Mala Spiegelman Character Analysis in Maus

Vladek’s second wife, whom he marries shortly after Anja dies. Mala feels stifled by Vladek, and resents him for his stinginess and his expectation that she will cater to all his neuroses. Her frustration and resentment tends to manifest as an obsession with Vladek’s estate. After years of caring for Vladek, she believes she is owed the bulk of his money and assets, and often badgers him about revising his will to increase her inheritance. Mala is a Holocaust survivor, who knew Vladek in Sosnowiec before the war. Though she makes occasional reference to her experiences, Artie never makes an effort to collect her memories. She is warm and respectful toward Artie, and gets along well with him even while fighting with Vladek.

Mala Spiegelman Quotes in Maus

The Maus quotes below are all either spoken by Mala Spiegelman or refer to Mala Spiegelman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

The Holocaust and the Responsibility of its Survivors Theme Icon

).

Mala: Pragmatic? Cheap!! It causes him physical pain to part with even a nickel!

Artie: Uh-huh. I used to think the war made him that way.

Mala: Fah! I went through the camps … All our friends went through the camps. Nobody is like him!

Artie: Mm … It’s something that worries me about the book I’m doing about him … In some ways he’s just like the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew.

Related Characters: Arthur (Artie) Spiegelman (speaker), Mala Spiegelman (speaker), Vladek Spiegelman

Page Number and Citation: I.131

Explanation and Analysis: