(no subject)
This Post is just for tomorrow when I have to print out my 5 page Seminar Paper on A Journey to the End of the Millennium because I know the Internet's not gonna work. I've already tried the Email and it didn't go through, so I'll just do this.
And if you read it and decide to comment that it's crap well save yourself the effort cause I don't wanna hear anyone's thoughts on it.
Independent Women
Examining Esther Minna’s and the Second Wife’s thoughts and points of view in A.B Yehoshua’s novel A Journey to the End of the Millennium.
Yehoshua’s novel A Journey to the End of the Millennium takes the reader all the way back to the year 999 and is a historical novel, but it is also a story of love and desire. A deeper look into the constant question of whether or not love can be shared or if there is only enough for one other person. In Ben Attar’s case, this is not true. He is the main character and is on his way to Paris to meet with his recently estranged Nephew and his new wife to prove that, yes, he can love two women at the same time. He is a polygamist, he has two wives and yet through the novel we see that he tries his hardest to love them both equally.
But there is a problem that arises within the narrative. Not a problem, per se, but a complication or an obstacle that Yehoshua has purposely put in our way. His narrator is omniscient but he does not enjoy sharing his vast knowledge with the rest of his readers. This novel consists of mainly descriptions of places, events, actions of characters but we so rarely get an actual glimpse into the mind of a character that it is a breath of fresh air when we do. As Robert Alter said in his article “Disputation of Desire”, “We are kept through at a certain distance from the characters. Their feelings and their attitudes are refracted through the controlling narrator’s concise summary but we are not accorded much access to their inner lives.” (39.).
A good example of this distance and inability to truly know the characters is the fact that Yehoshua has decided to “name” Ben Attar’s wives, first wife and second wife. They have no real identity. They are simply extensions of Ben Attar, we barely know anything about them and are only offered one brief but startling glimpse into the mind of the second wife.
But the first and second wives of Ben Attar are, of course, not the only women in this novel. There is also the very strong minded newly wed wife of Abulafia, mistress Esther Minna. She is the one that forced Abulafia to place the ban on his partnership with Ben Attar. She is the one that has set this entire novel into play. James Young said it best in his review of A Journey to the End of the Millennium by saying, “but this satisfying routine has now been disrupted by Abulafia’s marriage to a thin-lipped, ivory-skinned Jewish woman from the Rhineland, who on learning that her Husband’s uncle has two wives, has ordered the partnership dissolved and the uncle repudiated (8.).
He speaks of how Abulafia’s sudden marriage to Esther Minna has set everything off balance. Every summer they would meet in the Spanish March and divvy up the profits, share stories, revel in each other’s company. But then the strong minded and independent mistress enters and all goes to Hell. It seems typical for it to be a woman that sets everything off kilter.
And yet, with the mystery that this novel constantly lets hover over it, the mystery of not exactly knowing what it is the characters are thinking, I find myself drawn to two of the characters. Esther Minna who I both loathe and respect all at once and the second wife of Ben Attar who utterly intrigues me and I constantly crave to know more about her, to be able to see inside her head.
The problem that immediately rises with knowing Esther Minna’s character is that through the beginning of the novel we are given nothing but Ben Attar’s point of view. And then once the company reaches Paris, we are hit front and center with the arrival of Esther Minna’s thoughts. “The danger of not digging and diving again and again in this text is reflected in the fact that many readers become so immersed in Ben Attar’s point of view which dominates the early part of the novel that they condemn Esther Minna’s vision out of hand as stereotypically Ashkenazi: cold, intellectual and rigidly legalistic” (Horn, Is there one Jewish People: Morality and Form in A Journey to the End of the Millennium. Manuscript. 9.)
This statement is very true. I was already so comfortable in Ben Attar’s head and his loving view of his two wives that when the company reached Paris, Esther Minna’s harsh and incriminating thoughts shattered my peace of mind. A good example of this is our first meeting with the darling Mistress, who is so overwhelmed by the presence of the immoral uncle and his “harem” that it takes everything in Esther Minna to keep from fainting on the spot.
