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The Gentile side of Barbara’s family seem to find it very difficult to accept her Jewish lineage; constantly suggesting to her that she will be more “comfy” if she stays with them.  They ignore and belittle her Jewish ancestry stating “No one could possibly blame you for skipping it.  After all, you don’t look as if you had a drop of Jewish blood”.  Her Grandmother speaks to her with approbation for her suffering in having to deal with her Jewish relatives exclaiming “Well I admire you for it”. Barbara, who cannot understand this dissent states “For what?” to which her Grandmother replies “Your loyalty to your mother’s people”.  Barbara cannot understand this attitude and does not even want to consider not seeing her Jewish Family anymore, however her English family “The Vaughan's” talk about them as though they are an entity to be ashamed of, suggesting that although they are aware of her heritage she is “after all only half.  I assure you no one minds”.  Barbara reacts to this subtle criticism by explaining to her grandmother that her Jewish relatives would not consider questioning her need to see her English relatives and don’t deem it to be a chore “The Aaronsons don’t call it loyalty when I stay here.  They take it for granted”.  Instead of being humbled by the fact that she is unfairly criticising the Aaronsons who clearly do not behave in the same manner, the grandmother simply retorts “Well I should hope so, Barbara dear”.  It is clear that the Vaughan's believe that Jews are below them on the social scale and often describe them in ways you may describe another species.  The Aaronsons are certainly an aspect of Barbara’s life that they do not wish to be associated with and would wish that Barbara would feel the same.

The Jewish side of Barbara’s family are fervently proud of their heritage and are disappointed when members of their family marry into “the wrong blood”.  Barbara felt that they would not be so concerned with whom she chose to marry due to the fact that “They always knew I wasn’t quite the right blood for them.  Only half right the other half wrong” so she wouldn’t be a great loss so far as Jewish purity was concerned.  Barbara receives teasing at the hands of her younger Jewish cousins who ridicule her for her lack of knowledge about their customs, for example Barbara almost uses the same towel to dry meat plates as well as milk plates, this is met with shock from her older Aunt Sadie, who corrects her immediately, but her cousin Michael humours her mistake saying “Vot you expect? She is neither Yeed nor Goy ees mein cousin Barbara”.  Barbara summarises her family’s feelings about her by stating “My Gentile relations tried too hard to forget I was half-Jew.  My Jewish relations couldn’t forget I was half-Gentile”.  This declaration suggests that Barbara is an outcast amongst her family due to the fact that neither her Jewish nor her Gentile family would accept her for what she was and constantly tried to deny aspects of her being.  Instead of being distraught by this Barbara adds that she “didn’t let them forget either way” about her lineage as she was determined not to lose her roots and she was acutely aware that “There’s the human soul, the individual.  Not ‘Jew, Gentile’ as one might say ‘autumn, winter’. Something unique and unrepeatable”.

Barbara has her own interpretations of her identity, which are often based on others perceptions of her; however she also has a private identity which she keeps to herself. She associates this identity with her sexuality, which she keeps hidden from view as many people perceive her as a prim spinster due to the way she dresses herself and the fact that she has restrained the expression of her feelings for many years. When looking in at her reflection she finds that “The figure in the looking-glass fascinated her” due to the fact that it does not represent her at all, she isn’t the woman that her image suggests and she dislocates herself from the figure.  Barbara adopts this persona because she has maintained a lifelong habit of approaching the world with caution, however she finds that this mysteriousness is what has actually attracted her lover, “It was this deceptive, ascetic, virginal look that Harry found intriguing” .  When she is with Harry, Barbara discovers a sexuality she was never fully aware of up until this point in her life.  She associates this sexuality with her Jewishness and feels that these instincts “distinguished herself from her Gentile relatives”.  Initially she feels afflicted by sex and ashamed of her Jewishness which has made her behave in this way, however as she falls in love with Harry she begins to feel more “blessed” by sex than her Gentile relations “by virtue of her Jewish blood”.

There are many problems associated with being Jewish other than family matters which she discovers during her travels.  It is clear that Barbara does not take the matter of her Jewish identity seriously enough when she suggests that she should “hush it up while in Israel, that I’m a half- Jew by birth” she is answered with the firm response “You’d be wiser to hush it up when you go over to Jordan.  Here, you only risk an argument, but there you might get shot”.  Barbara then becomes more aware of the implications of her Jewish ancestry but believes that “No one could possibly guess that I’m a half Jew” due to the fact that she has a certificate of baptism signed by a catholic priest.

The English expatriates that Barbara and Freddy stay with in Jordan are very concerned about Barbara’s Jewish lineage and are very keen to emphasise that “The government here is looking for a bit of trouble with the Jews at the moment” and also make it clear that even though she is only a half-Jew “Half is enough” as “The Jewish half is the symbolic half”.  This view is entirely different to that of the Vaughan’s who try hard not to accept Barbara’s Jewish connections, and believe that her Jewish half is the least important aspect of her person.  

It is clear throughout “The Mandlebaum Gate” that Barbara is not willing to let herself be categorised and have identities imposed upon her.  This is echoed by many of the other characters in the book who seem to belong “to nothing but themselves”.  Such people are used to illustrate clearly that you cannot define a person purely due to their race and religion.  It is in Acre where Abdul one of the characters within “The Mandlebaum Gate” mingles with such people “lapsed Jews, lapsed Arabs, lapsed citizens, runaway Englishman, dancing prostitutes”.  These people illustrate one of the key issues which Spark aimed to emphasise when writing “The Mandlebaum Gate” which is that people seem to feel the need to categorise people or be categorised themselves in order to find a place within society or else accept that they will be exiled from society, Bryan Cheyette reiterates this stating “In the end, these identity-less individuals all seem to break down commonplace assumptions about nation, gender and class and can be said to form an alternative community of exiles”.  Judith Butler has argued similarly that it seems as though people and the differences of identity amongst people “can be experienced only through the categories and expectations set out by culture’s signifying order”, and therefore if you are not willing to categorise yourself then you become dislocated from society.

Bibliography

• “The Mandlebaum Gate” -  Muriel Spark,  Penguin 1967
• “Muriel Spark, Writers & Their Work” - Bryan Cheyette,  Northcote House 2000.
•  “The Norton Anthology, Theory and Criticism”, “Gender Trouble” - Judith Butler, Norton 2001  

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