1.     The story of Shahrayar represents a common point in anyone’s life, in which humans tend to stereotype individuals based on personal or historical suffering experiences.  The king Shahrayar, after finding that the queen cheated on him, and that his brother’s wife cheated on his brother also, made a stereotype of all women  by saying that all women were the same way.  In their journey in trying to find someone’s disgrace worst than the one they had, they found a woman, who was a demon’s slave, that was kept with locks in the demon’s chest, managed to cheat on the demon 100 times.  This was of motive for the king to believe that if such woman was able to do so in such a hard position, then there was no way a man could escape of the cheating actions of women.  The only way, the king thought, would be to kill the woman, after being with her for one night.  To me, Shahrayar’s madness does not make any sense, because he did not took in consideration any women in his life that did good to him, but only this woman (the queen) that did wrong to him, and also he did not stop any moment to consider the possibility that he as a human, could be wrong in his point of view.  However, this arrogance I cannot know if it is because he is a man or because he is a king.  However, I went and asked several man what they would have done in Shahrayar’s position, and they  all said they would have done the same thing since that’s a common thinking among men.  Therefore I asked, why they have not done so at the present society, and they replied, because they are not kings.  So, maybe it is a combination between male ego and the position in the society, but for that, we may need a good statistical analysis.

2.   The tale of the Ox and the Donkey was an analogy that the vizier was telling to his daughter to make her understand that there was a possibility in that she could be wrong, and that just because she had planned and calculated how to change the king’s mind, does not mean that she could know the future intentions of the king.  In the same way, the Donkey miscalculated the intentions of the merchant, thinking that if the Ox did the same thing the Donkey did, both would be living the life, and it turned out that the merchant told the plowman to put the Donkey to do the Ox’s work.

The tale of the merchant and his wife was a threat the vizier was making to his daughter, in that if she did not desisted of her ideas, he was going to beat her.  The merchant had a secret, he was able to understand the language of the animals, that could not be reveal to anyone by the order of the gods, or he would die.  His wife wanted to know his secret anyways, even after knowing that he was going to die.  The merchant heard an animal saying that the merchant needed to beat his wife to the point that she would cry out that she no longer wanted to know his secret, and this way she would never opposed him in anything ever again.  After hearing this, the merchant did so.    The vizier told his daughter this story because her decision was in opposition to his.  It shows the cultural idea that women are supposed to do what men said, and cannot argue against men, or they are deserving of punishment.

The tale of the merchant and the demon shows how both, men and women make mistakes equally, and how although some women were bad, others were good.  Is a more different worldview, in that humans, in general, no matter the gender, can be bad or good.  For example, in the tale of the man with the dogs, his brothers were the ones that did bad to him, they tried to kill him, and a woman, the demon, was the one that saved him.  It was a  smart way to change the king’s worldview, in that men and women, can be evil or good, is up to the person, and not based in gender.

3.   The allegories in Dante’s inferno are able to demonstrate the characteristics embedded in each sin.  For example, in the second circle of hell, are those that lived their life in lust, and are punished with a violent storm that throws their body violently.  Such is an allegory, that compares this individuals, as having no control of themselves and giving it all to lust, such as one would have no control of one’s body, in the middle of a violent storm.  In the third circle, are the gluttons being punished, with different types of weather, cold and dirty hail, rain and snow.  To me, this is a right punishment, because someone that is a glutton wants to be in control of the food all the time.  If you were to be in a situation of scarce food, the glutton will kill you first by not sharing the food and eating it all at once, they feel in control of your life  by doing so. Severe weather conditions is something humans cannot be in control of, and could never be, so is a good punishment.  Therefore, I agree with Dante’s inferno in the type of punishments, but I do not believe that some sins are worse than others as are portrayed in this comedy.

1. To understand Shahrayar’s madness, one must have lived during this time period where there was great male dominance. Does Shahrayar’s murders made sense to me? Well, personally I would never do this if I ever got cheated on. Obviously, Shahrayar’s tremendous male ego was the reason he could commit murder after murder just to protect himself from being cheated on again. He would rather kill his wives after the first night than give his wives enough time to cheat on him. Shahrayar was making everybody else pay for something that his first wife did to him. Male ego’s in mocho societies could be frail but in this case I believe Shahrayar went to the absolute extreme.

