Therefore, the moral lesson in this story is that true happiness is an illusion in the real world. No can achieve it without losing their mind and that to achieve such a state one has to alienate themselves from the world. Mahfaouz successfully illustrates this by telling the story of the extraordinarily happy man.
the happy man naguib mahfouz
Through the example of the happy man, the author criticizes the demands of job that is put to an employees, in the story the happy man works as a writer at local newspaper. Apart from this, the other elements of society are also been criticized which includes death, and the politics.
In literature, there are lots of stories about misery, pain, and unhappiness. In fact, it is difficult to find a character whom you can call absolutely happy. However, the short story by an Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz is an exception. The Happy Man is a story with a deep message.
The main character of this short story wakes up one day and realizes that he is utterly happy. He works as a writer for a local newspaper, and the job seems to bring him joy. Through the course of the day, all his decisions are the reflection of his state, and the overwhelming happiness is determining all events of his life. It is obvious that happiness is the leading theme of the story.
The man realizes that his unusual happiness is out of the ordinary and tries to find a reasonable explanation. However, the feeling is so overwhelming that he is not ready to lose it. By trying to stay happy, he automatically deprived himself of simple human happiness. He abandoned his friends and cut off all contacts with them. He quit the job he enjoyed and ended up all by himself in the prison of his own thoughts.
What makes a man feel unreasonably happy and eventually collapsed? The short story "The Happy Man" written by the author Naguib Mafouz provided a significant philosophic theme of what it means to be human. It could be explained by three aspects. The pressure and reality derived from this world is waiting us to face, the sentiments we experienced enrich our life and add flavor to the outlook of life and the most importantly, to create self-identity. Together, the impact of the philosophical value behind this short story is tremendous and significant.
Heart of the Night consists almost entirely of a tale told in a single night, as Jaafar Ibrahim Sayyid al-Rawi relates how he came to be in the sorry position he is, near destitute and alone, living in the ruins of his grandfather's house. There is a separate narrator, the man to whom Jaafar tells the story, and the first two, brief chapters introduce these two characters and explain how Jaafar comes to relate his story; the narrator also occasionally interrupts Jaafar's accounts, with questions or comments, but the narrative consists predominantly of Jaafar's life-story as he tells it. Jaafar met the narrator because Jaafar wants to demand his rights, specifically to his grandfather's estate. As the narrator explains, however, since the al-Rawi estate became a charitable waqf (i.e. the estate was given over to charitable purposes) Jaafar has no claim to it. Jaafar is angry about how unfair this is, and he relates his life story to explain how unfairly he's been treated -- though as it turns out he did a few things that make it quite understandable why the old man cut him out of the will. Losing his parents when he was very young, Jaafar was sent to live with his wealthy grandfather. This actually worked out quite well. While a devout old man, who had been estranged from Jaafar's father and also recently lost his own wife, al-Rawi got on well with the boy and was happy to support his studious ways, noting:What counts for me are your pure will, your faith, and your love of religion. Of course, eventually Jafaar strayed from the path, felled by love. As bad luck would have it, the girl who catches his eye and completely bewitches him is a gypsy shepherdess from the worst part of town. But once he has his heart set on Marwana there's nothing to be done: "No matter what, I must have her." They marry and, of course, al-Rawi disowns his grandchild. Unfortunately, the love of Jaafar's life also turns out to be a rather fleeting passion. He isn't nearly enough man for her, and:Marwana was only a sexual provocation; not a housewife, a mother, or a woman in the true sense of the world. Surprisingly, Jaafar finds love -- and a far more comfortable life -- again, when an older woman falls in love with him. Although Huda Sadeeq is ten years his senior, he sees this as an opportunity not to be missed, and professes his love. They get married and live quite happily -- though there is no reconciliation with al-Rawi. At Huda's urging and with her support, Jaafar completes his education -- but he also becomes interested in politics. He claims: "I am a diligent student who worships the mind", but politics proves dangerous, and Jaafar can't quite control his impulses and emotions, and he ruins everything again. Now, years later, all he has is his sorry tale to relate, having lost everything. Jaafar is an arresting figure and narrator, filled with self-pity and stubborn pride. Early on he tells the narrator that he wants to press his case to get