Jerome Clinton’s article The madness and cure in the 1001 nights is intended to look at the psychoanalytic side of king Shahriyar’s problem with females and the way Shahrazard uses her wit and the art of story telling to stop her husbands murderous rampage. Clinton uses a female’s perspective on how the stories are viewed instead of the male’s perspective. Clinton also argues that the actions of king shahriyar are not just a brazen result both his brother’s and his own wives infidelity. Clinton uses the idea that king Shahriyar and his brother Shazaman have lost the “anima” in their subconscious mind because they have grown up in a world that gives women no importance but only to please men (Clinton 491-492). Therefore both are unable to form positive lasting relationships with women in their adult lives. The frame story The Arabian Nights is definitely told to king Shahriyar by his wife Shahrazad as means to cure him of his hatred of women. I believe Clinton’s argument does not apply to the particular story The Tale of the Enchanted King. The tale of the Enchanted King is the end story of the in the frame of The tale of the fisherman and the demon so it is necessary in Sharhrazad’s plan to cure her troubled husband Shahriyar, but …show more content…
“With my magic and cunning be half man, half stone, from that instant, I have been now as you see me, dejected and sad, helpless and sleepless, neither living with the living nor dead among the dead”(61). In the story I believe that this could be an example of King Shahriyar’s state of mind. In actuality he has been insane for the past three years stuck in a state of anger and hell bent on killing women. King Shahriyar has been blinded by his feelings therefore he cant function properly as a king to his people. He also has been neither “alive nor dead” in a
In a nation brimming with discrimination, violence and fear, a multitudinous number of hearts will become malevolent and unemotional. However, people will rebel. In the eye-opening novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini, the country of Afghanistan is exposed to possess cruel, treacherous and sexist law and people. The women are classified as something lower than human, and men have the jurisdiction over the women. At the same time, the most horrible treatment can bring out some of the best traits in victims, such as consideration, boldness, and protectiveness. Although, living in an inconsiderate world, women can still carry aspiration and benevolence. Mariam and Laila (the main characters of A Thousand Splendid Suns) are able to retain their consideration, boldness and protectiveness, as sufferers in their atrocious world.
The author's views on women may never be fully revealed, but it is clear that he believes in male superiority and that insurgent females ought to be suppressed. Like Wealhtheow, females should only exert minimal power and influence, but they should always keep the drinks coming.
The narrator searches for recovery after the death of his daughter and his failure to protect his brother as he promised his mother he would. In his “condition” he is not unlike the narrator in “Zaabalawi” who claims to have “a disease before which men are powerless” (Malfouz 809).... ... middle of paper ... ...
Throughout history, women were not always well regarded by men. Because of this, most societies treated their women as second class citizens. The stories from, Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, illustrate how the portrayal of women affected Muslim society in the Ninth century. Sometimes women were seen as mischievous, unfaithful temptresses. Other times they were depicted as obedient, simple minded slaves looking to please their master. With the use of charm, sex and trickery, they used the labels that they were put in, to their advantage; demonstrating that women during this century were clever, smart, and sly.
