Said Mahran Characterization Passage

Chapter 1 Passage

Nabawiyya. Ilish. Your two names merge in my mind. For years you will have been thinking about this day, never imagining, all the while, that the gates would ever actually open. You'll be watching now, but I won't fall into the trap. At the right moment, instead, I'll strike like Fate.

And Sana? What about Sana? 

As the thought of her crossed his mind, the heat and the dust, the hatred and pain all disappeared, leaving only love to glow across a soul as clear as a rain-washed sky. 

I wonder how much the little one even knows about her father? Nothing, I suppose. No more than this road does, these passers-by or this molten air.

She had never been out of his thoughts, where bit by bit she'd taken shape, like an image in a dream, for four long years. Would luck now give him some decent place to live, where such love could be equally shared, where he could take joy in being a winner again, where what Nabawiyya and Ilish had done would be no more than a memory, odious, but almost forgotten? 

You must pull together all the cunning you possess, to culminate in a blow as powerful as your endurance behind prison walls. Here is a man--a man who can dive like a fish, fly like a hawk, scale walls like a rat, pierce solid doors like a bullet!_

This passage is one of the first instances of characterization of Said Mahran as he is freed from prison. Through the use of internal monologue reflected in the use of stream of consciousness narrative technique, the audience is first exposed to Mahran’s obsession with seeking revenge. This is reflected in the fact that this first thoughts are about Nabwiyya and Ilish, whose “names merge in [his] mind”. This sense of obsession and thirst for revenge is seen in the simile of “I’ll strike like Fate”. The capitalization of Fate and the simile creates a sense of arrogance in terms of Mahran's characterization, which starts to expose to the audience the deteriorating psyche of Mahran. Essentially, the simile reveals that Mahran overestimates his abilities, which is characteristic of the tragic hero archetype as this suggests that Mahran is oblivious to his need to reconcile with an Egypt that has drastically changed since he was imprisoned. In addition, the simile creates a mood of tension as the audience awaits the subsequent confrontation with Ilish and Nawabiyya. 

Although the passage initially characterizes Mahran as a protagonist consumed by rage for whom the audience would have trouble empathizing with, the question “And Sana? What about Sana?” which consequently made “the hatred and pain all [disappear], leaving only love to glow across a should as clear as a rain-washed sky” reveals the extent to which Sana is loved by Mahran. Effectively, Mahran is humanized and presented as a three dimensional complex character capable of affection. This indirect characterization causes the audience to empathize with Mahran. Subsequently, this empathy is reinforced by the pessimistic tone of “I wonder how much the little one even knows about her father? Nothing, I suppose. No more than this road does, these passers-by or this molten air.”. In terms of the tragic hero archetype in conjunction with the feeling of empathy, the audience begins to consider whether Mahran’s fate is one he truly deserves.

The dichotomous nature of Mahran’s character observed in his hatred for Nabawiyya and Ilish, and his love for Sana is further developed in his internal conflict, where he questions whether he will find a place where “where what Nabawiyya and Ilish had done would be no more than a memory, odious, but almost forgotten?”. The feeling of empathy is continued in the use of hypophora, portraying Mahran as a character with perplexing doubts resultant of a fate that arguably he didn’t deserve. 

The subsequent use of animal imagery in “Here is a man--a man who can dive like a fish, fly like a hawk, scale walls like a rat, pierce solid doors like a bullet!” however, reminds the audience of Mahran’s arrogance and obsession with seeking revenge. This also signals an escalation of his internal conflict and foreshadows to the further deterioration of his psyche. Furthermore, the use imagery presents Mahran as an almost animalistic, barbaric character which compliments his thirst for revenge. In addition, the use of animal imagery characterizes his need for revenge as something nearly uncontrollable, illogical, a force of nature that even he can’t control. This effectively foreshadows the further detriment of his psyche and inescapable downfall.