1

Chapter One

Introduction

Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen.

They cheer us on and are appeared by our triumphs. False friends only

appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, infact, our

suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.

- Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

Literature consists of written works, often limited to those deemed to have artistic

or intellectual value. In Latin root literature is a word derived from litera, which means

letter or handwriting. In the Roman concept of cultura it means learning or cultivation.

Literature is classified into three ways. They are fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose

and major forms such as the novel, short-story or drama.

In 18th Century the Western Europe literature as a term indicated all books and

writing. The definition for “literature” is a road that is much travelled, though the point of

arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory. During the Romantic Period the literature

began to separate “imaginative” literature. Definition used in the Oxford Advanced

Learner’s Dictionary (2010) it classifies literature as “the best expression of the best

thought reduced to writing”.

Prose is a form of language that possesses ordinary syntax and natural speech

rather than rhythmic structure; in which regard, along with its measurement in sentences

rather than lines, it differs from poetry. According to Richard Graff prose was the recent

scholarship has emphasized the fact that formal prose was a comparatively late

development, an invention properly associated with the classical period. Novel was a long

fictional narrative prose. Novel was one of the close relations to the Brazil life but it was
 2

different from the chivalric romance. Brazilian literature is written in the Portuguese

language by Brazilians. In 1822 Brazilians got an Independence from Portugal.

During the 20th Century Brazilian literature was gradually shifted to a different

and more Brazilian use of the Portuguese language. The period between 1895 and 1922 is

called Pre- Modernism by Brazilian scholars because, though there is no clear

predominance of any style, there are some early manifestations of Modernism. Some

authors of this time were Monteiro Lobato, Lima Barreto, Simoes Lopes Neto and

Augusto dos Anjos

Brazil was officially called as the Federatine Republic o Brazil in North America.

After, the Federal Republic Brazil is the fifth- largest country both in geographical area

and total population. Brazil is the largest speaking country in the world. Brazil was

bounded by the Atlantic Ocean in the east. The coastline of Brazil is 7,491 Km. It

occupies 47.3 percent of the continent of South.

In 1922 modernism began in Brazil with the week of Modern Art. Today Brazilian

literature continues to evolve, representing the diversity of the country in new and

exciting ways. Brazilian literature can be divided into two categories keeping in mind the

development of a Brazilian national identity and culture. Colonial and national comprised

of native Indians white European settlers and a large black population mostly brought to

Brazil as a slave. Neo-Classicism was widespread in Brazil during the mid 18th Century

following the Italian style. This style is characterized by linear forms and subdued

palettes or colors. This was in imitation of the Italian art of the time.

The Portuguese language therefore serves more than 250 million people daily,

who have direct or indirect legal, juridical and social contact with it, varying from the

only language used in any contact, to only education, contact with local or international
 3

administration, commerce and services or the simple sight of road signs, public

information and advertising in Portuguese. The Portuguese-speaking African countries

are expected to have a combined population of 83 million, and Brazil 350 million by

2050. In total, the Portuguese-speaking countries will have about 433 million people by

the same year. Portuguese is truly a globalized language spoken officially in 5 continents

and as a second language by millions worldwide.

In 1836, Romanticism began to enter the Brazilian literary arena. This era

encouraged society to consider the way in which they had been viewing themselves,

others and the world around them. They were encouraged to use their imagination to

interpret symbolism and differentiate between myth and fact. Literature was often

produced by members of temporary or semi-permanent academics and most of the

content was in the pastoral genre.

Some new movements such as surrealism were already important in Europe and

began to take hold in Brazil during this period. What defined Brazilian modernism were

two main traits, experimentalism in language and an enhanced social consciousness or a

mix between the two as was the case with Oswald de Andrade who was briefly attracted

towards the communist movement.

Post-Modernism is more difficult to define as it was based largely on evoking

mistrust of the narrator, paradox and fragmentation. This encouraged thinking for one’s

self and creating one’s own reality. During the colonial period (1500’s to 1800’s), the

literary community of Brazil explored epic poetry, religious text and a fair amount of the

satirical and secular genres. Well known authors of this time included Jean de Lery, Hans

Staden and Basilio da Gama.

 4

The decline of Romanticism, along with a series of social transformations,

occurred in the middle of the 19th century. The beginnings of Portuguese literature are to

be found in medieval Galician-Portuguese poetry, originally developed in Galicia and

northern Portugal. .

During the 20th Century Brazilian literature gradually shifted to different and more

Brazilian literary use of the Portuguese language. Contemporary Brazilian literature is on

the whole, very much focused on city life and its aspects: loneliness, violence, political

issues and media control. Contemporary Brazil’s best international authors such as

Adriana Lisboa, Beranrdo C.Arvalho, Cristovao Tezza, Joao Almino, Joao Gilberto Noll,

Milton Hatoum, Rubem Fonseca have written important books with these themes in the

1970’s, breaking new ground in Brazilian literature, dealt with rural life.

Brazilian author Adriana Lisboa was born in Rio de Janeriro. She has published

twelve books among which six novels, a book of poetry, a collection of flash Fiction and

works for children readers. She published the novels, The Threads of Memory Symphony

in White, Colombine’s Kiss and Crow Blue. Her work has been translated into nine

languages, including English, German, Spanish, French and Arabic, and published in

thirteen Countries.

Bernardo Carvalho was born in Rio de Janerio, in the early 1990’s he worked in

Paris and New York as a Foreign Correspondent for the Brazilian daily newspaper Folha

de Sao Paulo. His novel Mongolia, Novel Noites (Nine Nights). Cristovao Tezza was

born in Lages, Brazil in 1952. He has published several novels, and a creative

autobiography. One of the distinguishing features of his work is the presence of more

than one narrator, Tezza’s most successful work so far has been The Eternal Son, a novel

about a Father learning to deal with his son’s down syndrome.

 5

Joao Almino was Brazil’s author of the late 20th Century. He succeeds in capturing

the essence of these photographs, loneliness and longing through language and readers

will sympathize with the artist who never receives the love or respect he seeks and

deserves. His famous novel Five Season of Love courageously portrays the physical albeit

imaginary trope of Brasilia asa site of trans-formation, in every sense of the world.

Jao Gilberto Noll is a Brazilian writer, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio

Grande do Sul. When his work appeared in an anthology of new Brazilian writers

published in Germany in 1983. Two of his subsequent in and perhaps best-known works,

the novels Hotel Atlantica (1983). Another novel, entitled O Quiento Animal de Exquina

appeared in 1991. He now lives in porto Algera.

Milton Hatoum was Brazilian author. He worked as a journalist. He studied

comparative literature. His novel Relato de Um Corto Oriente, The tree of the Seventh

Heaven (1994). The clash of different cultural influence is one of Hatoum’s control

motifs. His books are usually set in his home city. Where he illustrates the traumatic

asynchronicity of globalization.

The author under study, Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janerio, the capital

Brazil on August 1947. He went to a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to

become a writer. His father was an Engineer. He was a logical reasonable man with a

very clear vision of the world. Paulo discovered that his true vocation is to become a

writer. Paulo’s parents had different plans for him. His parents gave him pressure to make

their plan a success but it leads to mental disaster. At the age 16, Coelho’s introversion

and opposition to following a traditional path led to his parents committing him to a mental

institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20.
 6

Paulo was always a non conformist and a seeker of the new. As per his parents’

wish, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One

year later he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, travelling through South America,

North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and Started using drugs in the 1960’s.

Paulo Coelho returns to Brazil’s he worked as a song writer, composing lyrics for

Elis Rita Lee and Brazilian icon Raul Seixas. With the help of Raul Led, Paulo

composed a magic and the content of some songs. In 1947, Coelho was arrested for

subversive activities by the ruling military government, who had taken power ten years

earlier and viewed his lyrics as left-wing and dangerous. Coelho also worked as an actor,

journalist, and theatre director before pursing his writing career.

In 1986, Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in

North Western Spain, a turning point in his life. On the path, Coelho had a Spiritual

awakening, which he described autobiographically The Pilgrimage .It dealt with his

experience and his discovery that the extraordinary occurs in the lives of ordinary people.

In 1987, he completed that pilgrimage and he learns to understand the nature of truth

through the simplicity of life.

Paulo would not surrender his dream. He found another publishing house, a bigger

one. He wrote Brida (1990).It is the story of a beautiful young Irish girl and her quest for

knowledge. The story is neatly woven around the ancient belief of which craft and

related to the present world in an interesting way. The following year, Coelho wrote The

Alchemist in 1988 and publishing it through a small Brazilian publishing house that made

an initial print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint.

The Alchemist became a Brazilian best seller. It has gone on to sell more than 65

million copies, becoming one of the best selling in history and has been translated into
 7

more than 70 languages, and also winning the 2009 Guinness World Record for being, the

most translating book by a living author.

Generally Paulo Coelho wrote one novel every two years. His next novel The

Greatest Gift was published in the year of (1992) is an autobiography. It is about a

modern day adventure in the searing heat of the Mojave and an exploration of fear and

self-analysis. Then he published his next book Maktub in the year 1994.

Paulo Coelho published the novel By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

(1994), is about how one can see the amazing in everyday. When two young lovers are

reunited they discover a new truth of what lies in their hearts. In 1997, Paulo Coelho

published the book The Manual of The Warrior of Light.It also speaks about the strategies

and inspiration to help one follow one’s own path in a trouble world.

In 1998, Coelho published the book Veronika Decides to Die the story deals with

twenty four year old Veronica seems to have everything youth and beauty, boy friends , a

loving family and a fulfilling job. But something is missing in her life. Paulo Coelho is

doing Brazilian letters in particular a great service – by putting Brazil on the map as a

center of relevant literature. Coelho indicates a completely pragmatic detractors also point

out the afore mentioned use of Portuguese and the fact that Coelho’s style doesnot

warrant serious literary attention.

His writing style is simple that is not a defect on his part, because he is seeking to

create fairy-tale world whose depth of the characters but from the message that it conveys

to readers.The Devil and Miss Priym (2000) is about the inhabitants of a small town who

are challenged by a mysterious stranger to choose between good and evil. His next book

Father Son’s and Grand Son was published in the year 2001. In 2003 he published his

next book Eleven Minutes.

 8

Eleven Minutes is the magical story of Maria, a young girl from a remote village

of Brazil, whose first encounters with love leave her heart broken, goes to seek her

fortune in Switzerland. She works for a time in a nightclub but soon becomes dissatisfied

and after a heated discussion with her manager one night, she quits her job. She tries to

become a model but is unsuccessful. Because she is running out of money, she accepts

1000 francs from an Arab man to spend the night with him. She then decides to become a

prostitute and ends up in a brothel on Rue de Berne, the heart of Geneva's red-light

district.

There she met Nyah and became friend who gives her advice on her "new

profession" and after learning the tricks of the trade from Milan, the brothel owner, she

enters the job with her body and mind shutting all doors for love and keeps her heart open

only for her diary. Quickly she becomes quite successful and famous and her colleagues

begin to envy her. Months pass and Maria grows into a professionally groomed prostitute

who not only relaxes her clients' mind, but also calms their soul by talking to them about

their problems.

Her world turns upside down when she meets Ralf, a young Swiss painter, who

sees her "inner light". Maria falls in love with him immediately and begins to experience

what true love is. Maria is now split between her sexual fantasies and true love for Ralf.

Eventually she decides that it is time for her to leave Geneva with her memory of Ralf,

because she realizes that they are worlds apart. But before leaving, she decides to rekindle

the dead sexual fire in Ralf and learns from him about the nature of sacred sex, sex which

is mingled with true love and which involves the giving up of one's soul for the loved

one. This book explores the sacred nature of sex.

 9

Eleven minutes describes the duration of sex. Also, it depicts two types of

prostitution: prostitution for money and sacred prostitution. There are also direct

references to sadomasochism. The story describes about Maria's journey to find what true

love is by letting her own life guide her. She enters a life that leads her down the path of

sexual awakening and almost leads to her self-destruction when she is introduced to all

sides of sexual experience. When she has given up hope to find true love, she finds her

true "inner light" and her everlasting true love.

In the year of 2004 he published three books namely And on the Seventh Day, The

Genie and The Roses and Journeys.He published his next book The Zahir in 2005. In

2006 he published collection tales at Like the Flowering River. In 2008 he published the

book Winner Stands Alone. In total Coelho has published twenty nine books. Two of

them The Pilgrimage and The Valkyries are autobiographical. While the Majority,

although are rooted in his life experience. Currently Coelho published short stories for

“Ode Magazine”.

The project was divided into five chapters. The first chapter “Introduction”

presents a survey of Brazilian literature up to the present day and points to significant

position occupied by Paulo Coelho in Brazil literature. The purpose of the study and the

chapter divisions and further stated in this part of the thesis. The Second chapter deals

with ‘Desire and Sex’. Here the author explains about Maria the protagonist desire and

explains about her other prostitutes who work with her. She thinks about her mother and

her friends. They all believe that man feels desire for only eleven minutes a day, and that

they’ll pay a fortune for it. That’s not true; a man is also a woman; he wants to find

someone, to give meaning to his life.

 10

The theme of the Third chapter deals with “Feminism in Relation to Identity”.

Here the author explains about Feminists want the elimination of an ideology states that

women’s sexuality is for men. Feminists are not liberal when looking at discussions

around rape. Feminists see rape as an “act of terrorism and torture.

The theme of the Fourth chapter deals with “Devil and Angel”. Here the author

explains about Ralf and Milan are two very different characters in this novel they

represent two different stages in Maria’s life. Depending on the way they approach it

could find to say that Ralf is an Angel or a Helper and that Milan is a Devil or a Pimp.

The last chapter “Summation” is summing up all the chapters and reiterates the

findings. It will further recap how an attempt has been made by Paulo Coelho to

experience victimhood through her fiction. The methodology used in this dissertation is in

accordance with the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Seventh Edition).
 11

Chapter Two

Desire and Sex

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And

that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams because every second

of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity”.

- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Desire means to want emotionally or sexually. A person desires about something

or someone else, for their sense of longing is exited by the enjoyment or the persons to

take actions to gain their goal. Desires are classified as emotions by lay persons but, the

desires are different from emotions. The definition of desire is a strong feeling of wanting

to have something or wishing for same thing to happen.

In philosophy desires are considered as the philosophical problems of antiquity.

The Republic was written by Plato. It deals with individual desires must be postponed in

the name of the higher deal. De Anima was written by Aristotle. It describes desire is

implicated in animal interactions and the Proponsity of animals to motion, at the same

time, he acknowledges that reasoning also interacts with desire.

In Hinduism, the Rig Veda’s creation myth Nasadiya Sukta states regarding the

one spirit. In the beginning there was desire that was first seed of mind. Poets found the

bond of being in non- being in their heart’s thought. According to the early Buddhist

scriptures, the Buddha stated that monks should “generate desire” for the sake of fostering

skillful qualities and abandoning unskillful ones. According to the Bible Isaiah chapter 26

verses 8
 12

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of

your laws,

we wait for you;

your name and renown

are the desire of our hearts. ( Holy Bible)

The desire means we can never give up longing and wishing while the person is

still alive. There are certain things. We feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger

for them. According to Wolf, “there is a duality in every woman” (Wolf 3). While her

personal desires, make her culturally “slutty”, an adherence to the cultural decency proves

her the “good girl” (Wolf 24)

Paulo Coelho, for the first time ever, breaks the binaries of ‘maleness’ and

‘femaleness’ to explore the unchartered terrain of humanity in desire or desire in

humanity. In the novel, he tries to mould a new feminine identity, conjoining the female

subjectivity, which encompasses love as well as lust. “My dear, it’s better to be unhappy

with a rich man than happy with a poor man, and over there you’ll have far more chance

of becoming an unhappy rich woman. Besides, if it doesn’t work out, you can just get on

the bus and came home”. (Coelho 32)

Maria’s simple mother’s advice to her young, professionally inclined daughter

was unknown to the dangers which the lure of professional success and money had for

such uninitiated girls. At the outset of her professional journey, she begins, by

“accidentally” being laid by an Arab man, who pays her one thousand francs for one

night.

She went to the Arab’s hotel, drank champagne, got herself almost

completely drunk, opened her legs, waited for him to have an orgasm (it
 13

didn’t even occur to her to pretend to have one too), washed herself in the

marble bathroom, picked up the money, and allowed herself the luxury of

a taxi home…she fell into bed and slept dreamlessly all night. (Coelho57).

