“Okay, so
Beauty was a nice person. I still don’t think she
should be a role model,” voiced Emily.
“And why not?”
asked her mother.
“Because she is
too perfect. She’s selfless, kind, giving, blah,
blah, blah. She’s perfect. What woman do you know that is
perfect? Do you think it is good that girls are striving to
attain a perfection that they will never achieve? Probably give
them low self-esteem or a eating disorder or something.”
“Oh, so I guess
since it is wrong to seek perfection we should all sit
around, do nothing, and be rude to everyone, right? Then we won’t
have low self-esteem and all.”
Lauren, the
English major in college had this to say, “All right, so
you think that all Princesses are perfect. Well, I will have you
know that there is at least one Princess who isn’t perfect; in fact,
she made quite a few foolish choices.”
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
There
once was a boy who was the son of a poor
tailor. This boy was Aladdin and he was a slacker. His
laziness so disappointed his father
that he died. But not his death or his mother’s sadness would
get Aladdin to stop being lazy. One day, a magician came to
Aladdin, claiming to be his father’s brother, Aladdin’s uncle.
Aladdin believed him and the magician gave him gifts and then led him
away from the town into a mountain far away. The magician then
revealed a hidden cave. He sent Aladdin into the cave, with his
ring for luck, telling him to bring him a lamp he would find in the
cave and to not touch any of the treasures he saw there.
Aladdin retrieved the lamp but, not
trusting the magician very much, Aladdin would not hand him the lamp
until he was out of the cave. The magician grew very angry at
this and magically sealed the cave with Aladdin in it. Aladdin
wandered the cave for days, unsuccessfully trying to escape. By
accident, he rubbed the ring that the magician had given him.
Immediately a genie appeared, telling Aladdin that he was at his
command. Aladdin asked the genie to take him home, and he was
home immediately. At home, Aladdin rubbed the lamp, and this time
the genie appeared from the lamp. Aladdin asked the genie for food,
which appeared on silver plates. Aladdin and his mother ate the
food and sold the plates and they lived like this for several months.
One day, all of the town’s people were ordered to
stay indoors. The Sultan’s daughter was going to go through town
to bathe in a nearby pond. But Aladdin wanted to see the Princess
and peeked at
her. He fell instantly in love and begged his mother to go to the
Sultan so he could marry the Princess. His mother went, and she
waited for days to speak to the Sultan. He was impressed by this
but the Sultan didn’t want his precious daughter to live in poverty and
told
Aladdin that he must provide a great treasure before he could marry his
daughter. Aladdin easily did this with the help of the
genie. The Sultan then allowed Aladdin to marry his daughter.
When the Princess saw Aladdin she fell in love with
him. With the help of the genie
Aladdin built a great palace where the two lived very happily.
Now the old magician heard of all
of this and he realized that the genie must be doing all of these
wondrous things. He dressed as a beggar and began to yell through
the streets “Old lamps for new lamps!” The Princess heard the old
man yelling this and she looked at Aladdin's old lamp. She knew
that the lamp was very important to Aladdin, but she could get ten
brand-new lamps for his old one. She decided that she would trade
lamps
and sent one of her maids out with Aladdin's lamp. Once the
magician had the lamp, he stole Aladdin’s palace and the Princess in it.
Aladdin had been away hunting and, when he returned,
he was taken to the Sultan and told that his palace and the Princess
had mysteriously disappeared. The Sultan then told Aladdin that
he had forty days to find his precious Princess and return her or
Aladdin would
be beheaded.
Aladdin set off and wandered around for days asking
anyone if they knew where the Princess was. He knew the magician
had done this. Who else could have done this. But, where
had the
magician
gone? Then one day he happened to glance at his ring. He
rubbed it, hoping the genie would appear even without the lamp.
The genie appeared and Aladdin asked the genie to take him to the
Princess. The genie did this and Aladdin found his Princess who
was overjoyed to see him. The magician had been holding her
prisoner and telling her she should marry him. But the Princess
loved Aladdin and she was so sad that the magician mostly left her
alone.
Together
Aladdin and the Princess devised a plan to poison the
magician. Aladdin gave the Princess a poison and told her to give
it to the magician without him knowing. That night she joined the
magician for dinner and when he wasn't looking poured the poison in his
drink. When he was unconscious, she took the lamp to
Aladdin. With the lamp they returned the Palace back home.
And Aladdin and the Princess lived happily ever after.
“So you see, Emily, this Princess almost cost her
Prince everything. She was far from perfect but Aladdin still
loved her and together they overcame obstacles to be together.”
But teenagers are very stubborn and loathe to admit
they are wrong. Emily wasn't going to quit now. . .
Author's Note: Aladdin and
the Wonderful lamp is a much longer and detailed story. I had to
shorten the story quite a bit, but I did not change the story very
much. I left out a few plot lines, such as the Princess being engaged
and an evil spirit that fools the Princess but not the genie. I
have continued the frame from the last story at the
beginning of the story and have used the frame to comment on the story
at the end. I thought that this story was more similar than
different to the Disney version. The characters aren't as defined
in the story and they aren't as likeable as their Disney
versions either. And while this story did contain
elements of magic, there was no flying carpet or singing, my favorite
parts.
Bibliography
Story Title: Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
Story URL
Author: Andrew Lang
Book Title: The Blue Fairy Book
Year Published: 1889
Image Information
Image Title: Genie
Lamp
Original
Image
Image Title: Aladdin's Palace
Original
Image
Image Title: Genie
Original
Image
Image Title: Aladdin and Jasmine
Original
Image
Coverpage Introduction Beauty and the Beast
Cinderella
The Little Mermaid
