Feminist Interpretation of The Seal Wife's Identity Changes

The seal wife has gone through liminality for three times.

1. Mermaid / Seal to Human-like Creature She was a liminal creature that had body like human when she came onto dry land. She would transform back to seal once she were in water again.

2. Mermaid to seal After her stepmother turned her into a seal, her features have changed but she was still the original mermaid inside. Miserable mermaid could only enjoy herself ashore under full moon and be a seal for the rest of the time.

3. Becoming the seal wife Unfortunately, a fisherlad stole her seal skin and made her his wife under no choice. After that, she became the seal wife.

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This analysis focuses on the last change of identity, which is the seal becoming the wife of the fisherlad that gives us insights into feminism. It is clear that the act of marrying a fisherlad was involuntary. There was no way that she could go back to the sea without the seal skin. Besides, she needed to count on somebody for living. This is very similar to the situation of women in the past. No matter in eastern or western society, women's identity was anchored to men. When they were young, they relied upon their father in the family. After getting married, their anchors became husbands and sons. The identity of wife or mother would become more significant to a woman than the identity of daughter after the family unit had changed.

The identity crisis that the seal wife experienced was caused by not being able to be her own self that lived with her family in the sea. She was isolated from environment and community that she loved and was most familiar with.

Source of picture:

http://education.cambridge.org/media/577031/in_the_mix___cambridge_education___cambridge_university_press_samples.pdf