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Part 3, Chapter 7
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Forty Rules of Love, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Spirituality
Connections Across Distance and Time
Appearances vs. Reality
Storytelling and Truth
Summary
Analysis
Kimya. Konya, December 20, 1244. Kimya is born to peasants in the Taurus mountains. When she’s 12, Rumi adopts her. A hermit in her village recommended that she go with Rumi. Rumi is impressed at Kimya’s interested in studying. He worries, however, that education will make no difference for her, if she ever gets married and has to give up studying. Still, Rumi’s first wife, Gevher, who died, always wanted a daughter, and this helps convince Rumi to eventually take in Kimya, who seems to be able to communicate with Gevher’s spirit. She lives happily with Rumi for several years until one day Shams arrives.
Rumi’s willingness to adopt someone in need shows how generous he can be. His concerns about Kimya’s education show how the roles of men and women are different in society—something that is remarkably still very true in Ella’s story, when she often feels that she doesn’t get to use her education because she chose to marry and have children instead. Kimya’s ability to communicate with the dead gives her something in common with Shams, foreshadowing a closer relationship between them.
Active
Themes
