The Piano Teacher

“The Piano Teacher” “The Piano Teacher” is a novel written by Elfriede Jelinek and first published in 1983. It was made into a motion picture directed by Michael Haneke and won three major prizes at the Cannes 2001 festival including best actress for Isabelle Huppert and best actor for Benoit Magimel. Erika Kohut is a piano teacher at the Conservatory of Vienna. She is a very up tight, rigid and cold person. As I kept reading the book I understood that it was not her fault she came up to be this way. Her mother was very protective of her, even at 30 years of age. They lived together, slept in the same room in the same bed; she didn’t have her own room, only her own closet to organize her clothes. Erika’s mother was always telling her what to do and how to do it; she ran her life and didn’t let her daughter live her life in a healthy and normal way. Erika never came out of her shell, she had always the same routine and her mother knew every step she took since she was the one trying to control her life. Erika’s father left them when she was born, she never had a relationship with him, he later died but it didn’t shock her life in a big way since she didn’t really know him. Living in an atmosphere like Erika’s, I could understand why she grew up to be as mentally disturbed as she was. Erika didn’t really feel alive; she didn’t have any excitement in her life, no love affairs, no adrenaline rushes, no nothing, just her routine: teaching piano lessons at the conservatory and heading back home to confront her mother as she did every day and every night. One night she discovered a way to feel alive, she ended up at a porn store and came in to see what it was all about. She saw pornographic movies and magazines; there were booths with prostitutes and televisions so that the clients could see porn in their private space. She came into one of these booths, with no expression on her face, she just reluctantly watched as people on the screens were having