Tools of Characterization

Characterization in Aladdin

Clothing

They say clothes make the man, or in Aladdin's case, they make the prince. As soon as Aladdin wishes to be a prince, the Genie gives him a head-to-toe makeover:

GENIE: First, that fez and vest combo is much too third century. These patches—what are we trying to say—beggar? No! Let's work with me here.

One thing's for sure: Aladdin definitely needs it. His clothes before his extreme makeover are shabby to say the least. He's got pants, a vest, and a hat. That's about it. And those items aren't even in the best shape. All of this is pointing you to one fact: Aladdin doesn't have much in the way of cash.

Contrast Aladdin to Jasmine, who wears a sapphire crown along with a gorgeous flowing sea-green ensemble with gold hoop earrings and a matching necklace. Her outfit isn't gaudy, but this girl has clearly got a closet stocked full of royal couture.

Then there's Jafar. Seriously, how do people not know he's evil? His clothes totally give him away. He's dressed head to toe in extravagantly wicked outfits that prominently feature black and red. He also carries around that creepy-looking snake staff everywhere. For real, his clothes are just screaming VILLAIN.

Family Life

Right off the bat, we find out just how alone Aladdin is in this world. In addition to having to steal to eat, he's got no family to look out for him:

WOMEN: Oh, it's sad Aladdin's hit the bottom,
He's become a one-man rise in crime.
I'd blame parents, except he hasn't got 'em!

Poor Aladdin. Who knows how long this kid's been living by himself on the streets of Agrabah, but this is a real heartbreaker: he's an orphan with only a monkey for a friend.

Of course, having family isn't always all it's cracked up to be. Jasmine's mother isn't in the picture, but she's got her father, the Sultan, who's a few chips short of a full pita platter. He's constantly on her to marry a prince (really, just any prince—pick one). And he's completely oblivious to the fact that his royal vizier is manipulating him.

Jafar also doesn't seem to have any family, but that doesn't bum him out in the slightest: he's fine going it alone. He's also not above forcing people to join his evil empire, for example when he tries to trick the Sultan into giving him Jasmine as a wife and, when that fails, wishing for Jasmine to fall in love with him. Nice try, Jafar, but even the Genie knows you can't make someone love you.

Social Status

Our hero is a poor, orphaned street rat who started out at the bottom of the social ladder, but he believes that his luck is going to take a turn somehow:

ALADDIN: Someday, Abu, things are gonna change. We'll be rich, live in a palace, and never have any problems at all.

We're not sure how he's going to make those dreams come true, but it's always good to have goals.

Jasmine, on the other hand, was born at the top of the socio-economic ladder, but she's tired of looking down on everyone:

SULTAN: But Jasmine, you're a princess.

JASMINE: Then maybe I don't want to be a princess.

Basically, Jasmine's ready to slide to the bottom of the ladder and see what's going on down there. (Hint: it's mostly poor people scraping to survive.)

We're not entirely sure where Jafar started out, as far as social status goes, since we never get any backstory for him. We just know that, at the start of the movie, he's worked his way up to the position of royal vizier. That means he's so close to achieving his goal of becoming sultan that he can practically taste the power. Jafar's gonna climb that social ladder no matter what—even if that means pushing everyone else off to their deaths.

Hey, he is the villain. What else did you expect?