Hereās one of the reasons I donāt buy the cynical interpretation that Ariel gives up her identity for a man.
This screencap comes from her introductory scene. Sheās searching through a shipwreck for human artifactsāwhich is her passionāwhen suddenly sheās attacked by a shark.
While fleeing, she accidentally drops her bag full of artifacts right in the sharkās path. Without hesitating, she chooses her passion over her safety, risking her life for a dinglehopper.
The girl is an anthropologist who studies humans. Thatās her passion, thatās how she spends her timeā¦thatās her identity.
Sure, Eric is the catalyst that leads Ariel to changing her species and leaving her familyāhe certainly intensifies her feelingsābut theyāre feelings she already has, and they dictate most of her life.
If Ariel had the chance to become a human before she met Eric, everything that we know about her suggests that she probably would.