The Thousand and One Nights Essay - 931 Words

The Thousand and One Nights, generally known to the English, speaking world as the Arabian Nights, is a compendium of Arabic tales compiled between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries. The collection starts with the story of King Shahrayar. Betrayed by his adulterous wife, he swears never to trust a woman again, deciding instead to marry a different virgin every night and have her executed the next day. He carries out his plan for three years, until his Vizier can no longer find a virgin to offer the king. The Viziers courageous daughter, Shahrazad, then attempts to change the kings mind and save the remaining maidens of the kingdom. Shahrazad offers herself as a bride. With the help of her sister, Dinarzad, she obtains permission†¦show more content†¦The technique of connecting incomplete stories under the umbrella of a frame story is not original. The archetype of this literary genre already was established during the third century B.C. by Indian stories about the bir th of Buddha intended to inculcate moral axioms ascribed to Buddha. While the frame story provided a rationale for a successive line of tales, in itself it was only a frame and as such, subservient to the separate stories. Likewise, the Arabic tales, under a similar frame, were not necessarily related, even though the wise counsel at the end of each story provided a unifying factor. The Thousand and One Nights illustrated that secular pieces, even when humorous, could be told for moral purposes, and that didactic teaching could be achieved outside a house of worship. These apparently frivolous stories could bolster and supplement the moral exhortations of the clergy when transmitted orally, but they had an even broader dissemination and greater impact when put into written form. The tales of The Thousand and One Nights may possess an allegorical dimension, in which their conspicuous emphasis on material wealth functions as a metaphor for the lasting richness of spiritual life, while their general preoccupation with the lower echelons of society provides a ray of hope to the low-born, conveying a promise that Allah equips the paupers and have-nots with a secret keyShow MoreRelatedThe Thousand and One Nights1472 Words   |  6 PagesInfluence of Cultures on The Thousand and One Nights Stories like Sindbad, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp and other popular stories are very common today in the western culture. Animated movies were also made for the entertainment of kids on these popular stories. One might wonder that where these stories originated and how it came down and made place in the western culture. Although these stories are very popular in both the western culture and the eastern culture but the original literary workRead MoreThe Thousand And One Nights887 Words   |  4 Pageshaving strength. It is the basis of all humanity; it determines who can do what and who is at the top of the empirical hierarchy. In The Thousand and One Nights, power is shown in every story and character, whether it be from an exorbitant amount or an utter lack of power. In a kingdom terrorized by a merciless ruler who was destroying the female population, one young woman gives herself up in order to help the people. Shahrazad volunteers to be given to King Shahrayar, knowing tha t she could beRead MoreThe Thousand And One Nights Essay1837 Words   |  8 PagesThe Thousand and One Nights is a story where the King, after realizing his wife to be adulterous, weds a new woman each night and puts her to death at dawn to avoid ever being hurt again. In this story, Shahrazad, the daughter of the King’s Vizier, offers to become his next wife with a plan to try and end the King’s murderous streak. In The Thousand and One Nights tales, both the father, the Vizier, and his daughter, Shahrazad utilize animals for the purpose of manipulating together tales that embodyRead MoreThe Thousand And One Nights889 Words   |  4 Pagesknowledgeable and wise. People tend to assume that for a King to be successful, he needs to gain the respect of his kingdom and not be questioned whatsoever. No one ever imagines someone who can come and alter the King’s perspective for good. No one believes someone, a woman, can overpower a King by only using words. In The Thousand and One Nights, Shahrazad is shown to be more educated and wise, because of her knowledge she is able to change the King’s perception towards women. In the beginning of thisRead MoreThe Thousand And One Nights997 Words   |  4 Pagesthe realm of scholarly works The Thousand and One Nights makes an appearance, ironically. To have a such a source of knowledge from many different countries over a long period of time is a literature goldmine, which demands to be studied. There is a element of surprise when the author -or in this case authors- create more than just a descriptive narrative. Together they alluded to each-other, enhanced each other’s works, and created a world that seems to never end. One might simply think that to writeRead MoreOne Thousand and One Nights Essay920 Words   |  4 PagesUnderlying Power One thousand and one nights, one thousand and one moral stories. The story of The Thousand and One Nights is a unique tale that teaches simple morals throughout the many stories within the main story. This tale is about a clever women that saves herself, as well as the women in her kingdom, from being put to death by the king. She does this by marring the king and telling him bedtime stories every night that lead into the next day. She would purposely not finish the story,Read MoreAnalysis Of A Thousand And One Nights 999 Words   |  4 PagesA Thousand and One Nights is a tale about the over-sexed east which is favored by the sexually repressed west when applied to and analyzed under the lens of Orientalism. This translation of the text, while not as sexually explicit as Sir Richard Burton’s translation, has its fair amount of sexual promiscuity which paints the middle eastern characters as dishonest, violent, and sexually deviant. These traits were seen as socially ta boo to the west, especially those in Victorian Europe who helped theRead MoreAnalysis Of The One Thousand And One Nights 1592 Words   |  7 PagesI love the Arabian night’s stories and he used this knowledge to get me to change my initial decision of not reading any book during the summer. So failure to recognize the strength in others makes us blind to our own weaknesses. In the One Thousand and One Nights text, some of its characters experience changes due to the fact that they failed to recognize the strength and abilities or capabilities of other opposing characters. In the frame tale, The Story of King Shahrayar and Shahrazad, his Vizier’sRead MoreAnalysis Of The Thousand And One Nights 1518 Words   |  7 PagesSessy Hernandez WLIT 1113 Clark 5/3/16 Theme of Women with Power in The Thousand and One Nights The Thousands and One Nights is a book written by many authors. The teachings of the many tales in this selection are presented for one specific reason, that women can hold a specific amount of power over men. Women and Power are two major themes in this reading. A woman named Shahrazad takes the position of a storyteller and an entertainer through out the whole ancient tale. By obtaining these talentsRead MoreThe Thousand And One Nights And The Decameron2080 Words   |  9 Pagesboth the thousand and one nights and the Decameron, women are seen as not worthy of much and are seen as being downgraded in many situations. Even though certain social norms and behaviors are portrayed in the thousand and one nights and the Decameron, there were events that broke the social norms and gave power to women when that was not common in the time frames these stories are written in. The thousand and one nights have a very strict view and set of roles for the women and wives. One view of