Interpretations Of Aladdin: Processing, Structure And Meaning

Social and Feminist Perspective

Discuss about the Processing, Structure and Interpretation.

One of the most popular folk tales of the Middle East, Aladdin is still regarded as the best-known stories of “The Arabian Nights”. The story of Aladdin narrates the life of the son of a poor tailor, Mustapha, who fell prey to the mischief of a money-grubbing and acquisitive sorcerer who tempted and later compelled Aladdin to go down a cave in search of treasured wealth. Although the sorcerer tried his best to persuade Aladdin to go inside a dark cave, so as to fetch him a magical oil lamp, he ends up offering Aladdin a magic ring (Gordon and Jubin 2015). To Aladdin’s greatest astonishment, this ring could produce a wish-fulfilling genie on being vigorously rubbed. Subsequently, he also discovers the magical lamp, and owing to the genies of the lamp and the ring, Aladdin manages to earn much wealth for himself and his family, and gets happily married to the Princess Badroulbadour. The remaining part of the story narrates the adventure of Aladdin as he seeks to protect his genie from the attack of the sorcerer and later his brother.

Aladdin is one of the most eminent tales of “The Arabian Nights”, which has enjoyed an unprecedented popularity among the children over the past decades. However, recent critics and scholars have tried to interpret the simple story in the light of a variety of critical theories and perspectives, some of which has been discussed here (Tuttle et al. 2015). Aladdin is more than a fairy tale, as the very opening lines of the story reflect a stark reality of life. The story holds a picture of grim inequality of classes and social differences, whereby in the city of Agrabah, some maidens are seen to be draped in jewels and gauze, while other people are found starving in the realm of crime and poverty. Although as the story opens, Aladdin’s benevolence is found to transcend class differences, by the ends of the story, his ideals of democracy and social contract seems to override his lust for wealth. At the end of the story, Aladdin is found enjoying his prosperity all for himself and his family.

Besides, the feminist reading of the text has also provided an interesting perspective of the story, that helps the reader delve deeper into the true meaning of the story. Although a highly progressive woman, Jasmine is being over sexualized. Despite being feisty, she ends up being an ineffectual woman, who does nothing more than assuming a docile role throughput the story, refusing to participate in the adventure of Aladdin. Jasmine is refused to be granted the status of an independent woman, as she fails to exercise power over her own life. She is being compelled to marry a Prince against her own will, and she is being continually subject to the authority and even oppression of men, like her father and Jafar (Coyne 2014). She barely succeeds to resist, and to escape the problem, she ends up objectifying herself before Jafar. Besides, it is needless to state here that patriarchy dominates this fantasy tale throughout all the chapters, and even Aladdin himself is being granted agency by the father figures, such as the actual father, the sorcerer and the genie who play a crucial role in determining the fate of Aladdin, and the course of action of the tale.

Psychological Interpretation

However, one of the most interesting interpretations of the tale can be the fact that Aladdin, as a character symbolically represents the true self of each living individual, who is often lost and misled in the realm of false selves. The supposed uncle can symbolically represent a false self, that misleads and misguides Aladdin, and tempts him to go inside the cave in search of the treasured oil lamp. Again, the psychological interpretation of the tale can be equally interesting, as Aladdin as a character can be seen as the symbolic representation of the conscious mind. On the other hand, the genie can be interpreted as the symbolic representation of the subconscious mind (Rahayu et al. 2015). The origin of each thought or course of action of an individual is the subconscious mind that can only help in actualizing the desires of a human being. Similarly, it is the genie which can help Aladdin in the realization of his dream, and is capable of moving the world, and translating his wishes into reality. Besides, the subconscious mind is itself influenced by the presence of a dominant wish, and here the dominant wish is the wish of rubbing the genie (Martins et al. 2016). 

The idioms of any language form an important part of that language, as these idioms help in illuminating the depth of the language. One of the most popular idioms used in Myanmar is “It’s raining cats and dogs”, which literally means that it is raining a lot, and the idiom is being used especially during the monsoon seasons to refer to the rainy weather. Again, another idiom that is also being used in Myanmar language is “there is a snake in the grass”, which is being used to imply the occurrence of an abnormal thing. This idiom is being used usually, when something occurs, that cannot be considered to be normal, and there is something fishy, suspicious or eerie about it (Cacciari and Tabossi 2014). The third popular idiom used in the Myanmar language is “take the bread out of somebody’s mouth”, that literally means depriving someone of earning livelihood for his family, by one mean or the other. To “bite off more than you can chew” is also a very commonly used idiom, popular in Myanmar. The idiom literally means a situation where an individual tries to do something that exceeds his capability. The last most important idiom that is also being used in Myanmar is “the lights are on, but nobody is at home”, which means a scenario where none is paying any kind of heed to an individual.

