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Comparing Shahrazad's The One Thousand And One Nights

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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 …show more content…

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

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The Thousand and One Nights is a text built from many texts that took stories from various cultures across Asia and North Africa. It was written by several unknown authors that were scattered over many centuries and countries of the Middle East. This text began with the king’s biggest disappointment towards his promiscuous wife, consequently, he put her to death. Because of that deception, every night that would go by he would have a new wife and by the next morning she would be put to death. The vizier’s daughter stepped up and said “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” (pg. 562).

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The depiction individuals have of women has changed drastically over time. From being seen as a lower class gender, to having women politicians today, they have come a long way. Back in the 10th century when An Ancient Tale: When the Sun Was God took place, the role of women differed immensely compared to the way women are portrayed today. Throughout the film, women are depicted as a weaker gender within society, although they can be rulers within their own families.

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This becomes evident in a lack of information about the type of society, and the reader therefore lacks a complete understanding of how the women are oppressed. As a whole, this poem sets forth the idea that female gender is fluid, and asks its readers to questions what it means to be a woman in a male dominant

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Through the characters of The Thousand and One Nights, how are women depicted? What does this say about the authors’ view on women and how do theses views compare to how women were viewed historically? The Thousand and One Nights is mainly centered around a king who goes from a beloved king to a tyrant. He becomes a tyrant because he discovers that his wife has been cheating on him with a slave. So, King Shahrayar, which is the name of the once beloved king, comes to the conclusion that he will avoid the deception of women by taking a new bride every night and having her killed the next morning.

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506 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout history there has been a huge conflict concerning the role of men and women; especially in the 19th century. In the 19th century majority of the population was ran by men because they were seen as the dominant gender in many different aspects such as knowledge, strength, being independent, and working; women on the hand was seen as the more weaker and more fragile gender such as needing a man to depend on, being very emotional/ hormonal, and supposedly couldn’t handle workloads like the men could. These stereotypes and mindset were so common most men and even women thought this was true; which lead very few women to stand out from the rest to show that women could handle Just as much as a man. In the novel “Serena”, there is a different side in how gender is looked upon; the novel shows how women could be just as dominant as the men, and how they are Just as knowledgeable, resourceful, and demanding.

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Much of the preservations in the play are for men who have even denied the women their privacy. Susan Glaspell shows women as weak and only able to do weak responsibilities such as housekeeping and staying at their

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Women are depicted as “trophy” to men and nothing more. Throughout the epic a sense of bravado and machoism is played out, giving off a man’s world feeling which women and little or no real reason to be wanted. To understand the epic and the roles in which women played, one may not have to look further than how the book has been put together. First and foremost, the book is being told through the eyes of a man (good luck ladies).

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The Epic of Gilgamesh and One Thousand and One Nights are ancient literary works that display many different lessons through different symbols, themes, and motifs. These writings give the reader a look into the past and a preview of the future. These writings have been around for thousands of years, which gave them the time to seep into different cultures throughout the world. Literary works like these go into other cultures and have an impact on how people live their lives. Throughout the ages, women have played a key and important role in literature.

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First, the author conveys how much more power the men have than the women in this time period. It states, “army officers and government attaches and their wifes…”. This shows that the men seem to have more power because they have position in the workforce while the women are just labeled as “their wives”. Next, this story doesn’t make women seem like objects, but the characters make the women seem like they are less superior than men. The characters conversations they seem to have a lot of sexism in them.

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The thousand and one nights have a very strict view and set of roles for the women and wives. One view of women is that they are always inferior to their husbands and they are disobedient and always eager to please men. Also, that women do not have any rights or say in what happens to their body and their reputation. Women only have one way to get back at their husbands for the unbearable and unfair treatment that is given to them which is to cheat on their husband. Women in the thousand and one nights must fight to make their view of their rights and freedom seen which is not recognized until Shahrazad gets the king under her power.

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500 Words | 2 Pages

She breaks her thoughts down in order to show the indifference. She says that women are first portrayed as objects; this patriarchal society sees us as mere bodies. Thus, we are either regarded as objects or as bodies; the mind does not exists here. Here, the subjectivity does not lie in the mind, but within the body. Women’s sole purpose is to be that of another subject’s intentions and manipulations.

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In the beginning, women were treated badly. The sultan loved his wife, but once he finds out that she was unfaithful he then kills her at the break of dawn. Although, he marries a new woman each day, spends the night with her, and then kills her in the morning. His actions show us that the women were seen as deceitful, and the lives of women were meaningless shown in how many

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In The Miller’s Tale, women are shown as dependent on men. As a result, they cannot survive autonomously, and must submissive to the men they rely on. This essentially makes the women in The Miller’s Tale objects that men can

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Mahfouz, as well as Said, shared a direct contact with the Arabian lifestyle because they grow up in that society. Mahfouz’s novel depicts the real world with the touches of the supernatural and mystic, but as a form of evil in the world not as exotic and uncivilized as the Europeans did. Mahfouz’s Arabian Nights and Days “takes new depths and insights as it picks up from where the ancient story ends” (Fayez 229). Mahfouz uses the Arabian Nights tales and Shahryar’s and Scheherazade’s society to portray the contemporary social and political issues of his people. Mahfouz aims to show various thematic concerns of the people of the East than the early versions left out.

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1000 Words | 4 Pages

Feminist literary criticism’s primary argument is that female characters have always been presented from a male’s viewpoint. According to Connell, in most literary works, female characters often play minor roles which emphasize their domestic roles, subservience and physical beauty while males are always the protagonists who are strong, heroic and dominant (qtd. in Woloshyn et al.150). This means that the women are perceived as weak and are supposed to be under the control of men. Gill and Sellers say that feminist literary criticism’s approach involves identifying with female characters in order to challenge any male centred outlook.

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