1001 Nights And The Decameron: The Power Women

Throughout history, women have been viewed as the less dominant and less powerful gender. Gender has been used as a primary way of signifying relationships of power. In Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, the role of gender in power dynamics in both the 19th and 20th century is explored through the journey of the main character, Dana. In the novel, Dana time travels back and forth in time to the 1800’s and back to her present time of 1976. Throughout her time travel experience, the different roles and powers women held in both the 19th and 20th century are portrayed through the characters of Dana, Margaret, and Sarah.

For thousands of years there has been a strong distinction between the roles of men and women. Often times in stories there will be women that are only mentioned for their beauty and charisma. Hardly ever will you see pages upon pages being spent talking about the true character and accomplishments of women characters. Even though stories like The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis were written thousands of year ago, (when stories were told mostly told from a males perspective) the light shined on women in the texts show them as wise, strong, and greatly influential beings. In The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of  Genesis, the writer shows the women as bringers of knowledge,  guidance, and care to the men in the texts that are lacking thereof.

Considering the powers of men and women in The Thousand and One Nights can help better understand and interpret the story and also gives an idea of how women were viewed during the time these stories were written. Though men seem to be more powerful because they hold more physical and social power, woman are actually more powerful using their intelligence and applying their intelligence to influence

In addition to providing guidance, women also play powerful roles. Take Shamhat for example. She uses the power of sex and curiosity to lure Enkidu away from his wild environment. After having sex for seven days and seven nights, Enkidu was no longer able to return to live amongst the animals and was forced to learn the ways of civilized life, which Shamhat taught him. It is easy to see that at this point in the epic, Shamhat clearly possessed the upper hand over Enkidu. He

In The Thousand and One Nights translated by Husain Haddawy, there is an emphasis on the role women play in and how their characters affect the male view on the rights and freedom women are entitled to. The value of women in the tale vanished after King Shahzaman’s wife had committed adultery with one of his palace workers. In the East during the time of this tale, there was little to no value for women, which gave men the power to use them as sex slaves and be able to throw them away after they have been sexually fulfilled. One day, when the vizier’s daughter Shahrazad volunteers to calm the raging king by telling him many tales and distracting him from his sexual acts and killing spree. The tale of The Thousand and One Nights was believed to be misogynistic, and presented women to be adulteresses who caused the downfall of men (Blythe). This tale was written in ancient Middle-Eastern civilization where women did not have rights or freedom within their societies and were victimized to be seen as the root of all evil and that “women are not to be trusted” (609. Haddawy). This tale will be evaluated based on the traditions placed in the ancient Middle-East, the modern-day observations of how women are treated in westernized countries, and the changes perceived.

Throughout centuries of human existence, women have been deemed as inferior to men in multiple different cultures and religions. Men have developed a norm to be the individual who carries out duties to help maintain a stable life for himself and the family in which he is providing for. Because of this fundamentalist approach towards how society should be, women’s rights have been suppressed throughout political, social, and cultural actions. The Islamic religion in particular, is fond of abusing the rights of women and empowering the rights of men in such a way that it has created a permanent existence of conflict within countries who follow Islam. In fact, in the Quran it states that women must have lesser authority than men, therefore their

The woman is a harlot seen only once and -- at least in the N.K. Sandars translation -- is not even given a name. She becomes and remains what Harris calls an "object of male control" (226). Each time she is spoken to, she is referred to as "woman," as if this is her name, and is commanded to complete a task. For example, when the trapper takes her to find Enkidu, whom she is to seduce, he says to her, "Now, woman, make your breasts bare, have no shame, do not delay but welcome his love" (Lawall 20). This woman, as Harris has written, is not as much a real character as an object, and one of male pleasure at that. While many might see her role as completely demeaning, however, it also marks the beginning of literary women's use of sex as a weapon. What we must remember is that, no matter that it comes about by way of a man's commands, the harlot changes Enkidu from a ravenous wild man into the more human companion of a king. Only she has the power men need to transform him into a character that will benefit, instead of rebel against, the society they have created.

In the post classical period, different societies viewed the women in different ways, therefore they were all treated differently. Due to all the passages being around the world, it shows how differently and similar these societies treated women. All have a different opinion on women’s role and position within their society. Some views were negative while others are positive and think both sex’s are both equal. In document 1, Islam: The Koran, it talks about how women are made from men.

