SOURCE: "The Doctor's Dilemma: The Nature of Jealousy in Agnon's 'The Doctor and His Divorcée'," in Hebrew Studies, Vol. 30, 1989, pp. 41-7.

In the following essay, Kubovy provides a psychological analysis of the protagonist's jealousy in "The Doctor and His Divorcée."

There are many different interpretations of the story "The Doctor and His Divorcée." The story has been analyzed for spiritual, religious, social, and psychological meanings. I will concentrate on the psychological aspects of the story, focusing especially on the nature of jealousy and the interplay among its various components.

In this story a doctor meets a nurse named Dinah and is attracted to her particularly because of "that blue-black in her eyes," "and that smile which drove me wild with its sweetness and its sorrow." Eventually they marry. But the source of Dinah's sorrow remains hidden from him until, after long and persistent questioning, she...