2.  In the story of the Merchant and His Wife, it is thought that the merchant’s wife is in control  when the merchant overhears the dog and the rooster it reminds him that being the man you have much more physical power than a women.  In a sense, the man should be the one with power telling the wife what to do.  In The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey, this story is about trying to save someone when the real thing that happens is that they steal their position. This can happen in a lot of situations in life, whether it is in the workplace or on a sports team, or pretty much anything where there are more than one position higher and lower.  The Merchant and the Demon is relevant to that of the Merchant and his Wife, where the demon has all the  control over the merchant.

3. In this story, Dante  creates an imaginative  correlation between a soul’s sin on Earth and the punishment he or she receives in Hell.  The Sullen choke on mud, the Wrathful attack one another, the Gluttonous are forced to eat excrement,  homosexuals must endure an eternity of walking on hot sand, and those who charge interest on loans sit beneath a rain of fire.  This provides many of Inferno’s moments of spectacular imagery and symbolic power, but also serves to shine light on one of Dante’s major themes and the perfection of God’s justice. This texts states the infinite wisdom of divine justice. The punishment in the story is perfectly given due to the sin that they have committed. I believe that is that is the right answer to this question.

1) Shahrayar was under the impression that an act of promiscuous sexual behavior on the part of his wife and slave girls would not happen to someone of his social stature. After not only his wife’s adultery but that of his brothers as well, the two brothers ventured alone in sorrow until they had their encounter with the demons mistress. From her they brothers took away that a woman will do as she pleases in life and there was not anything a man could do to restrain her actions. This was the lead up to Shahrayer’s resolve to have his wife and slave girls killed, and that from that night forward Shahrayar was to sleep with a different women every night and have her killed the next day.

I believe this resolve manifested itself because Sharayer continued to have the desire of a woman in his bed, but he did not wish to experience the pain of her eventual betrayal at a later point. For a king such as Shahrayar, I suppose this makes sense because his rasp on power meant that nothing he ruled or dictated could be challenged. So if his will was to have a woman killed, who or what was there to say he was wrong or should be prevented from doing this? The vizier’s daughter, Shahrazad, seems to have been the answer to this question. For she took it upon herself to skillfully prevent not only herself, but any other woman as well, from being put to death thanks to her own skilled intuition in use to interrupt Shahrayar’s wayward actions.

Finally, male egos in macho societies are frail. But the point is that when left unchecked, either by a more dominant or controlling influence, or in Shahrazad’s case a more passive one, there is not a stop on the emotional reaction to this sort of uncontrolled behavior which reacts to a frayed ego.

2) I see one main difference between the two different tales being told. The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey and The Tale of the Merchant and His Wife seem to tell a story of how men and women are not really working together but are instead divisive toward one another. If you take The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey, and substitute the Ox and the Donkey for opposing gender roles, you see how the one gender acts to work against the other gender at their expense for a personal gain. Then in The Tale of the Merchant and His Wife, we see how a secret held from one spouse leads to the wife elected to having her husband dead rather than not knowing what the secret is. The merchant resolves to control his wife by beating her later, and this works in his favor to resolve the matter. These were both stories told by Shahrazad’s father.

Shahrazad’s long story however of the Merchant and the Demon seems to tell stories that are progressively more strange to the demon than the prior one told. This seems to parallel the story of Sharayer’s wife and his slave girls cheating on him, which was worse than Sharayar’s brothers story of his wife cheating on him. The gist of all of this is that after Sharayar’s brother finds out about his brother’s misfortune, he forgets his troubles and is happy again. After the Demon hears the three Old Man’s tales, he seems to no longer be troubled by the death of his son at the hands of the merchant. With the merchant being saved by the three Old men, he is free to return home to his family who love and miss him. And what Shahrazad might be trying to convey to Sharayar is that it is okay to forget about what his wife did to him so that he may no longer keep slaying every woman that lays in his bed.

3) Absolutely not. In the First Circle of Hell, Virgil describes how all who are there are people who have not sinned, but are there anyhow because they have not been baptized. As he puts it to Dante, “[for] this defect, and for no other guilt, we here are lost,” and that “[Virgil himself is] a member of this group” (1224). Among this group were not only men and women, but infants as well. It is certainly hard in my mind to find an infant deserving of hell because the infant was not baptized. What is also unfortunate is that many dwellers in this region of hell were there since the time before Christ reigned the Earth with his Good News. So this implies that there are people in hell who never even had the chance to become baptized because there was no Christianity to observe while they were alive.

