The Female Antagonist In 'The Little Mermaid'

Throughout the early history of storytelling, the antagonist has existed as a plot device, to which Bulman defined as a character that ‘usually represents negative things, while the protagonist espouses positive values.’ (Bulman, 2006, 17). He goes on to expand on the device’s use of conflict and how it is a necessary building block of creative storytelling. This analysis will explore the state of existence of the female antagonist, who has long been argued to be held in a transgressive state of bondage compared to the male. A woman who – as Mallan infers – is ‘largely drawn from literary and cultural stereotypes (e.g. the witch and the evil woman who lures, controls, and conspires).’ (Mallan, 2000, 26-35) and a woman who - when compared to
However, one of the more prominent and recognisable forms of obsession is the ‘sea witch’ Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1989). Ursula is an exemplary case of the ‘female grotesque’, someone which Mallan describes as ‘…like Cruella, is a hybrid – half woman, half animal.’ (Mallan, op, cit.). She is powerful, insidious and filled with parody, and as Sells suggests, she is ‘a drag queen who destabilizes gender as she performs it.’ (Sells, 1995, 13), straying far from the canon of ‘…middle-aged beauty at its peak of sexuality and authority.’ (Bell, 1995, 108) mentioned earlier in this analysis. Comparatively to the aforementioned Maleficent, Ursula breaks all the boundaries of how a female antagonist presents herself to the audience. For instance, Maleficent is a physically elegant and an overall intimidating villain in appearance, whilst Ursula commands a more playfully ominious presence, something where Trite describes “…the mature female body as ominously menacing.” (Trites, 1991, 149). Russo continues this by arguing that "The grotesque body is the open, protruding, extended, secreting body, the body of becoming, process, and change [...] opposed to the classical body, which is monumental, static, closed, and sleek" (Russo, 1988, 219), and in the case of Ursula, is highly apparent in the way her appearance – and her motives – subvert roles and expectations of a Disney feature. She mocks the classic Femme Fatale, an icon most famously played by – and probably most renowned for the trope – Jessica Rabbit, of the Warner Bros. and Disney collaboration ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ (1981). In addition, this theme of subversion