The Seraglio
The Seraglio is an enclosed house and compound where Usbek's wives are imprisoned, together with his concubines and various servants, including some male Eunuchs. The Eunuchs are both jailers and servants. Nominally subordinate to the wives, they are charged with "protecting" the women's virtue by ensuring no man besides Usbek gets to see them. For the women, the seraglio is a prison. Usbek, however, views it as a protective sanctuary for them.
Distance
Usbek initially flees Persia because he is facing the threat of death due to what he interprets as his inability to flatter the right people. He travels from Isfahan all the way to France. Rica joins him partly for companionship and partly in search of adventure. For the two men, travel is enlightening and liberating. The contrast with Usbek's wives, who are limited to a brief trip outside a seraglio enclosed in a draped litter, is considerable. Whereas the men are free to roam (but not necessarily to return), the women are constrained to a relatively small space.
Distance comes into play due to the time delay between when a letter is sent and when it is read and a reply can be written. Lots can happen in the several months between question and answer. The collapse of the seraglio, for example, occurs partly because Usbek's instructions arrive too late.
Clothing
Clothing, particularly French women's clothing, appears repeatedly throughout the novel. Usbek and Rica enjoy looking at women's exposed faces, which are decorated with makeup. They regard the French women as more beautiful, but less "fine" or refined than the Persian women they left behind.
Black and White
Race figures prominently in the book, with Usbek and others making distinctions between his Black eunuchs (of African descent) and his White eunuchs (from farther north). Both categories of men are slaves, however in this book the pale eunuchs tend to have higher rank and more authority. The factor that determines their servitude is not their ethnicity but the fact they are eunuchs. The seraglio contains no "Persian" eunuchs.
