Structural Forms of Feminine Psyche in Scheherazade According to Toni Wolff's Quaternity

Abstract

The universality and significance of The Thousand and One Nights is undeniable: the complexity of the book has combined its various literary techniques to create a masterpiece which has been translated by famous figures, and has influenced many writers all around the world. The central figure of The Thousand and One Nights is its female narrator, Scheherazade, whose complex personality has a great potential to be studied. One of psychological theories which can fully present this complexity and multidimensionality is Toni Wolff's quaternity. Wolff, a Swiss analytical psychologist and one of Jung's students, is best known for her paper on four aspects or structural forms of feminine psyche, which are the Mother, the Hetaira, the Amazon, and the Medial. These four aspects, though working independently, form the feminine psyche: if they are put in a balance with each other, the personality is a complete one. The present article is an attempt to apply Wolff's structural forms of feminine psyche in Scheherazade's character: first, the basic tenets of Wolff's quaternity is presented and consequently, her views will be examined in the various stories narrated by Scheherazade, since the four aspects mentioned above are crystalized in women characters of The Thousand and One Nights.