Irony In Naguib Mahfouz's Midaq Alley
Naguib Mahfouz, a leading Egyptian writer, forces the world to take Middle Eastern literature seriously. One of his most famous works, Midaq Alley, gets its main charm from allowing readers to explore somewhere that they have never been before, in the heart of the Arab world. In the novel Midaq Alley, Mahfouz uses situational irony to develop dramatic tragedy related to the characters in the novel, and how the audience perceives them.
In a dramatic tragedy, the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, a moral weakness, or an inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. In the novel Midaq Alley, we read about the dramatic tragedy of Hamida 's life. The first of many tragedies
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At first she boasted, “I am not the one who is chasing marriage” (26) and Umm Hamida pampers her with the quotation “a princess like you, a daughter of royalty” (26). She also compared herself to the Jewish girls while she was walking down Mousky Street. This is very ironic especially the fact that the novel ended with her becoming a prostitute. Overall the reader seems to have a well-rounded profile of Hamida by the end of the novel. She first seems overconfident, demanding, and had a high taste in fashion, whereas by the end of the novel she seems disrespected, naive, and still had a high taste in fashion but no freedom. As a result of this structure it further built on the plot to append the dramatic tragedy.
Another tragedy that Hamida faced was the unfortunate yet ironic event Salim Alwan had to go through. Salim Alwan, the owner of a company in Midaq Alley, the pigeon mix that kept him sexually active, and the countless amounts of money that allowed him to live outside the alley. Ironically Salim Alwan had a heart attack, which he did, not died from, but put him in the hospital, and away from Hamida’s reach. Therefore, after Hamida’s decision to leave Abbas for Salim has closed both paths and left her vulnerable and leads to the climax of all tragedies in the novel which is the encountering with Ibrahim
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