Three Women In A Mirror Analysis

Hanna, the main character of Chapter 8 of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Three Women in a Mirror is yearning. She is yearning to be different, to realize her potential. But, eventually, she finds out that she is no different of all the other women of her time and her position. She is just like everybody else and in the near future she will be even more like everybody else. As a result, all of her life she will have to ask herself: Is that all?
In this chapter, Hanna writes a letter to her cousin Gretchen. She tells her about her present life as the wife of the noble and wealthy Frantz. They belong to the high society of Vienna and Hannah is very popular in her husband's friends. The reason for that is that she doesn't like to talk about herself but she is willing to listen to all their stories and confessions on themselves. However, despite this success and despite the fact that her husband is very proud of her, Hanna is not very happy. She feels that she is just playing a role like other women and that no one knows what she really thinks and wants.

In that she expresses the ideas of some of Feminist movements that wanted to see a new image of women, in real life and in the literature. Some of them thought that women should be emancipated so that they can improve their image. Virginia Woolfe wrote that women should have economic and social freedom so that they can fulfill their aspirations and not to be just an "enlarging mirror for male identity" (Castle, 2013). Hanna does not say that in such words, but it is clear that she wants to have such a freedom and that she feels that she lost her identity and that she only exists as a reflection for her husband's success. For example, her husband friends say that Hanna is a diamond, but this compliment is really for him, to show that he succeeded in finding that diamond – "'she’s a diamond, old boy, you’ve got your hands on a