51 pages • 1 hour read
Elif ShafakThe Forty Rules of Love
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Love
Love is the most important theme in the novel and it appears in many forms, each bleeding into the next. The first and most fundamental love in the narrative is self-love and, in that way, self-acceptance; this is most clearly demonstrated through the way that Ella moves about the world. Downtrodden and unhappy in her daily life and in her marriage, Ella seems to be at the whims of her family and does not appear to do anything for herself. Because she does not appreciate herself and her uniqueness, and because she blames things like her husband’s string of affairs on herself, Ella is unable to appreciate those things that make her desirable until she explores the Sufi teachings she learns about in Sweet Blasphemy.
By making herself receptive to the type of love she encounters in the novel, Ella allow goes through a powerful transformation. She eventually learns to love herself, and in doing so, extends this love outside of herself. She in turn accepts her daughter’s engagement instead of viewing it as a failed attempt at love, she values herself more and ends her toxic marriage, and she falls in love with Aziz, the author of Sweet Blasphemy. Moreover, Ella upholds the teachings of self-love and universal love by loving Aziz despite knowing he will die soon from cancer. Ella takes what she learns and incorporates it into her life, highlighting that love is a connecting force that can also heal from the inside.
Love for others is also demonstrated again and again throughout the plot of Sweet Blasphemy. Shams repeatedly encourages Rumi to show love for those that others might disdain, such as prostitutes and lepers alike. Shams emphasizes the importance of paying attention to those who have been ostracized by religious people, asking him to consider their goodness and the way they move about the world with love rather than judgment. Because of this, Rumi is able to fully understand Shams’s teachings and thus become a humble leader and fully explore Islamic mysticism.
The Power of The Present Moment
Ella’s love for planning and thinking about what is next—dinner, her cooking club meeting, her kids’ future homework—is contrasted repeatedly with Aziz’s dedication to being present. Rather than being absorbed in trying to fight the inevitable, Aziz embraces each moment in time for what it is. Ella’s reliance on what’s next stems from her refusal to address present, pressing matters, including her toxic marriage. She goes through life by numbing herself to the present. After she begins to read Aziz’s book, however, Ella begins to learn the power of experiencing and embracing the present. This revelation allows Ella to value herself more and make the decision to leave her cheating husband for Aziz. Moreover, despite Aziz’s revelation that he will die from cancer, Ella embraces the present, a choice exemplified by the subtitle of Part 5: “The Things That Are Present Through Their Absence.” By embracing the power of the present moment, Ella chooses to enjoy life with Aziz while she can instead of mourning or harboring any lingering sadness about his death.
This theme is even more central to Rumi and Shams and their relationships; rather than planning out studies, Rumi and Shams are instead focused on the things that cross their mind and the intricacies of the day to day than they are the trajectory of the future. This frustrates Rumi’s family members and friends, who know him to be a dedicated scholar and thinker. Working with Shams challenges Rumi to engage with different people and new ideas in an immediate, impactful way. By engaging with life moment by moment, Rumi learns a love that transcends belief systems (his family and friends think Shams a heretic who practices black magic): a universal love.
The novel also mentions that Shams has seen his own death, a consequence of befriending Rumi. Despite his fate, Shams accepts the task of mentoring Rumi and lives in the present, unafraid of the future; Shams empowers Rumi by living too in the present.
Emotional and Physical Trauma
Trauma touches every character in the novel, and often operates as a foil to the theme of love. Ella remembers her father’s suicide, a violent, physical act that has engendered emotional trauma in her. Ella also suffers from emotional trauma in her marriage; her husband, David, repeatedly cheats on Ella, but Ella shrugs off the infidelity by addressing it indirectly. Instead of confronting David and seeking resolution, Ella channels her anger over David’s infidelity, the sadness of her toxic marriage, and the tragedy of her father’s death into dismissing her daughter’s engagement. Dismissing Jeanette’s attempt at love is ultimately an example of Ella dismissing the possibility of lasting love. Ella believes that love is fleeting, a conclusion that overwhelmingly exemplifies the trauma she’s dealing with. It isn’t until Ella ruminates on the concept of love that she learns from Rumi and Shams’s relationship that she embraces a love that can transcend trauma, a universal love.
While Aziz mourns the tragic death of his wife, he is able to heal from this emotional trauma when he falls in love with Ella. Ella strengthens his fortitude as well by remaining with him despite his terminal cancer prognosis. Ella follows in the footsteps of Rumi as well by honoring Aziz’s life even after he dies, symbolizing that love can overcome emotional and physical traumas (such as the emotionally devastating death of a loved one and the Aziz’s physically grueling death by cancer.)
The real-life characters in Aziz’s book, Sweet Blasphemy, also battle with emotional and physical trauma. Rumi misses his first wife and the mother of his children, while Desert Rose thinks about her brother’s brutal murder of her father and stepmother. Desert Rose is also a victim of sexual and physical abuse, as are other characters at the hand of the brutal and brutish Baybars. Kimya’s trauma might be the most tragic in the whole story; on the brink of what she believes is inevitable happiness with Shams as her husband, his rejection of her breaks her heart and ultimately ends in her death. Aladdin’s trauma over his father’s lack of love relates to never having the acceptance of his father and being relegated to second place, behind Sultan Walad.
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