Tahire Hanım, Sefika's mother, represents traditional practices in the transition society of the Tanzimat era, class interests, and the ruthless pressure of a deteriorating economy on parents. As the only way to save the family—which has lost its former prosperity and is condemned to live on two thousand kurus a month—and to prevent her husband from being imprisoned by the money changer's heirs due to a five-hundred-purse debt, she chooses to offer her young and beautiful daughter, Sefika, to a pasha 24 years her senior. To her, Ata being an orphan and a humble student makes him unsuitable for her daughter. She does not believe in romantic feelings; in her view, love is merely a fabrication that necessarily follows a respectable, honored marriage and a comfortable life.
She lived a comfortable life in magnificent mansions with plenty of servants in the past. However, after her husband's wealth was exhausted and the household's financial order collapsed, she must have suffered trauma. As a mother, the fear of falling back into misery or onto the streets has created within her a traumatic and unfeeling pragmatism.
Although there are no long descriptions of her physical appearance in the work, she portrays a middle-aged woman who makes her weight felt in the household hierarchy and carries the vestiges of being a mansion owner in her attire and demeanor.
Halil Bey
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Şefika Hanım
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