Literary Justification
Byeolah Henson
In The Egyptian, the author Mika Waltari introduces the story of Sinuhe, an Egypt
physician. Sinuhe, who is also the narrator of this novel, meets three special women;
Nefernefernefer, Minea, and Merit. He falls in love with all three women which all end up
laying a big impact to his life journey. Waltari often sets images of these ladies by using their
physical appearances. One of the features that he uses repeatedly to describe the woman is the
image of their eyes. These descriptions of their eyes not only develop a character, it also
reveals the narrator’s perspective towards these three characters. Hence, with significance in
these and I portrayed the eyes of the female characters.
Nefernefernfer, known to be the heartless cat woman, is Sinuhe’s first lady that he
falls for. He meets her for the first time during the time when he was studying at the Life
House and falls in love immediately. After a long period of time past, he sees her again at a
pleasure house and Sinuhe describes that “her eyebrows were black ended, and beneath her
eyes was painted a green shadow. But greener than all green were the eyes themselves, like
the Nile in the heat of summer, so that my heart was drowned in them” (pg.70-71). He
directly points out her green eyes that were “like the Nile in the heat of summer”, which
emphasizes the color of her eyes, but more importantly, this reveals the Nefernefernefer’s role
to Sinuhe’s life. To Sinuhe, the Nile River represents his unknown birth, and at the time when
he was falling for Nefernefernefer, he has been distressed over his solitude due to his
unknown birth. Along with that, Sinuhe falls over and over for Nefernefernefer’s evil trick
until he reaches his destitution. Thus, the comparison of “the Nile in the heat of summer”
with her eyes reveals fatal attraction that Sinuhe feels regardless of the past. With this
significant meaning, I chose to imply “the Nile” to Nefernefernefer’s eyes.
During one of their trip, Minea lies besides Sinuhe and warms his body. Sinuhe
expresses his emotion at the moment and says “[my] unwearying body restored to me and
Minea beside me, her eyes gleaming like moonlight on the river”. (pg.181) By this point,
Sinuhe had fallen in love with Minea and he illustrates her eyes with “moonlight on the river”.
Supported by this, I tried to portray the “moonlight on the river”. This detailed imagery of
Minea is significant because it conveys Minea an illusion. The same form of imagery is
revealed when Sinuhe hallucinate Minea during his voyage to Smyrna after her death.
Nevertheless, the “moonlight on the river” is very beautiful way to describe Minea but it sets
a gloomy tone and it symbolize something that one can never possess.
The last woman of Sinuhe’s life is the daughter of a tavern Merit. She approaches
Sinuhe with bitterness and cynical at first. When Sinuhe first sees her, he seeks the
uniqueness within her and says that “in her eyes could be seen both a smile and a sorrow.
They were warm, brown, living eyes, and it did one’s heart good to look into them.”( pg.254)
This reveals that Sinuhe sees himself within Merit. Unlike other characters, Sinuhe connects
himself to Merit. He offers a relationship knowing that she is lonely like he is at the time.
Furthermore, Merit ends up having Sinuhe’s baby. In order to portray this description, I
printed the theatre mask, which symbolizes comedy and tragedy, to describe Merit. The
“smile” and the “sorrow” Sinuhe sees through Merit’s eyes implies to Sinuhe whereas he is
happy could be happy in a moment but he feels a deep sadness inside of him.
Through Sihuhe’s life story, Waltari sets many detailed imagery of the characters.
However, the most repetitive imagery is the eyes of the female characters. Through these
imageries, Waltari develops the characters by revealing Sinuhe’s point of view. Thus, this
makes it easier for the readers to comprehend the tone and the situation that Sinuhe is in.