Karakterler

Ata Bey

A 19-year-old, idealistic, successful, and orphaned young man studying in his tenth year at the Tıbbiye (medical school). Having grown up at the house of Halil Bey with Sefika, he is on his way to becoming a brilliant doctor, perhaps even a palace physician, by graduating at the top of his class. The sole motivation for all these achievements is the woman he loves, Sefika. When he hears that she has fallen ill and is being forced into marriage, he is cast into a state where even modern medicine and science cannot help her. He cannot accept Sefika's death and, pushing aside all worldly achievements, has poison brought from a pharmacy. When Sefika dies, he wanders into eternity by her side, by his own hand, for the sake of his love.

Halil Bey

Sefika's father, an elderly, tired gentleman who was once very wealthy but, due to his financial downfall, has gone bankrupt with 500 purses of debt to money changers and lives in fear of being imprisoned. He is aware of the turn of events; he senses his daughter's inclination toward Ata and feels profound moral shame in giving his young daughter away to a 38-year-old man as if selling her. However, his will is weak. He succumbs to the logical arguments presented by his wife, Tahire (the risk of a debtor going to prison), and consoles himself with passivity, leaving all active decisions within the family to her. He is the one responsible for the financial negligence that laid the foundation for the disaster.

Sefika Hanım

A 14-year-old girl portrayed as a tragic victim of innocence, youth, and pure love in Namık Kemal's dramaturgical universe. Although she grew up like a sister with her cousin/the family's foster child Ata, she develops deep, romantic feelings for him over time. Because her family is mired in massive debt, she agrees to marry a 38-year-old wealthy pasha as a result of her mother's pressure, solely to keep her father out of prison. To spare Ata from sadness, she hides the news of this marriage from him and suppresses her pain. This immense psychological collapse and sorrow quickly turns into consumption (tuberculosis), depleting her health in twenty-five days. At the end of the story, she fears dying without them being able to confess their love for one another, and ultimately dies in her loved one's arms, detached from her worldly troubles.

Tahire Hanım

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.