Introduction
Thousand nights and a one uses a frame narration in order to connect other stories and makes the narration smooth and clear to a reader. In this work, the main character, Scheherazade narrates to sultan fairy tales connected by a frame story. In this work, the distinctions in expression are even more important, however, than the conventions held in common (Almansi 44).
The words of Scheherazade communicate a sense of inevitable and unendurable loss which is a much more powerful rendering of the damnation theme than anything in the fairy tales. So, too, the testimony of torment that is wrung from the inner being of Scheherazade: For Scheherazade, at once serious in nature and ludicrous in expression, is representative of the general dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves.
The frame story
The frame story is used as a unique links and a thread to guide readers through all stories. Some tales are used as a frame story: the Tale of Sindbad and Sindbad the Landman. Since this dramatic context is the artistic representation of the context of divine providence itself, a factor of necessary limitation is imposed directly on whatever storytelling takes place: the basic plot is known from the start; the representatives of the forces of fairytale world are doomed before they begin; the more confident and boastful they are, the more ludicrous they become; any suffering they experience is but just and deserved. At the same time, the world of fairytales in the eyes of the audience by the secure knowledge that the ultimate outcome will be more than just compensation for the travails involved. In short, the medieval audience is assured that all things work together unto good–suffering, evil, even sin. If the dramatic context of the storytelling provided the essential clue for the interpretation of fairytales, the solidity and permanence of that context was responsible for the unshakeable conventions which governed the expression of imaginary world (al-Baqillani 87).
The formality in the frame stories throughout The Thousand nights and a one uses is due to many causes: the strength of convention, the narrative function of most of the stories, the element of doctrine which must be expressed, the very noticeable rhyme schemes. In addition, there is hardly time to dwell very long in each of The Thousand nights and a one uses pageants on any one expression of grief; The Thousand nights and a one uses must move along rather quickly, covering the necessary ground without much elaboration (Beeston 42). The frame story is symbolic, and its conventions are, at least in one respect, a kind of dramatic shorthand. The characters are given any long lamentations, The Thousand nights and a one uses is represented in terms quite different from other stories: in the midst of a celebration banquet after the massacre of the innocents, Scheherazade warns the audience to beware of pomp and pride. But the use of abstract figures is only one measure of formality. Another is the background of some of the more familiar laments. The strength of this tradition helped to perpetuate the formal, lyrical expression of fantasy in Thousand nights and a one uses (Dunlop 811).
The frame story in Thousand nights and a one provides a bedrock of serious meaning and enduring conventions for the development of the multiple narrations. Built to convey a theme of highest eminence to an audience of broadest diversity, they combined symbolism, typology, realism, and homiletics (Chejne Anwar 43). Within a dramatic context representing the providential order that governed all things and all mankind, there arose a dramaturgical method which staged evil as something comic, not only for reasons grounded in the medieval philosophy of everyday life but for the more practical homiletic purpose of engaging the least sophisticated of minds. Though life in the mysteries could be laughed at, it could not lightly be dismissed; even in its most grotesque or ludicrous manifestations it remained a ubiquitous force in the earthly existence of man (Gerhardt 54). Along with the comedy of evil other conventions were being firmly established: the discomfiture of the godless was consistently represented by two basic emotions–wrath and despair; the suffering of innocents, on the other hand, was dramatized in lyric lamentation, and consistently arose from established situations either as part of passion or within a domestic context. And all the elements of suffering and evil were rendered endurable and intelligible in terms of the over-ruling, benevolent, and just scheme of providence. Awareness of this scheme, both in its ideological and dramaturgical dimensions, was the key to the interpretation of everyday life and human existence (Gibb 43).
Conclusion
In sum, the frame story in Thousand nights and a one plays a double role it is an independent part of the narration and a link between all stories of the cycle. This juxtaposition of elements has been aptly characterized by the unique nature of Arabic literature and narrative traditions.
Works Cited
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