Psychoanalytic analysis of the madness of Shahrayar - Essay Example

Psychoanalytic analysis of the madness of Shahrayar King Shahryar’s actions in the book, “A Thousand and One Nights” shows evidence of what many psychoanalytic experts describe as human attitudes, mannerisms, experiences, and thoughts largely driven by irrational drives. As a matter of fact, the entire book is espouses a case study of subversions were gender, time, experiences and space play a fundamental role. The narrative provides a detailed description of King Shahryar’s wife betrayal and his resulting urge and endeavors to revenge his single-day wives (virgins). Psychoanalytic theory starts with Freud’s notion that the psyche has a number of different levels, one of which, the unconscious, is not accessible to us (Gerhardt 45). Martin states that, “It was a triumph for the interpretative art of psychoanalysis when it succeeded in demonstrating that certain mental acts of normal people, for which no one had hitherto attempted to put forward a psychological explanation, were to be regarded in the same light as the symptoms of neurotics: that is to say that had a meaning, which was unknown to the subject but which could easily be discovered by analytic means…A class of material was brought to light which is calculated better than any other to stimulate a belief in the existence of unconscious mental acts even in people to whom the hypothesis of something at once mental and unconscious seems strange and even absurd (Martin 126).” The paper argument without appearing to defy male power as well as the evidently visible craze in Shahryar’s book, is structured in such a manner that it attains an increasingly interesting narrative situation left incomplete by the approaching dawn, and hence encouraging king Shahryar to engage in constructive daydreaming by freeing a creative part of his mind which assists him in establishment of own solutions. The aim of bringing together psychotherapy and fairy tales is so important that it comes as no wonder that the story looks more of a fairy tale than a reality. The therapeutic touch in the story is therefore effectively improved by content of the tales itself. As a result, the gradual madness changes arising from sexual jealousy as a result of the belief that all women are cheats comes as a surprise and inappropriate considering that a person of such high caliber should understand that an individual woman cannot pass for all women. The cure should therefore be premised on helping understand that a single woman’s mistake cannot be embodied to imply all women. As a matter of passing, the wisdom lies in curing Sharyar’s homicidal madness by helping him be able to not just trust women again but also further understand that women are as different within as they are outside, and hence bring the happy-ever-after effect associated with fairy tales. The thirst for revenge through murder of virgins is cancelled with the arrival of Scheherazade, who unexpectedly willingly offers herself as “a ransom for the many virgin daughters of Moslems and charts a path for the cause of their deliverance from the hands of the Shahryar. When he realizes that his younger brother murdered his wife shortly after discovering her betrayal, Shahryar claims that he could not have achieved satisfaction without killing one thousand women; this is premise for equating his behavior to madness. Before meeting Scheherazade, King Shahryar experiences two fold bloodlust where in the first case he kills the virgin on their wedding night to proof that the virgin did not betray him her entire life. An important question in building a case for this argument is, where do King Shahryar’s actions in “A Thousand and One Nights” originate? Where do the human attitudes, mannerisms, experiences, as well as thoughts which drive her actions originate? Travelling back in time, King Shahryar is portrayed as a generous, kind and loving man, who is loved and adored by his subjects. He is portrayed as being content and satisfied with what fate as in store for him. A picture is presented of a man who adores his wife with the only shortcoming in his life being the absence of his younger brother, Shahzaman, who resides in Samarkand, a distant land. Eventually, Shahryar invites his brother to visit. His brother arrives with the treachery of his wife still in mind only to find consolation on realizing that even her brother despite being better than him in many ways is still being cheat on by his wife. However, her brother does not take the treachery well and asks her brother to come along a tour the world to see if other people also suffer the same fate. This is where the madness starts. He develops some attitudes, mannerisms based on his experience. Based on this, be develops some thoughts which drive her action to be irrational and lacking in substance. Shahryar’s attitudes arise from the rage he builds in himself and this forms the premise for his determination to seek vengeance on all females. Every day Shahryar marries a new woman, spends a night with her to prove that the woman is a virgin and then haves the woman beheaded in the morning. Ultimately, however, Shahryar marries Sheherazade, a beautiful girl born to his vizier. Sheherazade shrewdly finds a way of escaping his executioner. On their wedding night, Sheherazade tells Shahryar an intriguing story, which only stops close to dawn leaving the final part hanging. Shahryar is anxious to hear the story’s end and hence reluctantly spares her life. However, as soon as the first story ends, Sheherazade begins a new story which ends with the final part left hanging once again. This continued until a thousand and one nights were over. By the time this story comes to an end, Shahryar had fallen in love with Sheherazade. In essence, the story takes the form of many mental disorder cases. The environment triggers a mental order, in this case, the madness exhibited by Shahryar. The stimulant in this case is the wife’s betrayal. The resulting depression leads Shahryar to do things that a rational human being would not do. She is caught in this situation for a long time and is unable to free herself until she meets Sheherazade, who through her stories, takes him through therapeutic sessions that see his mentality towards women change and he eventually falls in love with her. In the 1001 storytelling nights, Shahrazad bore three sons to King Shahryar (Burton 88). Sheherazade humbles herself before Shahryar, presents her sons and seek that she be granted the right to live just for the sake of the sons. Witnessing this, the King humbles himself and for the sake of the sons and Sheherazade’s chastity, purity, ingenuousness and piousness, promises her forgiveness. This is more of forgiveness for all women and not just Sheherazade. As already mentioned, the story plays a therapeutic role. References Burton, Randy. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights. Benares: Kamashastra Society, 1995. Gerhardt, Mayer. The Art of Storytelling: A Literary Study of the Thousand and One Nights. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J Brill, 2005. Martin, Gerret. Beyond Laughter: Humor and the Sub-conscious. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966. Read More