Comparing Shahrazad's The One Thousand And One Nights

The One Thousand and One Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights, is an ancient collection of “Middle Eastern and Indian folk tales of uncertain date and author”. The story offers a unique perspective on the roles of women, particularly in Muslim/ Arabian society. The frame tale itself is narrated by a woman, Shahrazad, who decides to save other women from death by the hands of a deceiving husband and king, Shahrayar. Shahrazad uses her power of storytelling on King Shahrayar, in order to to keep her and several other women in her society alive. Many modern era critics and readers argue that the tales from One Thousand and One Nights degrade and reduce women, and they wouldn’t be wrong seeing it from this prospective. Throughout the story, we see that women are only seen as objects of pleasure, as women only can hold onto their power through loyalty, beauty, sex and desire. Some of the in-framed stories depict women as defiant wives, as beautiful mistresses and slaves who are always eager to please men, and as prisoners secluded from the outside world. The main reason for

In "The Tale of Merchant and his Wife”, without careful analysis, one could get the idea that the lesson of the story teaches that men should beat their wives to control them. For someone reading this in the modern era, it may seem that women do not have any rights in these stories, and it’s because, in reality, they really do not. The women in these old times were held in open marriages, meaning the man could be with whoever, and even at times, the husbands may divorce or take another wife if he wishes to. In the larger context of this tale, Shahrazard is using this story to show that beating women won’t force obedience, and it surprisingly works as she doesn’t get killed by the king the next