Mary Ness argued that "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" shared a message of rejecting the status quo and rebelling against masters/those of greater importance. I could definitely see aspects of this; beyond what she stated in her article, another example of power-switching occurred when the collective peoples rebelled against the Vizier, ultimately saving Aladdin’s life. However, I definitely noticed aspects of the story that I didn’t find quite as inspiring.
Aladdin, coming from humble and lazy roots, became a powerful king by the end of the story. His rise to the crown stemmed from him superficially seeing the Princess and instantaneously falling in love. Spurred by this, he began flexing his wealth through multiple materialistic demonstrations, including building an enormous palace covered by jewels. Mary Ness discussed how Aladdin was actually quite humble and frugal at first considering the amount of power he had, but, from my perspective, Aladdin abused his power with the lamp in generating wealth. It may be due to my cliche mindset that hard work leads to success, but, to me, Aladdin’s ability to get whatever he desired through his lamp highlighted the importance of luck over hard work in achieving success. In addition, the Sultan’s demands for showboat demonstrations of wealth emphasized the materialistic nature of society, exposing how people are willing to bend towards those with money and flashy possessions. (Not exactly the most inspirational and optimistic message, in my opinion.) The story stresses the importance of these demonstrations of wealth, emphasizing materialism and superficiality by showcasing what can be achieved through greed and wealth.
Not to my surprise, the story was interwoven throughout by sexist themes. Throughout the story, the women were pushed around, typically at the beckoning of the males. For example, Aladdin’s mother didn’t have much of a role in the story other than being Aladdin’s messenger. The Princess was desired by pretty much every male character in the story for marriage, and they were willing to do anything to obtain her love, including utilizing manipulation, as performed by Aladdin and attempted by the magician. It’s sad that her main defining characteristic was her beauty and position as the Princess (essentially an “object of desire”), not a particularly empowering portrayal. The men, such as the magician and his brother, were very cunning and capable of trickery (which demonstrates brains in my opinion). Meanwhile, the Princess would fall victim to this, evident through how the brother of the magician pretended to be the holy woman Fatima and effectively tricked the Princess. Aladdin had to save them in this incident by killing the magician’s brother, and also in the prior incident in Africa where he thought of the plan to poison the magician. The reason that the magician gained the lamp in the first place was because the Princess unwittingly offered it in a trade not realizing its value, a “wrong” action that Aladdin had to right. The passiveness and dumbed-down nature of the women in the story demonstrate the more misogynistic nature of the story.
There were many aspects of this translated version of Aladdin that I was not a fan of, but the legacy of the story is undeniable, and reading this now for the first time offers a different version of Aladdin to think about, especially with the live action coming out soon!
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