It then become apparent later that many of the inhabitants of the most dark regions of hell are simply there because they were guilty of sodomy. No matter what anyone’s perception of sodomy is in the present day, I am not sure that if sodomy is considered to be a sin that it is worthy of the deepest regions of hell that are in the same neighborhood as those regions observed for murderers.

1. 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?

“By God, had I been in your place, I would have killed at least a hundred or even a thousand women.   I would have been furious; I would have gone mad…”   — King Shahrayar’s reaction to his brother’s tale of woe, a foreshadowing of future terror.

“Old Time Tales”, by Charles Robinson. The Fairy-tale quality the Western world has put on the “Nights” may hide an unpleasant reality.

Madness in pain and wrath?   I don’t think there is too much that is far fetched when it comes to King Shahrayar’s pain, rage or his ability to rationalize his behavior.     We still see shades of this type of thinking in the Middle East today.   Punishments are brutal and little in the way of rational thinking is involved.   (I’m thinking of cane whipping, lopping off hands, stoning, etc.)   These things existed there and still do, especially involving adultery.   Gaddafi and Saddam and their sons all delighted in such orgies of power and wrath.   So if we take into consideration the fairy-tale nature of Shahrazad’s story, its not too much of a stretch to take the kings natural hurt and anger and tip it over into the vengeful, fit of rage of a king given over to his wrathful bent.   But is it madness?   I think it is in a way, but only just so far.   Such a king would have been accustomed the power he possessed.   Like Henry VIII killing wives at a frightful pace, his wife is dispatched, almost like an anti-climactic after thought, his real rage being reserved for every young maiden, every night, for the unseen future.   Three thousand?   That’s a bit much…probably a result of intending to impress the listener of the tale with an imposing number.   Even vengeful wrath in the form of murder and rape will eventually burn itself up or require a greater rush for satisfaction.   But such a reaction in an irrationally powerful man, in a culture that celebrates the power and will of the man over the woman is not only to be expected, but is probably assumed just and warranted.   Anyone who has been betrayed in a marriage can attest to the damage and wounds it can cause.   The male ego is intense, like a lion’s, and as is typical of humanity, often irrational in its reaction to pain.   The very real pain of being shamed by betrayal suggests a mockery of the king’s powerlessness to protect his honor and his domain.   That is a very real male emotion, regardless of society or madness.

2. Both the vizier and his daughter, Scheherazade, 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 both the vizier’s and in Shahrazad’s tale’s animals share an unhappy lot.   To be an animal in, “The Thousand And One Nights” is not a blessing.   The Donkey and the Ox are at the will of the master, like slaves in a plantation pen and if the master wills it they are driven hard.   Likewise, the plight of animals in the story’s told by Shahrazad is similar.   Each animal is being led by the one who prevailed over the treachery the human-turned-animal has attempted.   Only in the “Master and His Wife” is the role of the animal beneficial and productive to the master.   And only in this tale, is there an animal whose personal lot is described as luxury (the rooster has many wives and does as he pleases).

Rhabari Shepherd in Rajasthan, India 2009 taken by Chris Beetles.       The Master is wise, the Master is to be honored and given respect.   He will not be deceived.   The Master is merciful.  

Life as an animal is not to be desired and really, neither is a woman’s if the vizier’s version is accurate.   Whether animal or female, they are subject to the master.   In the vizier’s story however, animals speak so that their thoughts may be known, their treachery or wisdom revealed and their story’s purpose is illuminated.   In Shahrazad’s tales, they do not speak, but show misery through whimpering and crying out.   The power in each of the tales told to the king come from sorcery used initially to deceive, then as retribution on the deceiver or the perpetrator of wrong.   In these tales however, the emphasis is on the mercy given in the end, in spite of treachery and importantly, women can also be the source of healing.   In the first two tales, another sorceress acts honorably and is able to restore the victims to human form, likewise, the female Jinn saves the Merchant from his brother’s treachery.

