Caesar stated that the characters are "men who have been given the insight and the opportunity to act nobly, but they fail to do so because this action would bring them into conflict with popular opinion."[1] According to Caesar, in regards to the characters "The guilty and the innocent are not so easily distinguished from one another, but it is those who betray what they know to be true who lose the most."[2] Caesar argues that "Qasim presents these characters as well with neutral sympathy."[6]