Page 22 shows Valdek tell Lucia about his upcoming marriage to Anya.

 

This page shows Vladek as obnoxious, arrogant and uncaring. The woman he has slept with for 4 years and loves him is rejected for the richer, more suitable Anya. 

 

The body language of Lucia is reflected in the poster at the beginning of this chapter. While the comic Maus version of the  film poster for The Shiek shows a desperate woman in love with a dashing hero on page 12, on page 22 the frame is wider and shows the hero pulling away more and her collapsing in a pathetic heap. In this frame the woman is shown as pathetic and the man is arrogant and uncaring. He looks at her like she is dirt he needs to kick away. She is placed below him, her pose is languid and sensual, as well as pathetic and clingy. Her body language is always portrayed as sexual in the frames, while Anya is protrayed as ladylike and demure. Her gaze is not direct to the viewer like Lucia's, her eyes are shyly turned away, not gazing in passion at Vladek and her shoulders are turned in and she is hunched and timid looking. Lucia is portrayed by Art as a seductive woman, whose clothing is tight, as is her underwear (the slip she wears while in bed with Vladek). Is this Art reflecting his fathers patrirachal arrogance, or is it Art unconsciously portraying her as the sedcutive whore who lures his father into sex, thus making it acceptable for his father's affair abnd subsequent desertion?

 

This image and others show how women were percieved in this time. In the actual film posters the woman is begging the Sheik to be with her, just as Lucia begs Vladek. 

 

Women needed a man and to be married to be considered worthwhile. Their whole image revolved around being a man's wife. This is also shown by Valdek's critiquing of Anya, for her beauty, intelligence, health and ability to clean for him. He appears to have changed little as he lets Mala clean and cook for him in the present and is critical of the way she does (the wire hange, and the words 'they do not get along). This treatment of women could be the reason Art's wife Franciose does not visit his fathyer house with him.