The Satanic Verses: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Satanic Verses: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex lives of key figures in Salman Rushdie's novel, which intertwines themes of identity, culture, and transformation. The two main characters are Gibreel Farishta, a once-famous Bollywood actor who faces a dramatic fall from grace, and Saladin Chamcha, an immigrant who grapples with his dual identity following a plane crash. Farishta's story highlights his tumultuous relationships and eventual tragic downfall, while Chamcha’s transformation into a goatlike creature symbolizes his struggle with societal acceptance and racism.
Supporting characters, such as Pamela Lovelace, Chamcha's unfaithful wife, and Alleluia Cone, Farishta's lover, further illustrate the personal conflicts arising from betrayal and love. The narrative also features historical figures like Mahound and Abu Simbel, who represent themes of faith and dissent. Through these characters, Rushdie explores the intersection of personal and cultural crises, making "The Satanic Verses" a profound commentary on human nature and the search for identity in a complex world.
The Satanic Verses: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Salman Rushdie
First published: 1988, in Great Britain (first pb. in US, 1989)
Genre: Novel
Locale: India, London, Jahilia
Plot: Fantasy
Time: Late twentieth and early seventh centuries
Gibreel Farishta (GEE-bree-EHL fah-REESH-tah), a forty-year-old actor, formerly named Ismail Najruddin. Poor and orphaned, Farishta escapes his poverty and becomes India's most significant film star. When an Air India jumbo jet is sabotaged over the English Channel by Sikh terrorists, Farishta is one of two survivors. Rescued from the sea, he dresses in the clothes of his host, Rosa Diamond's late husband. The authorities permit him to go free. He falls into an affair with Alleluia Cone (née Cohen), who scaled Mount Everest and whom he had met several months previously following a near-fatal illness that preceded his mysterious disappearance from Bombay. Finally, Farishta's fortunes suffer a reversal. His films fail to attract audiences. He shoots his well-meaning film producer, Whisky Sisodia, and throws Alleluia off the roof of a high-rise building, then ends his own life.
Saladin Chamcha (sah-lah-DEEN CHAM-chah), an actor, master mimic, and costar of a popular English television series. Estranged son of a prominent Anglophile Bombay businessman, Chamcha (formerly Salahuddin Chamchawala) is one of two survivors of an Air India jumbo jet that is destroyed by Sikh terrorists over the English Channel. Pulled from the sea by racist police officers, Chamcha, unable to prove his identity or citizenship and having assumed a goatlike appearance, is thrown into an immigrants' mental hospital and held until his British citizenship is verified. Released from his confinement, he returns home to find his wife, Pamela Lovelace, in bed with Jamsheed Joshi. He also learns that the government of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher has demanded that his role in the television series be cut, so he is jobless. He finds temporary lodgings in the sort of immigrant section of London that he has spent his life trying to avoid. Then, surrealistically, he begins to grow, reaching eight feet and being transformed into a satanic-appearing satyr, able to resume his form only after he has vented his rage. He nearly dies trying to save the Bangladeshi couple who had earlier taken him in. Finally, he suffers a heart attack and returns to India, where he is reconciled with both his father and his country, but not before he, transmogrified as Shaitan, has avenged his decline by wrecking Farishta's life and bringing him one step closer to the mental breakdown that precedes his suicide.
Pamela Lovelace, whose name suggests Samuel Richard-son's eighteenth century heroine, was Chamcha's wife. He caught her in bed with another man when he arrived home unexpectedly following his release from the mental hospital where he was confined after surviving the destruction of the Air India jumbo jet in which he was a passenger.
Alleluia Cone (AL-lay-LOO-yah), formerly Cohen, a woman who scaled Mount Everest and shortly thereafter became Farishta's lover. Chamcha destroyed their relationship and led Farishta to the point of killing Cone by throwing her from the top of a high-rise building to die in much the way his former mistress, Rekha Merchant, had committed suicide two years earlier.
Abu Simbel (ah-BEW SIHM-behl), the leader of the seventh century Jahilia (pre-Islamic Arabia), who appears to Farishta in a dream in which Abu attempts to bargain with Mahound, offering to accept the new monotheism if Mahound will grant divine status to three local goddesses.
Mahound (mah-HEWND), a pejorative Christian variation of Mohammad, who appears in Farishta's dream in which Farishta, disguised as an angel, counsels him to accept Abu Simbel's offer. Mahound finally concludes, however, that the concession is the work of the satanic Shaitan and the revela-tory verses are satanic in origin. Mahound completes his conquest of Jahilia, ordering the closing of the brothel and the execution of its prostitutes.
Ayesha (i-EE-shah), a young woman who leads a group of pilgrims to the sea and finally to Mecca. An angel had told her that the sea would part. When it failed to do so, several of the pilgrims drowned.