Get yourself a man like Aladdin?...I
think nah. This classic rags to riches story does not even hesitate to start
its mission, as in the first five words we already see “poor” being used to describe
Aladdin. To only further accentuate the poorness and characteristics of
Aladdin, the word “idle” is repeated twice within the same sentence. From just these
two sentences, I could infer that this story would involve some path for
Aladdin to achieve greatness of some sort. Guess I was right. Anyways, with a deeper
retrospection of reading this fairy tale, a few scenes really stood out to me.
When his “newly
found uncle” was describing the treasure, the young boy was in a subordinate
position as he was left to obey his commands. This is significant because at
the end of the story, Aladdin’s character drastically shifts to almighty,
wealthy, and powerful. In one of the orders he says, “Go through them without
touching anything, or you will die instantly. These halls lead into a garden of
fine fruit things.” I couldn’t help but relate this back to a biblical
allusion. Aladdin is going to find the oil lamp that will drastically change
his life (which I will talk about later), however this could be seen just like
the apple in the Garden of Eden. Attaining such a powerful device can tempt its
user to abuse the powers it can give. And just like the snake that pushed them
into biting the apple, the magician (not going to refer to him as the uncle
anymore because I mean… come on) pushes Aladdin towards obtaining the oil lamp.
This idea of religion is interesting to me, especially after reading the two
other excerpts about the translations and such. Was this included in the original/other
versions of Aladdin? Could this be Western/European influence? Those are
questions that I don’t know the answer to, however could assume what they would
be.
Okay. You
are watching a girl bathe. Again, get yourself a man like Aladdin? Nope. This
story perpetuates gender roles so much it is almost disgusting. The love
between Aladdin and the Princess is so superficial because: 1) He used magical
powers that he luckily got to get her 2) Does she even have a name? 3) The tale
makes the Princess seem very dumb and easily tricked while Aladdin is over here
just making his genie doing all the work. 4) “Who values her at such a price” ….
I don’t think that line needs any explanation.
Overall,
this original tale had me more engaged than the others. I was cringing at many
parts, while also questioning just had quick some of the events occurred. Like
at the end, the dupester was murdered and they just moved on within a sentence.
Maybe that was done intentionally to make sure the focus stayed on Aladdin and the
magic lamp, but I really got some Hamlet flashbacks with this one. I also had
thought that genie’s grant three wishes, but seriously, this poor genie was a
slave to Aladdin, and I would’ve been pissed off at the end too. It will be
interesting to see how this tale intersects with the Disney version as I forget
much of the film. I know I can predict that there won’t be any bath scene… at
least I hope.
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