Three Lives · Chapter
III: The Death of the Good Anna explained
After Miss Mathilda leaves, Anna decides to stay in the furnished house and take in boarders rather than enter service again.
What happens
After Miss Mathilda leaves, Anna decides to stay in the furnished house and take in boarders rather than enter service again. She works tirelessly, scolding and caring for her boarders, but struggles financially. Her health deteriorates from overwork and poor self-care. Despite advice from her priest and friend Mrs. Drehten, she cannot rest. Eventually she undergoes a hospital operation but dies from the strain. Mrs. Drehten writes to Miss Mathilda with news of Anna's death and her final wishes.
Themes in this chapter
Servitude and Self-Sacrifice
Anna's relentless work and refusal to rest, even to save her own life, epitomizes her self-sacrificing nature.
Isolation and Longing
Anna's longing for Miss Mathilda and her gradual withdrawal from old friends highlight her deepening isolation.
Death and Mortality
The chapter culminates in Anna's death after a failed operation, underscoring the fragility of life for the overworked.
Characters to notice
- Anna Federner
Anna struggles to make a living as a boarder-keeper, works herself to exhaustion, and dies after an operation.
- Mathilda Haydon
Miss Mathilda has left Bridgepoint; Anna longs for her return and keeps her things in order.
- Mrs. Drehten
Anna's closest remaining friend; she visits Anna, advises her to rest, and later informs Miss Mathilda of Anna's death.
- Miss Mary Wadsmith
Mentioned as someone Anna could return to, but Anna chooses not to.
- Mrs. Lehntman
Anna sees her rarely now; their friendship has faded due to past disillusionment.
- Peter
Anna's dog; she hopes Miss Mathilda will take him when she returns.
Key passages
“It was not now any longer that she wanted to stay near Mrs. Lehntman. There was no one now that made anything important, but Anna was certain that she did not want to take a place where she would be under some new people.”
Anna no longer felt attached to Mrs. Lehntman or anyone else; she was determined not to work under new employers.
Anna's independence and weariness with change.
“Anna worked, and thought, and saved, and scolded, and took care of all the boarders, and of Peter and of Rags, and all the others. There was never any end to Anna’s effort and she grew always more tired, more pale yellow, and in her face more thin and worn and worried.”
Anna's endless labor and worry left her exhausted, pale, and emaciated.
The physical toll of her relentless work.
“Anna would then promise to take care, to rest in bed a little longer and to eat more so that she would get stronger, but really how could Anna eat when she always did the cooking and was so tired of it all, before it was half ready for the table?”
Anna promised to rest and eat better, but her exhaustion and constant cooking made it impossible.
The irony of her inability to care for herself while caring for others.