Narrative Technique in Elif Shafak’s The Forty Rules of Love

Abstract

The significance of the technique used Elif Shafak’s The Forty Rules of Love is that it narrates two distinct stories: One within the other. Despite its vast difference in time and place, they go in parallel sequence about two geographical and spiritual journeys separated by many centuries. The first one is about Ella Rubinstein, a married lady who lives in the recent time England; whereas the second story that of the wanderer dervish Shams of Tabriz with the reverend scholar, Jalaluddin Rumi of 13th-century Asia Minor. This research paper explores the narrative techniques employed by Shafak to weave these parallel stories into a cohesive and spiritually enriching tale. For the purpose of elaborating the narrative technique used in The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, the present study applies a qualitative research approach. The major source of the study is the textual analysis of the novel. The paper traces the use of a two-fold narrative, multiple narrators, and tropology that contribute to the novel’s thematic depth and attracts the readers’ interest. All these state-of-the-art methods are manipulated by Shafak to serve a certain thematic purpose: the rules of divine love prevail over all the religious norms against hatred and Phanatic interpretations of religion.