Said as a tragic hero

Aristotle defines a tragic hero as "a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment".

• What is Said's tragic flaw? (harmatia)

Said's constant desire for revenge can be interpreted as his main tragic flaw that had later on in the novel lead to his downfall. An example from the text from chapter seven, "“To kill them both—Nabawiyya and Ilish—at the same time, would be a triumph”, his constant expressing of hate towards other characters in the play is considered as his main tragic flaw, since it lead to him getting shot at towards the end of the literary text.

• How does he display excessive pride? (hubris)

Said throughout the novel keeps blaming Nabawiyya, Illish and Rauf for being the main reason behind all that is happening to him, never having himself to blame. He even blamed Sana for not recognizing him, when he told Rauf in chapter three "I have no faith in all her sex", the previous line shows how naive he is, blaming Sana when she hasn't seen him for the past four year. This shows how excessively his character displays pride, as he sees that he himself is flawless and never to blame to what is happening between him and the other characters in the novel.

• When is his reversal of fortunes? (peripeteia)

Said's reversal of fortunes was at the moment when Rauf rejects for who he is, he says “If I set eyes on you again,” Rauf bellowed, “I’ll squash you like an insect.” This shows how Said is now left with no one and hopeless, due to the fact that Rauf once used to be his mentor and close friend, but now he is nothing other than another upperclass individual who Said attempted to rob. 

• At what moments in the text does he recognize that the reversal was due to his own actions? (anagnorisis)

Because Said deliberately broke into his house during dawn when Rauf was sleeping. “Yes, I do, but please don’t.” Said says that after Rauf said, “No? Don’t you deserve it?". This shows how Said acknowledges his mistake (perhaps just to avoid going back to jail), and begs Rauf not to call the police, showing that he knows that the reversal of fortunes is due to his own actions.

• Is his fate greater than he deserved? (nemesis)

His fate was tragic, no tragic ending is considered "greater than deserved" since all tragic endings have had some events leading up to him, contributing to a somewhat similar tragic fate. 

Passage Analysis

Passage:

The servant came in pushing a trolley laden with a bottle, two glasses, a pretty little violet-colored ice bucket, a dish of apples arranged in a pyramid, plates with hors d’oeuvres, and a silver water jug. 

Rauf gestured to the servant to withdraw, filled two glasses himself and offered one to Said, raising the other: “To freedom.” While Said emptied his glass in one gulp, Rauf took a sip then said, “And how is your daughter? Oh, I forgot to ask you—why did you spend the night at Sheikh Ali’s?” 

He doesn’t know what happened, thought Said, but he still remembers my daughter. And he gave Rauf a cold-blooded account of his misfortunes.

 “So yesterday I paid a visit to al-Sayrafi lane,” he concluded. “There I found a detective waiting for me, as I’d expected, and my daughter disowned me and screamed in my face.” He helped himself to another whisky. 

“This is a sad story. But your daughter isn’t to blame. She can’t remember you now. 

Later on she’ll grow to know and love you.” 

“I have no faith left in all her sex.”

“That’s how you feel now. But tomorrow, who knows how you’ll feel? You’ll change your opinion of your own accord. That’s the way of the world.” 

The telephone rang. Rauf rose, picked up the receiver and listened for a moment. His face began to beam and he carried the telephone outside to the verandah, while Said’s sharp eyes registered everything. It must be a woman. A smile like that, strolling into the dark, could only mean a woman. He wondered if Ilwan was still unmarried. Though they sat there cozily drinking and chatting, Said now sensed that this meeting would be exceedingly difficult to repeat. The feeling was unaccountable, like the whispered premonition of some still undiagnosed cancerous growth, but he trusted it, relying on instinct. A resident now in one of those streets that Said had only visited as a burglar, after all, this man may have felt obliged to welcome him, having actually changed so much that only a shadow of the old self remained.” 


Analysis: 

This passage reveals to the audience the different perceptions each of Rauf and Said have regarding the life that they are living. The passage includes contrast between both their characters, symbols are included to further contrast their relationship and perceptions. Also, Rauf's character has been established further than what Said's inner thoughts has shaped him as. 

The passage begins with “The servant came in pushing a trolley laden with a bottle, two glasses, a pretty little violet-colored ice bucket, a dish of apples arranged in a pyramid, plates with hors d’oeuvres, and a silver water jug". The previous lines are a internal monologue that portrays the hating character that Said holds. This can be said due to the fact that he pays close attention to details regarding the valuable things that Rauf possesses. An example would be, "pretty little violet-coloured ice bucke" and "dish of apples arranged in a pyramid", the close detail payed by him symbolizes the unattainable things that he will not enjoy independently. 

