The Reader, as some critics claim, is a film about eroticism, Holocaust trauma, morality, and reconciliation. While it touches these issues, I’m most intrigued by the subtlety of the couple’s relationship. How can a middle-aged woman leave a permanent scar in a teenager’s life? In a certain sense, his whole life is haunted by the woman. Is it because the first love is always the most unforgettable? In my view, she is unforgettable not just because she is his first love but because she assumes the complicated role of a femme fatale, who torments the heart of a sensitive man.
In this film, Hanna, the femme fatale starring Kate Winslet is the archetypical figure of Jocasta, Muse and Medusa rolled into one. As Oedipus falls prey to the charm of Jocasta, Michael Berg is fascinated with the beauty of Hanna although she is old enough to be his mother. His Oedipus complex is obvious, as he is always apathetic and cold to his father, a strict man emphasizing disciplines. Thus explains his sexual inclination to an elderly woman, whom he identifies as his mother capable of giving him warmth and love while his biological mother can merely obey his father’s command.
Besides the role of Jocasta, Hanna is the goddess of Muse to Michael. The ancient Greek poets invoke Muse to help them write epics whereas Hanna inspires Michael to interpret literary works orally and thereby enliven the works themselves. In a sense, his recitation of literary works is inseparable from his erotic experience with Hanna. Without his Muse, Michael cannot enjoy the literary works as he does and neither can he produce so musically the literary words as follows: "Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy." One can hardly fail to notice how he becomes ecstatic with joy and excitement when he recites these lines to Hanna. And the very lines imply how he, like Odysseus, will be driven from his normal path and lead an isolated life once his goddess bestows and takes away the sexual booms on him!
As for Hanna’s role of Medusa, Michael’s failure in love and marriage is full evidence. As anyone who gazes at Medusa will be turned into stones, so Michael is deprived of the power to love others after his encounter with Hanna. Medusa, originally a beautiful maiden, is turned into an ugly monster with a deadly power over humans. Hanna is not ugly in her countenance but in her behavior as a Nazi guard. Medusa destroys men without the least twinge of conscience, so does Hanna before the trial. She justifies her killing of the 300 Jews in a church fire because she cosiders it her duty to guard the prisoners without letting them escape. Like the onlookers who become a stone after seeing Medusa, Michael shuts himself in an isolated world, incapable of communicating with his family. In a word, he is paralyzed after the affair with Hanna, who transforms him into a passive and callous man in the prime of his life.
The Reader embodies how a femme fatale exercises her invincible power over a sensitive man. Hanna enacts Jocasta, Muse and Medusa in her strong impact on Michael’s life. This time, the deadly woman does not just exist in the poetic lines, evoking the sentimental poets’ woes and melancholy for her rejection of his love. This time, it’s the post Nazi era in Germany, where the deadly woman murders Jews and seduces a young man. Despite different times and spaces, a femme fatale remains the same in her heartlessness toward her prey!
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