The art of storytelling contains the powerful representation of images presented by the creator, which remains crucial throughout the work’s entirety. In Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights: A Play, the implementation of details is vital to understanding the tales being told throughout the story, although some may feel contrary to that belief and see the use of descriptive words as imposing and excessive to the shared narratives; however, during the drama, Scheherezade tells various descriptive fables to King Shahryar each night, one of the most illustrative being the story of Perfect Love and Madman. Through the sharing of this tale, it is evident that details add substance to the text to provide the audience with a sense of clarity while grabbing their attention at the same time.
The complicated love story of Perfect Love and Madman is troublesome but intriguing, as it is told in great depth. Perfect Love tricks Madman into thinking that she has never seen her own appearance before because her father ordered all the mirrors to be hidden due to her seemingly apparent ugliness that she has been told about her whole life. He is in disbelief because he thinks she is truly beautiful. Perfect Love says how her father, Sheikh al-Islam, hates the sight of her so much that he is ready to sell her to a merchant of slaves. Madman asks her if her father would let him marry her instead of selling her. Perfect Love tells him to visit her father in the morning and ask for her hand in marriage after casual conversation; she warns him that her father will be difficult and to repeatedly cry out, “I am content!” when he tries to talk him out of it. Madman does in fact do this every single time following Sheikh al-Islam’s continuous degrading comments about his daughter’s appearance. Sheikh al-Islam eventually agrees, but makes Madman sign a contract to accept his bride as she is or pay twenty thousand gold dinars if he chooses to ever divorce her. When the time comes for Madman to unveil his bride, he runs away from the grotesque creature he sees; clearly it is not Perfect Love. Madman finds out the next day from Perfect Love that her reason for tricking him was because he rejected her at an earlier time, which deeply hurt her.
When Sheikh al-Islam makes dehumanizing remarks about his daughter to Madman, he gets very descriptive at one point and says, “She is bearded and flab bellied, she is short of an arm and has a club foot, her left eye is covered with a film, her nose is a mass of oily pimples, her face is one sieve of smallpox, her mouth a cesspit, her teeth a wreck, her interior organs are one mutilation, she is bald and incredibly scabby, she is a horror, an abomination of desolation” (Zimmerman 23). In this statement, Sheikh al-Islam’s character develops as readers can get a better sense of the cruel man he is based off his tone and offensive claims. The extreme description of his daughter adds to the narrative by providing readers with clear details so that they can envision for themselves what she looks like along with the extent of her unattractiveness. If Sheikh al-Islam had merely said something like, “She has bad teeth and an eye covered with film,” the audience would not have understood why the girl’s father was making such a big deal about her appearance; this supports the claim that details are beneficial to the text to give readers more understanding while causing them to become intrigued with the material that they are reading.
In the grand scheme of things, the tale of Perfect Love and Madman fits into the larger story of The Arabian Nights. One may not realize this while reading, but if the short narrative is analyzed, it is somewhat synonymous with what Scheherezade is doing to King Shahryar. Both Scheherezade and Perfect Love are deceiving a man for a cruel act that they have committed and ultimately want to teach them each a lesson. Because Perfect Love was hurt by Madman in the past with him not returning the feeling of her profound affection towards him, she decides to take matters into her own hands to show him that hurting others does not lead you to good places in life; whereas, Scheherezade is telling King Shahryar all these stories, not for his enjoyment, but for him to come to the realization that not all women are bad. This parallel in the play helps to drive the point of the main narrative through a smaller tale that is being told.
While Scheherezade is sharing all these stories with King Shahryar, her life is at stake every night. She is telling the King these narratives in an effort to break the cycle of him killing innocent women each night after sleeping with them out of fury from his wife cheating on him. In order to stay alive and fulfill her mission, Scheherezade must impart tales with great description and animation in order to capture King Shahryar’s attention and have him wish for her to continue on with the next part of the story the following day; by doing this, she is not only saving her own life but the lives of other innocent women.
The compelling expression of images portrayed by the author of a narrative is a key element throughout the duration of the text during the craft of effectively telling a story. Details in Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights: A Play give credibility to the work, leaving a reader with an accurate perception whilst engaging them. A clear demonstration of rich detail in the text is when Sheherezade shares the tale of Perfect Love and Madman with King Shahryar; every night over the course of the play, she tells different stories to him and one with the most verbal illustration and clarity remains this tale. The quote of Sheikh al-Islam’s degrading comments about his daughter directly exhibits not only his nature as a person but gives insight to what his daughter looks like as well. Through Scheherezade’s sharing of this tale, it attests that details not only add to a narrative but compel it as well in the art of storytelling.
