10/20 1001 Nights #8A

Motifs
1001 Nights paints people, both male and female, very negatively. The men in this story are portrayed as very selfish. For example, when both Shahrayar and Shahzaman find out about their wives' unfaithfulness and then execute, they become very depressed not because they missed their wives, but because "of what [their wives] had done to [them] and how [they] had betrayed [them...]" Even the whole premise of the two brother going on their journey to find someone "whose misfortunes are greater than ours," is entirely self-centered and self-pitying. In addition to that, but many of the men in Shahrazad's stories. Such as the demon and the two brothers who became dogs. Shahrayar's vengeance against women by marrying them and then executing them also shows selfishness through his inability to listen to reason and continue to satisfy his lust for flesh and blood.
But if the men were painted in a bad light, the females in 1001 Nights were shown in an horrendously negative way. The women were selfish, deceitful, jealous, and cruel. First the wives of the two kings were slutty and unfaithful and the wife of the demon was not only deceitful to her husband, but also incredibly promiscuous. Those women even went to far as to expose themselves and to command men to have sex with them. The women in Shahrazad's tales weren't any better. One was a vengeful she-demon, another a jealous and cruel witch, and another an unfaithful wife. While in Shahrazad and her sister go beyond this low standard of behavior for women, Shahrazad does not try to hard to show how upright women are to the misogynistic king. It's is insulting to even be a part of a gender that is associated with so many horrible traits throughout this entire piece. Even according to the narrative, "[...] nothing can prevent or alter what is predestined and that when a woman desires something, no one can stop her."
Both genders are shown in a negative way also in relation to the obsession with vengeance. Shahrayar is obsessed with getting revenge on women by executing his wives. Even in Shahrazad's tales, revenge is a key theme. The demon wanted to get revenge on the merchant, the first old man revenge on his wife, the second old man's wife punished his brothers, and the third man also punished his wife.
As far as forgiveness and reconciliation goes, I didn't see any of that in the reading that were were assigned. While I am sure that the king does pardon his wife and stop his mad plot against marriageable women, we didn't get to it. And even in the stories we read, there wasn't much forgiveness. The demon who wanted to kill the merchant did end up pardoning him, this wasn't due to any moral conviction. He only pardoned him because he was amused by those old men. That's not reconciliation.