Alsana faces the expectation of fulfilling her proper role as the subservient, good muslim wife; however, she subverts this tradition by actively fighting against her husband Samad and, therefore, maintaining her sovereignty. When Alsana expresses her support for her husband’s motion during a PTA meeting, the other wives look “over to her with the piteous saddened smiles they reserved for subjugated Muslim women” (Smith 110). This perception fails to take into account the conflict that occurs under the surface of their seemingly traditional marriage. Before she finally expresses support for him, “Samad pressed Alsana’s hand. She kicked him in the ankle. He stamped on her toe. She pinched his flank. He bent back her little finger and grudgingly raised her right arm while deftly elbowing him in the crotch with her left” (Smith 110). Physical violence is the hallmark of the power struggle within Samad and Alsana’s marriage; it is the manner in which Alsana expresses her defiance to the proper role that it is assumed she should take in her marriage. This physical violence is so common, in fact, that as they violently fight in their garden, their twins calmly watch, placing bets on who will win (Smith 167). This normalization of the violence further highlights how innate it is to their
In the novel She and in the stories of The Arabian Nights, both Haggard and Haddawy explore the expanding gender roles of women within the nineteenth century. At a time that focused on the New Woman Question, traditional gender roles were shifted to produce greater rights and responsibilities for women. Both Ayesha, from Haggard’s novel She, and Shahrazad, from Haddawy’s translation of The Arabian Nights, transgress the traditional roles of women as they are being portrayed as strong and educated females, unwilling to yield to men’s commands. While She (Ayesha) takes her power to the extreme (i.e. embodying the femme fatale), Shahrazad offers a counterpart to She (i.e. she is strong yet selfless and concerned with the welfare of others). Thus, from the two characters emerge the idea of a woman who does not abide by the constraints of nineteenth century gender roles and, instead, symbolizes the New Woman.
At first, Sharon tries to see life from his perspective with his childhood background when he used to live in Tehran. When Al was young, “In this happy, balanced world, [he] was the neighbourhood marble king” (313). This passage is relevant because it shows how Al felt as a kid. Sharon tries to understand her husband’s dreams, fears and feelings through the way he was brought up in his natal country. By imagining him as a king, the narrator understands how Al has always felt like he deserved an important place in this world. Moreover, Sharon understands more Al’s need for power as he resembles Dickens a lot when it comes to love relationships. The two adulterous husbands are admired by their younger mistresses, as we can see with Shay’s image of Al: “she also assumed her inspiring supervisor, blessed in every aspect of life, must be happily married too” (168). This quote shows how both Nelly and Al’s mistresses were younger women who admired the two men, which is exactly what Al and Dickens must have been looking for in the affairs: a sense of power, importance. By giving Dickens his place in her story, Sharon is accepting that even in every great man, there is a portion of humanity. Finally, Al and the prince in the Arabian nights’ story told in the book share the same charming, confident, and arrogant traits. Sharon’s telling of “The
Women are beaten, and it is culturally acceptable. Like routine, women are beaten in Afghanistan almost every day. When a person purposely inflicts sufferings on others with no feelings of concern, like the women of Afghanistan, he is cruel. Cruelty can manifest from anger, irritation, or defeat and is driven by self-interest. An idea that is explored in many works of literature, cruelty also appears in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns in the relationship between a husband and wife. In their case, the husband uses cruelties in the form of aggression are to force his wife to submit. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini’s use of cruelty elucidates the values of both Rasheed and Mariam as well as essential ideas about the nature of
Pinault, David. "The Thousand and One Nights in Arabic Literature and Society." Journal of the American Oriental Society 119 (1999):536-537.
The moon has been worshipped as a female deity since the beginning of time. Not only is the moon a feminine principle, it is also a symbol of transformation due to its own monthly cycle of change. With this in mind, it is clear upon a close reading of The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald that the grandmother figure is a personification of the moon, and as such is a catalyzing agent for Irene's maturation and transformation through the course of the novel. Taking this a step further, the elder Irene contains the threefold aspect of the Moon Goddess. She is Artemis, Selene, and Hecate; the crescent moon, the full moon, and the dark moon; maiden, mother, and crone (Rush, 149).
The biological differences that set apart the male and female gender throughout any culture remain eminent. Men are perceived as the stronger and dominant gender; women play the role of the weaker. In each culture the expectation of the manner in which men and women behave are influenced by the ideals and customs of that culture. In most predominant cultures, the man undertakes the role as a leader, and the woman devotes her life to the husband. Throughout history, traditions and literature provide a template to the identities of various cultures. Sleeping Beauty’s classic tale of a beautiful princess takes a central precept that previous patriarchal archetypes dominated during the 17th Century. The archetypal perceptions of women resulted from conscious and unconscious literature influenced by male-dominated perspectives and social standards.
