When reading Oscar Wilde\u2019s \u201cThe Fisherman and His Soul\u201d the Fisherman reels in a mermaid instead of fish in his net. Upon examining her he clasps her in his arms and she screams in an attempt to escape, only causing him to hold her tighter. The Fisherman believes that anything caught in his nest belongs to him and the mermaid is his prize. When the mermaid realizes she could not escape she begins to weep and begs for freedom. The Fisherman says \u201cI will not let thee go save thou makest me a promise that whenever I call thee, though wilt come and sing to me, for the fish delight to listen to the song of the Sea-folk, and so shall my nets be full\u201d (Wilde). The extraordinary being becomes a slave to the Fisherman\u2019s pleasure and labor. This phenomenon is discussed by Rosemarie Thomson in her introduction to \u201cFrom Wonder to Error\u2014A Genealogy of Freak Discourse in Modernity\u201d that Extraordinary bodies exist solely for pleasing man, who is destined to be its master (Thomson 3).
\nThe mermaid is an object of wonder that the Fisherman wishes to further utilize past her assistance in his fishing work. The Fisherman attempts to further his bargain with the mermaid, requesting her hand in marriage. The mermaid rejects him stating that because he has a human soul, she is unable to love him. He must send his soul away in order for it to work. Despite the suggestion, she has no knowledge of how to get rid of one\u2019s human soul and laughs in pleasure in response to the Fisherman\u2019s proclamation to send away his own soul. The rejection was not an option and he is fixated on the exotic otherness and beauty of the mermaid.
\nThomson states that extraordinary body forms are rare, unique, material and confounding of cultural categories, they exist as magnets which able-bodied people attach their anxieties, questions, and needs to at any given moment. The body exists to be exploited and useful to everyone but the body itself (Thomson 2). The mermaid is a magnet that the Fisherman secures his needs upon. Throughout the story, the Fisherman never is shown to converse with the mermaid about things other than wanting her. The relationship seems quite one-sided and only exists due to his threat of imprisoning her if she did not uphold her promise.
\nThe relationship between the mermaid and the Fisherman only exists because of the power the Fisherman has over the mermaid. The Fisherman kidnaps her into his net and in turn for allowing her to leave she should be grateful and fulfill his needs with love and his nest with fish. This request is quite unreasonable and unfair. For example, if a child was ensnared in a bear trap outside of someone\u2019s home and the homeowner freed the child while expecting the child to return daily with food. The homeowner feels like the child owes them if the child did not walk into the bear trap they might have gotten food or their flock may have been saved from the wolves. The child should be grateful the homeowner saved them and should return daily with food even though that person\u2019s house was what inconvenienced\/injured them. The bargain is not fair.
\nThe conflict that initiates the story is the plight of having the mermaid, and despite this, the plot quickly takes a turn into a new conflict and neglects to give much personality to the source of the Fisherman\u2019s desire that caused him to forsake his soul. \u201cDisabled limbs became a thing of wonder for rich people to collect for their cabinet of wonders\u201d (Thomson 2). The mermaid is only depicted as an accessory to have and is not given much expression or personality, she is something that the Fisherman claims undying loving for and the affection she may eventually grow for him is never depicted. The story seems to parallel to winning a prize such as a car and having it break, it is sad that such a valuable possession should die or break. However, this sadness is only for the owner, the sorrow is not felt for inanimate objects or prizes such as the mermaid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When reading Oscar Wilde\u2019s \u201cThe Fisherman and His Soul\u201d the Fisherman reels in a mermaid instead of fish in his net. Upon examining her he clasps her in his arms and she screams in an attempt to escape, only causing him to hold her tighter. The Fisherman believes that anything caught in his nest belongs … Continue reading “April\u2019s Response to Oscar Wilde\u2019s Fisherman and His Soul”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papJgd-fX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":999,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions\/999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}