King Schahriar and his Brother
"In what ways can "King Schahriar and his Brother" be considered a feminist text?" During the 18th century, a collection of Middle-Eastern and South Asian stories were compiled into a book now known as "One Thousand and One Nights". The opening story in the collection is "King Schariar and his Brother", and it is a story about how the king of the Persian Empire turned to cruelty and violence after finding out his lover had committed adultery. Despite the king being the main character, we have an array of different, interesting characters such as the Grand Vizier, who is utmost loyal to the king's cause, and his daughter, Scheherazade, who is the "hero" of the story. The text is quite abnormal for a folktale,
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A well-known folktale which could be used to explai this is "Sleeping Beauty". The main character in the folktale is named Aurora, and she fits the mold of everything a "proper woman" should be. Aurora is kind-hearted and gentle towards both animals and humans, good-looking, and behaves in a quintessential feminine manner (gentle, graceful, shy). In the story, she enters a curse-induced coma due to pricking her finger on a needle, and then saved by a kiss from a prince. The reason why this folktale is not considered a "feminist" text is due to the way Aurora is presented. Female characters are notoriously written with no depth, or any original qualities which have not yet been used before. Essentially, Aurora is a very shallow character, as she is void of any complexity and flaws. The personality she is given is not very deep, as she is denied any raw, human emotion such as fury, revulsion, or misery. Who is to say she would have approved of having the prince kiss her with no consent? She is unjustly robbed of having the right to be angry. Aurora is seen as an inspiration by young, naive girls due to her being considered the pinnacle of femininty. This circumstance is extremely detrimental to women, especially developing girls, as it sets an expectation that is too inhuman and high for any real human being to …show more content…
The phenomenon described earlier is no mistake, as it is intentional. Aurora is hexed by an evil woman known as Maleficent, and then the prince comes to save the day, which makes two points as stark as daylight. On the surface, it is clear the story hints that a woman is not capable of saving herself. Aurora is not even portrayed as a damsel in distress, with an opportunity to attempt to think over solutions, as she is in a coma. Again, she is not given the possibility of saving herself. The only way she can return to life is if the prince saves her, which presents him as a hero, and grants him a crucial part of the plot, whilst our protagonist is deemed as useless. The story also hints more subtly in another direction which encourages us to examine the cause of why Aurora entered a coma in the first place. The antagonist in "The Sleeping Beauty" is a powerful, malevolent woman known as Maleficent. She places a curse on Aurora after she is not invited to her christening. Maleficent's character also presents another reason why this text is not "feminist", due to there being a polar portrayal of power and weakness in women. Maleficent, who possesses power, is considered evil, while Aurora, who is the typical female archetype, is considered ideal. This is where the prince is given even
Folktales are a type of oral prose that is passed from one person to another. Listeners may chose to add or subtract from the main story lines, embellishing with experiences and wisdom from their own lives. It then takes on the collective morals, or conscienceness, of that culture. From those individuals who we normally would not consider cultured, great gems of knowledge and wisdom are passed down through folktales. This is done without the traditional use of written language or use of proper organizational style. Yet these oral traditions are not without power; they reach into the very heart of what it is to be human.
In the three stories, by Washington Irving, he shows acts of misogyny. Within the story, the character of Rip Van Winkle, a man sick of his wife wanders off into the wood, to disappear for 20 years. Throughout the story of The Devil and Tom Walker, the devil asks the man to sell his soul to him for money. Which the man was going to do until his wife convinced him not to. Also in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the man in the story likes a woman, but unfortunately the woman picks another man over him. All of these stories each of the male characters have to face a certain challenge whether it be internal or external.
This film, contrarily to its predecessors, scratches the surface of the male protagonists, and introduces men who are humanly flawed and relatable, taking them down from the pedestal they used to be on, and making them equal to the female characters. No matter how much one may despise the Beast for being aggressively temperamental, Gaston for his stupidity and violence, or even Lumière for his objectification of women, these characters have a life and a role of their own, and do not remain two-dimensional like the previous Princes. For example, Belle’s father never suggests that she marries a man and only caringly mentions Gaston as a potential companion and friend for his lonely daughter. In the same manner, the Disney Corporation is more open to sexual innuendos and female sexuality in the film as it has ever been with Lumière and Plumette’s affair being explicitly showed. Finally, as Dawn Elizabeth England, Lara Descartes, and Melissa Collier-Meek further explain this in their journal "Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses:"
Maleficent is the wicked dark fairy and main antagonist in Walt Disney's 1959 adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. She was animated by Marc Davis, and voiced by Eleanor Audley (who also voiced Lady Tremaine, the stepmother of Cinderella). She cursed the infant Aurora to "prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die" before the sun set on her sixteenth birthday after not being invited to the baby's christening.
