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Frankenstein
The picture of Saint George the Martyr in Elishva’s house reveals the old lady’s evolving relationship with the memory of her son, Daniel, who was killed in the Iran-Iraq War, and with her family as a whole. As the Christian saint is shown to calmly fight against an evil dragon, the image highlights, for Elishva, the importance of trusting in God and of combatting injustice. This takes different forms throughout the novel. For example, Elishva’s trust in the saint’s powers initially leads her to believe that the Whatsitsname is a version of her son, Daniel. She supports the Whatsitsname’s strategy of revenge, celebrating the death of Abu Zaidoun, the man responsible for sending her son to war.
Later, Elishva’s meeting with her grandson Daniel marks a radical shift in her life: instead of focusing on revenge and imaginary dialogues with the saint, she now puts her faith in positive human bonds. The saint, in this sense, might have fulfilled his promise—he brought her a version of “Daniel”—but he might have also become irrelevant: Elishva no longer needs him now that she is going to integrate a safe, loving environment. In this sense, Elishva’s relationship with the image of Saint George reflects the evolution of her relationship with other people: from isolation and loss, the old lady now turns to peace, openness, and the cultivation of love in the present.
The Picture of Saint George the Martyr Quotes in Frankenstein in Baghdad
The Frankenstein in Baghdad quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Picture of Saint George the Martyr. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 13
Quotes
She looked at the picture of the saint hanging in front of her, his lance raised and the dragon crouching beneath him. She wondered why he hadn’t killed the dragon years ago. Why was he stuck in that posture, ready to strike, she wondered. Everything remains half completed, exactly like now: she wasn’t exactly a living being, but not a dead one either.
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Chapter 16
Quotes
There were people who had returned from long journeys with new names and new identities […]. There were people who had survived many deaths in the time of the dictatorship only to find themselves face-to-face with a pointless death in the age of “democracy”—when, for example, a motorbike ran into them in the middle of the road. Believers lost their faith when those who had shared their beliefs and their struggles betrayed them and their principles. Nonbelievers had become believers when they saw the “merits” and benefits of faith. The strange things that had come to light in the past three years were too many to count. So that Daniel Tadros Moshe, the lanky guitarist, had come back to his old mother’s house wasn’t so hard to believe.
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The Picture of Saint George the Martyr Symbol Timeline in Frankenstein in Baghdad
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Picture of Saint George the Martyr appears in Frankenstein in Baghdad. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: The Madwoman
...to her house and seeing her cat, Nabu. She also plans to get angry at Saint George , who promised her good news the night before.
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In her home, Elishva sits on her sofa in front of a large picture of Saint George the Martyr, as she does every evening. The saint is shown in armor, on a...
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That night, Elishva is angry because she has spent many nights desperately pleading with Saint George to bring her a sign about Daniel. At night, she is able to have conversations...
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Chapter 5: The Body
...intently. She realizes that this body does not correspond to Daniel’s, but she has promised Saint George not to interrogate God’s will. She concludes that few people come back from war looking...
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...Tadros Moshe, Elishva’s son, whom he sees in a picture next to the image of the saint . Soon, he notices that the saint’s lips are moving, and he hears Saint George...
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...him to stay, but he promises to return. After her guest leaves, Elishva notices that Saint George ’s shield is particularly shiny. This lasts a brief moment, and then the picture returns...
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Chapter 7: Ouzo and Bloody Mary
...believes to be a murderer—and Elishva. When the man saw Elishva speak Syriac to the picture of Saint George —and it certainly sounded as though two voices were interacting—he was moved by the dialogue....
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Chapter 13: The Jewish Ruin
...Daniel, to spend some time in her house resting. Later, when she looks at the picture of Saint George , she feels annoyed that the saint has not yet succeeded in killing the dragon,...
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Chapter 16: Daniel
...those of the boy—her son Daniel—in the picture in her living room. She realized that Saint George the Martyr’s promise had finally come true. She noticed some neighbors looking in and wanted...
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...demands. As a celebration of this happy event, she brought Daniel in front of the picture of Saint George . However, the saint did not give any answer to the woman’s heartfelt words of...
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The night before moving out, Elishva talked to Saint George , who did not respond to her. She concluded that the saint had fulfilled his...
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