Mustafa Saeeds two primary faces: Orientalist and Occidentalist When Mustafa Saeed seduces European women, he takes

on his Othello role. He tries to present himself as the Orientalist version of himself. He takes advantage of his race by becoming the stereotypical Orientalist depiction of what he should be. The women are easily won over by this character, and Mustafa finds it to be almost too easy to seduce them. Throughout his tenure in Britain, Mustafa Saeed is an Orientalists projection of who he should be, rather than his own. When he is on trial, he persists to maintain this image. The lawyers describe him as an exotic foreigner who found his revenge by killing women. He hopes to take down the British through little victories, because of his inner anguish from the fact that they took him away from Mrs. Robinson. Incidentally, when the narrator views Mustafas secret room, it becomes apparent that Mustafa also possesses an Occidentalist perspective as well. All the furnishings and style of the room are so overwhelmingly British that it is overkill. Somewhere on the inside, Mustafa loathes the British culture, and seeks to take vengeance against through them through his seductive practices with British women. He inevitably kills the women or influences their deaths, and he seems to be largely remorseless. While in Britain he is would-be the subject of the Orientalists studies, but through his creation of his secret room he is the Occidentalist himself. He takes the British stereotype to the extreme with grand fireplaces, candelabra, books by British authors, and British poems. Mustafas multiple personalities come out at different times, and it is unclear if any of them actually shed light on his true character. When he is in Britain he pretends to be the Orientalists stereotype, and when he is in the village he pretends to be hiding his Occidentalist side, but really it is obvious he wants the narrator to see his inner Occidentalist. Mustafa holds a strong grudge against the Orientalists, and plays this through his actions while in Britain. This loathing of the Orientalists ways, and yet being such an Occidentalist is highly hypocritical. Mustafa does not approve of the flawed way in which outsiders look in on his culture, and yet he has an extremist way of looking in on the British culture. Mustafa Saeed may have exceptional intellect, but he does not learn very easily. Failing to see the irony in such a simple idea shows that he is really not cut out to have an Orientalist or Occidentalist perspective. He is a man caught between two cultures, lacking an adequate background in either. Thus, he chooses to span the bridge by pretending to be either, rather than embracing the unique cross-cultural perspective that is actually his.