Narration and Imagination in Storytelling - Book Report/Review Example

Her role is to tell captivating stories that would interest her audience, chiefly, her husband, King Shahryar. The narrator's very life depended on her skill at story telling. King Shahryar had been betrayed by his former wife and vowed to go on a killing spree by declaring all women to be unfaithful. He would marry a virgin for a night and execute her the following day. This continued until he married Scheherazade. Scheherazade does not want to die so she devises a plan to preserve her life.

She depends on her role as a successful storyteller to maintain her husband's attention in her stories and thus keep her alive for the sole purpose of listening to more stories. Scheherazade used several storytelling techniques. One technique is to end the night's session with a cliffhanger. A second technique creates spinoffs from the original tale of the King and Queen. A third technique creates stories that standalone. A fourth technique involves a fictional character telling a story within the frame of the story about him.

To make the narrative even more challenging and absorbing, there were a few layers of narratives, each imbedded within another. The varieties of story telling techniques keep the stories interesting. The Story of the Merchant and the Genius. . For example, an old man leading a hind says to the merchant; '"This is a most marvellous affair. I should like to be a witness ofyour interview with the genius." So saying he sat down by the merchant.' The power of imagination is strong enough to warrant belief and interest in fantasy in the tales.

In The Story of the Merchant and the Genius, the humans are changed into animals and there is no question of disbelief in the capacity of the truth of those transformations because of the power of imagination. The description of the genius is so exciting that it captures the good imagination of the old men who then proceed to make up their minds to persuade the genius to pardon the merchant. Since all the plots of this multilayered narrative involve vengeance, it shows that Scheherazade has used her imagination to weave these stories to support her purpose of persuading the King to forego his decree of vengeance against all womanhood.

In the second story, The Story of The Fisherman, each character in the story in turn tells a story as part of his or her argument to support their stance. Scheherazade uses her imagination to invent probable stories that serve to illustrate each character's purpose. She carries on her narration for one thousand and one nights. Scheherazade's narrative skills and imagination eventually prolonged her life sufficiently long to convince the King that not all women are infidel to their marriage vows.

After one thousand and one nights of storytelling and marital life, Scheherazade presents to the King their three sons and asks him for pardon for her life. The King has been very happy with her and readily grants her request. The power of the narrated word has saved