The femme fatale hasn't disappeared from fiction. Although the outwardly stoic woman has proliferated through out film and television almost since the beginning

The femme fatale hasn't disappeared from fiction. Although the outwardly stoic woman has proliferated through out film and television almost since the beginning of the silver screen, characters like Catwoman and Harley Quinn are as popular as ever. Whatever merits Ursula's take on these traits may have are overshadowed by her role as a Svengali-Mephisto vis-a-vis an innocent and naive Ariel. Ursula makes a woman out of Ariel (quite literally) not out of a deep and abiding sisterly/motherly love but to advance her own agenda and does so at a terrible price for Ariel. That shouldn't go unnoticed.