In Custody

by

Anita Desai

Safiya Character Analysis

Safiya is Nur’s first wife. A shrewd old woman with black teeth, she takes pride in having married Nur before Imtiaz—even if she resents Imtiaz for being more beautiful, writing poetry, and giving Nur a son. While Nur spends his time drinking with his friends and Imtiaz spends hers raising her son and writing poetry, Safiya appears to do the housework and the cooking. She admires Nur’s poetry and, unlike Imtiaz, encourages Deven to interview him. She even helps Deven rent a room from the brothel owner down the street. But at the end of the novel, when she mails Deven the bill, it becomes obvious that money was her real motive for helping him.

Safiya Quotes in In Custody

The In Custody quotes below are all either spoken by Safiya or refer to Safiya. 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:
Memory and the Passage of Time Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

Later Deven could not understand how it all come about—how he, the central character in the whole affair, the protagonist of it (if Murad were to be disregarded), the one on whom depended the entire matter of the interview, the recording and the memoirs, to which Siddiqui was no more than an accessory, having arrived on the scene accidentally and at a later stage, and in which he played a minor role—how he, in the course of that evening, had relinquished his own authority and surrendered it to Siddiqui who now emerged the stronger while he, Deven, had been brought to his knees, abject and babbling in his helplessness. How?

Related Characters: Deven Sharma, Murad , Nur , Safiya, Abid Siddiqui
Related Symbols: Tape Recorder
Page Number: 153-154
Explanation and Analysis:
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Safiya Quotes in In Custody

The In Custody quotes below are all either spoken by Safiya or refer to Safiya. 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:
Memory and the Passage of Time Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

Later Deven could not understand how it all come about—how he, the central character in the whole affair, the protagonist of it (if Murad were to be disregarded), the one on whom depended the entire matter of the interview, the recording and the memoirs, to which Siddiqui was no more than an accessory, having arrived on the scene accidentally and at a later stage, and in which he played a minor role—how he, in the course of that evening, had relinquished his own authority and surrendered it to Siddiqui who now emerged the stronger while he, Deven, had been brought to his knees, abject and babbling in his helplessness. How?

Related Characters: Deven Sharma, Murad , Nur , Safiya, Abid Siddiqui
Related Symbols: Tape Recorder
Page Number: 153-154
Explanation and Analysis: