Abstract:The Reader is an emotional and romantic film revolving around an erotic affair which resurfaces later into love. The purpose of the movie The Reader is to discuss the leading roles’ character and to find out the merits and weakness of human nature.

This thesis focuses on the analysis of the leading roles Hanna Schmitz and Michael Berg’s character, in the aspect of kindness, cowardice of feelings, fear of disobedience, self-abasement and indifference. Though Hanna Schmitz and Michael Berg have different decisions and characters, terminally they both choose to get redemptions, which can comfort our heart and soul. The aim of the thesis is to further understand the meaning of redemption in the movie.

Key words: the Reader; character analysis; redemption

Table of Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Introduction to the movie-1

1.2 The Content of the Movie-1

1.3 Introduction of the Character-2

1.4 Literature Review-3

2. The Analysis on the Leading Roles’ Character-4

2.1 The Analysis of Hanna Schmitz-4

2.1.1 Kindness-4

2.1.2 Cowardice of Feeling-4

2.1.3 Fears of Disobedience-5

2.1.4 Self-Abasement-6

2.2 The Analysis of Michael Berg-6

2.2.1 Cowardice of Feeling-6

2.2.2 Indifference-6

3. Redemption of the leading roles-9

3.1. The Redemption of Hanna Schmitz-9

3.2. The Redemption of Michael Berg-9

4. Conclusion-11

References-12

Acknowledgements-13