Depiction of Women in the Arabian Nights Novels Essay

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Middle East Literature: Portrayal of women in the Arabian Nights

Introduction

Women play a significant role in the Arabian Nights. Many of the stories and tales in the collection explore the nature, potential dangers, and limits of the sexual drive or desires of women. The frame narrative about women and their sexual desires starts to emerge when in a tale about the wife of a sultan and her affairs with a slave. This calls into question the loyalty of women and puts into focus infidelity among women. This forces the storyteller, Shahraz?d, to use her storytelling skills calm down Shahrayar's rage against women by letting him know that other women like herself are different and do not in any way threaten marital institutions and families (Shamma, 239-260). So the work goes from the portrayal of women as bad or as lesser beings to their portrayal as princesses or good people. This current paper explores this dual portrayal of women in the Arabian Nights, which is very similar to how women are presently portrayed and treated in the Arab World.

In the Arabian Nights tales, women are generally treated as lesser beings by men. If they do not act in compliance with men's wishes, they are either discarded, transformed into something else, or killed. For instance, in the tale about King Shahzaman and his brother King Shahrayar, women are generally portrayed as evil. The tale begins by King Shahzaman finding his wife having sex with a slave while he prepares to leave his palace to go and visit his brother. This makes him very angry and enraged. He confronts his wife and declares that women should not be trusted. He then uses his sword to kill both the wife and the man she was having sex with before dumping them like trash from the roof of the palace to its outside walls (Haddawy 6)

The King then proceeds with his journey, and he is welcomed warmly by his brother when he arrives at his palace. Although enraged, the King Shahzaman is too embarrassed to share the story about his wife's infidelity and betrayal with his brother. However, while spending time at his brother's palace, he finds his brother's consort and concubines having sex with male slaves in one of the palace gardens. This makes the King less embarrassed about what happened to him. Sometime later, when his brother, Shahrayar, orders him to tell him what happened, the King tells him. Shahrayar is also angered by the betrayal and infidelity and tells his brother that he did a good thing killing his wife and the lover because they caused him anguish (Haddawy 9).

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Shahrayar then states that if he were in his brother's condition, he would have killed at least 1000 women. Shahrayar then further presses the King to tell him what happened. The King tells him what he saw in the garden between the King's wife, concubines, and…

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…taken to the river and then tied up using her hair, but she manages to convince a Bedouin passing by that a baker is punishing her, and he will pass by later and force her to consume honey doughnuts (Blythe). The Bedouin agrees to take her place, and when the guards return in the morning, he yells at them, asking whether they have brought the honey doughnuts (Blythe). When Dalila is finally presented to the caliph, she gives back the goods she stole and declares that her tricks were not intended for money but to prove instead that she could be just as devious and sneaky as Hassan Shuman and Ahmad al-Danaf are. Upon hearing this, she is granted her request to assume her late husband's post as the city watch captain by the caliph. She even takes up the extra role of being the Kahn's (inn) doorkeeper.

In conclusion, The Arabian Nights treat women as princesses provided that they act according to the wishes and commands of their maters. However, as soon as they go against the demands of their male equivalents, they get disposed. The different women mentioned in these stories maintain their power and status because of their beauty and love. There is, however, another side of the coin that women are also depicted in these tales. They are shown to be constructive, and the forerunner of this particular subject is Scheherazade. Scheherazade presented herself as the champion and heroine of women. This….....

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