Maria has a desire for her life, “She dreamed of meeting the Man of her Life

( rich, handsome, intelligent), of getting married ( in a Wedding dress), having two

children ( who would grow up to be famous) and living in a lovely house (With a sea-

view)” (Coelho1).“Women’s desire is a resilient force” and that “Women’s pre-

occupation with their own desire manages to surmount cultural taboos, life circumstances,

and even their own inner censor” (Wolf 169). Maria well knew, that “Desire is not what

you see, but what you imagine”. (Coelho162).

Maria has written some desires about her life in the diary, “Each day I choose, the

truth by which I try to live. I try to be practical, efficient, professional. But I would like to

be able always to choose desire as my companion. Not out of obligation, not to lessen my

loneliness, but because, it is good. Yes, very good” (Coelho 167).Noam Wolf says ”Dr.

William Acton, a Victorian physician, who became the touchstone of modern sexuality,

to show such neglect of womanly desire… and her subjectivity. A feeling which pre-

suppers the presence of longing or desire due to the acknowledgement of the other

person’s difference… a feeling where mutual communion gains over the victory and

defect”. (Wolf 156)

“Profound desire, true desire is the desire to be close to someone. From that point

onwards, things change, the man and the woman come into play, but what happens before

– the attraction that brought them together – is impossible to explain. It is untouched

desire in its purest state” (Coelho135).

 14

Hart tells Maria about the ritual of sacred prostitution, the

importance of pain in the garb of self denial in human lives,

Pornai, Peripatetica, hetaeras and cultural of feminine desire, ( for

the first time ever) transported her into a mature realm of satisfying

relationship. Ralf made her understand that the search for

happiness is more important than the need for pain ( Coelho211).

Desire in reciprocity is exactly what Maria feels for the first time with Ralf

Hart, when she scribbles in her diary: “When desire is still in this pure state, the

man and woman fall in love with life, they live each moment reverently,

consciously always ready to celebrate the next blessing”. (Coelho135). Maria told

it is not enough to have great love in your life, you must make sure that everyone

know; what a desirable person you are. Profound desire, true desire is the desire to

be close to someone. From that point onwards, things change, the man and the

woman come into play, but what happens before the attraction that brought them

together is impossible to explain. It is untouched desire in its purest state.

When desire is still in this pure state, the man and woman fall in love with

life, they will each moment reverently, consciously, always ready to read the next

blessing. Ralf Hart explained desire is not what you see, but what you imagine.

Every human being experience his or her own desire; it is a part of our personal

treasure and, although, as an emotion, it can drive people away, generally

speaking, it brings those who are important to us closer. It is an emotion chosen

by my soul and it is so intense that it can affect everything and everyone around

me.
 15

Maria’s relationship with Terence was doubly political, in that the latter

also looked for a momentary self elevation, by affording the other, please through,

a cruel and indicating acceptance of the latter’s desire, as well as an attempt to be

fascinated by his objectivity. Ralf Hart says: “Do you know why I am doing this?

Because there is no greater pleasure than that of initiating someone into an

unknown world. Taking someone’s virginity- the virginity not of their body, but

of their soul, you understand”. (Coelho149)

Maria’s strong wishes to forgot the romantic relationships in her teenage

years and her disappointment on the failures of efforts such as her adoption of

prostitution in the absence of ‘true love’ and her visits to the Geneva library to

look for books on sex, signaling her deep interest in meaningless physical

relations. Wolf states in her memoir, “The hormonal changes they talked about

were related to menstruation, not to female desire, I never got the feeling that it

was condoned or ever acknowledged that girls would want to explore their

sexuality the same way boys did”. (Wolf 220).

In general, a modest woman seldom desires any sexual gratification for

herself. She submits to her husband’s embraces, but principally to gratify him.

The married woman has no desire to be placed on the footing of a mistress.

Maria’s subjectivity desired the stable paradox of a fused ethic of desire and

difference. Simone De Beauvoir says, “Eroticism is a movement towards the

other, this is its essential character; but in the deep intimacy of the couple,

husband and wife, become for one another the ‘same’; no exchange is any longer

possible between them”. (Beauvoir 446).

 16

The element of desire is found in the entire novel. The desire takes shape

during Maria’s childhood, when she dreams of finding the right. Maria wants to

have fame and fortune for herself and to her family. When she grows up, she

learns that her desire towards sex is getting deeper especially when she met

Terence who introduced to her a sexual ritual called sadomasochism. But she also

has a desire to find true love and a man who will accept and love her despite of

everything,

Maria didn’t want to think about these things, but Maria didn’t

want to think about these things, mainly because she could already

feel the juices flowing and her vagina getting wet – just

remembering his touch, the blindfolds, his hands moving over her

body. No, she wasn’t dead to sex; that man had managed to rescue

her. It was good to be alive. (Coelho 222)

Maria fell as wet as she had with Terence’s whip between her legs, when

Hart touched her naked breasts, only to ignite an insatiable desire, that never

intended to finish her off. A common feature of the genre is sexual fantasies on

such themes as prostitution, orgies, homosexuality, sadomasochism, and many

other taboo subjects and fetishes, which may or may not be expressed in explicit

language. Many erotic poems have survived from Ancient Greece and Rome, the

authors including the Greeks straton of Sardis, Sappho of Lesbos (lyrics) and the

Romans Automedon, Philodemus, Marcus Argentarius and Ovid.

Maria is a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent

burshes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced

that she will never find true love, instead believing that “Love is a terrible thing
 17

that will make you suffer” (Coelho 144). She gets a chance to visit Rio takes her

to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Instead, she ends up

working as a prostitute.

In Geneva, Maria drifts further and further away from love as she develops

a fascination with sex. Eventually, Maria’s despairing view of love is put to the

test when she meets a handsome young painter. In Odyssey of self- discovery,

Maria has to choose between pursing a path of darkness, sexual pleasure for its

own sake or risking everything to find her own “inner light” and the possibility of

sacred sex, sex in the context of love.

In this gripping and daring new novel, Paulo Coelho sensitively explores

the sacred nature of sex and love and invites us to confront our own. Prejudices

and demons and embrace our own “Inner light”. As for Maria, long after she had

initiated herself into prostitution. She had come to understand that, “Sex has come

to be used as some kind of drug: in order to escape reality, to forget about

problems, to relax. And like all drugs, this is a harmful and destructive practice”

(Coelho 175)

In sex, Maria, too becomes a radical way of reclaiming her lost

identity. In experience the mystery and delight. Maria attempts to

cross the frontiers because, unlike her emotionally hurt past, where

she had offered ‘unwanted gifts to men, here, she was offering

herself up as a sacrifice this feeling within her soul, introduced her

to the latent women in own self, who wants to have all the joy,

passion and adventure. (Coelho153)

 18

Beauvoir felt, these ‘unnatural drives, brought back in her, a sense of

identity, as they served to “reawaken sensitivity blunted the very violence of sex

excitement and pleasure. In any case, one involved in desire automatically meant

entering a conscious awareness of having ‘sex’ and being able to talk about it”.

(Beauvoir 399)

“Maria always tried to put men at their ease, and if someone seemed

drunker or more fragile than usual, she would avoid full sex and concentrate

instead on caresses and masturbation, which always seemed to pleases me them

immensely, absurd though this might seem, since they could perfectly well

masturbate on their own”.(Coelho 87)

Maria knew “ Having sex is about Eleven Minutes but her own innate

subjectivity never revolved around something that only took eleven minutes”

(Coelho 86).Hart told he can’t buy her love, but she did tell him that she knew

everything about sex. He asked her to teach him or teach him something about

Brazil. Teach her anything just as long as he can be with her.

Maria replied that she only know two places in my own country. The town

where was born in and Rio de Janerio. As for sex, she doesn’t think she can teach

you anything. She is nearly twenty three, he is about six years older, but she

knows you’ve lived life very intensely. She knows men who pay me to do what

they want, not what she wants.

“I’ve done everything a man could dream of doing with one, two, three,

women at the same time. And I don’t think I learned very much. Do you want me

as a professional?” I want you; however, you want to be wanted”. (Coelho128).

 19

Ralf Hart felt intensely about sex, because for Coelho’s hero, sex was beyond the

body. As Maria writes:

If you live your life intensely, you experience pleasure all the time

and don’t feel the need for sex, its out of a sense of abundance,

because the glass if wine is so full that it overflows naturally,

because it is inevitable, because you’re responding to the call of

life, because at that moment, you have allowed yourself to lose

control. (Coelho 176)

Women can gloriously accept her sexuality because she transcends it;

excitement, pleasure, desire are no longer a state, but a benefaction; her body is no

longer an object; it is a hymn, a flame. It is not that mystical love always has a

sexual character, but that sexuality of the woman in love is tinged with mysticism.