“And Abulafia repeated to his wife, My aunts, not only to stress the family bond by which he was bound but also to moderate somewhat the reduplicated sexuality, which between the gray walls and the dark furniture received such a powerful, colorful and scented intensification that the mistress of the house felt the ground opening up under her feet and reached out to the nearest chair for support.” (A Journey to the End of the Millennium, 96.).
The first appearance of the second wife is so different. We are shown a tired, sea sick woman laying in the bowels of the ship waiting for her husband to come to her and give her pleasure, the same kind that he just gave to his first wife. And do we feel a hint of jealousy then, that the second wife is always the last that Ben Attar, pleases? But we can never really tell, thanks to the omniscient and terribly vague narrator hanging over every word. But in this passage we see that the second wife is young and passionate and does what she needs to, to get what she wants.
“In the silence that encompassed her, she was unable to feel, as she had hoped, the beating of her husband’s heart. All she could feel was the painful and unfamiliar outline of his ribs. With a strange selfish thrill she reflected that not only had her own body become gaunt from seasickness and meager rations, but her husband’s sturdy frame too was becoming lean from constant worry about the future of his business, which was threatened, more than anything else, by his marriage to her. And now a venomous gleam flickered in her beautiful, slightly myopic eyes, which had so far been narrowed to slits and now opened in offense. She looked contentedly at what in her bedroom at home merely appeared and disappeared between her body and the sheets, whereas here it was entirely revealed, shrunk into itself, as though it had changed into a mouse. So sorry did she feel for that part of her husband’s body and for herself that she lifted her head a little, and still without looking at the face of the man who had bound himself before her, she began to speak about the first wife, which she had never dared to do before.” (A Journey to the End of the Millennium, 22.).
Already, just by the fact that she’s being bold and even daring to speak about the first wife while in bed with Ben Attar shows us that this second wife may not be the docile, vacant woman she sometimes appears to be. She is courageous and imaginative and dares to think her own thoughts. And so does Esther Minna.
Aye, there’s the real rub. These two women, they are not so very different. At least not when it comes to being independent and thinking their own thoughts. Esther Minna is just more outspoken than the second wife is. But then again, there’s that revelation during the second trial in Esther Minna’s homeland, the revelation of the second wife that is so startling and yet so tragic, her wish and desire to have a second husband of her own.
“From the jumble of Jewish Arabic that now poured from her small mouth, the astonishing truth gradually emerged that not only was she willing be subjected to dual wedlock, she herself wished to contract a dual marriage. Having no complaint against the first wife, whose patience and kindness she had learned to appreciate during the long shared journey by sea and land, she was experiencing a mounting envy of a husband who had two wives to himself while they only had one husband between them.” (A Journey to the End of the Millennium,210.).
This was the most startling part of the book for the characters themselves and for the reader. The fact that the second wife thought on her own, felt envious towards her husband for having two wives, that she had a mind of her own was astonishing. For a character that is portrayed so vaguely, is shrouded in mystery and obscurity, the fact that she says something like this is just astounding. And yet, things cannot work out for her. As always, it must have dire consequences. “Most troubling of all, there is the desire that Ben Attar’s young wife confesses for a second Husband of her own. This undoes his effort to win a favorable verdict from a religious authority in Worms, leads to her death, and provides the ultimate resolution of the plot’s complex twists.” (Grafton, Anthony, The Jew from Tangier, 26.).
The fact that the second wife’s confession is the downfall of her own life and Ben Attar’s entire mission is crushing. We learn something so amazing and intriguing about this quiet woman and then what happens? In attempts to explain herself to the rabbi she so stunned with her words, she contracts tetanus and dies. And all the while Esther Minna is still her stubborn but logical self. She is afraid of the idea of dual marriage while the second wife accepts and even wonders about it if her own second husband were thrown into the mix.
