Page 467 [467]
ALEXANDRA M. SZABO
This section of the quarrel between the two main characters speaks for itself
in terms of relations and attitude towards the “Jewish question” in regard
to Hungarian traditions. The inconvenience of Jewishness is represented
through the non-Jewish protagonist, who is bothered by the fact that his
lover is both rich and a Jewess!f. Just as one of the earliest thoughts of anti¬
Semitism, Zsolt’s earliest novel talks about the idea how the rich Jew/Jewess
is a bother to society, who also cannot take a nation’s traditional values into
consideration. The novel later on culminates in the couple’s love story through
the man’s related sufferings.
In Gerson and his Wife the indecisive appearance of the word “Jewish” is a
perfect metaphor to Gerson’s Jewish identity. At the beginning, there is only
a hint that the man is of a different religion compared to his soon-to-be wife,
the word zsidó is not used yet:
It has been five days since they got married. Only in front of the registrar because of
the religious differences. Gerson did not want to change his faith, in consideration
of his elders."”
Thereafter, the first instance of the word in ink is not even a statement of
the protagonist directly, but concerning his elders (who are also a point of
reference to his Jewishness as quoted above):
Above the beds we can find grandpa’s and grandma’s chalk drawings (...) Above
the candle there is a drawing of Jewish letters and numbers decorated in Indian
ink and with gold."
Gersons self-search harmonizes with the narrators attentive use of the word
"Jewish": initially, it is unclearly stated that the main character is Jewish just
as the main character does not clearly see that his life will never be on track
with such a self-deceptive nature. This becomes especially unambiguous
through the plot when he introduces himself to his boss as an orphan, not
only by killing his very much alive parents (thus his elders) by a lie, but by
silently killing off his Jewish roots, too.
In the Embarrassing Affair, the protagonist Dr. Hell is the typical Central¬
European assimilated Jewish man, who does not care about his Jewish
The question of gender equality rises here as well.
“Ot napja, hogy megeskiidtek. Csak az anyakönyvvezető előtt, a felekezeti különbség miatt.
Gerson nem akart hitet változtatni, tekintettel az öregekre." In Béla Zsolt: Gerson és neje,
Budapest, Magvető Könyvkiadó, 1994, 14.
"Az ágyak felett nagypapa és nagymama krétarajza (...) A mécs fölött a tussal és arannyal
cirkalmazott rajz zsidó betűkből és számokból." Ibid., 16.
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