The underlying theme of Arabian Knights is based on the narrator Scheherazad who is telling her king folktales in an attempt to spare her own life. The theme of the story compels the reader to want find out what clever folktale Scheherazad will tell her king next. Some folktales blend into each other and while others folktales end abruptly to be continued the next day in which Scheherazad is not beheaded. Characters in the folktales whom commit crimes; or are even thought to have committed a crime, are subject to brutal punishment. For instance, in Volume 6, The Stolen Necklace, punishment for a presumed stolen necklace was to, “bath-woman to the question by fire and grievous blows” (). From a cultural aspect perhaps telling folktales of brutal
