“The Lady and Her Five Suitors” Story Essay (Review)

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This is a short story from the bulk of the tales that have been narrated in the One Thousand and One Nights in the sixteenth century. The collection is also referred to as The Arabian Nights Entertainment. Most of the editors of the short stories claim that there was a certain king in Persia in medieval times. At a point he realizes that the wife of his brother was unfaithful to the husband and even before the shock is over, he discovers that his wife was no exception. He was so hurt and decides to have her killed. From there henceforth his perception of women changes and feels that all women were unfaithful and therefore decides to marry virgins and executing them the following day saying he didn’t want them to have an opportunity of cheating on him. In the process, he marries a wife named Scheheherazade who hailed from a noble family. Knowing her execution was in the following day she started to narrate a story which she leaves in suspense for the following night and this forces the king to keep on postponing the execution every night till the nights were a thousand and one. It was on one of those nights that she narrated the story of a woman who happened to have five men all in love with her.

The story is about a woman who happened to be married to a man who used to travel most of the time and leave the wife unattended. At one point, the woman who was born in the merchant’s household happened to fall in love with one of the men who were born in the same household. One day the young lover was jailed for having quarreled with another person (Brians 1). The woman decides to place a petition and hence dresses to her best and moves to the king’s palace where she encounters four men who were the senior person in the state and were in a position to have the young man released but they decide to take advantage of her. They all love her and want to have a romantic affair to help her. On realizing her fate, she schemes a plan to teach all those selfish men a lesson. She intelligently schemes a revenge plan and invites all the men to her house at the same hour and tricks them to enter a cabinet and then rushes to have her lover released. They then run off to a place far away so that the government officials will never get revenge.

Basing the argument from the background of the story, marriage is an institution in which all parties should be faithful to each other. The broken feeling can lead to psychological torture to the person who feels betrayed and may result in behavior alteration for the worse for the rest of one’s life. The king could not believe how a person could be unfaithful and it was due to that bitterness that he developed the ruthless attitude of executing women he married before they had a chance to betray him. His attitude towards women changed and he started viewing them as sexual objects other than partners to live with and fulfill his desires and happiness in the world. He says all women behave the same and hence do not respect any of them. The only woman he stays with was Scheherazade who was able to manipulate him and entice him with beautiful stories and not because he respected her.

From the story of the woman who had five suitors, society is depicted to be morally corrupt. The married woman is unfaithful to her husband by going for a young lover. Men are seen to be selfish and sexually corrupt since they all knew the woman was married yet they did not respect that and wanted to have a sexual relationship with the woman (Brians 1). They feel sexually superior and it was the main reason why they wanted to have the woman satisfy their sexual desires before they grant her the favor of releasing the said brother. People have no respect for marriage institutions which is evidenced by the men visiting the woman in her house while they had sinister motifs.

From the way the woman can fool the four-five men, it is clear that women are underestimated and they have no say in society. This is so because none of the men was able to suspect that the woman could have a reason for wanting them to visit her house despite her marital status. A woman is also seen as a sexual object since all the men were attracted o the woman not because they pitied her, but because they discovered there was an opportunity to take advantage of her.

It is clear from the woman’s act of revenge that women despise that attitude of men regarding them as a sexual objects and was the main reason she opted to punish them and show them that women have a say in society. Women value love and not just sexual relationships as was presented by the four men who saw her for the first time and decided to take the opportunity to their advantage. The use of sexual favors is a vice that should be condemned and people must learn to stand with facts so that they will never be put to shame.

In conclusion, women need attention and care from men and this was the main reason why the married woman found herself in the situation of unfaithfulness. Her husband neglected her emotionally which she discovered she could get in another man. True love does not give up. This is evidenced by the woman’s struggle to have her lover released and risking her life to save him. women have been able to use their sexuality to ruin men, who underestimate their wisdom such as seen when one woman can severely punish and disgrace four senior men in the government and push her way to meet her needs.

Works Cited

Brians, Paul. The Lady and Her Five Suitors, from The Thousand and One Nights, 1998. Web.

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