In the modern world women work, vote, run for office and the list goes on. In most aspects, women are equal to men. However, this was not always the case. In centuries past, women were not viewed as being equal to men socially, intellectually, or politically and were thought incapable of accomplishing anything of value. Consequently, many cultures held the view that women were possessions whose only purpose was to be subservient to men. The view of women as mere objects is evident in various works of literature throughout the ages. Two classic works of literature that exemplify this are The Thousand and One Nights and Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of

As Mary Wollstonecraft once said, “I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves.” In this quote, “themselves” is referred to as women of course. It is somewhat customary to pick up a paper in today’s light and perhaps see read about Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, or First Lady, Michelle Obama, even media specialist, Oprah Winfrey. The list could go on and on, but the point remains the same. If King Hammurabi of Babylon were living in today’s world and saw how dramatic the power of women has transformed over the years, he would perhaps declare himself Queen of Babylon. Kevin Reilly accurately depicts the struggling role of women from this early period of civilization through Assyrian

In the tale, “Wife of Bath” in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer there is an obvious contrast between men’s power and women’s power. Chaucer uses a knight, who has to figure out what all women collectively desire, to portray this difference and to ultimately ask the question – Who has the most power, men or women? Both men and women are shown to have power in the tale. However, while men have physical power, women have the power of persuasion -- and that is the stronger power.

On one instance, women are portrayed as unfaithful and disobedient wives, such as the first wife of Shahryar, who happened to share an extramarital relationship with the royal cook. And it is because of her unfaithfulness, Shahryar decides to kill every young woman he marries before they could betray him. On other occasions, women are represented as victims of men, who are nothing more than mere “objects of pleasure” meant to be bought or possessed by men and kings. Although it might be just impossible for some of us to imagine such a life for ourselves, but women, at the time, had no rights and were in a way captives held in harems, kept out of the outside world. Surprisingly, the tale also represents a different aspect of the role of women in the early Muslim world portrayed through the character of Shahrazad.

Contemplating the relationship between gender and power, one undoubtedly notices that tradition regards men as the holders of official office and power. Historically, men have also always been the leaders of their families, and turned to in times of trouble or need. Making generalizations is normally a weak approach to any task; in this case however, it is necessary to do so in order to illustrate how drastically opposite the situations prove in various selections from "1001 Arabian Nights." Rather than men taking critical roles of power, the women characters, especially at crucial moments in the plot, empower themselves far beyond the male figures, and, consequently,

She is seen as a weak and fickle woman. When her ship wrecks, “she felt the need of advice'; (49). Alatiel doesn’t know how to do things on her own. She has always had servants to help her. After Alatiel realizes all that happened to the ship and everyone on it she “weeps bitterly'; (49). At this point Alatiel’s unbelievable adventures begin. She is taken to Pericone’s house. Pericone falls in love with her and wants to sleep with her. Alatiel tells her servants that “she herself had decided never to let anyone but her husband enjoy her'; (50). Pericone gets Alatiel drunk and into bed with him. Alatiel’s values aren’t so strong because Pericone gets her to sleep with him. After she loses her virginity “she often invited herself not with words…but with actions'; to Pericone (51). When Alatiel is taken from Pericone by Marato, she weeps but is soon comforted “with the assistance of the holy Stiff-in-hand God gave to man';(52). It doesn’t take much to comfort Alatiel. In the beginning of the story she doesn’t want to sleep with a man that is not her husband. By the first man Alatiel encounters her views on sex have changed. Alatiel’s adventures do not stop after two men. When Marato loses Alatiel the prince of Morea gets her. It doesn’t take Alatiel long to get over Marato.

Heroes, kings and presidents, for so long men are the protagonist of the stories. Across the world and through the centuries, women have always been situated below men. Women were considered the weak sex, they are portrayed as delicate, obedient, naive and passionate. “Never trust in women; nor rely upon their vows” (44). As the wives of the kings on The Arabian Nights, whose passion brought them to cheat on both their husbands. They ended up being executed because they threatened the kings’ power. Or bringing danger into the families, as the wives of Kasim and Ali Baba, who wouldn’t think of the consequences of their actions and would act by the pure instinct of greed and naiveness. Yet, seldomly acknowledged, women have had to step up to fix troubled situations, the few stories told of women of scarce resources who have manage to triumph over the standardized society. This not only shows how women take advantage of the resources at their reach but how their