Main Idea: Humans are Easily Tempted
Fadil and The Cap of Invisibility
Alees al-Galees
Shariyar and the Grievers
Fadil receives the cap from a genie that tells him “Don’t do what your conscience dictates to you. You must also not commit any evil” (181).
This means that the genie is telling him he can’t use the cap for good, and when the genie says not to use the cap for evil, he is just saying that to try and convince Fadil to take the cap. This works and Fadil is tempted by the cap so he takes it.
As soon as Fadil put the cap on, “The new magical experience took control of him”(182). “By being hidden he felt that he was rising up and taking charge, that he was reaching equal terms with the hidden powers that he was in control of the reins of affairs, and that the scope for action stretched out without limit before him ”(182).
This shows how fadil is tempted to use his cap even though he knows he can't do anything good with it.
Later on in the story, it is shown how fadil gives into his temptations because of the cap. The first crime he committed was to “take three small dirhams” (182) from a shop. Next, he caused a fight at the Café of the Emirs after a man says something bad about him.
After these small things, Fadil goes off the deep end when he follows who he thinks is the cruel jailer into an alley “and aimed a deadly blow at his neck. The man fell down covered in blood”(184).
Fadil killed this man because he thought he was the cruel jailor that abused inmates, and he doesn't think he'll get caught because of his cap. After he kills him, however, he finds that he's not only killed the wrong guy, but the watermelon vendor was found guilty and also died. This all happened because Fadil was tempted to seek revenge using his cap.
This is where Fadil first gives into temptation. He starts with the small crime of steeling a starting a fight in a cafe.
Next, Fadil drugs two women, assaults them, and leaves them to die. He does this because he gave into his lustful temptations, even though he knows it isn't the right thing to do .
Alees al-Galees is a genie in disguise as a beautiful women, who ultimately shows how easily men give into temptation. She does this by temping them with her beautiful looks, even though they should know better.
Yusuf al-Tahir was the first man to approach Anees in her house, and when he first saw her he thought “There shone forth a beauty that had been created as though for him alone and which brought into being his most fugitive dreams” (134). He doesn’t know it at the time, but Anees’s appearance actually is created to his liking. She has the ability to look like every mans dream women, and take over a man’s mind. After seeing her, Al-Tahir “took out a small ivory box [and] he placed it before her feet” (134).
The box he gives her contains a diamond which he carelessly gives her based just on her appearance. He does this because he was easily tempted. Many other men in the town fall to temptation and bring her various expensive gifts. Each man is tempted by her beauty.
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Eventually, so many men in the town are leading themselves into ruin that the chief of police decides to do something about it. He tells Alees how the "men go bankrupt and fight among themselves"(138) because of her.
The men are fighting each other and losing all of their money because they are so tempted to win over Anees al-Galees
Lastly, Anees tempts all the men one final time. She makes appointments for each of them to come to her house at different times, gets them to take their clothes off, and then claims her husband has arrived. “She pull[s] [each] by the hand into an adjoining room and let him into a cupboard, which she firmly lock[s]” (142). She has the cupboards sold in town and the men are eventually released completely naked and embarrassed.
Each of them was tricked because of their own temptations for Anees al-Galees. They chose to go to her house when they knew better.
Shariyar leaves his town behind and is wandering when he finds a rock. When he hit it, “an arched entrance revealed itself” (223). He went inside and “found himself in a passage, the charm of which took hold of him completely” (223). At the end of the tunnel he “found himself in a city not of human making: in beauty, splendor, elegance, cleanliness, fragrance, and climate” (225)
He hits the rock and goes into the tunnel because he is curious. He sees the welcoming passage and goes inside because of his temptation, even though he knows better.
This is sort of his dream kingdom, and it is made to have everything the way that he wants it. He claimes he is “Happier than a human being has ever been” (226).
Despite his great happiness however, he is still led to temptation when “he passed by a small door of pure gold, in whose lock was a key of gold decorated with diamonds; on it was a card on which was written in black writing “Do not approach this door”” (226). Despite his great happiness, “whenever he passed by the forbidden door he looked at it with interest, and whenever he had been away from the wing where it was, he returned to it”(227).
This shows how he is very tempted to open the door, even tho he is perfectly happy in his kingdom. Eventually, he turns the key and finds a giant on the other side who tells him he will be a griever forever among the other men who also gave into temptation and opened the golden door.