Miss Rehana

Outer characterization

Miss Rehana is one of the main characters of the short story “Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies” by Salman Rushdie. Her outer characterization reveals that she is an extremely beautiful young Pakistani woman: “Miss Rehana’s eyes were large and black and shiny” (p. 282, l. 8). She is described by Muhammad Ali as a “strange, big-eyed, independent girl” (p. 282, l. 22).

The story further reveals that she is an orphan (p. 282, l. 30) and that she is not wealthy (p. 282, l. 30). Her parents arranged a marriage for her when she was nine years old (p. 286, l. 10) with a man much older than her, and she now needs the visa to go to Mustafa Dar, her fiancé, who lives in England. The story also shows that she works as an ayah for three children in Lahore (p. 286, ll. 26-28). 

Inner characterization

Besides being extremely beautiful, Miss Rehana i...