The Arabian Nights; Its Influence on Western Society free essay sample

The Arabian Nights; Its Influence on Western Society There is no one particularly known the writer for The Arabian Nights. The story has made itself appeared since anyone can ever remember. Historian said that The Arabian Nights is a collection of stories from whole lot different countries. It was stated that originally the stories came from India and Persia, however then the story was translated into Arabic language. Ever since then, Arabs culture and their own stories were added to make stories In the Nights become an enjoyable, beneficial and culturally based folktales. The Nights Is a large frame containing many other Interesting stones in It. The character, Shaherezad Is the narrator and also the character who told endless stories for her king husband. She pleases her husband by storytelling, told creative stories that kept her husband from doing more cruelty which Is to kill all of his wonderful wives after the first night. We will write a custom essay sample on The Arabian Nights; Its Influence on Western Society or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Shaherezad, being a wise and brave woman came out with this undoubtedly extremely dangerous and risky idea yet brilliant. She gained her husbands attention, keeping each story in contact and giving the king his benefit and present of doubt. The stories in the Nights are so well known not Just in the Arabian world, but also ffected the world of the European. This paper will research on how the Arabian Nights influenced other texts in the world such as novels by western authors, culture and/or movie. Also will be discussed in this paper are the reasons why Nights influenced works of other prominent writers. Historically, Nights as was mentioned in above paragraph, was originally collected from India and Persia. But since it was added with Arab local tales and culture, the Nights became Arab. There is no exact date when the Nights started. Part of the Nights has story about the Caliph of Harun. He was a well-known, successful aliphate of Baghdad. His stories of success and moderation as a leader lead people to continuously pass on his greatness. Hence it became part of the Arabian Nights story. Story such as Ali Baba and Aladdin dated on the fourteenth century came later after Caliph Harun.. Arabian Nights has been translated countless times into many languages. Among the earliest translator is Antoine Galland which translated the Nights Into European version. His works were taken from collection of the Nights found In the fourteenth and fifteenth century which could be found In Syria. Later on, more work of ranslations began to arise such as Richard Francis Burton works In 1885. HIS hard effort paid off since it release, It Immediately became known to the public for Its extravagant language and some of the critiques touched on the storyline of a few stories which seems made up by Burton himself. However, since Nights were passed down from culture and oral transmission, no one could actually argue on Burtons translation language or the story of his version. Arab once was a powerful and feared government. It has systematic governing style which contributed to their success in handling issues and conflict. Alongside capability. Islam and the Arab spread to many countries, though now have fallen, but were able to feast it wings proudly back then. When these countries were conquered, like other conquerors, they bring their tradition and religion with them. Spreading the belief, their culture and of course as part of their identity, they told stories from their folktales. Words spread, story being remembered, added details to make it more or less interesting thus lead to the mix culture of Nights we read today. From these Nights stories, translations that were made by people who are interested in it, Charlotte Bronte were swayed by the Nights awe-inspiring story. In many of her novels, Bronte repeatedly kept on referring to the Nights from the perspective of her characters . Jane Eyre, published on 16 October 1847 is about a young girl who had lost her parents, as so she thought, and living with her aunt. She was treated badly and being sent to a school far away from home. There, she learnt the hardship of life, losing friends through diseases that strike them and facing poverty and hunger throughout her entire time growing up there. Jane fortunately endured the hardship at the school and she was appointed as one of the teacher there. Her entire life, she never went travelling, seeing the vast world with her own eyes. Because Janes character was made as a girl who has no challenges from the outside world, Bronte made Jane escape her dull life through books. Books has become close companion to Jane, from her time living with her vicious aunt until the time she went to that poor wrecked boarding school to learn to transform herself from a little mischievous devil, as what she was referred to by her aunt, to a gracious lady which capable of doing what typical lady at that era were to do from sewing, cooking, washing, painting and all delicate behaviour. There were a few occurrences where Jane mentioned about the Nights. She uses the Nights as her escape place which means stories from the Nights gave her incredible amount of imagination on magical, unrealistic but tremendously overwhelming thoughts. It was her only way to imagine the world outside of the wall she lives in. her only way to connect through peoples adventure and making it as her own. One of the similarities that can be found from Jane Eyre and The Arabian Nights is both Jane and Sheherazade used narrative to gain power over someone, more specifically, a man. Sheherazade deceive his husband, the king, with halfway stories n order to stay alive while Jane told story of her unfortunate event to Mr Rochester to gain sympathy and trust.. A lot of Bronte works were actually influenced by the Arabian Nights. Llewellyn (2012) recorded what Heather Glen said about the Nights inclination in Brontes works, maturing conception of adult power dynamic and female child trying to understand her provisionality in world not of her control. Culturally, the Arabian Nights has also influence some part of the western society. In German for instance, during late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, here were massive translation on the Arabian Nights from different sources. These include the original Arabic source of the Nights, Burtons English Arabian nights and many more. They were distributed in a lot of ways in German at time particular time. Because technologies were started to be introduced, images and colour illustrated that would attract not only Juvenile but all sorts of readers since those types of publications were new at that time. Readers were also turned into spectators in the early 1920s when cinema started to operate in German. Stories, settings and arratives taken from The Arabian Nights were huge at that time as it has influenced the society . Sicily in Italy was also included in the culture that was inclined towards the influence of the Arabian Nights.