Personification Of The Sins Of Midaq Alley
Midaq Alley (1947) is the masterpiece of Naguib Makfouz. In this microcosmic alley, its characters are transformed into sinful living beings by the alley. Mahfouz created characters that represent the Seven Deadly Sins of the Christian Church. Each character fits perfectly into the wedges in Hieronymus Bosch’s famous painting. Some characters fall under more then one category, but all of them can be classified as Lust, Gluttony Greed Sloth Wrath and Envy.
According to Dante’s famous Renaissance novel, and also the church, Lust is a sin that is not offensive. It is characterized as a burning desire. Mahfouz’s book interprets Lust as a sexual urge. The sin is most evident in the stories told by Mr. Kirsha when he courts the young man at the clothing shop, but also on his journey home (46-52). And Salim, who enjoys a special meal of “cooked, green wheat mixed with pigeon pieces and ground nuts” that produces a magical effect “that began at midnight and lasted until two hours of sheer pleasure” (67). Alwan is a good example of Nimis, as he eats his wheat bowl every day. Thomas Aquinas believes that Nimis represents gluttony. The perpetrator is eating too much. The church defines gluttony by overindulgence. Alwan was a man who indulged in this behavior until he suffered a heart-attack and became cruel and bitter.
Hussain Kirsha is consumed by Greed. It is a desire that is materialistic in nature, similar to Lust or Gluttony. Hussain Kirsha leaves to join the British Imperial Army. Saniya Afifiy is another character who has a love for cigarettes, coffee and banknotes. She kept the bank notes in an ivory casket in her clothes closet. She organized them in fives and 10s packages, and enjoyed counting, rearranging and looking at them (18). Zaita is greedy, as she steals gold teeth to place in the mouths the living. They then split the profits. Ibrahim Faraj is greedy because he lures women in under the pretense of courting, only to find out later that, as Hamida states, “[he] [is] not man, he’s a pimp.” (196). He then spends extravagant amounts of cash courting women and repeating this cycle (160 – 168, 183 – 198). These characters are all examples of Greed. Greed is a major social and moral flaw in mankind that affects us all. Kirsha explains it well: “If greed is the main goal and objective of those squabbling over power, then money can be the primary aim of poor voters.” (151). This shows that Greed is not a problem for anyone.
Uncle Kamil’s happiness is what makes him so happy. He does not do much, but he sleeps at work. Kamil Darwish and others are lazy, slothful, and spend their time doing very little. Mahfouz describes Kamil as being lazy when he says, “Uncle Kamil is accustomed to sleeping with a fly-whisk on his lap. He can barely finish a sweet sale before he’s overcome by the desire to sleep” (2). Sheikh Darwish does not doze off while working, but he is an elderly man with very little energy left. He interjects the story often to prove his point. He appears only when asked, like a fortune-teller sideshow machine that only moves and speaks when money is inserted. The first time he appears, the statuesque old man in the gold-rimmed specs and necktie moves for the first. His friends expected to see flesh float up from his sigh as he turned to look at the roof. “Once more he was lost in oblivion” (6-7). Sheikh Darwish moved only to interrupt Mr. Kirsha’s conversation with an enigmatic disregard before returning to his former position.
As they return to Mr. Kirsha’s wife, she and he are controlled by anger. Mrs. Kirsha, who has been fighting with Kirsha, slaps him and punches him hard. He lost his tarboosh and blood began to flow from his nose. She then grasped her necktie until the voice of his gasped ceased. Mahfouz says that after Kirsha pulls off his wife, her blood is boiling. Kirsha shows his anger when Hussain Kirsha lets his father know that he is leaving to start anew. Kirsha slapped Hussain in the face hard with his hand, according to the description. His mother was standing between the two, and she took the blows. Kirsha stopped hitting and shouted: “Take your blackface away from me!” You have gone to hell, as far I am concerned. Husniya also, surprising, is a very violent woman. She is frequently shown slapping her husband. Zaita was delighted to see Husniya slapping her husband. She would do this even if he made a small mistake. Jaada was punished for every mistake he made. Mrs. Afifiy’s greed is matched by her envious nature. She asks Umm Hamida for help in finding a man, a move motivated by her jealousy of Hamida’s marriage to Abbas. Umm Hamida, too, envies Hamida, but not for her marriage. Umm Hamida has a fading beauty, while Hamida still looks radiant. The tension between mother and daughter is heightened by this. Zaita joins the group with Jaada’s envy. He may at first seem to hate Jaada. However, he soon reveals that Jaada is his envy for having Husniya.
Hamida’s jealousy over the factory girls’ wealth and success leads to her downfall. Hamida, a sweet and innocent young girl, is the face of the worst sin in the Christian church: pride. Hamida is a self-centered young woman who dreams of the status marriage with Salim would bring. Her “heart throbbed” and “her face flushed”, and she was proudly glistening. Salim, Ibrahim, and Hussain Kirsha are all with her. Salim Alwan scolded the men who were poorer than him for the way they acted and detested them.
The novel ends with the revelation that the residents of the alley have been cleansed of their worst sins. Alleys adapt to change and are able to forget the greed, envy and other sins of characters. Alleys are maintained even when people come and go. Mahfouz concludes by telling the reader that, even if people are wrong, they can all be forgiven.
References Cited
Mahfouz Naguib, Trevor Le Gassick. Midaq Alley. In 1992, New York’s Anchor Press published a work. Print.
