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Analysis Of The Book ' The Thousand ' One Nights '

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Woman in society and in the story
The thousand and one nights offered an interesting prospective on the roles of women in the Muslim culture at the time. The woman in the tale ranges from wives, concubines, slave-girls, and even demon-woman, but all of them even the educated and wise Shahrazad is expected to have very little say and their lives are for the most part subject to the whims their husbands and fathers. One could even say that in the society set up in the story their very existence are meant to be that of a trinket, to be looked at not heard and seen as a show of a man’s strength and power. Every time the story speaks of a man with power and success there are mentions of a slave girl or mistress “once there was a merchant who had abundant wealth and investments …….he had many women and children and kept servants and slaves…”.the male sexuality is seen as natural and expected, but whenever a female tries to express her sexuality or independence she is looked down on even if she is the victim in the situation like the demons prisoner.
A demon kidnapped a young woman from her wedding night and locked her in a trunk with four separate locks with four separate keys that he keeps on him at all times and only allows the girl out when he sleeps. The purpose of this imprisonment was to keep the girl pure and untouched, but somehow the girl manages to sleep with a hundred men (after Shahryar and Shahmzaman) and took the rings as souvenirs of each conquest. The girl
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