SOURCE: Ben-Dov, Nitza. “Discriminated Occasions and Discrete Conflicts in Agnon's A Simple Story.” Prooftexts 9, no. 3 (September 1989): 213-27.

In the following essay, Ben-Dov discusses the “assertive mother” theme in A Simple Story and describes Agnon's use of repetition or variation of motifs to highlight the rivalry between two women for one man's attention.

The powerful influence of Agnon's Jewish mothers on their sons has long been observed by his critics. Yet the psychology of the mother herself—her motives, thoughts, words, and actions—has not been explored. A Simple Story, the novel that is Agnon's masterpiece of psychological realism,¹ offers an excellent opportunity to delve into the mother's mind. Unlike Jacob Rechnitz's mother in “Betrothed” and Yitzhak Kumer's in Just Yesterday, Hirshl's mother belongs to the fictive present of the novel. Rechnitz and Kumer's mothers, though they doubtless have a pervasive and devastating influence on their sons' lives, especially...