These two characters, one so outspoken and out there and the other so quiet and mysterious, they’re both so intriguing and yet so frustrating all at the same time. Thanks once again to that mysterious narrator who only allows us the briefest glimpses into these women’s minds.
And if you read it and decide to comment that it's crap well save yourself the effort cause I don't wanna hear anyone's thoughts on it.
Independent Women
Examining Esther Minna’s and the Second Wife’s thoughts and points of view in A.B Yehoshua’s novel A Journey to the End of the Millennium.
Yehoshua’s novel A Journey to the End of the Millennium takes the reader all the way back to the year 999 and is a historical novel, but it is also a story of love and desire. A deeper look into the constant question of whether or not love can be shared or if there is only enough for one other person. In Ben Attar’s case, this is not true. He is the main character and is on his way to Paris to meet with his recently estranged Nephew and his new wife to prove that, yes, he can love two women at the same time. He is a polygamist, he has two wives and yet through the novel we see that he tries his hardest to love them both equally.
But there is a problem that arises within the narrative. Not a problem, per se, but a complication or an obstacle that Yehoshua has purposely put in our way. His narrator is omniscient but he does not enjoy sharing his vast knowledge with the rest of his readers. This novel consists of mainly descriptions of places, events, actions of characters but we so rarely get an actual glimpse into the mind of a character that it is a breath of fresh air when we do. As Robert Alter said in his article “Disputation of Desire”, “We are kept through at a certain distance from the characters. Their feelings and their attitudes are refracted through the controlling narrator’s concise summary but we are not accorded much access to their inner lives.” (39.).
A good example of this distance and inability to truly know the characters is the fact that Yehoshua has decided to “name” Ben Attar’s wives, first wife and second wife. They have no real identity. They are simply extensions of Ben Attar, we barely know anything about them and are only offered one brief but startling glimpse into the mind of the second wife.
But the first and second wives of Ben Attar are, of course, not the only women in this novel. There is also the very strong minded newly wed wife of Abulafia, mistress Esther Minna. She is the one that forced Abulafia to place the ban on his partnership with Ben Attar. She is the one that has set this entire novel into play. James Young said it best in his review of A Journey to the End of the Millennium by saying, “but this satisfying routine has now been disrupted by Abulafia’s marriage to a thin-lipped, ivory-skinned Jewish woman from the Rhineland, who on learning that her Husband’s uncle has two wives, has ordered the partnership dissolved and the uncle repudiated (8.).
He speaks of how Abulafia’s sudden marriage to Esther Minna has set everything off balance. Every summer they would meet in the Spanish March and divvy up the profits, share stories, revel in each other’s company. But then the strong minded and independent mistress enters and all goes to Hell. It seems typical for it to be a woman that sets everything off kilter.
And yet, with the mystery that this novel constantly lets hover over it, the mystery of not exactly knowing what it is the characters are thinking, I find myself drawn to two of the characters. Esther Minna who I both loathe and respect all at once and the second wife of Ben Attar who utterly intrigues me and I constantly crave to know more about her, to be able to see inside her head.
The problem that immediately rises with knowing Esther Minna’s character is that through the beginning of the novel we are given nothing but Ben Attar’s point of view. And then once the company reaches Paris, we are hit front and center with the arrival of Esther Minna’s thoughts. “The danger of not digging and diving again and again in this text is reflected in the fact that many readers become so immersed in Ben Attar’s point of view which dominates the early part of the novel that they condemn Esther Minna’s vision out of hand as stereotypically Ashkenazi: cold, intellectual and rigidly legalistic” (Horn, Is there one Jewish People: Morality and Form in A Journey to the End of the Millennium. Manuscript. 9.)
This statement is very true. I was already so comfortable in Ben Attar’s head and his loving view of his two wives that when the company reached Paris, Esther Minna’s harsh and incriminating thoughts shattered my peace of mind. A good example of this is our first meeting with the darling Mistress, who is so overwhelmed by the presence of the immoral uncle and his “harem” that it takes everything in Esther Minna to keep from fainting on the spot.
“And Abulafia repeated to his wife, My aunts, not only to stress the family bond by which he was bound but also to moderate somewhat the reduplicated sexuality, which between the gray walls and the dark furniture received such a powerful, colorful and scented intensification that the mistress of the house felt the ground opening up under her feet and reached out to the nearest chair for support.” (A Journey to the End of the Millennium, 96.).
The first appearance of the second wife is so different. We are shown a tired, sea sick woman laying in the bowels of the ship waiting for her husband to come to her and give her pleasure, the same kind that he just gave to his first wife. And do we feel a hint of jealousy then, that the second wife is always the last that Ben Attar, pleases? But we can never really tell, thanks to the omniscient and terribly vague narrator hanging over every word. But in this passage we see that the second wife is young and passionate and does what she needs to, to get what she wants.
“In the silence that encompassed her, she was unable to feel, as she had hoped, the beating of her husband’s heart. All she could feel was the painful and unfamiliar outline of his ribs. With a strange selfish thrill she reflected that not only had her own body become gaunt from seasickness and meager rations, but her husband’s sturdy frame too was becoming lean from constant worry about the future of his business, which was threatened, more than anything else, by his marriage to her. And now a venomous gleam flickered in her beautiful, slightly myopic eyes, which had so far been narrowed to slits and now opened in offense. She looked contentedly at what in her bedroom at home merely appeared and disappeared between her body and the sheets, whereas here it was entirely revealed, shrunk into itself, as though it had changed into a mouse. So sorry did she feel for that part of her husband’s body and for herself that she lifted her head a little, and still without looking at the face of the man who had bound himself before her, she began to speak about the first wife, which she had never dared to do before.” (A Journey to the End of the Millennium, 22.).
Already, just by the fact that she’s being bold and even daring to speak about the first wife while in bed with Ben Attar shows us that this second wife may not be the docile, vacant woman she sometimes appears to be. She is courageous and imaginative and dares to think her own thoughts. And so does Esther Minna.
Aye, there’s the real rub. These two women, they are not so very different. At least not when it comes to being independent and thinking their own thoughts. Esther Minna is just more outspoken than the second wife is. But then again, there’s that revelation during the second trial in Esther Minna’s homeland, the revelation of the second wife that is so startling and yet so tragic, her wish and desire to have a second husband of her own.
“From the jumble of Jewish Arabic that now poured from her small mouth, the astonishing truth gradually emerged that not only was she willing be subjected to dual wedlock, she herself wished to contract a dual marriage. Having no complaint against the first wife, whose patience and kindness she had learned to appreciate during the long shared journey by sea and land, she was experiencing a mounting envy of a husband who had two wives to himself while they only had one husband between them.” (A Journey to the End of the Millennium,210.).
This was the most startling part of the book for the characters themselves and for the reader. The fact that the second wife thought on her own, felt envious towards her husband for having two wives, that she had a mind of her own was astonishing. For a character that is portrayed so vaguely, is shrouded in mystery and obscurity, the fact that she says something like this is just astounding. And yet, things cannot work out for her. As always, it must have dire consequences. “Most troubling of all, there is the desire that Ben Attar’s young wife confesses for a second Husband of her own. This undoes his effort to win a favorable verdict from a religious authority in Worms, leads to her death, and provides the ultimate resolution of the plot’s complex twists.” (Grafton, Anthony, The Jew from Tangier, 26.).
The fact that the second wife’s confession is the downfall of her own life and Ben Attar’s entire mission is crushing. We learn something so amazing and intriguing about this quiet woman and then what happens? In attempts to explain herself to the rabbi she so stunned with her words, she contracts tetanus and dies. And all the while Esther Minna is still her stubborn but logical self. She is afraid of the idea of dual marriage while the second wife accepts and even wonders about it if her own second husband were thrown into the mix.
These two characters, one so outspoken and out there and the other so quiet and mysterious, they’re both so intriguing and yet so frustrating all at the same time. Thanks once again to that mysterious narrator who only allows us the briefest glimpses into these women’s minds.