How are we to understand Shahrayar’s madness? Does it make sense to you? That is, are male egos in macho societies that frail, or is his a special case? In a way, I do understand Shahrayar’s madness. I mean, he found his wife lying in the arms of a kitchen boy. This of course is going to make him mad. To make matters even worse, when he went to see his brother, he caught his brother’s wife cheating. Both men are irritated beyond belief. How could their wives do that? They are “anti-women’ and decide to go on an adventure. On this adventure, they find a black demon that has his wife locked in a chest. His wife has even cheated on him!
I don’t think that is makes male egos in macho societies that frail. Everyone handles things differently. Just because they are “macho’ men in society, doesn’t mean they can’t have feelings and handle them just like other people do.
Both the vizier and his daughter, Shahrazad, tell tales that surround their human characters with important animals, but the animals play different roles in the imaginative worlds of father and daughter. Compare and contrast the powers attributed to the animal world in The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey and The Tale of the Merchant and His Wife with those described in The Story of the Merchant and the Demon. How may these differences reflect the contrasting visions of gender relations so central to The Thousand and One Nights? In the tale of the Ox and the Donkey, the ox compares his life to the donkey’s life. He claims how much easier he has it. The donkey gives the ox some advice. The next day, the ox decides to take his advice and in fact, gets the day off! However, the donkey is put into his place. The donkey tries to persuade the ox into going back to their original places. The analogy between the donkey and the ox resembles the father and his daughter. The purpose was to show his daughter that what she plans on doing, shouldn’t be doing. This analogy to her fails. She insists that she must go to the king, so her father says “I will do to you what the merchant did to his wife’, bringing on the next story. In the Tale of the Merchant and His Wife, basically it was meant to show that men dominant women. They bring in a rooster, who insists on beating. This story was used to scare the daughter. In the Story of the Merchant and the Demon, the demon wants revenge for the death of his son. Supposedly, his son was killed by the merchant. This story was to show the daughter that women can overcome and be justified as more than what the men think.
Do you believe the penalties suffered are appropriate to the sins committed in Dante’s Inferno? Why or why not? Yes, I do believe that penalties suffered are appropriate to the sins committed in Dante’s Inferno. Hell isn’t a place where many people want to go. Whatever sin was committed is then how they were punished. It is kind of fair. If someone is willing to do something wrong, shouldn’t the punishment correlate to that?
4 thoughts on “One Thousand and One Nights; The Inferno”
sdpost
For number two, I could see that the father was comparing Shahrazad’s decision to be brought to the king to the donkey’s lack of foresight, but I also thought it was interesting that in the father’s story the donkey was missing information he would have needed to have that foresight which was that the merchant heard what he was saying. It might even be true that Shahrazad’s father was actually missing information about his daughter’s ability to roll out her plan.
kjs93
I agree that the story of the Merchant and His wife seemed to all about male authority. The rooster is shown as dominant and so is the man. Its interesting that although the father sees men as dominant, he cannot control his daughter.
sxkristoffersen
I agree that his madness has an understandable reason for starting because of the promiscuous behavior of his wife. Beyond any rough man’s machoness there is inner feelings, whether of Achilles or Hercules, all men have the capability of emotions. I would have to disagree with your third answer, because after reading the types of sins there is no way anyone could agree they are appropriate.
Caitlin
I like what you posted about the madness, it was madness reading about who cheated on who haha.
For number two, I could see that the father was comparing Shahrazad’s decision to be brought to the king to the donkey’s lack of foresight, but I also thought it was interesting that in the father’s story the donkey was missing information he would have needed to have that foresight which was that the merchant heard what he was saying. It might even be true that Shahrazad’s father was actually missing information about his daughter’s ability to roll out her plan.
I agree that the story of the Merchant and His wife seemed to all about male authority. The rooster is shown as dominant and so is the man. Its interesting that although the father sees men as dominant, he cannot control his daughter.
I agree that his madness has an understandable reason for starting because of the promiscuous behavior of his wife. Beyond any rough man’s machoness there is inner feelings, whether of Achilles or Hercules, all men have the capability of emotions. I would have to disagree with your third answer, because after reading the types of sins there is no way anyone could agree they are appropriate.
I like what you posted about the madness, it was madness reading about who cheated on who haha.