Gina Tangelo

Thursday, September 29th

English 10
Miriam Rock
Arabian Nights Reflection 2
Two people who can be compared in Arabian Nights are the two shedemons. One of them from the second old mans tale and the other from the
story of the two viziers and their kid Badr Al Din (Hasan). The first she-demon
is the wife of the old man. Shes disguised as a human, but in reality she was
a she-demon the whole time. She wants to kill his two brothers because they
had betrayed him, but the old man convinces her to spare them. So, instead,
she takes the brothers to her sister and she turns them into dogs. They are
to stay like this for 10 years and when the ten years are over for the old man
to go and find the she-demon. In the other story, theres a demon whos
admiring Badr Al Din at the cemetery where Badrs father lay. The demon
tries to go back up to heavens but he runs into a she-demon. The demon
showed Badr sleeping to the she-demon, and she told the demon what she
had seen with the king from Egypt and the viziers daughter. They brought
sleeping Badr to the place where the daughter was sleeping and put them
next to each other.
The only similarity between these two stories is that a male of some
sort runs into/meets a female of some sort. There are two big differences
that change the main views of the story. The she-demon in the second old
mans tale is angry with the way that his brothers were treating him and
wants to hurt them. Their conversation is more out of anger: I shall fly to

them now, drown their boat, and let them all perish (pg.35). The other shedemon continues her conversation with the demon because she wanted to
help Badr. She thought that telling the story would help the girl out. She and
the demon are on a similar page and have an understanding: they are not
angry with each other nor are they fighting.
The reason why these stories were told in the first place is because
Shahrazad is implying that Shahrayar is just angry and he will get over it.
The story with the she-demon and the old man is showing that there is
always a solution to the things that make you angry. Another thing that
Shahrazad is trying to say to Shahrayar is that she is trying to help him out
so that nothing bad will happen. It is almost like she can see into the future
and see the fear of the other women who he is about to sleep with. She is
trying to save their lives by telling these stories to keep her alive. This is like
how the she-demon and the demon let Badr sleep near the viziers daughter
so that they might be together. All in all, these two stories are not very much
similar but have meaning that tie together.