He is an extremely spoiled, uneducated son raised by one of the former statesmen and pashas, who ironically believes himself to be highly educated (civilized). After his father's death, he inherited a large fortune and neglected both his reading and his clerk position at the government office, dedicating himself entirely to dressing stylishly, adopting European mannerisms, and showing off in luxury phaetons at excursion spots. One day, he mistakes Periveş Hanım—a blonde, gaudy woman of the lower class he sees in Çamlıca—for the innocent and noble lover from French novels. He becomes a tool in the games of Keşfi Bey, whom he quickly believes in this fantasy world he has created, and is convinced that Periveş has died, entering a period of fake mourning. Throughout the novel, we watch him deceive himself, use and trick his servants and mother just for show, and see his dreams crash down with a harsh reality at the end of the day. He is one of the most typical 'westernized dandy' (alafranga züppe) prototypes in Turkish literature.
Born into abundance in mansions as the child of a vizier father, he spent his childhood in the hands of makeshift tutors because his father toured provinces for fifteen years, and he never attended a proper middle school. When he came to Istanbul and started a position at a government office, he abandoned that too, mobilizing all his inheritance and effort in the hands of tailors, barbers, and French teachers in Beyoğlu to enter the status of 'chic and Westernized gentlemen'.
Reflects a stylish and snobbish young man who is pathologically obsessed with fashion. He wears tight Malta-colored trousers, flesh-colored pants, a navy blue frock coat, yellow gloves, shirts with tall stiff white collars, a cane with a tortoiseshell handle and a silver logo, polished boots with upturned toes, and a small fez tilted so far forward it covers most of his head. Generally, he wanders around wearing bright colors and flowers attached to his jacket.
Keşfi Bey
His lying pen friend whom he is completely deceived by, and whose lies he falls for—as if they were plot points in a novel—causing him to suffer.
Mösyö Piyer
The person who, despite his respect for him, exploits him financially and mentally.
Valide Hanım
His mother, from whom he nicks money and whose nagging he avoids by telling lies.
Mişel ve Andon
His base servants upon whom he vents his anger for the consequences of his own irresponsibility.
Periveş Hanım
The imaginary being he has declared a romantic heroine, whom he worships without knowing anything about, and the painful reality.