Critical Analysis of Miramar (by Mary Ann Soheil Samaan)

  Miramar, a tightly written tale by none other than Noble Prize winner Mr. Naguib Mahfouz, tells the story of six characters of great interwoven differences and similarities. All six have been, more or less, exiled to the pension Miramar, owned by an Alexandrian-Greek lady called Mariana. Their different classes and characteristics collide as they revolve their attention around Zohra, a peasant girl, who left her country life but still holds on to the same principles. The story is told from different perspectives, and it all leads to the death of Sarhan al-Beheiry, one of the main characters living in the pension. In this brief novel, politics remains an ever constant background of post revolutionary Egyptian life as it influences all our heroes and heroines in their actions, language and even their motives. A critical analysis of this story is not simply based on the 'pros' and 'cons' of the characters or the novel as a whole, for such characters are the way they are simply because, in many ways, they have no options. Therefore, I would like to express such a highly charged tale in the form of an essay expressing a deep analysis of the complexities that made men the way they were during such a historical period in post revolutionary Egypt ... Full text essay