Fairy Tale and Film

Arabian Nights
heroes he is a flawed character, but one who prospers all the same. 
Aladdin immediately capitalises on his good fortune when he comes 
across a magic lamp, the genie within enabling him to attain anything 
he wishes for, and his desires swiftly ascend from securing food and 
a place to live to seeking the hand of the Sultan’s daughter. In such 
patent tales of wish-fulfilment modesty be damned! Aladdin may not 

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Wealth through Stealth 
75
seem particularly deserving of such good fortune yet we are invited to 
sympathise with his humble origins, approve his ambitious nature and 
applaud his ultimate success (the fact that he looks after his widowed 
mother considerably recommending him also). Although Tatar regards 
Aladdin as ‘the prototype of the undeserving hero’ (2003: 88), seem-
ingly because he simply happens upon his magic lamp, we might argue 
that he creates his own fortune in the use he makes of the genie, and 
is made to value his good luck when his wicked ‘uncle’ tries to deceive 
him.
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Nonetheless, while a story about an everyday object with magical 
powers has an obvious allure, as does an ordinary man chancing upon 
such a find, it is easy to understand why such tales might meet with 
official disapproval. Marina Warner has pointed out that its popularity 
in the West stands in direct contrast to the continued condemnation 
of the 
Arabian Nights 
collection in the East – particularly on spiritual 
grounds – with good fortune so often attributed to luck rather than the 
moral character of recipients (2012: 21). 
A similar amorality (or, at the very least, ambivalence) is notable in 
many of the stories collected by the Grimms. In an odd moral code, 
considering their Puritan beliefs, Zipes notes that property rights are 
negligible in many of their collected tales, ‘thievery is an art form’, 
and rarely punished, unless the murder of innocent mortals is involved 
(2002b: 102). The tales also tend to repudiate the idea that prosperity 
comes through toil. Bottigheimer claims that ‘work generally bears 
no measurable or logical relationship to the success that follows’ 
(1987: 126), with magical beings serving as more likely benefactors of 
material rewards, and cunning superseding hard work. In Tatar’s view 
a degree of dishonesty is promoted as a vital life skill: ‘deceit, chican-
ery and slyness are paraded before the reader as the highest virtues; 
without them survival, let alone prosperity, would simply be out of 
reach’ (2003: 122). Neither is this tendency exclusive to the 
Grimm 
Tales
, asserting that ‘readers of almost any major collection of tales will 
discover that these stories also praise thievery, endorse gluttony, value 
cunning, and commend cheating. Lying and stealing are perfectly 
legitimate means for achieving social advancement’ (2003: 164). Those 
who manage to outwit adversaries – or simply find a way to get ahead 
in difficult circumstances – are largely treated as canny heroes rather 
than villains, and it is tempting to identify some political concerns 
at work in such tales and the pleasures they bring. Informed by the 
intense poverty, hunger, harsh living conditions and genuine peril that 
characterised ordinary existence a few centuries ago, it is small wonder 
that a number of stories emerged that reward humble protagonists not 

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76 
Fairy Tale and Film
only with the means of survival, but often vast riches as well. In some 
cases acts of kindness (such as sharing food with a beggar or helping 
an unfortunate creature) are redeemed by unexpected good fortune 
when the benefactor repays the good deed: a message evidently aimed 
to encourage empathy and altruism, even in times of intense need. Yet 
what are we to make of stories that, far from approving acts of virtue 
and compassion, involve cases of outright criminality, including theft 
and murder carried out by presumed heroes simply to advance their cir-
cumstances? The fact that many ostensible heroes make good by using 
their wits, yet also through being prepared to deceive others, affirms 
their kinship with later cinematic crime narratives, and the degree to 
which they are allowed to get away with their crimes also provides an 
interesting point of comparison. As we shall see, greed and self-interest 
may sometimes serve as an impetus to get ahead, yet these traits also 
mark a character’s downfall, not only in tales that are centuries-old but 
those currently reiterated on screen, tempering a lust for lucre with a 
cautionary message about its potential cost. Arguably, we cannot attrib-
ute this simply to religious prohibitions or censorial factors; it seems 
to emanate from a fundamental awareness that the pursuit of wealth 
at all cost, and to the exclusion of others, is inimical to social cohe-
sion and personal contentment. Although fairy tale flirtations with 
criminality tend to be couched in pragmatic terms – ‘get what you can 
get away with’ and ‘do unto others what you suspect they would do to 
you’ – there is always an accompanying concern voiced about the ulti-
mate price of ruthless individualism. In tales from both East and West 
prosperity leads to envy, enmity, and the loss of family and friends.
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Ruthless Grimm heroes who kill everyone in their midst are not exactly 
triumphant figures, from this perspective, and a similar point is made 
in the