Review Assignment: Not a Prize to Be Won

In most respects, Jasmine is unlike Snow White and Aurora but very much like Ariel.  Aurora is passive – a true damsel in distress – and Snow White is only a little more active, although she did show her adaptability when she ran away from her wicked stepmother and worked as a housekeeper for the dwarves (note: traditional women's work).  On the other hand, both Ariel and Jasmine are very active.  Aurora and Snow White don't show much curiosity about the world outside of the one into which they were born, whereas both Ariel and Jasmine do.  Neither Aurora nor Snow White are rebellious, whereas both Ariel and Jasmine are.  Ariel wants to become a human and live on the land, and she defies her father's desire for her to remain under the sea.  Jasmine wants to marry for love rather than marry the man her father wants her to marry – she isn't a prize to be won.  She also disobeys the Islamic prohibition against being with a man who isn't her husband or a family member unsupervised – she sneaks out of the Sultan's palace to go on a magic carpet ride with Aladdin.  Aurora and Snow White and Ariel all marry princes, but not Jasmine.  Aurora didn't really have much of a choice – she was asleep until she was awakened by Prince Philip's kiss.  Snow White had a definite desire to marry a prince: she made this clear in her song "Some day my prince will come", and she managed to do so.  Ariel's first ambition wasn't to marry a prince but rather to be part of a different world, and her attraction to Prince Eric was based on his character rather than his royal blood.  Jasmine rejects Jafar, who, although not a prince, is more highly born than Aladdin, and she marries Aladdin instead.  Jasmine differs from Ariel in that she is more hungry for power, and she isn't averse to using it hurt others if necessary: she threatens to get rid of Jafar if she is forced to marry him because she thinks that he has killed Aladdin.  Ariel, like both Aurora and Snow White, is a gentle soul who wouldn't harm a fly, but then she has no reason to harm anyone, whereas Jasmine has a valid reason to get rid of Jafar.