Gender and Power in The Arabian Nights
Works Cited Not Included
Contemplating the relationship between gender and power, one undoubtedly notices that tradition regards men as the holders of official office and power. Historically, men have also always been the leaders of their families, and turned to in times of trouble or need. Making generalizations is normally a weak approach to any task; in this case however, it is necessary to do so in order to illustrate how drastically opposite the situations prove in various selections from "1001 Arabian Nights." Rather than men taking critical roles of power, the women characters, especially at crucial moments in the plot, empower themselves far beyond the male figures, and, consequently, prove much more important to their respective plots. The stories offer a different perspective on the gender-power relationship and, consequently, ask readers to reconsider their notions of the traditional relationship between gender and power.
In "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp", Aladdin's character is that of a lazy vagabond lacking motivation to pursue anything in life. In fact, Aladdin's idleness is so grave that he causes his own father's death. The gender-power relationship is introduced almost immediately with Aladdin's father's death; because of the death, Aladdin's mother is forced to provide for the family and care for her only child. Traditionally, the father in a family has been the one to work, while the mother cared for the children. Thus, Aladdin's mother is empowered almost immediately in the story as she is forced to take on both the role of matriarch and patriarch. Aladdin's mother is again empowered by her desire to help her pathetically useless son. Aladdin, who "fell helplessly ...
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...tory, and indeed has more impact on the story than any of the men. Through her striking empowerment, Scheherazade even saves her own life, as well as those of any other virgins the king may have taken.
Ultimately, the stories of "1001 Arabian Nights" indeed leave readers no choice but to re-evaluate their classic perceptions of the gender-power relationship. In the stories discussed above, there is simply no question that the action of the stories and the important moments in each revolve entirely around the women. Those who regarded the gender-power relationship as a non-issue must now think again. It is difficult to disprove a widely spread notion such as the one at hand here, but one can always try. It seems clear, however, through these examples, that perhaps classic perceptions that the male is more powerful than the female really should be reconsidered.
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.
Literature is the key to our world or language. Many writers have emerged from this subject such as Homer who wrote The Odyssey and Euripidies who wrote about the evil Medea. Also mentioned in this paper are the Thousand and One Arabian Nights which is a collection of folktales and stories that are compiled into one. Each of these works of literature has a woman character that has many similarities in solving their problems. In The Odyssey the woman character that will be in comparison is Penelope which is Odysseus’s wife. In the story of Medea, Medea is of course the character we will be discussing and Shaharazad is the woman character from the Thousand and One Arabian Nights that will also be in comparison. Each of these women find themselves in a particularly “sticky situation.” However, Penelope, Medea, and Shahrazad are three strong women whose perseverance and cleverness help them to attain their goals.
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.
When studying gender roles in history, one will find that females are often depicted in similar ways no matter the era or region of study. Even when comparing the industrialized, early, twentieth century to today’s progressive era, there are striking similarities between female roles. We can see that over the course of the twentieth century, the qualities of loyalty and honesty have decreased in marriages due to the treatment of the two main female roles as depicted literature. The first was the role of the wife. The wife was often portrayed as a housekeeper and a nanny. Dull in appearance, there was no aesthetic beauty to this typical female. The other main role was the “other woman.” The more mysterious and promiscuous character, this woman portrayed the other part of the female population. Both of these types of characters are composites that portrayed the average, disposable female while how they were treated conveyed the general handling of females in the early, twentieth century.
The role of women in The Heart of Darkness is at first seen as one that is very much a backseat role to that of a man’s in the empirical
The Arabian Nights share folktales about the violence and consequences which arise from adultery and deviate sexual behavior. The tales gives the readers an idea of how multicultural traditions existed and survived. The corruption which exists through religions and beliefs is the reason such behaviors are still practice today.
Though not the focus of epic poetry, the female characters of this ancient genre play a central role, as they have a great influence on the male heroes they encounter. In a genre which idealizes manliness and heroism—that is, acts of courage, strength, and cunning— women are set in opposition to these ideals and therefore less respected. At the same time, women who attempt to take on more “masculine” roles are vilified. Here, antagonist is defined as anyone in opposition to the hero’s goals. Female agency—their free will and ability to wield power—is directly related to their role in epic poetry; that is, the more agency a female character has, the more antagonistic of a role she plays. This agency is often enacted through sexuality or supernatural
Women are often portrayed in stories and tales as the Damsel in Distress. We are the ones waiting in our flowing gowns for the knight to come and carry us away on the back of his white horse. In a Thousand Splendid Suns it is the women who are the warrior princesses, the ones enduring so much. It is the strength of a woman and how they deal with the human capacity for evil that jumps out as the themes of this story. A Thousand Splendid Suns shows the perspective of two women, in which they live their lives both very differently but both show the inner strength of being a woman. It is most definitely not the easiest task of being a woman in Afghanistan, where men have so much power and authority. Both these women stories’ are being told during three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny. Mariam and Laila become allies in a battle with their brutal husband, many miscarriages, mothering a daughter where women are not welcomed, dealing with many deaths of loved ones and somehow showing the resilience of being a woman.
