SOURCE: "Passivity in Agnon," in At the Handles of the Lock: Themes in the Fiction of S. J. Agnon, The Littman Library, 1984, pp. 31-59.

In the following excerpt, Aberbach studies the meaning underlying the passivity of characters in Agnon's short fiction.

No characteristic of the Agnon hero is more pervasive, more problematical and deeply rooted than his passivity. In his contact with women and men, whether they are relatives, friends, acquaintances, or officials, his passivity shows itself in his indecisiveness, his failure to act or to complete his actions, his willingness to wait aimlessly, his malleability, "femininity", and masochism, his blind submission to authority of all kinds, and in his tendency to believe in predestination. In its extreme forms the passivity of the Agnon hero manifests itself in physical paralysis, and in his difficulties in taking a woman sexually.

The problem of passivity is one of the acute...