Storytelling Week 4: Revenge on Shahrayar

Revenge on Shahrayar

Shahrayar, a man who lived a happy life with a happy wife, a man who thought he had it all. Him and his wife Scheherazade did everything together and were known as the happy couple around town. People always saw them hugging and kissing and holding each others hands while always laughing and always having a smile on each others faces. He THOUGHT he had it all, until one day.

One day, he found out that his wife Scheherazade has been cheating on him and he decides to kill her the next morning because he is so betrayed. That was his way of dealing with betrayal and he decides that from that point on, when he marries a woman, he will kill them the next morning simply in fear of being betrayed by another woman like he was betrayed by Scheherazade.

Shahrayer eventually marries 3 women, all of which he killed the next morning because he thought he would or was being betrayed. He was so jaded from being lied to and betrayed by his former wife that he didn't know how to deal with many things. Almost like he didn't know what to do if he was happy and felt like he needed to make himself mad/sad by killing these innocent women, who thought they were happy with Shahrayer.

Eventually, a woman, also known as the fourth woman to marry Shahrayar despite her knowing what he did to all the previous women. She marries him and goes home with him that night, knowing what Shahrayar was planning on doing that morning. Shahrayar had no clue that she had caught on to his tricks long long ago and was expecting to go through with his plan just like he always does.

During the middle of the night, she decides that she is going to return the favor and murder Shahrayar. Before Shahrayar actually dies, she is able to tell him that this is revenge and justice for all of the women that he had killed before. Shahrayar, before he officially dies, says that he killed all these women out of fear and just wanted to be loved. He also said that he felt less betrayed by his former wife that cheated on him when he killed all of these women. Killing these women was like his therapy. The fourth wife had finally caught onto his tricks and fooled Shahrayar into a plan of her own and that was to KILL him before HE killed HER, just like the previous women who had been killed. Later on, it turns out that the fourth wife of Shahrayar had also previously killed 4 MEN because she was cheated on by her first husband. Turns out, Shahrayar and the fourth wife were living the exact same life, doing the exact same things but Shahrayar had no clue. So, did the fourth wife get pleasure out of this?? Yes, she avoided her own death by killing the man that would have killed her the next morning but what will she do now? Will she keep going on with her plan??

Scheherazade

Author's Note: There are many different stories in the series of Arabian Nights but all stories focus on the sultan, Shahrayar and his wife Scheherazade. Shahrayar finds out that his first wife is unfaithful to him and ends up killing her. He then decides he is going to marry a different woman each night, and then kill them the next morning to prevent any further betrayal. Scheherazade, his vizier's daughter, decides this pattern is absolutely cruel and she makes a plan to end this pattern. She marries Shahrayar, and then begins to tell him a story that night. However, she stops the story in the middle, so that he will be excited to hear the rest the following night. Then the next evening, she finishes the story and then begins another, following the same pattern for 1,001 nights, until Shahrayar has a change of heart and stops his pattern of killing women each and every morning. The picture above shows Scheherazade, the wife of Shahrayar. I chose this image because I like having an image of what the characters look like and in this case, this shows both Shahrayar and Scheherazade. As far as my story goes, I really like to look at ALL of the characters perspectives and think of ways that the story can be turned around and told by another side, which is why I chose to write my story where Shahrayar is the one who is killed instead of the women getting killed. 

Bibliography:
The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang (1898)