Women have traditionally been known as the less dominant sex. They have been stereotyped as being housewives, and bearers and nurturers of the children. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men, society, and within a woman herself. Even though these stories were written during the 19th century when modern society treated women as second class citizens, in “The Storm” and “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin illustrates how feminine power manifests when the female characters are able to discover their freedom.
Due to traditional stereotypes of women, literature around the world is heavily male-dominant, with few female characters outside of cliché tropes. Whenever a female character is introduced, however, the assumption is that she will be a strong lead that challenges the patriarchal values. The authors of The Thousand and One Nights and Medea use their female centered stories to prove their contrasting beliefs on the role of women not only in literature, but also in society. A story with a female main character can be seen as empowering, but this is not always the case, as seen when comparing and contrasting Medea and The Thousand and One Nights.
In a patriarchal society men normally have the power. This power is generally handed down generation to generation as seen in Sundiata where the lineage of the first kings of Mali is explained generation by generation (Niane 3). It can also be seen in The Romance of Tristan and Iseult when “[T']he barons, Andret, Guenelon, Gondoine, and Denoalen pressed King Mark to take to wife some king's daughter who should give him an heir...”(Bedier 26). In these examples men generally have the primary power. However, there is an argument to be made that women, in both Sundiata, and The Romance of Tristan and Iseult have some significant power in their society.
Daniels starts the chapter by stating that men historically have had more advantages than women. Men could be writers without being judged while women were unable to do so due to their lack of education. It is because of this that men could express their opinion while women were kept shut. Literature served as an insight of the culture and society of the time period. In Arab literature specifically, women are often portrayed in the familiar cultural stereotypes. Alifa Rifaat, a Muslim feminist, took a twist on the average Arab literature and she instead wrote stories about what it means to be a woman in an orthodox Muslim society in Egypt. In Rifaat’s book, Distant View of a Minaret, she discusses themes of human rights, sex and gender roles in her stories that would allow the reader to come to their own conclusion about such rights, or lack of, regarding women, hopefully in protest of such. Rifaat’s book contains thirteen short stories in which Muslim women are faced difficulties in their arranged marriages. Throughout her stories it is made clear that in Egypt and other orthodox Muslim societies women have little to no say in economics or major decisions, as well as little to no education. Women are expected to be under the control of their husbands, or their older brother if they are single or widowed. A major theme in all of Rifaat’s short stories is the deprivation of sexual satisfaction and lack of emotional attention many of the women suffer from in their marriages in orthodox Muslim societies. This then leads to a tyranny of masculinity that make women passive and unable to fight back. Not only is it the religious rules that have oppressed women in orthodox Muslim societies but it is also the tradition in such cultures. Such rules and traditions have
In the novel Woman at Point Zero the author, Nawal El Saadawi, retells the life story of Firdaus, the main character, a tragic hero who rebels against the social norms within her oppressive culture seeking the same respect and prestige that is bestowed upon her male oppressors, only to be executed for her attempt to obtain the same privileges as men. This essay will demonstrate how the aspects and expectations of Egyptian culture influence Firdaus’s decisions as she struggles to be her own woman in a society controlled by dictatorial political and patriarchal structures all while exposing the evident discontentment she has with the way Egyptian society views women, and the glorification of things that go against ideal societal structures.
In contemporary society, feminism is emerging as a theory of social construct. In literature it is often challenging to discover female characters that go beyond the limits of marginalized female stereotypes and roles as a means to transgress beyond societal norms. Women are characterized as subordinate objects, amid the dominant patriarchal nature entrenched amid the epic. In The Ramayana, women are portrayed as powerless objects that succumb to the manipulation of men as the text portrays a false empowerment of women, which ultimately succumb to common archetypes accustomed to women in literature; implementing a hierarchy of gender that institutionalizes male dominance amid female inferiority. The women of The Ramayana struggle to oppose the systemic patriarchy and pursue a pathway towards attaining dynamic elements of power, that enable their ability to embody autonomous authority. In Valmiki’s The Ramayana, while women appear to be empowered, ultimately they are feeble instruments utilized to fulfill the desires of men.
Women at Point Zero is a book written by Nawal El Saadawi where she focuses on the main character Firdaus and shares her story in a way that allows reader to get an idea of the patriarchal structures of Egyptian society. Her life story shows readers the obvious discontentment women have with the way society views them, and the glorification of things that go against normal societal structures. This book does an excellent job of portraying the patriarchal society and how women are dominated by men. However, it truly reinforces the stereotype that western culture has of Middle Eastern men as being animalistic beings ravaging defenseless women and the role of Islam.