A Psychoanalytic Reading of Projection in the Mother-Daughter Relationship in Pearl Abraham’s The Romance Reader

Pearl Abraham’s first novel The Romance Reader (1995) features the struggle between Hasidism and modernity as exemplified in the conflictual relationship between the main female character Rachel Benjamin and her mother Tovele. Rachel is born to a Hasidic Rabbi seeking the fulfillment of his Gnostic experience by secluding himself and his family away from the modern means of life in America. Thus, what others take for granted in everyday life is totally prohibited by the Hasidic Benjamin family. Rachel, the first born daughter of the rabbi, is prohibited from any liberal indulgence in modern life; such as, reading books in English; listening to the radio; or swimming in a swimsuit. According to the norm of the Hasidic community, Rachel’s marriage is prearranged at a premature age. This paper offers a critical psychoanalytic reading of the relationship between Rachel and her mother, who is ironically the oppressor and the victim of the repressive Hasidic rules. Still, the novel recounts the constant conflict between Rachel’s mother and her stubbornly disobedient daughter. Rachel begins her rebellion by illicitly obtaining a library card in order to read romance novels in English. Rachel goes against all odds and swims in a swimsuit. She also wears sheer stockings against the austere teachings of her religious sect. eventually, Rachel becomes an impossibly stubborn wife and the novel ends with her escape and divorce. Finally, when Rachel returns home, she is treated as a persona non-grata. Through the application of psychoanalytic reading of The Romance Reader, this study concludes that oppression in the Hasidic household is self-imposed by the father who projects it onto his wife, who by turn projects it onto her daughter. The projector/projected-onto relationship between the Hasidic mother and her resilient daughter assumes the pivotal interest of this psychoanalytic reading.