This reading was definitely a page-turner. Just like  Shahrayar, I wanted to know what was going to happen next in the story.  The second part of the reading began with Shahrazad retelling the story of “The Merchant and the Demon”. This continues for many nights, and with each night, Shahrazad would continue telling the story, but making sure not to finish the story. Since King Shahrayar was curious of what was going to happen next in the story, the next morning he spares her lives. He did not ask his vizier to “put her to death” like he did with all the other women he slept with. Every morning, the king goes to sleep wanting to know what will happen next in the story so he says, “I will spare her until I hear the rest of the story; then I will have her put to death the next day”.

The vizier says to his daughter, “Foolish one, don’t you know that King Shahrayar has sworn to spend but one night with a girl and have her put to death the next morning?” (pg 562) Even after knowing this fact, Shahrazad was still willing to go on with her plan. Was it foolish of Shahrazad to risk her life in order to prevent other families from mourning? Although her plan of keeping the king curious was working, how was she certain that the king would not be suspicious of what was happening? What she did may be foolish, but the purpose of her character is to portray a heroine.

Throughout the text, women were seen to be vicious, cunning creatures, but Shahrazad was portrayed differently. She was seen as the hero because she was the only one that wasn’t craving sex. Although Shahrazad was trying to manipulate the king, her intentions were sincere which made her distinct from the other women in the text.