Ahmet Mithat Efendi
Felatun Bey ile Rakım Efendi is a classic Tanzimat-era novel of Turkish literature, written by Ahmet Mithat Efendi in 1875. The work satirizes misguided Westernization (alafranga manners), ignorance, and the East-West cultural clash through two contrasting characters.
The conflict of lifestyle and mindset between Râkım Efendi, who remains committed to his own values while synthesizing the productivity, languages, and science of the West, and Felâtun Bey, who consumes his inheritance by embracing only the luxury, decadence, and formalist arrogance of the West.
Istanbul (Beyoğlu, Tophane, Salıpazarı, Kumbaracı Yokuşu, Kâğıthane, Çamlıca, Asmalımescit)
Second half of the 19th Century (Tanzimat Period, estimated 1870s)
The work features an intimate atmosphere dominated by the style of an author-narrator who engages in direct dialogue with the reader, offering moral advice with a tone of warmth and occasional mild humor. Accompanied by vivid depictions of daily life, a subtle satire is felt through the flaws of the characters.
A didactic, omniscient third-person narrator (resembling a traditional storyteller or meddah) who constantly speaks to the reader, intervenes in the events, and advocates for their own moral views.
True respect in society is not earned through inherited wealth or the imitation of the West, but through one's own hard work, knowledge, and moral virtues. Lives built on ostentation and laziness are ultimately doomed to material and spiritual exhaustion and disgrace.
The collision of the Tanzimat-era Ottoman intellectual with European culture. It depicts the civic life of Istanbul during a transitional period where a mentality that equates civilization with speaking French and engaging in shallow leisure pursuits coexists with a generation that is both proficient in Eastern sciences and Western knowledge, adopting hard work as a principle.
Characters are arranged at equal intervals on a circle; you can read the relationship type and dynamics by clicking on the lines.
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They form the main contrast of the novel. While Râkım is a humble and hardworking genius, Felâtun is an arrogant and ignorant heir. Felâtun secretly envies Râkım and tries to belittle him, while Râkım mostly pities him, using gentle words to draw lessons from his behavior.
The discussion about the letters in the Turkish alphabet at the English household, where Râkım politely embarrasses Felâtun by exposing his ignorance.
Initially, it is a compassionate master-student and protector-protected relationship. As Râkım educates and raises her, Canan becomes deeply attached with love; Râkım also admires her development, and the distance between them evolves into a profound mutual love.
When it is suggested that Râkım sell Canan after a buyer offers 1,500 gold for her, they both weep bitterly and confess their love for one another.
Fedai is the person who raised Râkım, enduring all kinds of hardships since his orphanhood. Râkım respects her like a real mother, gives her the first money he earns, and does everything for her comfort.
Râkım giving half of the first significant sum of money he earned to his nanny to spare her from having to serve in other households.
Fedai was initially the reason for Canan's arrival to help around the house, but soon she comes to love her like her own daughter. Canan also attaches herself to her like a mother, and a great bond of solidarity begins between them.
Canan presenting the clothes she sewed from fashionable fabrics to Fedai for her approval first, and feeling shy about hiding her secrets from her.
The relationship, which begins with romantic attraction, transforms into a deep friendship thanks to Râkım's maturity and his commitment to Canan. Josephino turns into an older sister figure who advocates for the happiness of Râkım and Canan.
Josephino encouraging Canan during the Kâğıthane outing and setting up a play for her to confess her love to Râkım.
Josephino becomes Canan's instructor in both piano and French. Upon seeing Canan's incredible intelligence and naivety, she sincerely embraces her and serves the cause of Canan's happiness.
Josephino teaching Canan with extraordinary enthusiasm and for free, in order to accelerate her lessons for the English girls.
Ziklas views Râkım as a very talented and moral Eastern scholar and holds him in high regard. Loving him like a son, he offers him great opportunities.
When his daughter Can falls ill with tuberculosis and lies on her deathbed, Mr. Ziklas disregards his entire fortune and offers Râkım his daughter's hand in marriage, without even requiring him to change his faith.
During their lessons, Can is deeply impressed by Râkım's intelligence, appearance, and kindness, and falls in love with him. Râkım, however, treats her only with the compassionate affection of a respectful teacher and never crosses his boundaries.
Can falling into a deathbed illness for tuberculosis as she cannot confess her feelings to Râkım, and mistakenly believing that the poems Râkım reads from the Dīwān of Ḥāfiẓ are expressions of his own feelings for her.
His father considers his son's Western-styled superficiality a virtue and idolizes him. The father does not monitor his son, but rather finances his wasteful lifestyle.
During a debate between his father and Felâtun about clouds blocking sunlight in winter, the father praises Felâtun by comparing him to Ancient Greek philosophers.
In order to appear 'à la franca', Felâtun chases after Polini as a wealthy suitor. Polini sees him only as a source of income, a 'fool', and exploits him until he exhausts his entire fortune at the gambling tables.
Polini humiliating Felâtun in front of other men at the casino by calling him a 'dullard' and a 'monkey', eventually tricking him into losing all his money.
