Map of Love and Gender Relations - Essay Example

The Map of Love is a story of love written by a woman, as only a woman could tell it. Never lacking in emotion or intrigue, the book shows that history can repeat itself in strange ways. It is the story of two tales of love, about a century apart. Going back to 1901, we see that Anna Winterbourne has been recently widowed and is strangely attracted to an Egyptian nationalist by the name of Sharif Pasha Al-Bardi. At the time the Middle East was under British control. The ever-dutiful Anna had been relegated to a life at home while her husband was stationed in Sudan. When he develops a sickness and cannot be nursed back to health, she becomes despondent and melancholy. Despite her best efforts, she finds a chasm between them that she cannot reduce, and ends up blaming herself…” if she had loved him better, perhaps he would have not needed to go to Sudan. If she had understood him better, perhaps she could have nursed him back to health” (Souief, 2000, 41). The Victorian rules and attitude show that the woman’s place in the British household of 1900 was not far from that of a rudimentary society such as Egypt. No wonder she decides to travel to a new and distant country in search of adventure, and in the process is attracted to the young and robust nationalist. It is an escape from a life of emptiness and drudgery. This Victorian despondency is also seen in Charlotte Parker Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’- but each chooses to deal with it in an entirely different way.

Moving forward to the present, we see that Isabel too has fallen in love with Amal’s brother Omar but he is not reciprocating his thoughts or feelings. Aware of his Arabic traditions, he prefers to send Isabel to his sister Amal rather than help her with the translations himself. Another instance shown in the book is when a woman in Arab society wears the veil…” – and I was invisible. Still, it was a most liberating thing, this veil. While I was wearing it, I could look wherever I wanted, and nobody could look back at me” (Souief, 2000,195). All these instances highlight the fact that even after nearly 100 years, Arab society was pretty much the same regarding gender roles.