One Thousand and One Nights

This work features both reverence for and prejudice towards women, the former often revolving around female intelligence and power and the latter revolving around female sexuality. This theme also provides the framework for the larger narrative structure. The tales begin with the story of Shahzaman and Shahriyar, two kings who find that their wives are unfaithful. Both receive personal wounds and respond violently, killing their wives. They travel the world to assess the situation more widely, confirming their suspicion that women are deceitful. As a result, both brothers become secure in their mistrust. Shahriyar takes this mistrust a step further, refusing to take a long-term partner, sleeping only with virgins, and then killing them the next day. In that sense, the work very much begins with a cautionary tale about women at large.

However, there is a promise of redemption through the character of Shahrazad, who volunteers to save her sex by engaging Shahriyar. In the end, through her storytelling, we find that she has succeeded in showing the king that she is “chaste and tender, wise and eloquent” (405). Shahriyar admits that she has brought him to repentance, so the tales end with a reverence towards and a redemption of women.