The Other Einstein: A novel

The first chapters of The Other Einstein introduce Mileva, a young woman who recently emigrated from Serbia to Switzerland to attend university. Mileva, the novel’s central protagonist and first-person narrator, is a female student in 1896, a time period in which women were not allowed to attend university. She receives special permission to attend her prestigious university and is the only woman in her physics class. In 1896, Switzerland was considered an exceptionally modern and progressive country. Still, Mileva and her female friends experience sexism and xenophobia. In that era, a woman’s role was to marry, have children, and stick to domestic duties. Women were considered naturally inferior to men, so most women were not educated. The few who were, like Mileva, were anomalies.

Mileva is not just a woman in a Swiss university; she is also Serbian during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lasted from 1867 to 1918. The empire began with a dual-royal partnership between Austria and Hungary, both of which colonized smaller states in the area to create their empire. After World War I, Austria could not support the breadth of the empire, so it dissolved, and the nations that comprised the empire achieved their independence. But in 1896, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was thriving. An empire relies on colonialist manipulation: To maintain power, leaders attempt to justify their roles by demonstrating why colonized people need them, often framing their roles as benevolent despite the system’s inherent exploitation of colonized countries. The Austro-Hungarian Empire blamed small Eastern European countries like Serbia for their own colonization, propagating the view that smaller, poorer countries need larger, more sophisticated ones to “give” them language and culture, as though they didn’t have their own linguistic and cultural identity prior to being colonized.

The empire’s influence is evident in the xenophobia and antisemitism that Mileva and her friends experience at school. Due to the public’s acceptance of the colonizers’ narrative, she and her Eastern European peers are seen as inferior to Germans, Austrians, or the Swiss. This is why she is offended when Einstein calls her “bohemian.” To Mileva, this word is an ethnic slur used to point to the so-called inferiority of Eastern Europeans. Her friend Helene also faces antisemitism because of her Jewish identity. Europe has a long history of developing ghettos for Jewish people to live in, long before even World War II. Thus, Mileva and her friends’ intersectional identities represent a formidable challenge to their intellectual aspirations because society constructs several reasons to make them the “Other.”

Societal norms of the time period also create certain boundaries and codes of conduct between men and women. Although Mileva is given exclusive admission to a classroom of men, it is expected that the other young men in the class won’t pay much attention to her. Despite her being in class with them and, therefore, their intellectual equal, there is a certain decorum expected between men and women. For example, Einstein is chastised for staring at her because gawking at a woman is seen as improper. Boundaries such as these are a hindrance to Mileva’s inclusion in the classroom. She is not allowed to make friends with boys the way she does with girls, which means that she and her male classmates will always be distanced from one another. Inclusion in the classroom means the young men can be encouraged to respect Mileva and the other female students, but without the prospect of friendship, no empathy develops between them. The impropriety of a friendship between men and women hides men and women from seeing one another’s personalities or inner selves.

Boundaries between men and women aren’t the only problem for women. In a society constructed and sustained by patriarchy, women are also raised to internalize their roles and build up boundaries between themselves and other women. Mileva has been without friends for most of her life because the girls she grew up with were cruel to her. She was often mocked for walking with a limp, her talents at school, and her ambitions to study more. She doesn’t trust women. But when Mileva meets the other young women at the pension, she discovers that some women can be authentic and dear allies. Her new friendship with Helene teaches her that women can be confidantes and allies against shared sexism and insecurities. Becoming friends with the women at the pension is a turning point in Mileva’s character development. It helps her soften her defenses against the world and makes her more vulnerable and open to love. These new friendships also show her that she is not the only young woman pursuing intellectual ambitions. The women she meets at the pension are all intelligent and hardworking, and they dream of lives beyond marriage and domestic duties. Knowing that she is not alone in her dreams gives her more confidence in them. At the pension, Mileva learns that there are many people who try to defy social norms in the name of intellectual pursuit. Helene compares the women of the pension to the Fagus sylvatica, a tree that can grow to 30 meters and live for 300 years if not stunted by overcrowding. This metaphor demonstrates that women are naturally capable of growth and longevity but are suffocated in their growth by the people and rules that crowd around and oppress them.

Mileva’s genuine love for the study of physics drives her. The 19th century was a time of major scientific discovery, but it was also a religious era. The two were often held in tension with one another. In these first chapters, Mileva combines science with her religious beliefs. She believes that physics is too beautiful not to have the presence of God within it and doesn’t divorce religion from science.

At the beginning of the novel, Mileva is characterized as shy in all aspects of life except for physics. This suggests that she will either continue to be shy and, therefore, be held back by her caution, or that her character development will include opening up and becoming more confident, socially and emotionally.

The figure of Albert Einstein is also introduced in these chapters. Benedict sets up the expectation of romance within his first glance at Mileva. His enthusiasm that she is multifaceted and not a follower of the status quo suggests that Einstein will make a good partner to her. Chapter 4 ends with him appearing at her pension uninvited, highlighting his desire to get to know her. Mileva’s response to his attention is complicated by the ableist attitudes she internalized in Serbia that convinced her marriage was not possible for her. Benedict implies that along with learning that she was wrong about female friendships, Mileva will also learn that she shut herself off from the idea of romance too soon.