Andersen was influenced by "Undine", another story of a mermaid gaining a soul through marriage, but felt that his ending was an improvement. In 1837, shortly after completing his manuscript, Andersen wrote to a friend, "I have not, like de la Motte Fouqué in "Undine", allowed the mermaid's acquiring of an immortal soul to depend upon an alien creature, upon the love of a human being. I'm sure that's wrong! It would depend rather much on chance, wouldn't it? I won't accept that sort of thing in this world. I have permitted my mermaid to follow a more natural, more divine path." Andersen was concerned that the story’s meanings would appeal best to adults, but wrote in the foreword to "Fairy Tales Told for Children," "I dare presume, however, that the child will also enjoy it and that the denouement itself, plainly considered, will grip the child."