Mermaids

I wrote recently that in one of the Peter Pan graphic novels I read, the mermaids have a treasure which they hide from Hook. This is not from the original tale, but anything that gives the female characters more agency in the story is fine with me. This remains one of my all-time favorite stories, but the messages it contains about gender are a little problematic for me. The female characters are all very underdeveloped. Mrs. Barrie is the mother, so she is automatically Other in a story about eternal childhood. Tinkerbell spends her life serving a self-centered boy (and then he doesn't even remember her after she eventually dies), and Wendy is a damsel in distress. The female characters that have captured our imaginations, but receive very little critical examination, are the mermaids

Chapter 8 of Peter and Wendy is titled The Mermaid Lagoon, but the mermaids are only featured in the beginning of it. Barrie soon moves onto describing Wendy as a young mother, and how she insists the children rest between eating their mid-day meal and swimming, and then of course comes the familiar part where Captain Hook intends to leave Tiger Lily on Marooner's Rock to perish.

"If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. But just before they go on fire you see the lagoon. This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids singing."

It's worth noting that the mermaids did not appear in the early stage productions of Peter Pan; they were introduced in the 1911 novelization of the play titled Peter and Wendy. They usually do not appear in stage productions of the story (probably because of the logistics of depicting underwater creatures with the limitations of live stage) but they often appear in the film versions.

 I wanted to compare a couple of the different renderings of mermaids as we've seen in movies, so I'll begin with the Disney movie, since that's the first Peter Pan movie most people see, and think of.

According to Barrie's original description of a lagoon made up of lovely pale colors, the animators did a superb job. We see that they adore Peter, while they are instantly jealous of Wendy, and resent her presence. They taunt her, and try to drag her into the water.

The are not given any description in Hook, except for the couple of minutes they are on screen. Peter Banning has fallen into the water, and cannot swim since his hands are bound behind his back. The mermaids appear almost instantly, smiling and each gives him a long kiss, exhaling into his mouth so that he can breathe. It's as if they have missed him, and are welcoming him back.

The mermaids from the 2003 adaptation were a stark contrast to all the other ethereal, feminine creatures. In this film, Wendy comments that they look "sweet", and Peter warns her "They'll sweetly drown you if you get too close."

It seems like a departure from Barrie, but it actually is in keeping with his text. Barrie writes:

 "The most haunting time at which to see them is at the turn 

of the moon, when they utter strange wailing cries; but the 

lagoon is dangerous for mortals then"

The 2003 film is pretty light-hearted, so it's interesting that the filmmakers chose to portray the mermaids this way, rather than the typical, super-feminine troupe of Pan groupies.

The 2015 prequel Pan depicted the mermaids as all identical to one another, which also detracts from any kind of agency they might have, because it's like saying that all women might as well be the same. These mermaids have electric eel like tails, which they use to fight off the crocodile as he threatens to drag Peter down to the depths. They don't really say much, and it seems their purpose is mainly just to save Peter.  .  .

The last film I wanted to include in the 1924 silent film:

The mermaids are shown sitting on the shore, sunning themselves and playing with bubbles (balls) when we first see Neverland. Later, after the Wendy and the Lost Boys are kidnapped by the pirates, Peter pleads with the Mermaid Queen. She seems to be friendly with the Crocodile, and allows the croc to accompany Peter to the pirate ship to fight Captain Hook, because of course Hook is terrified of the beast who swallowed his hand.

So it seems that mermaids represent a pretty simplistic view of women: they are either meant to save men, or they are a threat to them. I guess when I want to think of a mermaid as a strong character, I'll have to just stick to Ariel.