Ariel is so obsessed with her lust for the human world that she disregards her father’s warnings. She pursues their items to understand them better. The irony lies in that we, as the audience, know the information she gets from Scuttle (Buddy Hackett) is completely inaccurate.
Her “treasures” represent her lust for the surface. She “want[s] to be where the people are.” But it’s not even that she just wants to be in the human world. She wants to be a human, “to live out of these waters”. She lusts for legs and that lust brings her into dangerous situations.
One of the dangerous actions she commits to, at least in King Triton’s (Kenneth Mars) eyes, is saving Prince Eric (Christopher Daniel Barnes). But she thinks coming into physical contact with a human is one of the most exciting things she has ever done.
The third huge risk she takes is allowing Ursula to turn her into a human when she was under the ocean. Lusting for a life away from her “father and sisters”, she commits to the potential of being “human permanently”. It is not even guaranteed, but she wants it so bad she signs the contract.
After she becomes human, her lust to be human gives way to her already building love for Prince Eric. She is happy being human and “explore that shore up above”. However, her happiness will be eternal if she can stay with him.
Now let’s switch to someone else’s lust... Ursula lusts after making Ariel a part of “her little garden”. She is frustrated when Ariel almost gets the kiss; so, she cheats and uses Ariel’s voice against her. All of this is to lure Triton into a trap where Ursula becomes queen and “the ocean will be” hers.
And her lust ultimately leads to her death. She cannot handle the power she gets from Triton. Thus her sinful lust ends tragically.
However, Ariel’s lust ends in love. She does lust to be human, but “she really does love [Eric]”. Although lust is a deadly sin, hers changes into love which leads to Triton giving her what she wants.
I am always open to new and interesting interpretations of movies. An interpretation of female sexuality through this film is something new to consider.
As always, a feminist point of view is welcome here.
And I offer one more involving six different approaches to analyze this movie.
Thank you for reading! See you next week!