms down, the little mermaid remains on the deck to wait for the first rays of the sun. Suddenly, about the ship she sees her sisters with the hair cut they gave their hair to the witch, so she helped save the little mermaid from death. The witch gave them a sharp knife, which the little mermaid must plunge into the heart of the Prince. If his blood gets on her legs, they will grow back into a fish tail, the little mermaid will be the same and live their three hundred years. "Kill the Prince and return to us!",- with these words sister float away.

The little mermaid lifts the curtain of the tent and sees that the head of the beautiful bride lies on the Prince's chest. She kisses the Prince, throws the knife into the waves, which blush like blood-stained, rushes into the sea and her body spreads with sea foam.

After her death, the little mermaid joins the daughters of the air, flying without wings due to its own lightness. Like mermaids, they have no immortal soul. But they can get it for the good deeds that people do. The little mermaid sees the Prince and the bride looking for her all over the ship. Invisible, she kisses the beautiful bride, smiles at the Prince and together with the other children of the air rises to the pink clouds.