Prof.
Waller Hastings
Northern State University
Aberdeen, SD 57401
Shahriyar and Shahryzad
The frame tale of The Arabian Nights tells of a fall from innocence
on the part of Shahriyar and his brother, and the terrible vengeance they
exact on the entire female sex. Note that this violates Islamic law,
which calls on men to care for women and treat them with respect (even
as it is very patriarchal). They must learn to behave correctly and
to judge individuals on their merits, not on their gender. (Consider
this in re role of maidservant in "Aladdin").
Shahryar, maddened by his wife’s infidelity, swears to have each new wife
put to death on the morning after the wedding night. After three
years of wife-killings, Shahryzad, the daughter of his vizier, volunteers
to marry him and, with the assistance of her younger sister, Dinarzad,
contrives to interest the ruler in a story which she intentionally leaves
unfinished. This causes him to spare her life, and the storytelling
continues night after night, as Shahryzad is careful to begin a new story
before ending each night’s telling. Finally, the storytelling has
the desired effect of delaying the ruler’s murderous intentions until he
has fallen in love with Shahryzad and, in the process, cured himself of
his mental affliction. Read against the backdrop of the frame tale,
the other tales represent Shahryzad’s education of Shahryar in the proper
relation between men and women, ruler and ruled.
Bettelheim notes that "delivery from death through the telling of fairy
tales is a motif which starts the cycle. . . [and] reappears throughout
the cycle, and ends it" (87). The complexity of the psychological
problem for Sharyar is indicated by the number of stories necessary to
effect healing. Sharyzad represents ego - the controlling part of
the psyche, socialized and intellectual. She is in fact ego dominated
by superego - i.e., by social constraints and forces; hence her determination
to risk her life on behalf of the community as a whole. Shahryar
represents id - the emotional, impulsive side of psyche, always seeking
to escape from bounds unless controlled by ego.
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