He discovered that he was terribly disappointed about love and sex and she

started teaching him what she learned in her years as a prostitute. Maria and Ralf

learned new things by mixing love and sex and they discovered that they were

perfect for each other. Through the sex industry, Maria uncovers the core truths of

the human condition. In the process, she saves her "soul"; she also saves a useful

bank balance.

The novel is a phenomenal investigation of the nature of sex as act,

including not only prostitution, but sex in marriages where the sex is somehow

less than love, and the nature of human personal relationships in general

disappointing and enslaving. Maria might hold that view given that she
 20

experienced the radical difference between sex in love and sex as work, two

extraordinarily different ways of relating to sex.

American socialist and feminist Kathleen Barry gives a very moving account of

how she sees prostitution. Sexual exploitation objectifies women by reducing them to sex;

sex that incites violence against women and that reduces women to commodities for

market exchange. Sexual exploitation is the foundation of women’s oppression socially

normalized. At the end, the story boils down to a rather predictable romance started up

with a few sexy trappings.

Paulo Coelho even talking about such a topic in such great detail can kindle

curiosity in the reader’s minds to explore their own sexual and hence their spiritual

awakenings.
 21

Chapter Three

Feminism in Relation to Identity

“If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and

I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make

it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him”.

-Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra Sat Down and Wept

The term ‘feminism’ has its origin from the Latin word ‘femina’ meaning

‘woman’ and thereby refers to the support of women’s rights, status and power with men

on the grounds of ‘equality of sexes’. In other words, it relates to the belief that women

should have the same social, economic and political rights as men. The term became

popular from the early twentieth century struggles for securing women’s suffrage or

voting right in the western countries and the later well- organized socio- political

movement for women’s emancipation from patriarchal oppression. Feminism throws a

challenge on the age- long tradition of gender differentiation. It also deals with new social

and economic realism affecting the convention – ridden gender rules.

The term eco-feminism was first coined by Rosemary Ruther in 1975. It is a social

movement that the oppression of women and nature as inter connected. It is one of the

few movements analyzing the theories that actually connect two movements. More

recently, eco-feminist theories have extended their analysis to consider the inter

connections between sexism, the domination of nature (including animals) and also

racism and social inequalities. Consequently, it is now better understood as a movement

working against the interconnected oppressions of gender, race, class and nature.
 22

According to Ross C. Murfin has noted, the “evolution of feminism into

feminisms has fostered a more inclusive, global perspective” (Ross,Deconstruction and

Hamlet). Early twentieth- century authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter

Mary Shelley, George Eliot, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Virginia Woolf, feminist

literary criticism developed mostly since the beginning of the late twentieth- century

women’s movement.

Some feminist have a very rational argument when it comes to prostitution which

answers the questions the question of which side Paulo Coelho is coming from when we

read this book. They voice the opinion that legalized prostitution is the suggestion this is a

good way to curb criminal rape. If men are provided with readily accessible and

reasonably priced prostitutes, they will not be tempted to rape other women.

Feminist want the “elimination of an ideology” that states “Women’s sexuality is

for men”. Feminist are not liberal when looking at discussions around rape. Feminist see

rape as an “act of terrorism and torture”. According to feminists, there is no legislation to

conceal rape as anything else than what it is. Feminist occurs that prostitution is rape due

to the fact that when it comes to sex, through “male violence, women are essentially un

free” (Flanagan, Feminist Movements). According to Kathleen Barry “the ideology of

consent has been used to obscure the real effects of women’s multi- layered oppression on

their ability to exercise individual free wild” (Barry, The Prostitution of Sexuality).

Paulo Coelho for the first time ever, breaks the binaries of ‘maleness’ and

‘femaleness’ to explore the unchartered terrain of humanity in desire or desire in

humanity. In the novel, he tries to mould a new feminine identity to his novel Eleven

Minutes.
 23

According to Jessica Valentine, “Feminism isn’t simply about being a woman in a

position of power. It’s battling systematic inequities; it’s a social justice movement that

believes sexism, racism and classism exist and interconnect and that they should be

consistently challenged” (Valentine A Young Women’s Guide to Why Feminism

Matters)

Paulo Coelho’s Maria is an example of feministic novel. This novel revolves

around the life of a woman. Her name was Maria. She lives in an unsophisticated town in

Brazil. And her dreams find a true love. In her childhood onwards she fell in love but she

loved that boy only in silence. At her teen-age, again she falls in love but at the end that

also she finds herself as broken hearted. That time she gets a chance to meet in Rio takes

her to Geneva. There also she does not find her true love. Finally, she will change into a

prostitute. There Maria searched her feminism in relation to identity. “My dear, it’s better

to be unhappy with a rich man than happy with a poor man, and over there you’ll have for

more chance of becoming an unhappy rich women. Besides, if it doesn’t work out, you

can just get on the bus and come home”. (Coelho 32)

Maria’s Mother’s advice to her young, professionally inclined daughter, unknown

to the dangers which the lure of professional success and money had for such uninitiated

girls. Her mother advices her daughter if any problems occurred there you can just get on

the bus and come home. “Love isn’t that important. I didn’t love your father at first, but

money buys everything, even true love. And look at your father he’s not even

rich!”(Coelho 33).

Her mother tells an advice to her daughter about love. She tells love an un

important task. Because when she first met her father that time she didn’t love at first, but

money buys everything. Money buys true love also. Maria thinks it is a bad advice from a
 24

friend, but good advice from a mother. Within a day she gets her passport and she goes to

Geneva to find the true love. There she finds a young Brazilian woman. Her name was

Vivian. She asks to Maria are you probably looking for one of three things- adventure,

money or a husband. Roger tells to Maria that he will make her a Samba Star. Convinced

with his offer of fame and fortune, she goes along with him only to find out that she

should work as a dancer in a club in the night time. She learns French in a morning

French Class.

After three months of keeping a tight rein on herself at work, her Brazilian

blood – as a sensual as everyone thinks – made its voice heard; she fell in

love with an Arab who was studying French with her on the same course.

The affair lasted three weeks until, one night, she decided to take time off

and go and visit a mountain on the outskirts of Geneva; this provoked a

summons to Roger’s office as soon as she arrived at work the following

day. (Coelho 46)

After three months later Maria thinks she will find out a true love. Her Brazilian

blood thinks like that. She falls in love with an Arab man. He studies French with her on

the same course. Roger fires her upon knowing that she spends few days in a trip with her

lover but receives five thousand dollars upon insisting her legal rights to Roger. However,

the Arab man returns after that incident. She finds a small apartment and applied in

various modeling agencies. One day, an Arab man offers her once thousand francs for one

night.

Maria has a habit of writing diary daily. In “In that she writes, used to think girls

who went to bed with men for money as people who had no other choice, and now I see

that it isn’t like that. I could have said ‘yes’ or ‘no’; no one was forcing me to accept
 25

anything”. (Coelho 57).She thinks girls went to bed with men only for money. Because

she does not had any other choices to escaped from that men. But , now she thinks it was

not like that if she had a choice if she have said yes or no. No one forces her to accept

anything. So, there she finds both men and women had the same rights to each other.

Women should have the same rights and opportunities as men.

“Most of the prostitutes had some kind of religious faith, and attended their

respective churches and masses, said their prayers and had their encounters with God”.

(Coelho 82).Maria thinks herself most of the prostitutes have belief in God and also they

will attend the mass. No human being is ready to do prostitution, if they do not came and

done this type of prostitute not for their wish but it was done by their fate only. Because,

Maria comes there in search of her true love. Her only goal is fall in love, marry and raise

a family. But she becomes a prostitute.

“Maria wasn’t there to save humanity, but to increase her bank balance, survive

another six month of solitude and another six months of the choice she had made, send a

regular monthly sum of money to her mother and to buy all the things she had always

dreamed of and never had”. (Coelho 89). Maria adapts for the rituals of prostitution, but

still struggles to maintain her soul in a job in which she gives away her body several

times each night. Throughout her career she was able experiences a vast variety of men

having different personalities and different stories as to why they sleep with prostitutes or

different women other than their wives. Then she develops a fascinated for sex. The

money she earns is secured in the bank for her to put up a farm for her parents, who

believe that she is having a wonderful and comfortable life as a Samba Star in Geneva.

