Essay Week 4: Reoccurring Motifs

 One of the obvious reoccurring motifs in Arabian Nights was definitely the story within a story concept. Each grouping of stories had the same theme of the character telling a story and a character within that story telling a different story.  This is a very different approach to storytelling and gives it a complexity that is rarely seen. It allows the reader to stay engaged in what is happening in one story while reading another. This is also very parallel to our lives if you view our lives as stories. Our life is the main story and the experiences we tell others are the stories within a story; when we tell other peoples experiences, that is a story within a story within another story.

The characters that were the man were also reoccurring motifs because they were not exceptional, they both had a family, and they were both innocent. They were both doing something for the jobs or to support their families and their encounter with the genius occurs when they were away from their family and when they were isolated. There was also the presence of the “genius” in both stories. A gigantic and powerful genius would appear out of nowhere in a huge cloud of smoke commanding the man he was going to kill him. The genius is basically evil and is killing an innocent man. Basically they had the same reoccurring plot in addition to the story within a story.

Since Scheherazade was the one who was telling the stories so she would not be killed I felt as thought the stories she was telling to the Sultan was about her and him. When you think about it, she is an innocent person not very high in social standing whom the Sultan is holding captive and planning on killing. She is telling him these stories to, hopefully, out wit him and to keep her alive. So her whole continuous experience with the Sultan is the plot of all of her stories. 

Benjamin Constant - Arabian Nights (Source)