his grandfather's estate, regardless of how improbable success is:I will provoke a revolution that will reverse the order of the universe. In fact, however, the fates buffet him around (though it is his impulses -- his unwillingness to step back and make a rational decision at pivotal moments -- that are his downfall). By now, in old age, his self-delusion is particularly blinding -- he notes, for example, the similarities between his own life and that of the Prophet -- though clearly it is that he is torn in so many directions that undermines him: he can never rid himself of his religious allegiance, even as he distances himself from his grandfather's sort of piety -- hence also comparisons to the Prophet and the like -- and while a would-be intellectual -- he does worship the mind -- he also drifts easily into the indulgences of wine, women, and song (though he's actually not much of a womanizer). Of course, Jaafar tells his own story, and thus is able to present himself almost entirely how he wishes (or sees himself). And he goes so far as to suggest -- before he actually gets down to telling his story -- that:There is no 'truth and fiction,' but different kinds of truths that vary depending on the phases of life and the quality of the system that helps us become aware of them. Legends are truths like the truths of nature, mathematics, and history. Each one has its spiritual system. Indeed, what perhaps determined (and destroyed) Jaafar's life was that he could never depend entirely on a single system, and without that hold he found his worlds upended, time after time (though he did contribute mightily in some cases). At just a hundred pages, Heart of the Night is more a longer story than a full-fledged novel. Too much is rushed through, especially about his later life -- all the more noticeably because when Mahfouz allows the narrative to linger over specific episodes the story blossoms. There are some very fine and evocative scenes here, especially when Jaafar speaks of his childhood; if the same in-more-depth treatment had been applied more consistently Heart of the Night could well have been quite remarkable. The rush -- and especially the speed with which some of the significant turning-points are addressed -- weaken the work; not fatally, but significantly. Nevertheless, Jaafar is an irritatingly fascinating figure and narrator throughout (and his interlocutor, if not quite involved enough, a good and often humorous counterpart), and his story is strong enough, even in this occasionally abbreviated form. Heart of the Night is a good little novel, and a modest success. - M.A.Orthofer, 28 June 2011
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Thus, the political destiny of the young pharaoh becomes connected with his love adventures, as designed by the gods. On the surface, this love story appears to be no different from many others occurring throughout history, even down to the present day. But the political fate of Pharaoh Mernere II, and indeed the fate and the well-being of the Egyptian state, hang in the balance. Not only does the pharaoh love Radobis to the point of losing his sanity, he is willing to sacrifice himself and Egypt to make her happy. His love overwhelms his will. There is an unfathomable force within him that drives him mad and, in spite of himself, toward this woman. He is so infatuated that he cannot even accept the fact that Radobis is a high-society prostitute; he cannot believe that when she was young she fell in love with a sailor who later deserted her, or that she habitually sold her body until their fateful meeting. Consumed by passion, the pharaoh lavishes everything on Radobis.
At the same time he abjectly neglects his wife Nitocris (also his sister), who has swallowed her pride and suffered silently from the pharaoh's love affairs. The priests are no less angered by his behavior, feeling he has deprived them of their possessions and neglected the affairs of the state to cater to his mistress. The priests and the prime minister, unhappy at seeing the divine pharaoh in the clutches of a cheap woman, begin to spread detrimental rumors about him. The prime minister, having lost favor, approaches Nitocris, pretending to hope that she may be able to alert the pharaoh to the growing resentment against him. The pharaoh meets with her, but on discovering that her purpose is to discuss his relations with Radobis, he becomes furious, accusing his wife of jealousy, and refuses to change his ways.
To some people, this kind of love may seem highly sentimental and exaggerated. But only a few decades ago Edward VIII of England gave up the throne for a twice-divorced commoner who was not even an English citizen, and he lavished on her whatever he could get from his friends, his royal estate, or the British government. Whether or not he claimed to be divine, Pharaoh Mernere II was after all a mortal who like other men in Egypt craved love and companionship. He may have been rebelling against the Egyptian tradition that had forced him to marry his sister Nitocris, or perhaps, unhappy in this marriage of convenience, he had found in the ravishingly beautiful Radobis an answer to his unrequited love. 2ff7e9595c
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