“Maria decided to forget all about writing the book entitled Eleven Minutes. Now

she needed to concentrate on the farm, on her future plans, otherwise, she would end up
 26

postponing her trip, a fatal risk” (Coelho 94). “I had a happy childhood, I studied at one

of the best schools in Berne, then I came to work in Geneva, where I met and married”.

(Coelho 95)

Maria forgets to write book but now she searches for her identity and also she

thinks and concentrates about her farm, on her future plans and also she thinks about her

childhood days, about her schooldays and also she thinks about her job in Geneva and

about her married life. One day Maria meets a man. His name is Ralf Hart. He is a

famous painter in Geneva. He is a widower. He tells to Maria the light that comes from

sheer willpower, the light of someone who has made important sacrifices in the name of

things she thinks are important. It’s in your eyes – the light is in your eyes. Maria likes

Ralf Hart. She thinks he is an interesting men on the face of the Earth.

In just the same way, while you were gazing out at the street and thinking

– because I know you were – about the road to Santiago, I painted your

childhood, your adolescence, your lost, broken dreams, your dreams for

the future, and your will – which is what most intrigues me. When you saw

your portrait. . . ’ ‘. . . I saw that light . . . even though all that was a

woman who looked like you. (Coelho 108)

Ralf tells to Maria he knows she stands for the road to Santiago. So, he paints her

childhood, her adolescence, her lost, her broken dreams, her dreams for the future. And

also he tells he see an ‘inner light’ through her face. He introduces himself. Already he

has married twice. He is born in Geneva, but now he lives in Madrid, Amsterdam, New

York, and in a city in the south of France, called Tarbes. He becomes an artist when he

was twenty years old. He has earned a lot of money. He is young and also he is very
 27

healthy, he could do anything. He despites everything, fame, money, women, travel, he

was unhappy, and has only one joy in his life that is his work.

Maria asks to Ralf Hart are you hurt by women. Because Maria reads one book,

the title of that book is Everything Women Should Know If They Want to Get Their Man.

Ralf Hart tells he was never hurt by anybody. He is very happy in both of his marriages.

He is unfaithful they are just like any other normal couple. But he is simply lost interest in

sex. He falls in love. And also told to his life he was very interesting because he was an

artist.

From Maria’s daily diary: I would like to believe that I’m in love. With

someone I don’t know and who didn’t figure in my plans at all. All these

months of self – control, of denying love, have had exactly the opposite

result: I have let myself be swept away by the first person to treat me a

little differently.

It’s just as well I don’t have his phone number, that I don’t know where he

lives; that way I can lose him without having a blame myself for another

missed opportunity. (Coelho115)

Maria falls in love with Ralf Hart. But she is afraid to express her love to him.

Because he is already married twice. And also he is not interested in sex. She does not

know any details about him. So she blames herself and she thinks she will miss another

opportunity. Then she arrive Copacabana that night, there Ralf Hart is waiting for her. He

is the only customer. Milan introduces to Ralf Hart.

Maria thinks herself he is a man. He is an artist. He should know that the great

aim of every human being is to understand the meaning of total love. Love is not to be
 28

found by anybody. It was found by someone else. Maria finds out her identity she writes

everything in her daily diary. She meets a man and she has fallen in love with him. She

allows herself to fall in love for one simple reason. But she is not expecting anything to

come. But she stays here for three months. After three months later she goes to Brazil. He

will just a memory for her. She couldn’t stand living without love any longer.

Everyone knows how to love, because we are all born with that gift. Some of them

have a natural talent for it, but majority of us have to re-learn, to remember how to love,

with everyone, without any expectations. And also she thinks her body learns to speak the

language of the soul, known as sex. She wants him to be very happy.

One day, a married man. Terence, who is suffering from depression faced with

infidelity from his wife. Her boss tells Maria that Terence is a “Special Client”, who pays

one thousand francs for a night. Terence wants her to indulge herself into a ritual called

Sadomasochism – a sexual ritual of pain and pleasure.

Ralf Hart shows her a photocopy of some ancient lyrics, with a translation in

German at the foot of the page. He reads slowly, translating each line as he went:

When I am sitting at the door of a tavern,

I, Ishtav, the goddess

Am prostitute, mother, wife, divinity

I am what people call life,

Although you call it death.

I am what people call Law,

Although you call it Delinquency,

 29

I am what you seek

And what you find.

I am what you scattered

And the pieces you now gather up. (Coelho 206)

Maria is sobbing softly, and Ralf Hart laughs; his vital energy is returning, his

‘light’ is beginning to shine again. It is best to continue the history, to show her the

drawings, to make her feel loved. Nowadays, men control the world, and the term serves

only to create a stigma, and any woman who a step out of line is automatically dubbed a

prostitute’.

Man goes through hell in order to understand this. Love one another, but let’s not

try to possess one another. She thinks about other prostitutes who work with her. She

thinks about her mother and her friends. They all believe that man feels desire for only

eleven minutes a day, and that they’ll pay a fortune for it. That’s not a true; a man is also

a woman; he wants to find someone, to give meaning to his life. Maria has a dream of

earning lots of money, learning about life and she has to buy a farm for her parents, finds

a husband, and brings her family over to see where she lives. And also she wants to visit

the mountains. But now she is very happy.

She had had only four adventures – being a dancer in a cabaret, learning

French, working as a prostitute and falling hopelessly in love. How many

people can boast of experiencing so much excitement in one year ? She

was happy, despite the sadness, and that sadness had a name: it wasn’t

prostitution, or Switzerland or money – it was Ralf Hart. (Coelho 235)

 30

Maria has four advantages. They are a dancer in cabaret and learn French. She

works as a prostitute and falls in love. In one year she became very happy and despite the

sadness and that sadness had a name. That name was not a prostitution or Switzerland or

money. But it is a true love of Ralf Hart.

Ralf Hart’s love with Maria is revealed through her daily diary:

“Because, if I hadn’t, he might think that this was all going to last

forever. And it wasn’t; it was part of the dream of a young woman

from the interior of a far- off country, who goes to a big city (well,

not that big really), encounters all kinds of difficulties, but finds the

man who loves her. So this was the happing ending to all the

difficult times I had been through, and whenever I remembered my

life in Europe, I would end with the story of a man passionately in

love with me, and who would always be mine, because I had

visited his soul. (Coelho256)

Maria says that she can’t forget him forever. Because, if a young woman goes to a

big city she will face many difficulties. But, in Maria’s life she finds a man who really

loves her. So, Maria thinks this was the happy ending for all her difficulties she had faced

throughout her life and also she remembers her life in Europe. Now, she end with a story

who really loves her because, she visited his soul and also she finds her real love.

“The art of love is like your painting, it requires technique, patience, and, above

all, practices by the couple. It requires boldness, the courage to go beyond what people

conventionally call ‘making love’”. (Coelho 258). Maria is a prostitute so she spends

night with whites, blacks, Asians, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Buddhist. But, she does not
 31

find any truth with anybody. She finds true love only with Ralf Hart. Ralf tells to Maria,

in their first met he saw a light through her face.

In our life sex was actually an important one. Men learn about love from

prostitutes or virgins. Men tell their stories whoever will listen. When we are older we

parade about with much young lovers, just to prove to others that we are leading a life

expected by a woman. With Ralf Hart help she comes to know about her life, her soul, her

body, her light, her pain. The climate was the change it was the sign that autumn had

arrived and summer had been left behind.

She remained for a year as a prostitute. Maria decides to leave Geneva and leave

everything including Ralf Hart. She feels passionately in love with that man. She spends

with him the last night, but she feels worried because she is not ready to depart Ralf Hart.

She packs all her things and she went to airport. She feels sad because Ralf only told

about an importance of feminism and about the inner light. But before she could board the

plane, Ralf expresses and confesses his love to Maria. Now Maria knows Ralf also loves

her.

She gets out of the train and goes to the security checks and the door is opened.

There many of them are waiting to receive their relatives some are waiting for their wife,

mother, and children. Maria does not notice anybody waiting for her, at the same time

pondering her loneliness, except that this time she had a secret, a dream, it would make

her solitude less bitter and life would be easier.

“ Ralf was holding a bunch of roses, and his eyes were full of light, the light she

had seen day on that first day, when he was painting her while the cold wind outside had

made her feel awkward to be sitting there” ( Coelho 270 ). Before she could board the

plane Ralf shows up her Love to Maria. Now, Maria finds love in its most
 32

comprehensible state. Ralf shows an identity to Maria and also he only shows her inner

light.