3. Do you believe the penalties suffered are appropriate to the sins committed in Dante’s Inferno? Why or why not?

“I woke to find myself in a dark wood, Where the right road was wholly lost and gone” Canto I, Lines 2-3

Is lying under the river Styx in a swill of slime an equal punishment for the sin of sloth?   And how is it that Dante’s wish to see Filippo dunked in slop not worthy of the same punishment that Filippo is already suffering?   The problem with Dante’s version of the punishments awaiting the sinful of this world is they are assuming that you are to be punished for a particular sin; the sin of slothfulness, lust, heresy, violence, failure to be baptized etc.   But for which sin of many are the sinful to be punished?   Is each man and woman to be punished only for one?   I don’t know anyone who struggles with only one.   At least, not the ones described in Biblical writing.   For instance, Ceasar and Hector, are armed and ready, and suffer no punishment other than limbo, but surely they were men of violence and should rightly be several floors down in a boiling lake of blood.   Additionally, I think Dante’s punishments are distributed in such a way as to punish particular people he has known or known of as he sees fit, judge and jury.   Biblical truth seems to lag or be completely irrelevant here.   Dante is supposedly describing hell as it was designed with the Christian God, but I see little of it.   The Bible reveals very little about these things, except for the Lake of Fire.   However it does help illuminate why it is impossible to reach a heaven reserved only for the worthy.   How could any of us ever qualify?   Which sins will we be punished for?   They are too many to count.

 1. 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?

I think that Shahrayar’s madness comes from his wife being unfaithful to him.  I could not really find to many other points to why he would be so upset.  On a side note to begin with, I find it kind of funny that almost all of these stories there is a problem that results from a woman.  Now, don’t get me wrong the guys in the story act like barbarians for the most part in all instances but I just thought it is starting to be a reoccurring theme in the stories we read.  With that being said, I can probably justify his anger because he was cheated on and that would be a reason to get angry.  As far as the male egos, I think that his is not a special case necessarily special because all of the stories seem to involve a mad man but I do think his is justified.  By that I mean that he had the right to be mad because his wife was unfaithful to him.

 2. 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?

The tale of the Merchant and His Wife is that of one where the woman is wearing the pants in the relationship. The animals talked about represent that the man has more physical power than the woman and she should not be controlling him through mind games.  He recognizes this and realizes he needs to take back the power.  This is also shown with the Merchant and the Demon as the Demon has great control over the merchant too.  Again the merchant decides to take charge and take over the power. I do not think gender matters in this instance. If someone wants to be in charge, they can be in charge.

3. Do you believe the penalties suffered are appropriate to the sins committed in Dante’s Inferno? Why or why not?

I’m not sure what I thought about some of the punishments.  I think that they were a little horrific to read about such as when they talked about having to go in a vat of boiling blood if you had been violent.  However, Hell is a very terrifying place and I think that all of these penalties are very possible in a place like that. I feel like that if you are sent to Hell that you did something very wrong and deserve whatever punishment is dealt to you.

 1. 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?

I felt right away that the theme of the story was far fetched, once I got to the end of the story I looked back at the real theme and the reason why it was exaggerated. Thinking back to all the stories that we have read over the course of the semester I just now realized that every one of these weird stories have had a theme that has been “out there,’ I think the reason for this is so that the reader can fully understand the concept or the meaning of the story. For me it was hard to find his madness right away but going back I found that madness in the start of the story where he learns that his wife has been unfaithful. This makes Shahrayar livid he makes some very stinging remarks in regards to all women. I think the fact the Shahrayar is king it makes him more visible to people and they judge him more they don’t see all the sides of his personality. I’m not sure about all macho kingdoms but I feel that it depends on the person whom we are looking at. Everyone is different and may have different reactions to different situations.

 2. 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 Merchant and His Wife it is perceived by me that the merchants wife has him on a “leash,’ when the merchant overhears the dog and the rooster it reminds him that being a male you have much more physical power than a women and you should use that than rather be manipulated by a women. The man should be the manipulator. In The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey, this story is about a helpful friend trying to save someone when really they are unknowingly stealing their spot. This often happens in real life in the workplace or on teams for that matter. The Merchant and the Demon is relevant to that of the Merchant and his Wife, where the demon has great control over the merchant. Drawing these lines makes one feel that dominance comes from within whoever thinks they are in charge. The leaders will prevail and come out on top in the end. Gender doesn’t necessarily matter.

3. Do you believe the penalties suffered are appropriate to the sins committed in Dante’s Inferno? Why or why not?

In a scene, I do believe that most of the penalties were appropriate to the sins that were committed in the Inferno. I see Hell as a place that no one wants to go to. I often feel that when a person does something wrong that should be done back on them so they know how it feels and actually learn from their wrongdoing. So yes in some ways I believe that for the most part the penalties in Dante’s Inferno were appropriate.

1) The madness is sparked through an unintentional discovery of his wife laying with a “kitchen boy,’ catalyzing Shahrayar’s reevaluation of women and his own view on the nature of human virtue. I believe this story is not meant to show macho versus un-macho sorts of male behavior, but rather the frailty of all seemingly perfect relationships, no matter what society they’re from. Faithfulness, as he discovers, is not a prominent trait, even for someone as important to society as himself. He was not a special case, as his brother can attest.

2) In any poetic/mythical story it is common for animals to be part of the cast, yet the type of animal usually is a strong indicator of the animals’ purpose in the story at hand. For example in the tale of the Ox and the Donkey, where a gifted man could understand his Ox and Donkey conversing about their daily activities. Therefor the Ox discussed how his work day went, what lame food he received, and how extremely tired the combination made him. The Ox further complained about how pampered the Donkey’s life was in comparison. Thus the Donkey recommended playing sick, like a school child does to avoid going to class. Following that the Donkey was recommended to take the place of the Ox by the merchant to the plowman. Thus resulting in the Donkey complaining and the Ox relaxing, only now the Donkey is eager to find a way to get his pampered lifestyle back and return the Ox to his original place behind the whip in the fields. This story to me represents that sometimes the only way to be happy is at the misfortune of others. So perhaps this story also speaks of staying out of other people’s business, or else it could affect your own in a negative way. Because the merchant overheard the conversation of the two animals, the results were unforeseen by the Donkey and maybe that is how Vizier thought his daughter would be affected.

The Tale of the Merchant and his Wife had a good conscience versus bad conscience vibe. Expressing that women should be put in their place, because they live in a patriarchal society. Through the rooster’s influencing the beating of the woman, it showed the daughter that she must respect men and fear the possibility of being beaten if she disobeys.

As for the Tale of the Merchant and the Demon, it presented a story about how a man accidentally killed the demon’s son via high velocity date pits. This story I believe is meant to show that even men are below other life and defenseless to the abilities of nature.

3) Sin is so subjective and the penalties of sinning are decided by those who defined sin. I do not believe the penalties suffered are appropriate because those deciding a person’s need for suffering are as guilty, if not more guilty, as the ones receiving judgment. Sin cannot be used as a way of placing people into different categories of suffering through biased perceptions of what is sin, because that is after all how so much of modern discrimination and hate crimes occur. Not only is a sin subjective, but it is often defined by people who are personally against specific behavior. For some a sin could be the fact that a person believes in a different god, or to others a sin is a person of one ethnicity marrying a person of another. The fact that sins are categorized and religiously subjectively defined is at the root of the issue. The definitions of the types of sin in Dante’s Inferno are very inappropriate, and are all based on people doing innocent things, which just so happen to go against the god. For example the Sixth Circle is for heretics, which only means they do not believe in the same god as those who invented this definition of the sin.

1. Sharhrayar is driven mad by his wife’s infidelity. There are several reasons which this could have happened. Traditionally men are the head of the family. In this society it would be impossible to be respected if one cannot control even their own household. Sharhrayer will be dishonored when the people of the kingdom find out that his wife has been committing adultery under his own nose. His subjects may begin to wonder if he has the power to rule a kingdom when he does not know what is going on in his own house. I can see how, for this reason, Shahrayar’s madness could be explained. The only way that he can prove to the kingdom, and to himself, that he is in control, is by killing each of his new wives.

I think Shahrayer’s madness could be explained in a slightly different way however. It is possible that he truly did love and trust his wife. Betrayel of that kind might keep a man from never loving again. His actions could have been driven, not from a “macho’ male ego, but from a broken heart. After being hurt by someone he believed in fully, he thinks all women are devils. The best way to deal with them is to use them exterminate them. In this way he would be driven by the motivation of revenge, rather than attempting to keep in the good favor of the public.

