the Turk

The Turk is a Turkish merchant whose imprisonment in Paris and subsequent escape set in motion the ruin of the De Lacey family and the eventual arrival of his daughter Safie at their cottage. His story, as the monster overhears and later recounts it, forms a crucial part of the creature's education in human society, revealing patterns of injustice, ingratitude, and the power of prejudice that mirror the monster's own experience.

Identity and Background

The Turk is a wealthy merchant who had lived in Paris for many years. For reasons the monster could not learn, he became obnoxious to the French government and was seized and cast into prison on the very day his daughter Safie arrived from Constantinople to join him. He was tried and condemned to death, a sentence widely regarded in Paris as flagrantly unjust; it was judged that his religion and wealth, rather than any crime alleged against him, had been the true cause of his condemnation.

The Escape and the Promise

Felix De Lacey, who had accidentally been present at the trial, was filled with uncontrollable horror and indignation at the court's decision. He made a solemn vow to deliver the Turk and, after many fruitless attempts to gain admittance to the prison, found a strongly grated window in an unguarded part of the building that lighted the Turk's dungeon. Felix visited the grate at night and made known his intentions. The Turk, amazed and delighted, endeavored to kindle Felix's zeal by promises of reward and wealth, which Felix rejected with contempt. However, when Felix saw the lovely Safie, who was allowed to visit her father and who expressed her lively gratitude through gestures, he could not help acknowledging to himself that the captive possessed a treasure that would fully reward his toil and hazard. The Turk quickly perceived the impression his daughter had made on Felix's heart and endeavored to secure him more entirely in his interests by promising Safie's hand in marriage as soon as he should be conveyed to a place of safety. Felix was too delicate to accept this offer, yet he looked forward to the probability of the event as the consummation of his happiness. During the ensuing days, while preparations for the escape went forward, Felix's zeal was warmed by several letters from Safie, who found means to express her thoughts in the language of her lover with the aid of an old servant who understood French. She thanked him in the most ardent terms for his intended services toward her parent and gently deplored her own fate.

Betrayal and Its Consequences

The day for the Turk's execution was fixed, but on the night previous he quitted his prison and was many leagues from Paris before morning. Felix had procured passports in the name of his father, sister, and himself, and had previously communicated his plan to his father, who aided the deceit by quitting his house under the pretense of a journey and concealing himself with his daughter in an obscure part of Paris. Felix conducted the fugitives through France to Lyons and across Mont Cenis to Leghorn, where the merchant decided to wait for a favorable opportunity to pass into some part of the Turkish dominions. Safie resolved to remain with her father until his departure, and the Turk renewed his promise that she should be united to his deliverer. Felix remained with them in expectation of that event, enjoying the society of the Arabian, who exhibited toward him the simplest and tenderest affection. The Turk allowed this intimacy and encouraged the hopes of the youthful lovers, while in his heart he had formed far other plans. He loathed the idea that his daughter should be united to a Christian, but he feared Felix's resentment if he appeared lukewarm, knowing that he was still in the power of his deliverer, who could betray him to the Italian state they inhabited. He revolved a thousand plans to prolong the deceit until it might no longer be necessary and secretly to take his daughter with him when he departed. His plans were facilitated by news from Paris: the French government, greatly enraged at the escape of their victim, had discovered Felix's plot, and De Lacey and Agatha were thrown into prison. The news reached Felix and roused him from his dream of pleasure. He quickly arranged with the Turk that if the latter should find a favorable opportunity for escape before Felix could return to Italy, Safie should remain as a boarder at a convent at Leghorn. Then, quitting the lovely Arabian, Felix hastened to Paris and delivered himself up to the vengeance of the law, hoping to free his father and sister. He did not succeed. They remained confined for five months before the trial, the result of which deprived them of their fortune and condemned them to perpetual exile from their native country. They found a miserable asylum in the cottage in Germany where the monster discovered them. Felix soon learned that the treacherous Turk, for whom he and his family endured such unheard-of oppression, on discovering that his deliverer was thus reduced to poverty and ruin, became a traitor to good feeling and honor and quitted Italy with his daughter, insultingly sending Felix a pittance of money to aid him, as he said, in some plan of future maintenance. The ingratitude of the Turk and the loss of his beloved Safie were misfortunes more bitter and irreparable to Felix than the poverty he could have endured with glory.

Safie's Defiance and Journey

When the news reached Leghorn that Felix was deprived of his wealth and rank, the Turk commanded his daughter to think no more of her lover and to prepare to return to her native country. Safie's generous nature was outraged by this command; she attempted to expostulate with her father, but he left her angrily, reiterating his tyrannical mandate. A few days later, the Turk entered his daughter's apartment and told her hastily that he had reason to believe his residence at Leghorn had been divulged and that he should speedily be delivered up to the French government; he had consequently hired a vessel to convey him to Constantinople, for which city he should sail in a few hours. He intended to leave his daughter under the care of a confidential servant, to follow at her leisure with the greater part of his property, which had not yet arrived. When alone, Safie resolved on her own plan of conduct. A residence in Turkey was abhorrent to her; her religion and her feelings were alike averse to it. By some papers of her father that fell into her hands, she heard of the exile of her lover and learned the name of the spot where he then resided. Taking with her some jewels that belonged to her and a sum of money, she quitted Italy with an attendant, a native of Leghorn who understood the common language of Turkey, and departed for Germany. She arrived safely at a town about twenty leagues from the De Laceys' cottage, where her attendant fell dangerously ill. Safie nursed her with the most devoted affection, but the poor girl died, and the Arabian was left alone, unacquainted with the language of the country and utterly ignorant of its customs. She fell, however, into good hands; the Italian had mentioned the name of the spot for which they were bound, and after her death the woman of the house in which they had lived took care that Safie should arrive safely at the cottage of her lover.

Narrative Role and Significance

The Turk functions as a catalyst for the De Laceys' ruin and as a figure of Orientalist otherness within the novel. His wealth and religion are cited as the true causes of his condemnation, and his duplicity—promising his daughter to Felix while secretly planning to escape with her—exemplifies the treacherous behavior that the monster later sees as characteristic of human injustice. The Turk's betrayal directly causes the exile and poverty of the De Laceys, creating the very situation in which the monster observes human kindness and cruelty from his hovel. Moreover, the Turk's attempt to force Safie back to Turkey and the harem life she abhors highlights the contrast between Eastern and Western conceptions of women's freedom, a theme that resonates with Safie's own education by her Christian Arab mother and her desire to remain in a country where women could take a rank in society. The monster, who learns of these events through Felix's reading of Volney's Ruins of Empires and through the letters of Felix and Safie, weeps with Safie over the hapless fate of the original inhabitants of the American hemisphere and draws parallels between the Turk's ingratitude and his own rejection by humanity.