The poem as part of the Shahnameh has a third person omniscient viewpoint. The speaker is presumably Ferdowsi himself and he narrates “the national history of the Iranian Empire before Islam” which includes some fifty pre-Islamic kings beginning with Kayomars and ending with Yazdegerd the last Sassanid king. (Davidson 1994)
This poem as part of the Shahnameh encompasses many different themes. “Father-son vengeance is one of the well-known themes of Shahnameh.” which as Freud believes has root in the Oedipus myth. (Ishanya & Rezaiee Barmi 2016) On the other hand, as Judie Newman observes, the poem “has as one of its core themes the tribulations which Iran endures over the millennia at the hands of both wicked kings and foreign foes.” (2014)…show more content… Jamshid was the son of Tahmures whose kingdom last for over seven hundred years. He was such a fair and just king that all the living creatures including Deevs and Peris obeyed him. He built Persepolis helped by Deevs and held the Nowruz feasts and commanded the people to keep it. He was a great king and everything was peaceful during his reign until he became arrogant and imperious to…show more content… Yet as we intend to focus on the ending of the poem, we would only mention the characters that have been portrayed by Habibizad i.e. Fereydoun, Zahhak, and the divine messenger. Zahhak and Fereydoun are round characters since we observe their various traits being developed or tested throughout the poem. For instance, we read that “it was by [Fereydoun’s] justice and generosity that he gained good and great ends … His wisdom and goodness have been universally celebrated.” (Jerdan, et al. 1829) Or about Zahhak as Robinson observes “[he] was a young man of evil tendencies” (2002) he uses different adjectives to describe Zahhak such as “tyrant”, “wretched”, “jealous” etc. Although these features seem to remain unchanged for each character, however, they do develop throughout the poem. Therefore we can conclude that they are dynamic