2. When the vizier describes animals he describes them as thoughtful and scheming. The donkey and the Ox make plans to lighten their work load. They are portrayed as strong and able to work with skill in their own niche. As of these characters are male it is possible that the vizier, although subconsciously, is hinting that only males are equipped to succeed.

Once again, in The Tale of the Merchant and His Wife, the animals are characterized as thoughtful and interested in their master’s business. As in the previous tale, the animals that take center stage — the dog and the rooster — are male characters. The only female animals which the tale describes are the ones being beat into submission and bred by the rooster. I think the fairly graphic terms in which the breeding of the hens was described was designed to portray extreme male dominance. Also it is interesting that this story, is a poorly veiled threat. The vizier is basically threatening that either he or the king is going to beat Shahrazd into submission.

The animals in Shahrazd’s stories are not true animals at all, but humans turned into animals. In these stories the humans scheme and plot, but when they are turned into animal form their plotting is over. The animals are portrayed as helpless, and in some cases even the victim of the story. In The Merchant and the Demon, women are not helpless, but strategize just like the men. Women are also punished for their wrong deeds. The demon women in the story of the man with the dogs is portrayed as powerful and adept. The end goal of Shahrazd’s stories, I believe, is to show the King his own error in killing women, to show that women can be trusted, and to plant a seed that women can play more roles than simply submission.

3. I thought it was interesting how many different punishments were described in Dante’s Inferno. Each punishment was so separate from the others. It made me wonder what would happen to people who were guilty of multiple sins. If you were a liar, a glutton, and lustful, which of the punishments would you go to?

I thought many of the penalties were appropriate. A number of them were similar to what the individual desired on earth, except horribly and horrifically magnified. One such that comes to mind is the punishment for the violent. These individuals on earth desired nothing more than the blood of their enemies. Now they must be tormented forever in vats of boiling blood. Another such group were the pimps and the seducers. These had been the sellers and enticers of sex. These, who had spent so much time trying to get others naked are punished by being forever naked.

I wondered why these individuals did not seem to be too distressed by being tormented. Their senses seem to be with them enough to stop and have conversations. I also thought it was odd how little control God seems to have in these areas of hell.

1. In Shahrayar’s case I can understand his madness to some extent, he found his wife with another man this is a devastating thing. I believe that his position as king as the publicized betrayal of his wife led to his extreme reaction to his wife’s actions, but the continuance of the deeds, killing a wife every morning, is insane.

I would believe in macho societies male ego’s are fragile in the sense that their beliefs are based on a sliver of truth, “Men are stronger than women”. Though this is not always the case physically, it is the majority. Therefore in macho societies men believe women obey from fear and love because “men are superior”, and when this is questioned or disproven, the whole belief system topples. This belief that men are superior is merely a reflection of the   norm that men are stronger physically than women, but fails to realize that women, although usually less physically imposing, are equal if not superior to men in many aspects.

2.        The vizier uses The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey to try and relate to his daughter the flaw in her plan to marry the sultan. In this tale the animals have human like qualities speech and higher reasoning. While the story of the Merchant and the Demon the animals lack the ability to speak but are used as a justification in that they are forgiven and made to atone through work while women are beaten and murdered. The story of the rooster shows how in this society the women are thought to be inferior to men.

Though out this tale it seems as though there is a contrasting view, women are lesser, being the prevalent but also that they are cunning tricksters manipulating men left and right. It is almost as though women were feared, maybe rightfully so, for their abilities to sway men’s hearts.

3.    I find most of the penalties suffered in Dante’s Inferno humorous if not appropriate though some make little to no sense to me. I quite enjoy how it is stated that the Astrologists or Diviners, forced to walk with their heads on backward, kind of fitting seeing how they spent their lives looking into the future. In the outlying region of Hell, the Ante-Inferno, where the souls who in life could not commit to either good or evil now must run in a futile chase after a blank banner day after day, this makes sense to me, while hornets bite them and worms lap their blood this not so much. Overall I like the punishments that are presented, but I don’t think they are just, if anything they are extreme, but again that is what makes them humorous along with the way they fit with the sins. Considering the time period and the characters in the story the penalties seem appropriate to the story.