After that Rauf's butler has served them with wine, Rauf says "To freedom". This line demonstrates the different perception of life varying between both characters. For Said, he feels that life has turned against him. After losing the last four years of his life, losing his daughter and his wife committing audeltry with his betraying friend. While on the other hand, Rauf, during the four years that Said spent in prison, has managed to crawl his way up to the upper-class, hence viewing the world he lives is as a world that is filled with freedom. 

Moving along the lines in the passage, Said mentions his daughter disowning him the day he came out of jail, after four years of imagining his daughters smile. Rauf then starts to comfort him by saying "But your daughter isn’t to blame. She can’t remember you now. Later on she’ll grow to know and love you". This is ironic because Rauf used to be Saids mentor, as time passed by (relates to "grow to know you") they have become detached and each with their own perception of life.

 Said then says, “I have no faith left in all her sex". The reason behind him not having faith is due to his wife committing adultery, then having a divorce while he is in prison and marrying his "once-was" friend. This further portrays how the whole situation deeply impacted his inner views towards women as a whole, contributing to his character being further developed in the text.

Why does Mahfouz employ stream of consciousness narration in the novel and to what effect?

In chapter 1, Naguib first introduces us to the protagonist Said, who is in jail during the very early stages of the novel. In the first chapter specifically, Mahfouz manages to constantly switch and redirect his style of writing, whether it being from first person to second person, or by implementing stream of consciousness narration, including a soliloquy, interior and exterior monologues. The employment of such writing styles in the text, allowed Naguib to achieve a number of significant intended character traits that are to be developed and built upon in the upcoming events of the novel. 

As we are first introduced to Said, we are given insight regarding his expressed hatred towards both Nabawiyyah and Ilish, his wife and former friend respectively. The hatred has been expressed when he says "I swear I hate you all", he also describes his ex wife by saying "that woman who sprang from filth, from vermin, from treachery and infidelity.”(p.152) and “one of the secrets of hell!". After reading these previous lines, readers as audience view Said's character to be filled with hatred. However, Naguib provides contrast to the hating nature of Said's character, where his feelings for his daughter are shown to be filled with love, seen in the line "As the thought of her crossed his mind. The heat and the dust, the hatred and the pain all disappeared, leaving only love to glow across a soul as clear as a rain-washed sky", portraying Said's nature further. This shows how Naguib managed to provide us as audience, with deep insight regarding Said's character, only by providing us with slight detail regarding his feelings and thoughts, achieved by implementing quotes and direct monologues. 

Furthermore, we were firstly introduced to Illish's character through Said's inner thoughts and feelings, which gave a rather negative impression regarding his 'yet to be introduced' character. However, as the audience are given the chance to view Illish's character further in the first chapter, they are provided with Indirect characterization, also mainly achieved by the style of writing that Naguib uses. Later in the first chapter, the first time the audience are encountered with Ilish is when he invites Said to his house, then as the scene progresses, we as audience, manage to see somewhat valid reasoning behind his argument with Said, that we do not have a lot of insight about, other than the fact that Said's inner thoughts and feelings are neglecting it based on Said's point of view solely.

Value of Literature in Translation

"Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other"

Translated literary texts have been separated all along than those referred to as "original texts". What makes a literary text original, is being published and read in the language it was written in. However, one may argue that the originality of a text relies on its content and worth. On the other hand, translated texts are those that are written in another language, yet attempting to communicate and deliver the same intended meaning and content within the original piece of text.

When a text is to be translated, the translator is to have an appreciation of both the content and context of the original piece, with the events taking place. The translator is also confronted with moments where he or she has to preserve some elements of the text and sacrifice some others. Every piece that is translated has came from an "original" individual, hence translators tend to give it an individual based treatment. This is when understanding the context of the work is important, as translators tend to "retain the ambience of the original culture, rather than the language, as it is reflected in the text". 

When people read translated literary works, they tend to hate to have something challenging their historical views of things, corrupting them, and display their idols in a undermined manner. As a result, it is safe to say that in order to enjoy translated literary texts, the reader should be 'open-minded' and have an interpretation suitable to what the author aims to deliver with translating an original piece of text.

"Translation is two things: it’s very close and careful and thoughtful reading. Then, it’s precise and careful and thoughtful writing"