The Decameron and the Arabia Nights - Book Report/Review Example

The Decameron and the Arabia Nights Summary of the Tales The Decameron is a Greek word meaning a ten day event. This story takes place over ten days in the 14th century in Italy during black plague. The literature is in the form of a story within as story as it involves a story of seven women and three men who flew from Florence to unoccupied place in the countryside of Fiesole. While living there each of them got to be a King and Queen for a day and picked the theme for that day’s story. Each of them had to tell a story everyday (Boccaccio 29). The Arabian Nights have its stories originating from India, Arabia, and Persia as well as from China. The stories reflects highly civilized Islamic society and enormous of the nineteenth century. The stories stretch from Spain all across North Africa to Cairo among other places. People from these regions shared Islamic and religious languages and the cultural elements which they derived from the Islamic culture. Their roots came from Saudi Arabia which was formerly called Arabian Peninsula (Thompson, 2013). Comparison and Analysis Power There are different levels of powers which manifest itself in the two stories. Power is exercised by certain characters depending with the privileges they hold in the society or the setting of the story. In The Arabian Night, the King had many powers which were unquestionable. The powers of the kings and other rulers in the night were frightening as Shahrayar married and killed one virgin each night following his ego. He used his powers as a ruler to make rules with no one opposing and surviving. The rulers and kings in The Arabian Night owned the land and people living in it as he could save or kill, give and take land as well as claim wives and concubines (Thompson, 2013). The rulers were free to do anything they so wished to undertake. On the other hand, The Decameron story 9 talks about two noble knights who lived 10 miles away from each other and respected one another’s skills. This made them to be very good friends and even as one felt in love with another’s wife, there was no much they could do but instead give a threat of killing. Similarly, the knights in The Decameron story were friendly to their subjects as they planned to move to the grand tournament in France together (Boccaccio, 40). From the two stories, it is evidenced that power is a basic necessity that people are looking for in order to survive. One of the knights, Rossigilione killed Guardastagno because of the love affairs he had with his wife to the point of being caught red handed. The rulers and Kings in The Arabian Nights misused their powers as they took full charge of their subjects and mistreated them. Mystery In the story of the eighth night in The Arabian Nights, cases of mysteries happen as the third old man tells a story of his mule. The old man surprised his woman in a bed with a slave before the wife turns the old man into a dog. After the old man ran into the butchery, the butcher was able to recognize him as a man in the form of a dog. With the sprinkling with the magical water, the old man was restored to human form. Consequently, the old man also requested for the magical water which he also used to turn his wife into a mule which accompanied him (Thompson, 2013). On the other story The Decameron, mystery happens when the young man pretends to be a deaf mute so that he may get a chance to get into the covenant. Having secured the opportunity to enter the covenant, he discovers something he did not expect in the covenant. He discovers the sisters are very curious about all the excitements the world has made over sex and wanted to find out if it worth about it (Boccaccio 171). The two set of stories portray mysteries happening to the characters as mysteries is something unexpected which comes beyond human expectation as witnessed in the stories. Betrayal Cases of betrayal are present in the two set of stories as cases of unfaithfulness in marriages is witnessed among the characters used. In The Decameron story day 3 stories 4, Puccio di Rinieroi who lived near Convent of San Brancazio frequently betrays his wife when she wants to have sex with him. Although he was devoted to spirituality and concerned with matters pertaining to the covenant, he betrayed his wife in matters pertaining to marital affairs. He constantly lectured his wife on matters about life of Christ and other teachings (Boccaccio 122). This made the wife to become unfaithful as she felt in love with Felice. This was a first instant they met and felt the woman was sexually frustrated making the two to develop interest in one another. On the other hand, there are cases of sexual betrayal among the rulers in the story, The Arabian Nights, the position of women is well elaborated as they are meant to be controlled by the kings and rulers for sexual purposes. This has been the major betrayal as women including virgin girls are forced into sexual affairs by the rulers making them vulnerable. In The Arabian Nights, the role of women in the nights is outlined by the king and they are very interesting. There are many women slaves and concubines who must obey the commands given by the man who owns them. They are treated like properties that are manipulated as individual wishes. Shahrazed played an important role by healing the King’s insane distrust about slaves and women and saved the remaining women and ladies from being killed as well as virgins in the city. There are many categories of women consisting of faithful and faithless, silly and magical among other categories. The roles of the Arabian women are different from the role of the western women as they have their own strength and weaknesses making them to be looked upon by men in the society (Thompson, 2013). They have fallen victims of men to take their full control. This is also witnessed in the story, The Decameron where women are seen as sexual objects by the male counterparts outside their marriages. Sanctity The Arabian Nights has some forms of sanctity as the first stories are about justice and forgiveness. The demon and the King are linked together by their nature of demanding blood for justice with or without the involvement of personal guilt. Shahrazed is no longer responsible for the happenings for the first king’s wife than the merchant for scattering date pits to kill the demon son. In both cases, there is a new form of justice being manifested. The initial stories of this collection teach about justice with forbearance. Most of the people who were evils were turned into dogs and dear but were not killed as the innocent merchant was set free (Thompson, 2013). Similarly, the story, The Decameron talks of many cases where the innocence have been saved and others responsible for the guilt falling victims for the sake of justice. The boy who pretended to be a blind deaf never lived to see what he longed for after reaching the covenant. This was a show of the power of those who believes in religion. The same scenarios of sanctity is witnessed in The Decameron day over story 4 on how a monk saved himself from a severe punishment as it was considered saintly in the town of Lunigiana (Boccaccio 137) . Conclusion The two set of stories are very significance as they teaches people from different backgrounds about the nature of the world. With different stories talking of different themes, they are very significant in outlining the cultural foundations of different ethnical groups. This can be helpful in giving insight information on how to explain certain happenings within the current societies. Despite the human evolution, there are some practices and believes which it has carried with it ever since. Works Cited Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. New York: Digireads, 2010. Thompson, Diane. Arabian Nights Study Guide.2013. Retrieved from: Read More