In “Othello”, the main character suffers and dies as a result of being deceived in his wife’s loyalty. In a similar situation is noticed in “The Story of King Shahrayar and Shahrazad, His Vizier’s Daughter” in “The Arabian Nights”. King Shahrayar in the story is a powerful king with a massive kingdom and a loyal country. However in the story, Shahzaman, the king’s brother, discovers his wife cheating on him but recovers only when he discovers the king’s wife as well as ten of his slaves are doing the same.
“Shahzaman then told him about what he had seen from the palace window and the calamity in his very home- how ten slaves, dressed like women, were sleeping with his women and concubines, day and night.” (pg 9)
Upon discovering this, King Shahrayar and his brother decide to wander the world and not to return home until they find someone who’s misfortune surpasses their own. They soon discover a woman who was kidnapped on her wedding night to be married to a demon, has slept with a hundred men despite being locked away in a box as a way to keep her pure. After seeing this, both men return to their kingdoms in joy and Shahrayar decides that all women couldn’t be trusted and decides from now on to marry a woman for one night then to kill her in the morning so he would never be deceived again.
“He then swore to marry for one night only and kill the woman the next morning, in order to save himself from the wickedness and cunning of women, saying, There is not a single chaste woman anywhere on the entire face of the earth.” (12)
While in “Othello”, Othello suffers and dies from the lies about his wife’s infidelity but in “The Arabian Nights”, King Shahrayar ,upon discovering his wife’s infidelity, takes a different turn and decides to make it so he could never be tricked again by marrying for one night and then killing them in the morning. Both characters suffer from the infidelity of a woman although their situations go in different paths. Othello would discover the truth that his wife was innocent and would pay for his mistake through suicide. Shahrayar would later be freed from this hatred of women from the efforts of Shahrazad who keeps herself alive through stories and later persuades the king to keep her alive when she is pregnant.
In “Othello”, Desdemona, though completely loyal to Othello, dies as a result of his jealousy. Despite accompanying him to Cyprus and staying loyal to him even as he changed as a result of hearing Iago’s lies, she maintains her innocence and loyalty to him even as she dies. This can be connected to Sita from “The Ramayana” who after being kidnapped for several months was forced to prove her loyalty to Rama despite following him into isolation and staying loyal to him throughout her kidnapping. In order to prove her loyalty and purity, she has to jump into a fire and whether she would be saved or not would show whether she had truly stayed loyal to him.
“Sita approached the fire, prostrated herself before it, and said, O Agni, great god of fire, be my witness. She jumped into the fire. From the heart of the flame rose the god of fire, bearing Sita, and presented her to Rama with words of blessing. Rama, now satisfied that he had established his wife’s integrity in the presence of the world, welcomed Sita back to his arms.” (pg 149)
The test essentially was that if Sita had been unfaithful to Rama while she was kidnapped, the fire would burn her for her infidelity. However, because she spurned Ravan’s advances and stayed loyal to Rama, she was saved from being burned and was welcomed back by her husband. It then states that Rama had to do this on purpose because not for his own assurance that Sita was loyal but rather so everyone else could see it. Rama essentially wanted everyone to see that Sita was pure and loyal and the test made it so no one could doubt it.
In both stories, the female leads are both put through tests which forces them to stay loyal to their husbands. Both of them endures it but with different effects. Desdemona despite holding onto her claim of innocence and loyalty is smothered to death while Sita is able to be welcomed back by her husband after the test.