An Analysis of the Dark Triad of Personality in the Novels A Secret in the Alleys and I’ll Turn Off the Lights

Abstract

This study aimed to provide a precise and systematic analysis of the Dark Triad personality traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy—in the novels I’ll Turn Off the Lights by Zoya Pirzad and A Secret in the Alleys by Fariba Vafi. The central problem of the research is that in women’s fiction written after the Islamic Revolution, personality darkness does not necessarily appear through crime, overt violence, or theatrical evil; rather, it is represented through family relationships, emotional silence, hidden management of information, emotional coldness, the need to be seen, and the inability to empathize. The study adopted a descriptive-analytical approach grounded in psychological literary criticism. The two novels were selected based on four criteria: their belonging to post-revolutionary women’s fiction, the centrality of female characters and introspective narration, the prominent role of family and domestic space as a field of power, and the possibility of extracting narrative evidence related to narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. The unit of analysis in this study consisted of character, action, dialogue, silence, interior monologue, narrative style, emotional relationships, and narrative situations. Indicators of narcissism in the texts included the need for recognition, sensitivity to being ignored, wounded self-focus, and attempts to repair self-image. Indicators of Machiavellianism included secrecy, emotional control, management of hidden truths, instrumental use of family roles, and indirect guidance of relationships. Indicators of psychopathy were defined at a literary and non-clinical level as emotional coldness, weak empathy, psychological numbness, indifference toward the suffering of others, and silent relational violence. The findings demonstrated that in I’ll Turn Off the Lights, Claris embodies vulnerable narcissism and the desire to be acknowledged; Artoush represents silent control, emotional neglect, and exploitation of domestic order; and Emil, through listening, attention, and creating a sense of being understood, exposes Claris’s emotional emptiness. In this novel, textual evidence such as forgetting herself while setting the table, questioning what she has ever done solely for herself in middle age, and the repeated act of turning off the lights indicate that narcissism is represented not as grandiosity, but as lack of recognition and the gradual erasure of the self within domestic life. In A Secret in the Alleys, personality darkness is more closely connected with secrecy, memory, paternal violence, maternal silence, and the control of past narratives. Through the narration of her dying father, Homayra reveals emotional distance, repressed anger, and at times a merciless view of the past; Mahrokh, through silence, numbness, and endurance of pressure, exemplifies secondary psychopathy and emotional exhaustion; and Abou, through violence, domination, and suspicion, represents a model of authoritarian Machiavellianism. The principal contribution of this study is that it transfers the Dark Triad from the level of psychological diagnosis to an interpretive framework for reading Persian novels and demonstrates that in Iranian women’s literature, personality darkness emerges primarily in subtle, everyday, gendered, and relational forms.