The tendency of the writer to employ the use of unnecessary words and phrases in the writing is referred to as the redundancy in writings. Redundancy as a feature, characterizing the writings, often deteriorates the quality of writing, by making the writing seem longer, and the content irrelevant.  

A writer usually incorporates the quality of redundancy in his writings, as he may be willing to increase his word count, by using additional words, the omission of which would not affect the content in any way (Bennui 2016). Besides, a common reason of using the redundant style of writing is that it may help the writer describe the scenario in a more vivid and elaborate fashion. Besides, redundancy is often used for emphasizing a fact.

Idioms in the Myanmar Language

The writer should minimize the use of redundancy in his writing, as it renders a superfluous style to the writing, no matter how much interesting the content is. The five examples of redundancy are being stated below:

• Actual fact- A fact is essentially a bit of information that is actual, and is based on real facts, and hence the use of “actual” is redundant.
• Past history- There is no point in referring the historical time as past
• Plan ahead- As an when an individual is planning, he s planning for the time ahead, and hence the word “ahead” is redundant
• Unexpected surprise- A surprise is always unexpected, and hence it is a surprise
• Unintentional mistake- A mistake committed is always unintentional.

An attention grabbing news doing the rounds in Singapore is that a recent café has been set up in the country, which is themed on the story of Harry Potter. Inspired by the fantasy tale, the Platform 1094 Café, intends to conjure the magical, spell-bound world of Hogwarts, and hence the café has a wooden interior that will certainly create an eerie feel in the mind of the customer. Besides, what is even more interesting is that the food items offered by the café are also named keeping in mind the craze of the novel series, and thus the café served items like a cocktail, named Goblet of Fire.

The topic sentence of the news article is the set up of the Harry Potter themed café in Singapore. The main point here is that for the first time, a café is being set up the interior as well as the food menu of which is inspired by the Hogwarts. The first supporting point here is that the café tries to conjure a  magical atmosphere by creating a wooden and brick interior, and the second supporting sentence is that it serves food items such as Goblet of Fire, for the same.

Paraphrasing is defined as the act of expressing the same content, by employing the use of a different style, vocabulary and expression. The literary text as well as the paraphrased text are being used for expressing the same meaning, though the two barely resemble in the style or vocabulary.

The best way to manage your stress is to learn healthy coping strategies. You can start practicing these tips right away. Try one or two until you find a few that work for you. Practice these techniques until they become habits you turn to when you feel stress. You can also use these strategies to see how you respond to stress. Stress-relief techniques focus on relaxing your mind and your body.

In order to cope with stress related issues, one should learn the different coping strategies. The coping strategies can be daily practiced to get rid of the stress. A couple of strategies can be used for relaxing the body. These techniques should be learnt so that these can be used during the period of personal or professional stress. These strategies will help you understand how you should respond to stressful situations. The stress coping techniques help in relieving the mind as well as the body of the stress.

For helping a friend learn foreign words, he has been so far unaware of I will primarily recommend a dictionary. A good dictionary will help the friend comprehend the possible meanings of the unknown words easily. Besides, I will also ask him to note down the meanings of these words in his diary, which he can refer to, as and when he forgets the meanings. Besides, I will also ask him to use the word parts, such as the prefixes and the suffixes, to understand the meaning of the words in an elaborate way. Besides, the context clues can also be used for confirming the meaning of the unknown word or phrase.

Reference List:

Bennui, P., 2016. A study of L1 intereference in the writing of Thai EFL students. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 4(1), p.31.

Cacciari, C. and Tabossi, P., 2014. Idioms: Processing, structure, and interpretation. Psychology Press.

Coyne, J.D., 2014. Aladdin in a Colonic Crypt. International journal of surgical pathology, p.1066896914526780.

Gordon, R. and Jubin, O., 2015. ‘Telling the tale’: Adaptation as interpretation. Studies in Musical Theatre, 9(1), pp.3-11.

Martins, J.A., Nascimento, M.M. and Estrada, A., 2016. The wonderful lamp of Aladdin? Project work in engineering courses.

Rahayu, M., Abdullah, I. and Udasmoro, W., 2015. “ALADDIN” From Arabian Nights To Disney: The Change Of Discourse And Ideology. LiNGUA: Jurnal Ilmu Bahasa dan Sastra, 10(1), pp.24-34.

Rahayu, M., Abdullah, I. and Udasmoro, W., 2015. “ALADDIN” from arabian nights to disney: the change of discourse and ideology. Lingua: Jurnal Ilmu Bahasa dan Sastra, 10(1), pp.24-34.

Tuttle, B.T., Anderson, S., Elvidge, C., Ghosh, T., Baugh, K. and Sutton, P., 2014. Aladdin’s Magic Lamp: Active Target Calibration of the DMSP OLS. Remote Sensing, 6(12), pp.12708-12722.