the reader
“ ‘What would you have done?’ But this time she knew she would get no answer. She wasn’t expecting one. Nobody was. The Judge shook his head silently….Not that it was impossible to imagine the confusion and helplessness Hanna described….as if it had been a conflict between two equally compelling duties…”(128) The Guilt that remains forever Bernhard Schlink’s story is an extremely interesting mixture of both engaging historical context as well as troubling human experience. Indeed, it is interesting to read and know through the characters and actors in this story the meaning of guilt. Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret as the past erupts into the present, both Michael's past with Hanna, and the past of Germany itself. The confusion and helplessness Hanna described in the above passage is the confusion of the love relationship as well as the war crimes committed (151).