Füsun Keskin is Kemal’s primary romantic interest and the novel’s true tragic figure. Introduced as a shopgirl and distant relation of Kemal’s, she becomes the object of Kemal’s obsession, which ruins her life.

The novel primarily views Füsun through the lens of Kemal’s romantic perspective. Initially, Kemal sees Füsun as a helpless girl who is pliable to his manipulations and seductions. When Füsun attends Kemal’s engagement party, she threatens to undo his life by meeting other possible suitors, like Kenan, and alluding to her affair with Kemal in Sibel’s presence. Füsun thus demonstrates her strength and determination, which continues to show itself whenever she tries to assert herself with Kemal.

Füsun’s desire to enter university is driven by a practical aspiration for class mobility, as she comes from a working-class family. When she fails her entrance exams, Füsun is forced to seek out alternatives: She marries Feridun and decides to become an actress. As Füsun grows older, she becomes more cynical, refusing to believe Kemal’s promises that she will eventually achieve her dreams. She decides to marry Kemal after she divorces Feridun, as she realizes she has few options left. However, her marriage to Kemal also marks the height of her cynicism, as she knows she will never achieve her aspirations because Kemal controls her life.

Füsun sincerely tries to love Kemal, which she demonstrates through the symbolic earrings that appear throughout the narrative. Füsun is convinced that Kemal’s retrieval of her lost earring signifies his devotion, unaware that it was the maid who actually found it. On the eve of her death, Füsun wears the earrings as a sign of her affection for Kemal. When Kemal fails to notice the earring, Füsun realizes that Kemal’s love is, in truth, just an obsession. This angry realization motivates her reckless driving back to the hotel, resulting in the crash that kills her.

Sibel is a secondary romantic interest for Kemal and his one-time fiancée. Sibel a well-to-do society girl whose good family reputation goes back several generations. The novel implies that her marriage to Kemal is partly motivated by economic forces: With her family having lost much of their fortune, her marriage into a wealthy family will ensure that she is well taken care of while also giving her relatives new opportunities to recoup their wealth.

Despite this economic incentive, Sibel also shows an authentic devotion to Kemal. When he confesses his affair with Füsun, she tries to help him by taking him away for a stay in her parents’ other home, and eventually starts having sex with him occasionally, even though she wanted to abstain until their marriage. When she eventually realizes that Kemal’s obsession is only getting worse, she ends the engagement and does not see Kemal again for many years.  

Sibel helps to define Füsun’s character by way of contrasts. Whereas Sibel is presented as Kemal’s equal, Füsun is presented as someone whom Kemal can “master” or conquer. Sibel can identify the authenticity of status symbols, such as the Jenny Colon handbag, because of her privilege, while Füsun cares more about the “quality” of the object than its brand or origin. Sibel directly articulates the contrast between herself and Füsun by calling Kemal out for leaving her for a “common shopgirl.” Her anger toward Füsun’s class origins speaks to the snobbery and elitism of Sibel and her social circle.

Sibel’s perspective is important in exposing the solipsistic nature of Kemal’s obsession at the end of the novel. When Kemal turns the narration over to Orhan Pamuk, Pamuk gives voice to Sibel, who observes that Kemal looks unhappy in his old age. This observation contradicts Kemal’s assertion that he lived very happily, reminding the reader not to take Kemal’s recollections at face value.

Feridun is Füsun’s husband and Kemal’s romantic rival. Unlike Kemal, who is older and richer than Füsun, Feridun is Füsun’s equal—a childhood friend who shares her ambitions to break out in the Turkish film industry. Feridun is initially defined by his artistic idealism. His disdain for commercial film stands in stark contrast to Kemal’s business-minded outlook. He wants to debut Füsun in an art film, but finds it difficult to achieve his artistic vision, which gives Kemal the upper hand as he leverages Feridun’s weaknesses to advance his personal agenda. Over time, Füsun sees both Kemal and Feridun as obstructions to her ambitions as an actress, since both men actively prevent her from taking on other film roles that could help her reach her goal.

By the end of the narrative, Feridun has given in to the cynicism of Kemal’s business-minded outlook. He resigns himself to making a commercial film to get his career off the ground. Having promised Füsun that she would debut in an art film, Feridun instead casts an emerging actress named Papatya, who eventually becomes his mistress. By this point, Feridun no longer resembles the man he once was, compromising his idealistic vision for the sake of financial progress. This culminates in his final request before exiting the narrative, which is a controlling stake in the film studio Kemal starts for him, Lemon Films.