In A Thousand and One Nights, there are two kings, Shahryar and Shahzaman. The younger king, Shahzaman, is cheated by his wife. He catches her having sex with a kitchen boy and kills them both. He visits his brother’s kingdom but he still remains sad and keeps thinking about his wife’s betrayal. One day, he learns that his older brother, Shahrayar, is being cheated by his wife while he is absent from the castle. After hearing the bad news of his wife infidelity, Shahrayar kills his wife and all of the slaves who were involved. This makes Shahrayar loses all trust in women. He wants to be sure his next wife will not cheat on him again. So, he gets married every night and kills his wife before the sunrise. Shahrazad, the vizier’s daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. She is highly educated with vast knowledge on philosophy, medicine and literature. On the night of their marriage, Shahrazad, who is considered “intelligent, knowledgeable, wise, and refined” (B, 414), tells the king a tale, but does not end it. The king is then forced to keep her alive in order to hear the conclusion of the tale. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins yet another. So it went for 1,001 nights. At the end, the king gives his wife a pardon and spares her life.
There are similarities between Shahrazad, King Shahrayar’s wife and Kate Middleton, Prince William’s fiancée. Middleton and Shahrazad are both educated women. In “The Thousand and One Nights,” Shahrazad “knows poetry by heart, had studied historical reports, and was acquainted with the sayings of men and the maxims of sages and kings.” (B, 414). With this knowledge the king allowed her to stay alive unlike all the other women he married and killed. Kate Middleton is a college graduate. She and Prince William met while attending University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Middleton is different from Prince William’s mother, Queen Diana. In the New York Times article “Diana’s Ring Seals Prince William’s Marriage Plans,” it mentions Miss Middleton as a “tough and savvy, and far better equipped to deal with media attention than Diana was.” She have enough knowledge and education to handle anything coming her way. Middleton comes from a middle class family, and will become the first Queen to have a college education. She also help Prince William when he was having a hard time his freshmen year of college, she help persuade him not to drop out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/world/europe/17royal.html?scp=2&sq=prince%20william&st=cse
