Fishtails!...Blacksmithing!

A story I think is similar to Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens is the original story of The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Anderson. In both books the main character longs for something they've always wanted. For Pip, its to become a gentleman, and for the mermaid (Sirenetta! Not Ariel!) its becoming a human. Both Pip and Sirenetta/Ariel want those things because of love. When the time finally comes that Pip and Sirenetta get what they want it isn't as great as they thought it would be. London reveals itself as dirty, ugly, and a dissapointment. The Prince is in love with somebody else and Sirenetta's feet hurt a lot when she walks (a curse). A common theme between these two stories is to be content with what you already have. Pip and Sirenetta were both exposed to something that changed their lives. Pip met Miss Havisham and Estella. Sirenetta finds and saves the prince. Instead of acting impulsively, they could have stayed put and refused to go any further.

When Pip first met Miss Havisham the first link of a chain started to form. Sirenetta's started when she fell in love with the prince and saved him from dieing.

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P.S. Read the REAL Little Mermaid story here! (apparently Anderson modified the ending later to make it less gruesome so this story ends happily kind of)

http://www.yankeeweb.com/library/storytime/grimmbros/grimmbros_32.html

This is off topic, but...

(I didn't write this summary!)

In the original sleeping beauty, the lovely princess is put to sleep when she pricks her finger on a spindle. She sleeps for one hundred years when a prince finally arrives, kisses her, and awakens her. They fall in love, marry, and (surprise surprise) live happily ever after. But alas, the original tale is not so sweet (in fact, you have to read this to believe it.) In the original, the young woman is put to sleep because of a prophesy, rather than a curse. And it isn’t the kiss of a prince which wakes her up: the king (her father) seeing her asleep, and rather fancying having a bit, rapes her. After nine months she gives birth to two children (while she is still asleep). One of the children sucks her finger which removes the piece of flax which was keeping her asleep. She wakes up to find herself raped and the mother of two kids.