The Role Of Greed In 'The Thousand And One Nights'

Greed invites other sins such as lust, adultery, envy and theft, which lead people away from their moral compass and into a life of calamity and dissatisfaction. Often, greed overtakes humans and as they are too weak to withstand their temptations, they go to great lengths to try to fulfill their wants. A compilation of Chinese poems titled Tao Te Ching written by Laozi, illuminate how greed is a precipitate to things that go awry in life. As seen through the scope of the Tao Te Ching, various events from the ancient Indian epic poem by Valmiki, The Ramayana, as well as the Middle Eastern folk tales, The Thousand and One Nights, showcase characters that struggle to cope with their greed. This paper will argue that greed is the source of all

The argument is made in the Tao Te Ching that the overindulgence that comes from greed causes problems in life. All these things are seen through Aziz as he goes to the garden to meet his beloved, but when she does not show up, he devours the food and falls asleep (Al-Shaykh 51). The role that greed plays here is seen through Aziz’s gluttony. He lets his selfish wants dictate the situation and thus he is unable to see his beloved. This action shows his beloved that he will rather eat and fulfill a human desire before meeting her. Allowing greed to get in the way is indicative of his poor judgement of the situation. Aziz has sexual relationships with several women throughout the entirety of the story and ditches his cousin at the altar because he sees his “beloved”, the daughter of Alsawahi Aldawahi (45). One of Aziz’s problems in the story is that he cannot commit to any one woman. His avarice leads him away from the moral path of marrying his cousin and living a happy life. Instead, he stunts himself of this life to indulge in the lifestyle of a debaucher. Even after a year of marriage to the third woman and having a son, Aziz leaves as soon as the gates open (65). Throughout the text, sex is what ultimately drives Aziz’s actions and this obsession with sex refers to the idea that too much of something is bad. Aziz’s uncommitted mindset leads him to trouble with his women. Aziz should not have left the third woman to go back to his beloved because his greed is propelling him to more wrongful actions such as how his personal desire to be with his mistress drives him to leave his family behind. Immoral actions can also be seen later in the story with the first merchant’s slave. Jaafar the Barmecide’s slave lies to the third dervish about the apple he was eating (98). Greed can occur in the smallest amounts of evil like