Eleven Minutes is a novel based on women who enters into the world of

prostitution. After reading the novel and researching feminists view of prostitution, Paulo

Coelho wrote his novel from a feminist point of view. He helps to understand the readers

to know about the female sufferings, their potential and their own identity.
 33

Chapter Four

Devil and Angel

“And they will return one day knowing the miracle of the heavens and all the

world. God knew what he was doing when he drew their attention to the tree of the

knowledge of Good and Evil. If he hadn’t wanted them to eat it, he would never have

mentioned it”.

-Paulo Coelho, Brida

Maria enters the world of prostitution with an aim to make money and did not care

about the outcome she gains wealth from it. Almost like a guardian angel Paulo Coelho

allows her to go through this process but puts new obstacles in her way that might help

her to realize her potential and find her true itself. Ralf and Milan are put into the picture

of two very different reasons that pull Maria in different directions. She has to make a

choice whether she will follow the world of a prostitute and bury herself in an identity

that is untrue or take a chance and try to find her old identity with the love of Ralf. Ralf

and Milan are two different pole in Maria’s life. Depending on the way to approach it

could either say that Ralf is an Angel or a Helper and that Milan is a Devil or a Pimp.

In the ‘Holy Bible’ John Chapter 8 and verses 1 – 11.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now early in the morning. He came

again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and He sat down and

taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman

caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst. They said to

him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. “ Now

Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do
 34

you say?” This they said, testing him, that they might have something of

which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground

with His finger, as though he did not hear. So when they continued asking

him, He raised himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among

you, let him throw a stone at her first”. And again He stooped down and

wrote on the ground . (Holy Bible 184)

Milan is a respectable married man. He is the owner of the club. He tells to Maria

about the rules of the club and her fee which is three hundred and fifty francs per

costumer. Milan owns the brothel that Maria is working in and takes very good care of

all his clients. He runs a very good and strong business that means he needs very

attractive and willing woman to work for him. If a woman gets too old her looks start to

fade he fires them. He doesn’t care about the standard or work they provided in the club.

Six months passed. Maria adapts to the rituals of prostitution but still she struggles

to maintain her soul in a job in which she gives away her body several times each night.

One fine day she meets one painter. His name is Ralf Hart. He is a widower in Geneva.

He has painted only her face and he tells to her he sees some ‘inner light’ in her face. That

light is so strong. “You have a glow about you. The light that comes from sheer

willpower, the light of someone who has made important sacrifices in the name of things

she thinks are important. It’s in your eyes – the light is in your eyes”. (Coelho 107)

Maria is not allowed to think about herself. She thinks that she will stay in Geneva

for just next ninety days and to seek for interesting men on the face of the Earth. Ralf tells

to Maria, “I painted your childhood, your adolescence, your lost, broken dreams, your

dreams for the future, and your will – which is what most intrigues me. When you saw

your portrait . . .” (Coelho 108 )

 35

Ralf says he was born in Geneva, but has lived in Madrid, Amsterdam, New York,

and in city in the south of France, called Tarbes. He is an artist. He is only twenty, when

an important art dealer happens to visit a Japanese restaurant in Geneva decorates with his

work. He has earned a lot of money; he is also young and healthy. So, he can do anything,

go everywhere, and meet anyone whom he liked.

He despite everything, fame, money, women, travel, he was unhappy and had only

one joy in his life that was his work artist. After finishing their speech, both of them sits

in another bar, this time they will meet on the other side of the city, far from the road to

Santiago. Then both of them leave from there. Ralf gives her card of his agent in

Barcelona. Maria always thinks about Ralf Hart words of ‘special light’.

From Maria’s daily diary:

The painter knows when he has found a model. The musician knows when

his instrument is well tuned. Here, in my diary, I am aware that there are

certain phrases which are not written by me, but by a woman full of

‘light’; I am that woman though I refuse to accept it. I could carry on like

this, but I could also, like the duck on the lake, have fun and take pleasure

in that sudden ripple that set ripple that set the water rocking. (Coelho 114)

In third day also Maria meets Ralf Hart. She does not get an angry with herself.

While seeing him she becomes very happy. She lives a luxury life, one day she plans to

leave this city, she knows this love was impossible and also she does not expect about

anything because now she has everything. One day Ralf Hart realizes that Maria is a

prostitute. But he is a respected artist. She lives in a far – off country. He lives in a

paradise and his life is organized and protected from birth. He has received his education

in the best schools, museums and art galleries of the world. But she has barely finished
 36

her secondary school. She was no longer dependent on what happened in order to be

happy.

Maria, with all her experience, knew that the woman was wrong: people

wanted to think like that because they thought sex was everyone else’s sole

concern. They went on diets, wore wigs, spent hours at the hairdresser’s or

at the gym, put on sexy clothes, all in an attempt to awaken the necessary

spark. When the moment came to go bed with someone, eleven minutes

later it was all over. (Coelho 138)

Maria tells with her experience that woman is wrong. Because people think the

sex is a sole concern. So, they went on diets, wore wigs, spent hours at the hairdresser’s

or at the gym, put on sexy clothes and in all attempt to awaken the necessary spark. Maria

has learned enough in her profession and she thinks that not everything in life. She tells

herself everybody knows about love because we are all born with that gift. But some of

them has a natural talent for that. But majority of them have to re-learn.

Maria writes her daily diary for two hours. After when she arrives at work Milan

the owner of the club comes and looks at her and also he asks her to spend that day with

that .Ralf arrives there and she has realized that he has paid the rate for three customers,

without having to ask the price. Milan notices all that and also he knows this life better

than she does. That day men began to arrived from Russian, Swiss, German but Maria is

not interested for that. She looks to Milan but he does not accept. Maria pleases to Milan

for asking permission. But Milan treats her as a Devil.

“As the same time, she was wondering. Why is it that, having experienced

everything, these men want to go right back to the start? Not that this was her concern; as

long as they paid well, she was there to serve them”. (Coelho 144)
 37

Milan came with a man. He is younger than Ralf Hart. He is good looking, and

has dark hair, perfect teeth, and he looks like a Mao Jacket. He does not wear a tie. But he

wears a White shirt with big collar. Both of them go to the bar there they meet Maria.

Maria sees Milan he nods his head. So, she invited that man to sit down at her table. She

orders a fruit juice cocktail. At the moment he introduces himself. His name is Terence.

He worked for a record company in England. Maria also starts to talk about Brazil, but he

interrupted her. She does not understand about anything. But, in every night she earns a

thousand francs.

Her feelings of insecurity returned. The man did not see the least

intimidated, and, unlike her other customers, he spoke very calmly. He

knew what he wanted; he put on the perfect piece of music, at the perfect

window, which looked out onto the lake of a perfect city. His suit was well

tailored, his suitcase was there in the corner, very small, as if he always

travelled light, or as if he had come to Geneva just for that one night.

(Coelho 146)

Maria tells she will sleep at her home.. He orders Maria. He tells her to sit

properly. Her back will be straight, like a lady. If she does not obeyed him then she will

punish him She thinks he is a special client. She understand everything, take the francs

out of her bag and put it down on the desk. She says, look deep into those cold, blue eyes.

She knows everything. But she does not do that.

He tells her that she told the truth. But he does not forced to do anything. She tell

she has a job and she has a boss who protests and trusts her. But he is not like other

clients. He is a different person. At last Maria enquires to,

What exactly did you want?’

 38

‘You know what I want. Pain. Suffering. And a great deal of pleasure’.

‘Pain and suffering don’t normally go with pleasure’. Maria thought. And

yet she desperately wanted to believe that they did, and thus make a

positive out of her many negative experiences. (Coelho 146)

He takes her by the hand and leads her to the window. On the other side of the

lake they can see a cathedral spire. Maria thinks about her walk in the road to Santiago

with Ralf Hart. Then he explained about the river, the lake, the houses, the church and the

diseases spread throughout Europe. And explains about the disease the Black Death sent

by God because of mankind’s sins.

Then a group of people decided to sacrifice themselves for the sake of

humanity. They offered the thing the thing they most feared: physical pain.

