Kayla Nilges
Jane Cocalis
Literature into Film
1 December 2009

Delving into The Reader
In Bernhard Shlink’s The Reader, Michael Berg is a schoolboy fifteen-year-old afflicted with Hepatitis. The time first he meets Hanna Shmitz, he is vomiting in an alley. He feels weak, disoriented, and frightened, and Hanna helps him make it home. The impression of Hanna that Shlink initially gives his readers is one of compassion and strength. Although other unnerving aspects of Hanna’s character are later revealed, it is that first image of Michael being helpless and Hanna providing strength that stays with the reader. When Hanna and Michael become lovers, the two exchange strength and weakness with each other. Their relationship is built on sexually fulfilling one another, which in turn makes them both vulnerable.
Throughout their relationship, Hanna appears to remain in control Michael succumbs to her in arguments and puts all faults on himself. Hanna decides when and how they will make love. She decides when he will see her, and dictates how long the sessions will last. She even makes him read aloud to her. It essentially seems that Hanna, as the older, more experienced woman, makes all the decisions and Michael is subservient to her because he is unable to sustain himself without her love. The reader’s view is later altered when Hanna is revealed to be illiterate, but for part one of the book, Hanna is dominant. She only cries once: on a spring biking trip with Michael, when she wakes up alone and finds a note explaining where he has gone. Even that act is more out of frustration with her own ineptness. Hanna is freely cruel to Michael when she is angry, and regularly reduces him to tears. In most ways, Michael seems hopelessly involved with Hanna and their relationship while Hanna is only fully present while they are making love. The final insult comes when Hanna leaves her apartment empty and flees to another town. Michael is left completely alone, heartbroken, and forever damaged.
When Michael sees Hanna again, he is a law student doing an observation with his classmates, and Hanna is on trial for murder. It is exposed that Hanna was a guard at Auschwitz, and the trial goes badly for her. When her fellow defendants accuse her of writing a false incident report, the judge requests a sample of her handwriting, which she of course cannot provide. She falsely incriminates herself by “admitting” that she wrote the incident report on her own, and when the realization that she is illiterate hits Michael, he feels compelled seek his professor’s advice. This is an instance where Michael is in control, and he is stronger. It is in his power to alter Hanna’s fate, and he chooses not to intervene. He is in court the day that Hanna is sentenced to life in prison. Throughout Hanna’s sentence, Michael chooses to read to her by sending her tapes with his recorded voice. Hanna’s secret is out, and her shame exposed. Michael, despite being an adult, unwillingly loves her, but chooses to keep his life separated from hers, save for the tapes he sends. This is an act of dominance on Michael’s part. He is strong at this point, and has decided that she will no longer interfere with his emotions. The tables have turned. Now Hanna needs Michael, and he has chosen to withdrawal support. This doesn’t necessarily seem to be an act of selfishness, but an act of wisdom. Michael believes that he will never see Hanna again. However, once again, things change for both of them.
Though Hanna was sentenced to life in prison, she goes up for review and it is decided that she will be released. Although she is aged and Michael has experienced adulthood, there is still an intense level of history and secrets between them. Both Hanna and Michael have changed because of each other. While in prison, Hanna teaches herself to read. Michael is a judge, has a daughter, and has experienced a failed marriage. They meet again almost as strangers, and the reader realizes, almost as the characters do, that they are both equally affected. Although they had an exchange of strength and weakness between them, both are completely powerless to each other. Love changed them both, and both are weak in it.
Hanna and Michael are fictional characters, but their story endures. In literature, and in life, human beings are strong until someone enters their life and changes them to their very core. Weakness is perceived as being unconstructive by society, but it is entirely necessary, and unavoidable, in love. Hanna and Michael’s unrequited love caused Hanna to take her own life just before being released from prison. Michael is left with an eternal ghost. It would seem as though the biggest mistake Hanna and Michael made was not exchanging vulnerability at the same time. Their love changed both of them forever, but for different reasons. Michael’s youth was sacrificed. Hanna’s past eventually made her lose Michael. Whether either of these characters chose to acknowledge it, they were equally hurt as a result of circumstances and their unwillingness to a. Though Hanna chooses to take her own life rather than confront the pain of her past, Michael chooses to seek closure after Hanna’s death. Even if he will inevitably be haunted by the memory of his experience with Hanna, he can still make a place for the memories and chooses to live despite them. Even if both characters are weakened, Michael believes that life can go on despite his compromised adolescence. Shlink gives both Michael Berg and the reader a sense of relief and finalty.