#nihal

(Wuthering Heights, Chapter 7)

“When Nihal stopped on the last stair, as if afraid to take another step, Behlül said, ‘oh, who is this? Who is this little, slender, elegant lady? I assure you, I do not recognise her…’”

(Aşk-ı Memnu, Chapter 5)

“Nihal’s rite of passage into her young girl’s outfit was performed in the manner of an opening ceremony. (…)

When Nihal stopped on the last stair, as if afraid to take another step, Behlül said, ‘oh, who is this? Who is this little, slender, elegant lady? I assure you, I do not recognise her…’”

(Chapter 5) (italics mine)

“Adnan Bey had lifted Nihal with the lightness of a child, and was carrying her up the stairs. As she ascended thus, in her father’s arms, Nihal drew in a deep breath, and opening her eyes, gave her father a long look. Then, having said all she wanted to say with this look, her eyes closed once again.”

(Chapter 22) (italics mine)

“It seemed as if one of them had aged, and the other grown more childish. They had a habit of talking little, but of sitting close together in the carriage, of walking with one leaning on the arm of the other, that gave them the appearance of two patients who found their cure in each other.

Not a single, solitary word had been exchanged on either Behlül or Bihter between father and daughter. They were avoiding that unfortunate memory, and seemed to have forgotten the past few years. At rare moments, in one or two words, they dreamt of the future.

Adnan Bey had written the old governess a long letter, and received a short reply: Mlle de Courton would come at the beginning of winter; Şakire Hanım and her husband, having married off Cemile, would leave the two lovebirds in peace in their nest, and spend the last years of their life at the yalı; Bülent would not board at the school. There would once again be long chases around the garden, there would be deserts prepared among the shiny pots of the little kitchen, following recipes discovered in books. Life would once again be an endless holiday for them, now that the father had returned to his daughter, and the daughter to her father.

Only Beşir was missing. ‘Oh, poor Beşir!’ Nihal would say, and then, not wishing to dwell of this awful memory, she would continue, ‘isn’t that so, papa? How we will laugh, you remember, the way we used to laugh…’

And trying to find one of the happy laughs of her happy days, she would throw her arms around her father’s neck with a dry, broken laugh that caught with a sob of agony, would pucker her lips, and kiss him right there, on the bare, beardless spot under his chin.”

(Chapter 22) (italics mine)

The staircase is the symbol of Nihal’s development. In her “rite of passage” Nihal hesitates on stepping on the last step of the staircase. At the end of the book her father carries her back to upstairs in his arms, returning her to her childhood.

(Aşk-ı Memnu, Chapter 7) (italics mine)

She wouldn’t let a disabled boy drown.

She could throw herself off the stairs to miscarry, I can see her doing that.