Week 5 Essay: Genies in "Arabian Nights"

This week, I read Arabian Nights, also known as Scheherazade, named after the protagonist and storyteller of the frametale. Throughout the unit, there were many mentions of different beings like genies, but not in the sense to which the general public is accustomed. There clearly have been some recounts of the original stories found in this unit where details have been changed, and it was interesting to see the mindset of the culture and how it influenced the original and compare it to the retelling, fit for Western societies.

In the first half of the unit, two different genies appear. Rather than being the obligingly grateful beings they have been portrayed in media, however, they are bitter about being trapped in their prisons in the first place and seem incongruously unreasonable when they are first freed, even going so far as to inform their liberators that they (the genies) must kill them. Obviously, the rescuers are confused and taken aback at this--did they not just save the genies from a torturous imprisonment? The genies carry none of this logic, however: they remain angry and hold on to their grudges. This is certainly a far cry from, for example, Disney's Aladdin, where the Genie is a friend and is more willing to help than harm.

Moreover, whereas the Genie in Aladdin is joyful and witty, the genies in this frametale each seem not to have much of a personality at all. They are cold and calculating and apparently do not think before they act. In the tale of the fisherman and the genie, the old man tricks the genie with ease: he asks how such a great monster could come from such a small vase, and the genie unwittingly turns himself into a cloud of smoke and fits himself back into his vessel long enough for the fisherman to trap him again. Clearly, there was not much thought behind this behavior.

It was intriguing to see the influences of culture on these stories. Literature certainly does not exist in a vacuum; this folklore was shaped by the type of government of the day, the customs and traditions, and more. This unit was a look into a rich history of the East and provided valuable insight into the differences between our culture and theirs.

A genie freed from his lamp. Source: Press Release Distribution.