Response to Room No.12 - Essay Example

This portrays women as despised members of the society since the hotel manager automatically assumed that there is no way that a woman who looked as lovely as Bahiga al-Dahida could have acquired her wealth alone. Her identity card had not given any indication that she was either married or employed. It seems unfair that the hotel manager could not have assumed that the woman could have inherited the money that she was using. The woman in the story is a representation of generation difference.

In traditional Egyptian society, a woman was expected to be submissive and dis-empowered. Bahiga al-Dabida could also have been placed in the story to illustrate a change in social and gender roles. Egypt had experienced a change in attitudes of people towards traditional roles expected of different gender and social roles. When Bahiga arrives at the hotel, she is directed to her room by the bellhop who asks her to remove the bed covers and move the bed to the wall, and later tips the bellhop generously (Mahfouz 221).

The bellhop also mentioned to the hotel manager that he heard the lady talking to herself while he was passing by her room. This creates a lot of suspense in the story as the reader is compelled to find out whether the woman is talking to herself, or talking on the telephone, or she could also be talking to spirits or demons. The story gets compelling when the lady orders lunch. She orders so much food that the hotel manager thinks it is enough for six people. Though the manager does not openly express his shock, he feels surprised when the plates are licked clean after one hour when a hotelier goes to clear the table in her room(Mahfouz 222).

The hotel manager concludes that the woman is strange; from the way that she looked and acted. The manager tried not to think about the woman, but he later admitted that he could not avoid it. He found her fearful yet attractive. He also looked familiar but he could not remember