Mustafa is a major supporting character in The Tailor, serving as a significant person in lead character Peyami Dokumaci’s life, providing him with deep-seated trauma and also an opportunity to overcome it as well as his shortcomings.
The Tailor introduces many of the challenges and tribulations that its lead characters have to contend with as they navigate their lives and love stories.
For the primary protagonist Peyami Dokumaci, one of his biggest tribulations his own father, Mustafa, a man of limited cognition and yet a huge heart who provides a lot of empathy for others, but only shame and trauma for his son.
Lampooned by society
For being a cognitively challenged man, Mustafa is the butt of all the cruel jokes hurled at him and his son in his locality. Everyone makes fun of his condition, for acting like a kid as a grown adult.
Early on in the show, he’s shown to be having a blast with his son, playing with him and going on little adventures with him. However, outside is a world that clowns him for being himself.
While he can’t really feel all that bad of all the insults thrown at him, since he lacks the cognitive tools to understand them, he does have emotions and his feelings can get hurt pretty easily, leading to him throwing a fit. However, his tantrums are rarely borne out of nothing.
Derided by his son
Mustafa’s son Peyami hates him. He despises the fact that he has to call a man who behaves like a kid his father. He feels ashamed to acknowledge this relationship at the school, where he gets made fun of and bullied by other students, simply for being the son of a “madman.”
All Mustafa wishes is to play with Peyami, like they used to long ago, but all Peyami wishes for as a child is to go as far away from his father as he can. He even tells his grandfather this wish, which eventually comes true.
Peyami leaves his hometown and departs for Instanbul, where he completes his education and eventually becomes a renowned fashion designer. All this time, he tries his best to forget about his father.
However, the passing of his grandfather leaves the responsibility of Mustafa onto Peyami, who has to keep his father at his home, hidden from the rest of the world, a rule he imposes strictly upon his house staff.
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