They began to send days and nights walking across these bridges, along

these streets, beating their own bodies with whips and chains. They were

suffered in the name of God and praising God with their pain. They soon

realized that they were happier doing this than baking bread, working in

the fields or feeding their animals. Pain was no longer a cause of suffering,

but a source of pleasure because they were redeeming humanity from its

sins. Pain became joy, the meaning of life, pleasure. (Coelho 148)

Ralf Hart explains about the pain and sufferings happens in various peoples life.

Then he tells Maria to kneel down. Maria also obeys because she needs money. She has

never been treated by anybody this way. She does not know if it was good or bad but now

she wants to go forward. She is entering a role, becomes a different person, a woman she

does not know at all. “You will be punished because you are useless, because you don’t

know the rules and because you know nothing about sex, life or love”. (Coelho 149)
 39

While he speaks like that he is transformed into two different faces. The first face

was calmly explains the rules to her and next face is one who make her feel like the most

miserable wretch in the world. Likewise she spends the last nine months controlling the

world around her and also she was thinking her own country.

From Maria’s daily diary:

“I am two women: one wants to have all the joys, passion and adventure

that life can give me. The other wants to be a slave to routine, to family

life, to the things that can be planned and achieved. I’m a housewife and a

prostitute, both of us living in the same body and doing battle with each

other.

The meeting of these two women is a game with serious risks. A divine

dance. When we meet, we are two divine energies, two universes

colliding. If the meeting is not carried out with due reverence, one universe

destroys the other”. (Coelho 153)

She explains about two women. One woman want all joy, passion and adventure

and another woman wants to be a slave routine to her family life. She can make a plan for

her life and achieve it. She is a house- wife and prostitute. Both of us living in the same

body and both of them are doing the battle with each other. She is back in Ralf Hart’s

living room. She has grown a lot while waiting for this moment.

She finally discovered the real love has nothing to do. She imagine about love,

courtship, engagement, marriage, children, waiting, cooking, the amusement park on

Sundays, more waiting, getting old together, an end to the waiting and its place,
 40

husband’s retirement, illness, the feeling that it is far too late to live without dream

together.

“Desire. Desire? Desire! That was the point of departure this evening , because it

was something she knew extremely well!

‘All right, then, desire me. That’s what we’re doing right now. You are less than a

yard away from me, you went to a nightclub, paid for my services, and you know you

have the right to touch me. But you don’t dare. Look at me. Look at me and imagine that

perhaps I don’t want you to look at me. Imagine what’s hidden beneath my clothes’”.

(Coelho 156)

Ralf Hart explains at the beginning of creation, both men and women were just

one being, who was rather short, with a body and a neck but his head had two faces, looks

in different directions. Two creature has been glued back to back, with two sets of sex

organs, four legs and four arms. The Greek gods, were jealous because this creature with

four arms could work harder; with its two faces was always vigilant and could not taken

by surprise and its four legs meant that it could stand or walk for long periods or a time

without tiring. That creature had two different sets of sex organs and so needed no one

else in order to continue reproducing.

Zeus, the supreme lord of Olympus, said: “I have a plan to make these

mortals lose some of their strength”.

And he cut the creature in two with a lightning bolt, thus creating man and

woman. This greatly increased the population of the world, and, at the

same time, disoriented and weakened its inhabitants, because now they had

to search for their lost half and embrace it and, in that embrace, regain
 41

their former strength, their ability to avoid betrayal and the stamina to

walk for long periods of time and to withstand hard work. That embrace in

which the two bodies re-fuse to become one again is what we call sex.

(Coelho 160)

Ralf Hart tells on the first day, when we sit in the café that time he saw a light on

her face. So only he offers a cup of coffee and he chose to believe in everything. In

human beings were once divided and now seek the embrace that we will reunite them.

But it is also our reason for putting up with all the difficulties we meet in that search.

Ralf desires is an important one because it is hidden, forbidden, not permitted. He doesn’t

know whether she are looking at her lost half or not. She doesn’t know either, but

something is drawing her to together and she must believe that it is true or not.

He draws it up from the bottom of his heart, because this is how he always wanted

it to be. He draws not only the paintings but he draws his own dream as a woman. Life is

made up of simple things. He is weary of all the years. He has spends searching for

something, though quite but he does not know what he is searching. Finally he finds that

from Maria’s face. As long as he took to win her, to sit with her by the lakeside and speak

of love, and to hear her to say the same thing.

From Maria’s daily diary:

Every human being experiences his or her own desire; it is part of our

personal treasure and, although, as an emotion, it can drive people away,

generally speaking, it brings those who are important to us closer. It is an

emotion chosen by my soul, and it is so intense that it can infect

everything and everyone around me.

 42

Each day I choose the truth b which I try to live. I try to be practical,

efficient, professional. But I would like to be able always to choose desire

as my companion. Not out of obligation, not to lessen my loneliness, but

because it is good. Yes, very good. (Coelho 167)

Maria tells Ralf that he forces her to understand the beauty of pain. She excepts

that the pain was imposed by nature, not by man. She tells her, that she experienced pain

in the wrong way. An uneducated woodcutter thinks he knew her better than herself. He

feels proud to think that his paintings are capable of expressing exactly what he is

feeling.“Ralf Hart was saying. Why was it that in God’s holy world men were only

interested in showing her pain. Sacred pain, pain with pleasure, pain with explanations or

without, but always pain, pain, pain . . .” (Coelho 198)

Maria knows Ralf Hart trying to help her. He is the light of her willpower, it is

just a pain, filling everything, frightening her and forcing her to think about her limit.

Everything around her becomes a dream: the ill- lit garden, the dark lake, the man

walking beside her. Maria’s mind is still confused. Because Ralf has shown her a

different kind of suffering. It gives her a strange pleasure.

“ The Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote of Babylonia: They have a strange

custom here, by which every woman born in Sumeria is obliged, at least once in her

lifetime, to go to the temple of the goddess Ishtar and give her body to a stranger, as a

symbol of hospitality and for a symbolic price” (Coelho 206)

From Maria’s diary she wrote ‘Life is too short, or too long, for me to allow

myself the luxury of living it so badly’. Man goes through hell in order to understand this.

Love one another, but let’s not try to possess one another. Maria arrives with her dream of

earning lots of money, learning about life and she buying a farm for her parents, finding a
 43

husband and bringing her family over to see where she lived. She returns with enough

money to realize one of those dreams.

She has only four adventures. They are she wants to being her career as a dancer

in a cabaret, learning French, working as a prostitute and falling hopelessly in love. But

now she is happy despite the sadness and that sadness had a name. That name is not a

prostitute or Switzerland or money. But it is Ralf Hart. At last she concludes that the point

of the money should not be transformed into more paper, but into a farm, a home for her

parents, a few cattle and a lot of work.

From Maria’s daily diary:

The man who loves her. So this was the happy ending to all the difficult

times I had been through, and whenever I remembered my life Europe, I

would end with the story of a man passionately in love with me, and who

would always be mine, because I had visited his soul.

Ah, Ralf, you have no idea how much I love you. I think that perhaps we

always fall in love the very first instant we see the man of our dreams,

even though, at the time, reason may be telling us otherwise, and we may

fight against they instinct, hoping against hope that we won’t win, until

there comes a point when we allow ourselves to be vanquished by our

feelings. That happened on the night when I walked barefoot in the park,

cold and in pain, but knowing how much you loved me. (Coelho 256)

At last the author explains about Ralf has been sends to help Maria to gain back

her identity and realize her own potential. She allows herself to fall short of her abilities

in life and experience what she thought was pleasure through sex although not knowing
 44

that there are other way to experience that without the pain of knowing that what you are

doing is not right for your own wellbeing.  Ralf helps Maria to gain back her old identity

and to realize that just because love does , not work out for her once doesn’t mean that it

will never work for her again.

 45

Chapter Five

Summation

“The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us”.

-Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes is known as his most successful novel. This novel

is about the protagonist, Maria. She is the protagonist and main character in the novel.

Maria hopes to fall in love with a wonderful man, marry, and raise children just like her

mother. Maria's sense of adventure leads her on a different path from all the other girls

she knows. Maria is very beautiful she is chosen for an employment opportunity in

Europe. She feels extremely happy when she came to know that she was selected for good

job. Maria is a girl who grows up in a small town in Brazil where women's roles are

strictly. Maria knows about the world she has learned by the movies, and she gauges

many of her amorous encounters by what she has seen in motion pictures. Maria's

expectations of happy endings are tempered by reality, and she is able to survive by

adapting to her circumstances. Maria is a voracious reader and, a prostitute.

Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes was the real story of a prostitute. Her name was

Monica but here author changes her name to Maria. In 1997 Paulo went to Italy. That

time he read the real story of a Brazilian prostitute. There he came to known about her

marriage, her problems, with the law, and her various adventures. In 2000 he was passing

through Zurich. There he met a prostitute. Her name was Sonia. She told she liked to read

his books. Sonia was living in Italy at that time. But, she travelled up on the train to meet

Paulo in Zurich.
 46

She called Paulo as his friend and a female journalist from the newspaper Blick.

That time Paulo decided to write a book about Sex. So, Sonia asked Paulo come to the

local red light district to take an interview about the life of prostitutes. Before he takes an

interview he does not had any idea about a plot or a principal character about prostitutes.

He translated his books into various languages.

After his visits to Langstrasse he got more idea to write about the sacred nature of

sex. That time he got a chance to meet a journalist from the Swiss magazine, L’Illustree

and he described about his new book and also he signs his book in Geneva for several

prostitutes. There only he met Monica Antunes, in their meetings only Eleven Minutes

was born.

Paulo Coelho writes his novel with strong universal themes that come down to

basic questions that humans are often asking. While the themes of his novels vary from

the story to story, strong patterns can be found throughout a collections of his works.

Another strong theme that Coelho appears to include to his writing is the battle between

good and evil. In many well known fairy tales as well as classic fiction and even modern

screen plays, good and evil can be present almost constantly. Fundamental questions and

themes surrounding humanity itself are regular subject matters for this author.

Paulo Coelho, the renewed Brazilian novelist and lyricist through all his novels

affirms the importance of journey in loading the individual to self- actualization. Journey

appears as a metaphor for life in most of his novels. Through the physical journey of

protagonists with the end of a material treasure, Coelho brings out the spiritual journey

that aims at the innate self of the individual.

Coelho’s novels are precisely metaphors symbolizing his quest to seek his self.

Each of his novels takes the readers to an adventurous journey finally reaching to a point
 47

where the characters are immersed in their own true sublime self, in a state of eternal

ecstasy. All these journeys though start from a simple, ordinary, material place as the

distances covered it becomes more complex and ends in a transpersonal spiritual level.

Most of Coelho’s novels deal with physical journey where the characters

undertake with an aim of finding their destiny which finally leads their destination. But

on a spiritual level all these journeys lead their own true inner self. The journey becomes

vital in their life as reaching the destination provides with a sense of innate happiness.

Through his protagonists Coelho projects his own self which always craves for

undertaking an adventurous journey.

The first chapter Introduction deals with the Biography of Paulo Coelho, history

of literature, history of Brazilian literature, Pre- Modernism of Brazilian, Federal

Republic in Brazil, Modernism, Brazilian Culture, Brazilian landscape, Post –

Modernism, Portuguese language, Contemporary writers of his period. In their novels, the

reader can observe a conflict between the environmental forces and the mind of the

characters creating a state of flux within more so among the women characters.

The second chapter ‘Desire and Sex’. Here the author explains about Maria the

protagonist desire and explains about other prostitutes who work with her. She thinks

about her mother and her friends. They all believe that man feels desire for only eleven

minutes a day, and that they’ll pay a fortune for it. That’s not true; a man is also a

woman; he wants to find someone, to give meaning to his life. The desire takes shape

during Maria’s childhood, when she dreams of finding the right. Maria wants to have

fame and fortune for herself and to her family. She also has a desire to find true love and

a man who will accept and love her despite of everything.

 48

The third chapter ‘Feminism in Relation to Identity’. Maria went to Geneva to

find out her true love. There she finds one painter his name was Ralf Hart. He was a

widower. He told to Maria he saw an ‘Inner light’ came from Maria’s face. Feminists

want the “elimination of an ideology” that states “women’s sexuality is for men.”

Feminists are not liberal when looking at discussions around rape. Feminists see rape as

an “act of terrorism and torture” according to feminists there is no legislation to conceal

rape as anything else than what it is. Feminists concur that prostitution is rape due to the

fact that when it comes to sex, through “male violence, women are essentially un free”.

With the help of Ralf Hart , Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness,

sexual pleasure for its own sake, or risking everything to find her own "inner light" and

the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love Maria searching her identity but at

last Ralf helps Maria to find out her identity.

The fourth chapter ‘Devil and Angel’ explains about Maria enters the world of

prostitution with an aim to make money and not caring what the outcome was as long as

she gained wealth from it. Almost like a guardian angel Paulo Coelho allows her to go

through this process but puts new obstacles in her way that might help her to realize her

potential and find her true self. Ralf and Milan are put into the picture for two very

different reasons that pull Maria in different directions. She has to make a choice whether

she will follow the world of a prostitute and bury herself in an identity that is untrue or

take a chance and try to find her old identity with the love of Ralf. Ralf and Milan are two

very different characters in this novel they represent two different stages in Maria’s life.

Depending on the way you approach it you could either say that Ralf is an Angel or a

Helper and that Milan is a Devil or a Pimp.

 49

Milan owns the brothel that Maria is working in and takes very good care of all

his clients. He runs a very good and strong business that means he needs very attractive

and willing women to work for him. If a woman gets too old her looks start to fade he

fires them. He doesn’t care about the women’s past or their future she just care about the

standard or work they provide in the club. Although scared at first Maria sees this as an

opportunity for her to prove herself. She can see herself working well in this type of

environment which allows her to forget her past “You only know yourself when you go

beyond your limits”. She has the chance to start a new life as a new person and she

decides to take the plunge. Ralf is a young painter who she meets in café one day on her

day off. As he sees her he realizes she has a presence that fills the room an “inner light” is

what he refers to it as. He asks her is he can paint her as she sits in the café not knowing

why she is in Geneva. When she leaves he finds it hard to forget about her and decides to

stay in contact with her. “If he looked back on what his life had been lately, he had

perhaps managed two or three days when he had woken up, looked at the sun-or the rain-

and felt glad to see the morning, just happy, without wanting anything, planning anything

or asking anything in exchange. Apart from those days, the rest of his existence had been

wasted on dreams, both frustrated and realized-a desire to go beyond him, to go beyond

his limitations; he had spent his life trying to prove something, but he didn't know what or

to whom.”

Ralf had been sent to help Maria to gain back her identity and realize her own

potential. She had allowed herself to fall short of her abilities in life and experience what

she thought was pleasure through sex although not knowing that there are other way to

experience that without the pain of knowing that what you are doing is not right for your

own wellbeing.  Ralf helps Maria to gain back her old identity and to realize that just
 50

because love did not work out for her once doesn’t mean that it will never work for her

again.

Thus the whole study deals with the experience expressed by a prostitute.

Feminism, Sex and quest for identity are Maria’s experiences that Paulo Coelho captures

Eleven Minutes. When Contemporary writers like Paulo Coelho narrates the real

experience faced by the prostitute in Brazil, it is actually like bringing them back to life.

His novels have a number of viewpoints over which further study can be made. His works

can be subjected to critical studies by applying theories like feminism, spiritualism, quest

for identity, gender discrimination, etc. He is also a famous writer who can be compared

with a number of other writers around the globe.

 51

Works Cited

Primary Sources

Coelho, Paulo. Eleven Minutes. London: Harper Collins, 2003. Print.

Secondary Sources

Coelho, Paulo. The Zahir. New Delhi: Harper Collins, 2005. Print.

Hornby, A.S. “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary”. New Delhi: Oxford University

Press, 2010. Print.

Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. New York: Harper Collins, 2014. Print.

The holy Bible “Old Testament”. New York: American Bible Society, 1999. Print.

Wolf, Naomi. “A Secret History of Female Desire”. London: Chatto and Windus, 1997.

Print.

De Beauvoir , Simone. “ The Second Sex”. Trans. H. M. Parshley. New York: 1970.

Print.

Coelho, Paulo. By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. London: Harper Collins, 1994.

Print.

Murfin, Ross. C. “ Deconstruction and Hamlet”. Wofford, 283-293. Print.

Barry, Kathleen. “ The prostitution of Sexuality”. New York: NYU Press, 1995. Print.

Valentine, Jessica. “ A young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters”. London:

Harper Collins, 1990. Print.

Coelho, Paulo. Brida. London: Harper Collins, 1990. Print.

 52

Web Source

Flanagan, Maureen. “Feminist Movements”. Encyclopedia of Chicago. The Electronic

Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2005. Web.17Jan. 2012. Print.