Arabian Nights Essay

In The Arabian Nights, a collection of Arabic folk bilgewaters, Shahrazad uses the Chinese box perfume to connect her stories to one another in order to continue telling the story to business leader Shahrayar. The tale of the husband and the parrot has number of tales that are related to each other tales and to the original story in many complex ways. The subtales of The Story of the black cat and the Demon focus on a particular theme, trust, with relations in the midst of the characters and the affinity of the situations. A dummy up reading of The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot reveals this particular tale told by magnate Yunan to the vizier is placed in the book particularly to increase the importance of trust. By lin mightiness the tragic death of King Yunan to his distrustful action, Shrazad ultimately tries to convince King Shahrayar to make the right decision not to kill Sharazad herself and other women.The tale makes an analogy with the tale of the King Yunan and the sage Duban. It parallels the major power to the keep up and the sage to the parrot. The parrot appears as intelligent, knowledgeable, smart and retentive, (p. 41) and like the sage is described in the story. By listing these adjectives about the parrot, the power emphasizes the parrot is a trustworthy bird that should not be killed. On the other hand, the male monarch thinks the wife, who is splendidly beautiful that she was unblemished itself (p. 41) and does not let her husband travel and leave her behind, should not be trusted. King Yunan suggests that the vizier is playing a trick on him like the husband had been tricked by his wife (p. 42). The effect of this clear analogy between the tales is that it leads the readers to expect the female monarch not to kill the sage because the same thing will happen, (p. 42) meaning that the king will demand regrets if he kills the sage.The purpose of this particular tale is to strongly advise the celibacy of trust. Against exp ectation, King Yunan kills the sage just like the husband killed the parrot in The Tale of the Husband and the Parrot. In both cases, the main characters regret what they have done. King Yunan does not take his own advice Dont do what you will regret afterward (p.41). Instead he kills the sage, which he regrets afterwards which destroys the expect ending of the tale. Then, the readers start to wonder what significance this one-page tale has in The Story of the Fisherman and the Demon. As the taleof the King Yunan and the sage Duban proceeds, the significance of the tale of the husband and the parrot becomes clear.As a result of King Yunan mistrusting the sage and lacking the confidence in his belief, the king dies of a tragic death. By presenting this tragedy of the king who made the wrong choice by trusting the jealous vizier, the story emphasizes the importance of making a morally correct decision and having a faith in it. If the tale of the husband and the parrot had not been in the story, the king would not have had the choice that was morally right and therefore would not have shown his indecisive nature. The existence of the correct decision that the king should have made causes the death of the king to be more tragic which reveals a stronger message to trust in others that have good conscience and entrust in oneself.Another role of the Tale of the Husband and the Parrot involves its purpose to the original situation of Shahrazad and the king. The king has a big difficulty in trusting women due to his wifes unfaithfulness, like the husbands distrust of the parrot and the Kings distrust of the sage in the tales. The main purpose of Sharazad is to convince the king to make the decision with his good conscience not to kill the women he mistrusts. She suggests that the king should not do what he will regret afterward, because the same thing will happen to him (p. 41) as did to the husband and King Yunan. The tale of the King Yunan and the Sage Duban is use d as Sharazads prophecy that applies to the king Shahrayar if he determines not to trust her. The tragedy teaches King Shahrayar a strong lesson of the faith in moral judgment and the trust in people with good conscience.The amazing influence of the chinese box effect in the whole book can be well observed in the Tale of the Husband and the Parrot. The fact that this tale does not influence King Yunans decision of the sage enhances the misfortune thus making the theme of the whole story even stronger. The close relation of characters in the sub-tales allows the advice of the tale to run the characters in all of the tales as well as the ultimate target of Sharazads persuasion, King Shahrayar. Sharazad influences King Shahrayars decision upon trusting women and his morality in the process of telling stories that are related to the theme, trust.