Feminine Power, Undetected by Men

Feminine power is a powerful tool that is undetected by men. Men may be stronger but women are smarter. In both stories 1001 Nights and Bewitched, women use their power to control and change the men in these stories for the better. Throughout history stories have been written on the bodies of women, this also being that if a man doesn’t show control over his wife then it is a sign of weakness and lack of masculinity. From ancient times to current times men view women as sneaky and manipulative in the way they go about persuading men. A woman’s greatest power is her sexuality as shown in these stories. A man always shows a weakness to a beautiful woman. In both these works 1001 Nights and Bewitched, female power is instructive both Shahrazed and Manago use a feminine approach to force change on the men in these stories.

It’s obvious that both women use sexual appearance to change the men in these stories. In Shahrazed’s case she uses her smarts and beauty to keep the King interested in her stories. At first she sacrifices herself for her people saying to her father, “I would like you to marry me to the King Shahrayar, so that I may either succeed in saving the people or perish and die like the rest (1575).” Shahrazed had to go into her first night with the king with a plan of action or she would dies like the rest. She used her smarts in a positive was to keep the King caught up in her stories and then every night she would sleep with him. Here is a fine example on how Shahrazed uses her beauty to attract the King but also make a huge sacrifice for her people. What bravery a women must have to sleep with a murderer every night, you know she isn’t sexually attracted to him. As this process continues she eventually convinces the K...

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...hing to cause them to be flawed people. Even though both men have character flaws they different in degrees. Toyo-o is a young man who is a leech to his family. He is a handsome young man who loves to learn but he had no desire to put his time and effort into his families fishing business. He is a selfish man who becomes infatuated with a woman’s beauty. On the other hand King Shahrayar’s heart was scorned by his wife who cheated on him with a slave. The King’s character flaws are based around that, he punishes all women because of the sin of one woman. But just like Toyo-o one day a women came along smarter than the rest and he fell under a trance. Using a feminine approach in both cases these women ended up changing both men for the better.

Works Cited

Lawall, Sarah. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. New York: W. W. Norton and Co. Inc, 2002. Print