Unnatural Divisions

 If Al-Sayyid were asked whether he would rather be loved or feared he would undoubtedly answer both. His family lives in a state of fretful worship, savoring even the tiniest bits of mercy and praise, deeply upset at disappointing their patriarch.

However, when Al-Sayyid banishes his wife there is a transition that becomes notable: the allegiance of his children. In secret the sons visit their mother while she is away. Mahfouz seems to suggest in this passage that Al-Sayyid’s power has a limit in its scope. He may have an extreme level physical dominance over these people but there is some spirit in each of his children and in Amina, his wife, as well that Al-Sayyid cannot contain. Their desire to look out the window, to venture into the streets, to laugh and love one another seems so natural in Palace Walk that even Al-Sayyid’s choking grip cannot stop the biological urges of his children, not to mention himself. He commands love, but in the same way that the characters constantly refer back to what is out of their control, in God’s control, Al-Sayyid can only extend his power so far.

When his children see him in his element outside their home, there seems to be an understanding that the binary he is living under contends that there is a time for duty and a time for play. Two separate parts of life. There is a time for fear; there is a time for love. Yet in the same way that God’s control is infinite and does not divide between these times of love and fear, there seems to be a suggestion that the divisions Al-Sayyid creates reach for a level of control that is unattainable and unrealistic, that breaks sync with human nature as it is represented in the novel in the will of God, that create divisions in society between outside and inside, between duty and play, that should not exist. A break from which, Mahfouz seems to suggest, is as treacherous as talking back.