從美人魚的靈魂論人魚、水精童話中之兩性關係

Gender Relations in Fairy Tales of Mermaids and Water Nymphs With Reference to the Soul of a Mermaid

林愛華(Ai-Hua Lin)

《東吳外語學報》 23期 (2006/09) Pp. 1-19

https://doi.org/10.29737/SJFLL.200609.0001

摘要

有關美人魚（或水精、水妖）的故事自古即有，從希臘神話、中古傳說以至格林童話中都有水精出現，而其中最引人入勝的還是美人魚與人類男性結合的淒美故事。傳說中的美人魚是沒有靈魂的，死去即化為泡沫，只有與人類結合後才能獲得靈魂及救贖，死後才能進入天堂。富凱(Friedrich de la Motte-Fouquè)的童話「溫蒂娜」(Undine)，安徒生(Hans Christian Andersen)的故事「小美人魚」皆是描述追求靈魂的水精或小美人魚的故事，只有王爾德(Oscar Wilde)的童話「漁夫與他的靈魂」(The Fisherman and His Soul)逆向操作，敘述人類為了與人魚結合，寧可拋開世俗與教會所極力推崇的不滅靈魂，跳進海裡，與異類結合。本文將藉著這三篇童話故事，分析人魚、水精的形象、其宗教的背景以及所反映的兩性關係。

關鍵字

水精 ； 美人魚 ； 靈魂 ； 安徒生童話 ； 王爾德童話

並列摘要

Stories about mermaids or water nymphs have been with us since time immemorial. Such legendary creatures appear in literature from Greek mythology, medieval folklore, down to Grimm's Fairy Tales. Among the most intriguing are those sad but fascinating stories about the union of mermaids with male humans. Legend has it that mermaids do not have souls, and they metamorphose into spume when they die. Only when they mate with humans can they find their soul and salvation, and ascend to a kind of heaven after death. Friedrich de la Motte-Fouquè's Undine and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid both depict such soul-searching creatures. But Oscar Wilde's The Fisherman and His Soul does just the opposite. In this story, the human would rather abandon the immortal soul, so highly esteemed by the secular world and the church, and jump into the sea to seek the union with one from a different species. This paper tries to analyze these three fairy tales in terms of their religious backgrounds, the gender relations reflected in these stories, and the images of mermaids and water nymphs.

並列關鍵字

water nymph ； mermaid ； soul ； Hans Christian Andersen ； Oscar Wilde ； fairy tale

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