When a person becomes trapped in a situation that stems from an individual with greater authority, being manipulative can be a very promising method to escape. The Thousand and One Nights does a very good job of being a good example of someone in this situation that uses stories within a story to capture encapsulate the attention of the reader. Despite the many little stories that go into the text, the main story behind it all is about a king named King Shahrayar and how he goes insane after catching his wife having sexual relations with a slave. After he sees this happen, he realizes that he can never trust any woman again and none of them are trustworthy. By expressing his views on women, he decides to marry a different woman every night, then the next morning have them killed by beheading. This is an ongoing event that brings death to most of the women in the village. Soon after, the king’s Vizier’s daughter, Shahrazad, came up with a brilliant idea that will end up saving her fellow countrywomen and hopefully keep the king from murdering so many innocent people. Her method behind all this is by telling the kind a different story every night that leaves him on a cliffhanger, making him curious enough to keep her alive for another day to continue her story. Shahrazad keeps herself spared from the king because of her cunning, and compassionate personality.
A lady is an object, one which men attempt to dominate. A man craves to get a hold of this being beneath his command, and forever have her at his disposal. In her piece “Size Six: The Western Women’s Harem,” published in 2002, Fatema Mernissi illustrates how Eastern and Western women are subjugated by the control of men. Mernissi argues that though she may have derived from a society where a woman has to cover her face, a Western woman has to face daily atrocities far worse then ones an Eastern woman will encounter. Moreover, Mernissi’s core dogma in “Size 6: The Western Women's Harem” is that Western women are not more fortunate than women raised into harems in other societies. Additionally, she asserts that though women in the Western world are given liberties, they coincide with the unattainable ideals of what is aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, to strengthen her argument towards her wavering audience, Mernissi’s main approach in her paper is to get the reader to relate with her issue by means of an emotional appeal, while also utilizing both the ethical and logical appeal to support her thesis.
The major themes that we see in the overall story are: the influence of storytelling, power, and questioning human life and experience. In this story the influence of storytelling is by far the most important theme. This theme happens to be the whole reason for why Shahrazad is telling these stories. Shahrazad would not be telling King Shahrayar these stories if she didn’t believe that it would influence him to become a better ruler and to become a better person. She spends a lot of time reciting these stories and in the end it all pays off because by the end of the story he does not kill her. King Shahrayar actually allows her to live and with that he welcomes her as queen. In this story power is the second most important theme. From the very beginning of the story, King Shahrayar is by far relishing in his power. King Shahrayar shows how much power he has over his kingdom by how he reacted to his first wife’s infidelity. The king’s power hungry persona is greatly affected by Shahrazad’s storytelling and the final outcome of the story has the king ultimately questioning his antics. The final major theme that we notice in this story is the theme of questioning human life and experience. Much like the first two themes, the theme of questioning human life and experience is greatly affected by Shahrazad’s storytelling. With each story, King Shahrayar is welcomed with new thoughts about how to be a good ruler and how to be a good person. The stories that Shahrazad tells the kind has him questioning his past experiences and what human life is all about. All of these small stories talk about love, death, happiness, and sadness; along with the questions about how we are able to live in a world that contains both good and
From the beginning of the story where Shahrayar and Shahzaman go on a search to someone’s misery was worst than their current circumstance, to the vizier sharing stories to his daughter trying to talk her out of marrying the king, to lastly Shahrazad using her stories on King Shahrayar to spare lives. All having an underlying message within the story itself, that each had a lesson attached to it. Beginning with the frame story of Shahrazad and her father the vizier. After Shahrazad witnessed all of the pain and hardship the king was causing by his tyrant ways, she knew that something had to be done. She told her father that she wanted to volunteer herself to marry the king and of what her plan was. The vizier completely refused because he knew that in the end he would have to be the one to kill her and knew that she was only setting herself up for death. In his final hopes of showing her why she shouldn’t marry Shahrayar he began telling her stories, first begin with the tale of the ox and the