Vathek

Carathis is the mother of Vathek and a princess from Greece. She passed on her interest in the infernal to her son and encourages him in his attempts to enter the subterranean palace. The narrative introduces her as “a person of superior genius” engaged in Vathek’s pursuit of knowledge (8). As the tale progresses and infernal powers enter the narrative, Carathis takes on the role of a magical figure, inciting many of the work’s supernatural incidents.

Carathis’s unambiguous “depravity” makes her position as a Greek woman significant—a further example of Orientalism within the novella. Greece was considered an Eastern country to most 18th-century Western Europeans, and Romantic writers often used it as an “exotic” and “mystical” setting. Carathis embodies the stereotype of a “mystical” and “evil” Eastern woman.

Carathis is largely a static character, her morality remaining unchanged and unquestioned over the course of the narrative. Unlike Vathek and Nouronihar, she never feels remorse or regret. Instead, she delights in doing evil even without purpose, using her spare time to “obtain favour with the powers of darkness” by poisoning her friends (38). She remains intensely focused on her goals, keeping Vathek in line when he falters in pursuit of the treasures the Stranger promised. She travels through the most horrible landscapes without fear, as “Nothing appall[s] her dauntless soul” (118).

This single-minded focus leads to a lack of perspective. When Carathis finally arrives in the infernal palace, she cannot comprehend why Vathek and Nouronihar are so upset. Even when she is told that she will not be living in luxury but will instead be damned, Carathis refuses to renounce her actions. While Vathek and Nouronihar spend their last hours together reminiscing, Carathis pursues power until the end, even attempting to “dethrone one of the Solimans, for the purpose of usurping his place” (119). Carathis, powerful and devoted to dark forces, is the driving force of the narrative.

Nouronihar is the daughter of Fakreddin, the emir who hosts Vathek and his party in the mountains. Beautiful and mischievous, she first enters the narrative as a ringleader, convincing the other women in the harem to help her play a trick on Bababalouk. Though she loves her cousin Gulchenrouz, to whom she is engaged, she has a driving curiosity similar to Vathek’s. This leads her to similarly covet the wealth of the subterranean palace, and her desire for Vathek and status overcomes her love of her cousin and family. While she at times feels remorse for leaving Gulchenrouz, she remains with Vathek, becoming forever damned through her relentless pursuit of the wealth offered to her.

Nouronihar’s playfulness and femininity make her a natural match for her cousin, who is similarly childlike and beautiful. Later, though united partly by their mutually sinful desires, she and Vathek seem to hold genuine feeling for each other. As they await their torment, they lament that they will be separated:

‘What!’ exclaimed Nouronihar; ‘will the time come when I shall snatch my hand from thine!’—

‘Ah!’ said Vathek, ‘and shall my eyes ever cease to drink from thine long draughts of enjoyment! Shall the moments of our reciprocal ecstasies be reflected on with horror?’ (115).

Nouronihar’s motivations, while subject to narrative critique, stem from genuine emotion.

Nouronihar is described as “as sprightly as an antelope, and full of wanton gaiety” (57). The comparison of “Eastern” women to animals was common in Orientalist literature and emphasized their perceived “wildness”—in particular, the idea that they were more sexual and sensuous than their European counterparts. This depiction supports the novella’s portrayal of women as morally corrupt; men are drawn astray by the “impertinence of harems […] the inconstancy of women” (97). Nouronihar’s beauty is often presented as a problem or trap for the male characters—another example of the conflict between Appearance Versus Reality—with Bababalouk openly deriding it after she tricks him and Vathek being completely waylaid by his love of her. Unlike Carathis, who represents moral “depravity” in women, Nouronihar symbolizes dangerous sexual attraction and the particularly corrupting influence it was believed to exert. Nouronihar’s “crimes” amount to abandoning her family for Vathek, whereas Vathek himself murders 50 children, destroys towns, blasphemes against his religion, etc. However, by making this sexual choice—one motivated by curiosity, greed, and lust—Nouronihar is “damned” along with Vathek.