Blog Post 29- Said's Characterisation

Passage:
" Well, you'll have to go out sooner or later, to take a walk in the night, even if only to safe places, But let's postpone that until the police are worn out looking for you. And let's hope to God Shaban Husain isn't buries in now of these graves here; this is run-down quarter could hardy stand the strain of such a painful irony of fate. Just keep cool, keep patient, until Nur comes back. You must not ask when Nur will come back. You'll have to put up with the dark, the change its naughty ways. Our, poor girl, is caught in it too. What, after all, is her love for you but a bad habit, getting stuck on someone who's already dead of pain and anger, is put off by her affection no less than by her ageing looks, who doesn't really know what to do with her except maybe drink with her, toasting, as it were, defeat and grief, and pity her for her worthy nut hopeless efforts. And in the end you can't even forget she's a woman. Like that slinking bitch Nabawiyya, who'll be in moral fear until the rope's safely installed around your neck or some rotten bullet I lodged in your heart. And the police will tell such lies that the truth of your love for her, as if that, too, was just a bullet that went astray.
Sleep came over Said Mahran and he dozed off for a while on the sofa, unaware that he had been dreaming in his sleep until he awoke, to find himself in complete darkness, still alone in Nur's flat in Sharia Najm al-Din, where Irish Sidra had not spurred him and had not fired a hail of bullets at him. He had no idea what time it was."

Analysis:

This passage reveals Said’s core emotions and opinions of past events by dreaming of which is portrayed through an internal monologue (italics). Throughout the stream of consciousness narration, it is clear that his emotions fluctuates from feeling sympathy to feeling anger and frustrations. Mahfouz uses these flashbacks to provide a greater understanding of Said’s past and his behaviour towards the other characters. Consequently, flashbacks are used to enhance the impact of actions in the present through the contrast of the past.  
Mahfouz depicts Said's harmatia by portraying a one-point perspective of the protagonists opinion towards Nabawiyya in terms she being a "slinking bitch... who'll be in moral fear until the rope's safety installed around [her] neck or some rotten bullet [he] lodged in [her] heart". This uncomfortable, inhuman and aggressive nature demonstrates his harmatia as he is unable to control his desire for vengeance towards characters like Nabawiyya because he is unable to adapt to change. In addition, because of his lack of acceptance, he puts his frustration/anger and does not show any compassion towards woman in his life (particularly Nur) as "in the end you can't even forget she's a woman" because of the betrayal of other characters that occurred before the novel begins. Therefore he is unable to depict some sort of acceptance with the past as Said implies that Nur may betray him even though she is the only one in his life that still remains by his side. He is hesitant yet he is still reliant of Nur as he waits to "keep patient, until Nur comes back. You must not ask when Nur will come back." 
Ultimately in the following line, Mahfouz demonstrates the ever changing mindset from one topic to another. Our mind wonders and when it stumbles on situations that remind us of something significance that remained a memory, it stimulates past memories. This similarly happens to Said through the internal monologues non-linear structure of which depicts this unstable nature of the mind by portraying "You'll have to put up with the dark, the change its naughty ways." then he suddenly changes as the word dark stimulates these past events "Our, poor girl, is caught in it too. What, after all, is her love for you but a bad habit,". Said is further characterised as being sympathetic/pitiful towards his own daughter as he highlights the event that occurred in chapter one, where is daughter rejects him due to the fact that it was his "bad habit" of being a robber is what caused him going to jail, and that time in jail is what caused his daughter to not remember him because of her depiction of being a young age at the time.