In The Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak uses tea glasses as a strong symbol of Zeliha’s ability to endure. In spite of her refined beauty, Zeliha’s “towering high heels”, bold wardrobe choices, offensive language, public smoking habits, and nose ring (4) all seem to counteract any likeness she could have with a delicate tea glass. Even Zeliha’s profession as a tattoo artist is an indicator of toughness. However, throughout the novel, Shafak continues to bring up the tea glass in conjunction with incidences in Zeliha’s life, and eventually uses this fragile object as a symbol of Zeliha’s remarkable strength.
Despite Zeliha’s appreciation for the beauty of tea sets, her abhorrence of the fragility of tea glasses becomes apparent to readers early on in the novel, “She was the only one among all the Kazanci females capable of getting infuriated at tea glasses when they broke” (9). The shattering of a tea glass angers Zeliha because to her it represents a lack of strength, which is a quality she detests.
In order to prevent herself from becoming “one of those walking miseries who scattered tears and nitpicky complaints everywhere they went” (15), Zeliha forbade herself to cry. However, as the time for her abortion draws nearer, the author describes her as becoming“as fragile as a tea glass…she couldn’t help but come close to tears” (15). Shafak compares Zeliha to a tea glass in this moment to show how greatly this experience has affected her. This young woman who so vehemently loathes the frailness of a tea glass, is experiencing something so traumatic that her own fragility prevails.
The tea glass is brought up again as Zeliha’s brother, Mustafa, is on a plane bound for Istanbul and the household is preparing for his arrival, “…a tea glass cracked in Asya’s hands. So unexpectedly did this happen that it gave her a jolt” (297). In this context the cracking tea glass foreshadows the shocking truth about Asya’s conception that is to be revealed in this chapter, and is a reminder of Zeliha’s capacity for weakness as the past comes back to haunt her.
In the final pages of the book, Shafak once again uses the tea set as a symbol of Zeliha’s strength:
I bought this set twenty years ago. So strange! … I never believed they could survive this long. I always feared they would break so easily, but I guess they live to tell the tale, after all. Even tea glasses do! (357)
With this passage the author shows that despite Zeliha’s best efforts to avoid becoming a “tea-glass woman”, she realizes that tea glasses can be resilient. The author uses the un-shattered tea glasses as a symbol of Zeliha’s persistent strength and her ability to remain whole even in circumstances under which she would be expected to break.