Jean Morris Character Analysis

Jean Morris is the first wife of Mustafa Sa’eed. He meets and marries her in London. She is violent, rebellious, and provocative, resisting all of Sa’eed’s attempts to control and subjugate her. She makes Sa’eed pursue her for three years before she agrees to marry him, and once she does marry him, she torments him by carrying on flirtations with other men, as well as mocking and belittling him. Of all the women whom Sa’eed has relationships with, she is the one who most challenges him. She destroys many of his valuable possessions, including expensive and exotic artifacts that he keeps in his London apartment. She seems to play a part in provoking her own murder by constantly taunting Sa’eed and telling him that he is incapable of carrying out such a violent act. Indeed, on the night on which Sa’eed does murder her, she seems to welcome the dagger that Sa’eed plunges into her chest as he makes love to her. It seems that Jean Morris exhibits a certain affinity and desire for death and destruction—both towards herself and towards others.