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Red Lotus and Thousand &One Nights

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Red Lotus and Thousand &One Nights
Syree Davis
Eng.203
Nov. 1 2012
Ms.tody

The Red Lotus of Chastity and The Thousand and One Nights

The females in The Red Lotus of Chastity and The Thousand and One Nights struggled against ideas of chastity that were created by a male dominated society. They had to over come the cultural ideals of what women should be and do. Devasmita and Shahrazad both decided to take matters into their own hands and not fall to male authority or their tricks. The themes of these novels are the feminine empowerment, loyalty and devotion.
The women of these novels showed feminine empowerment. Although they had obstacles that could have over come them they still stood against them and showed that females can be strong and independent too. Devasmita was struggling with being away from her husband while trying to be tricked into doing the merchants' sons but she showed feminine empowerment by deciding to trick them and make them be punished. This proved that females could also have power to do things and weren't just to be around to clean, cook and do what their husbands wanted. Shahrazad is the definition of feminine empowerment she stood against male authority the whole novel and didn't step down. Her role in The Thousand and One Nights was to teach the king a lesson, this showed her will to go against authority to teach a male a lesson. These females were devoted to what they wanted to do and wouldn't stop.
Shahrazad was devoted to teaching the king a lesson and no male could stop her. She was self educated and strong willed, she pursued to learn about poets and other authors and people of high stature. Devasmita was devoted to her king and would not break for anyone after receiving the red lotus which was symbolic for feminine qualities and things that related to the heart (love, passion and sex) she finally agreed to let him go on his trip. This was love because she knew she would be jealous of the distance between the two and the events that had happened with
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