...om Hermia doesn't love. This initial conflict led to Lysander and Hermia's intended escape from Athens, and the resulting clash in the forest. In "The Lion and the Jewel", Sidi is pursued by both Baroka and Lakunle. The disparity, though, is found in how the conflicts were resolved. The conflict in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was resolved by inhuman means: the magic of the fairies. The Fairy King Oberon ordered his servant Puck to retrieve a magical flower that contained a nectar that will enchant whoever it is used on into loving the first living thing they see when they wake. Oberon uses this love juice to eventually dissipate the conflict of the competing suitors by using it on Demetrius so he falls in love with the other female. In "The Lion and the Jewel", however, the conflict was actually resolved by one of the suitors. This done by the clever Bale, who "
Long ago women were seen as demure, pure beings who took care of the home/family and relied heavily on men being the ‘bread-winner’ and sole provider of the family. Men were primarily the dominant, controlling figures; whereas, women were seen and rarely heard. Unlike today, women didn’t flaunt their bodies or carried on in a way that brought shame to their name or family. Back then, it was very seldom that women held their own jobs nor were they were financially dependent. In The Awakening and A Streetcar Named Desire we will compare and contrast how the main, female characters in each novel differentiated from each other and how the authors uses symbolism in order to represent a deeper meaning.
Feminism is a theory that comes from the perception of women and is a movement to change position of women to obtain equality and equality with men. Feminism is not a struggle for the emancipation of women in the presence of men only, because they are also aware that men also suffer as a result of domination. Historically, the feminist movement was born from the beginning of the rise of women to shift the status as being second only to men in this world. The feminist movement evolved in medieval Europe, namely in the 16-18 century AD at that time women were secretly start small movements to challenge male dominance. However, the demand for equality degrees between women
... ?Among the Mourners?, one can see Aurora acts as a typical teenager. She over dramatizes many events in her life, just as if the world is coming to an end. Likewise, Aurora stretches the truth to get what she wants or to possibly get attention. Still, she is boy crazy and curious of what the opposite sex has to offer with her relationship with Giorgio. Aurora is a typical teenager, just like any teenager in today?s times. Many teenagers tend to get embarrassed or become over-dramatic for attention. Also, telling lies to get what they want, because normally teenagers feel as if they are more responsible that what people give them. In Aurora?s case was she was Gifted and Talented. In short, teenagers today end up experimenting or even getting pregnant at a young age, therefore, it is not surprising for Aurora to be curious. Nonetheless, Aurora is a typical teenager.
Usually we do not differentiate between the Four Suitors, and inevitably so. In the final analysis, whether they are portrayed as perfectly respectable young men, or as vain fops and braggarts the point is that none of them is right for Aurora. No matter how confusing it may be, there is no escaping the realization that Carabosse prevents the marriage of Princess Aurora to the wrong individual!
... subjects such as literature, medicine, and philosophy. By knowing all this, Shahrazad is able to come up with a brilliant plan and uses it in a cunning way so that she is able to convince the king to cease killing the women. By use of sexual advancements, sly stories, and the help of her sister, Dinarzad, she is able to successfully follow through with her plan. A main factor driving her is her compassion and drive to help other people in need. The Thousand and One Nights is an intriguing story that will keep readers on their toes, and like King Shahrayar, keep coming back for the rest of the story.
She feels she needs to get revenge on Stefan for leaving her alone. So she could be thought out as an evil villain, but there is more. She heard about King Stefan’s new baby from her “wings”, also being a crow she saved from a farmer killing. Maleficent thought this was the right time to seek her revenge, so she went to the palace and placed a curse on baby princess Aurora, “The princess will indeed grow in grace and beauty, and beloved by all who meet her. But before the sunsets on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a sleep almost like death, a sleep from which she will never awaken...etc The princess can be awoken from her death sleep, but only by true love’s kiss…” Maleficent realizes that true love’s kiss doesn’t exist so she planned it all out as a mischievous proposal… or so she thought.
“Feminist is a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes” states Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Anne is considered an aspiring forbringer of feminism for sustaining the royal position despite her discontent for Henry from the start, ascertained the power women had over men and sought for her liberty when the king turned against her until her with every last dying breath.
Throughout history society has been controlled by men, and because of this women were exposed to some very demanding expectations. A woman was expected to be a wife, a mother, a cook, a maid, and sexually obedient to men. As a form of patriarchal silencing any woman who deviated from these expectations was often a victim of physical, emotional, and social beatings. Creativity and individuality were dirty, sinful and very inappropriate for a respectful woman. By taking away women’s voices, men were able to remove any power that they might have had. In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient women, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty emotionless shell. In men’s eyes this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
The Arabian Nights begins with King Shahrayar’s story. King Shahrayar’s brother King Shahzaman, informs King Shahrayar that his wife, the Queen, is cheating on him. Upon seeing this for himself, King Shahrayar kills his wife due to her disloyalty towards him. He then vows to marry a new woman each night and have her killed the next day. However, the King does not kill these women himself, he appoints his vizier to kill the women. What makes this story much more interesting is that the vizier has a daughter named Shahrazad, and she tells her father about her plan: “I would like you to marry me to King Shahrayar, so that I may either succeed in saving the people or perish and die like the rest.” (p.13) Shahrazad holds no responsibi...
Women have been viewed as the weaker vessel compared to their stronger male counterparts since the beginning of time. From ancient mythology to popular modern media, women are easily portrayed as the damsel in distress, unable to take care of herself and constantly in the desperate need of being rescued. Women who stand up against this belief and make effort to support themselves were usually deemed fools, prostitutes, or worse, witches. While there have been mentions of strong-bred women in history such as Margaret of Anjou and Eleanor of Aquitaine, it has not become common theme until more modern times. The archetype of the damsel in distress is still a popular trend in media, but in society, women are now considered equal to men and no longer need to be rescued from circumstances.