History Characters / Maus

* NightmareFetsihist: {{Subverted}}. Art and Françoise briefly discuss his own experiences growing up with Vladek and Anja, and Art notes he used to imagine which of his parents he would save from being murdered if he could only save one, or imagining Zyklon B coming from the shower in his bathroom. He insists, however, that this wasn't an obsession or a game, but simply him trying to process and understand what his parents went through.

* MommasBoy: It is quite evident that Art was pretty close to Anja, compared to the somewhat more emotionally distant relationship he has with Vladek, and her suicide affected him greatly.

* CelebrityResemblance: As a young man, Vladek was often noted to carry quite a bit of resemblance to Creator/RudolphValentino.

* DrivenToSuicide: Years after the holocaust, and not only because of it. She also almost committed suicide years before the Holocaust, from severe postpartum depression after Richieu was born.

* DrivenToSuicide: Years after the holocaust, and not only because of it. She also almost committed suicide years before the Holocaust, from severe postpartum depression after Richieu was born.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: In a sense, since we never get see/hear her view with her having passed away and her diaries either being [[spoiler: destroyed or hidden by Vladek]].

* UnknownCharacter: We mostly know about her through her interactions with Art and Vladek and what's mentioned. Sadly, because of Vladek losing (or, as he says, burning, it's not clear) her diaries, we'll never get to hear of her experiences with Holocaust.

* FreudianExcuse: Played with. At different points, he whined some variant of this, saying his experience in Holocaust is why he acts the way he does. The thing is that he was ''already'' like that, and other Holocaust survivors are nowhere as stingy as him. Given that his stinginess actually helped him survive the Holocaust, at most one could say it ''reinforced'' his viewpoint that he had to act like this, and thus it continued into his twilight years.

* FreudianExcuse: Played with. At different points, he whined some variant of this, saying his experiences in Holocaust is why he acts the way he does. The thing is that he was ''already'' like that, and other Holocaust survivor are nowhere as traumatized as him. Given that his stinginess actually helped him survive the Holocaust, at most one could say it ''reinforced'' his viewpoint that he had to act like this, and thus it continued into his twilight year.

* GuileHero: Vladek survived the Holocaust as much through his own cunning as it was luck. His methods of surviving through the Holocaust can be downright MagnificentBastard. Most of his friends who did not have a guile streak were killed or disappeared.

* JewishMother: Writ large, in spite of his being a man. It is never played for laughs and stops just short of outright emotional abuse, subverting or deconstructing this trope.

* RacistGrandpa: He's very racist towards black people; he's utterly horrified when Françoise picks up a black hitch-hiker and spends the whole time he is in the car loudly complaining about it in Polish.
* TookALevelInKindness: A bittersweet example. After spending the entire book demonstrating was a miserly and tight-fisted ass he could be, the last couple of pages have his second wife state he's become much more passive, and even agrees to her desire to sell their house and move to Florida. However, it's clear the reason for all this is because he's grown unwell due to his old age.

* AwfulWeddedLife: Really. Her marriage with Vladek is dysfunctional to such a degree that, in Maus II, she leaves temporarily, taking half of the assets. She only comes back when his health gets worse and that was out of pity (she calls herself a "sucker").

* NoAccountingForTaste: Her marriage to Vladek. They did nothing but fight and she'll complain that he's stingy and he'll complain that she's the abovementioned trope.

* DeathOfAChild: He was given to a woman, Tosha, so he'd survive the Holocaust but, unfortunately, we see how well that ended.
* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: Inverted. Art resents him for this. He believes that his parents prefer their rosy memories of Richieu to their living child.

* SiblingRivalry: An odd one, as he's passed on but Art resents him.

A Hungarian-Jewish woman who helped Anja and Vladek

* HeroOfAnotherStory: She had been appointed as a Kapo at Birkenau uses her position to help other prisoners (risking her life in the process). She is instrumental in securing Anja's survival and is one of the very few people who help the main characters for genuinely altruistic reasons, refusing to accept Vladek offer of food to reward her. Vladek tries to find her after the war, but he never discovers what happened to her.

* FreudianExcuse: Played with. At different points, he whined some variant of this, saying his experiences in Holocaust is why he acts the way he does. The thing is that he was ''already'' like that, and other Holocaust survivor are nowhere as traumatized as him.

* CunningLinguist: {{Downplayed}}. While he may have issues with grammar in the English language, his linguistic ability includes English, Polish, and German; the last one allowed him to survive as he managed to persuade suspecting Germans. In the case of English, his relatively comprehensive English skills win him the favor of a Polish supervisor that provided him with food and luxuries not available to other prisoners.

!Art Spiegelman

!Vladek Spiegelman

!Anja Zylberberg-Spiegelman

!Françoise Mouly Spiegelman

!Mala Spiegelman

!Richieu Spiegelman

!Lucia Greenberg

!Lolek Speigelman

!Mancie

* HeroOfAnotherStory: She had been appointed as a Kapo at Birkenau uses her position to help other prisoners (risking her life in the process). She is instrumental in securing Anja's survival and is one of the very few people who help the main characters for genuinely altruistic reasons, refusing to accept Vladek offer of food to reward her. Vladek tries to find her after the war, but he never discovers what happened to her.

* MyBelovedSmother: ''Prisoner on the Hell Planet'' seems to imply she was this in some way, as, while she was more doting (in comparison to Vladek), there was something Art may have found smothering about her love and care, as mentioned on page 3

* IWasQuiteALooker: The one picture seen of Vladek, taken some time after he left Auschwitz, shows a quite handsome young fellow who bears some resemblance to Rudolph Valentino.

* GenocideSurvivor: Like Vladek, she's a Holocaust survivor, though the comic doesn't go into as much detail about her story.

* AuthorAvatar

* FreudianExcuse: Played with. At different points, he whined some variant of this, saying his experiences in Holocaust is why he acts the way he does. The thing is that he was ''already'' like that.

* ParentsAsPeople: He's ''not'' an easy man to deal with, and can be somewhat emotionally manipulative. But Art has to acknowledge that Vladek's life did not have an easy life.

* GuileHero: Vladek survived the Holocaust as much through his own cunning as it was luck. Most of his friends who did not have a guile streak were killed or disappeared.

* GuileHero: His methods of surviving through the Holocaust can be downright MagnificentBastard.

* RacistGrandpa: He's very racist towards black people; he's utterly horrified when Françoise picks up a black hitch-hiker.

* EverybodysDeadDave: He's the only one besides Vladek and Anja of the Spiegelman family to survive.

* BadDreams: He apparently has them every night, as he's always moaning in his sleep. Art says to Francoise: "When I was a kid I thought that was the sound that all grown-ups made while they sleep."

* MyBelovedSmother: ''Prisoner on the Hell Planet'' seems to imply she was this in some way, as, while she was more doting (in comparison to Vladek, there was something Art may have found smothering about her love and care, as mentioned on page 3
---> "I turned away, resentful of the way she tightened the umbilical cord [...]You put me here… shorted all my circuits… cut my nerve endings… and crossed my wires!"

* BathSuicide: According to the ''Prisoners of the Hell Planet''.

* UnknowCharacter: We mostly know about her through her interactions with Art and Vladek and what's mentioned. Sadly, because of Vladek losing (or, as he says, burning, it's not clear) her diaries, we'll never get to hear of her experiences with Holocaust.