Thursday, May 2, 2013

Allusion 2- Arabian Nights


"Glancing at the bookcases, I thought I could distinguish the two volumes of Bewick's British Birds occupying their old place on the third shelf, Gulliver's Travels and the Arabian Nights ranged just above." (231)

In the text, she alludes to the story The Arabian Nights, or how it is most oftenly referenced as One Thousand and One Nights. The king in this story, Shahryar, is married many times to many different women. Every time he marries, he ends up distrusting his current wife, and decides to kill her. This is very similar to Mr. Rochester, because of his many women that he has been with, and his distrust of people in general. He has a secret he doesn't want anyone to know about, exactly like King Shahryar. In the story, however, Shahryar acquires one wife that he begins to trust and decides not to rid of her. When everyone finds out the truth of his secret, his wife is killed. This is very similar to Jane Eyre as well, due to the fact that Jane finds out about Bessie, and decides to leave Mr. Rochester. Although a big difference bewtween the two stories is that the king's wife is actually murdered, and Jane decides to leave her companion, sparing her dignity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights

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