# Anna Federner — Three Lives character guide

> Anna Federner in Three Lives by Gertrude Stein.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** the good Anna, Anna, Poor Anna

**First appearance:** 0002-the-good-anna

## Snapshot

A small, spare German servant with lightning in her light blue eyes, who scolds teamsters and loves dogs with the same fierce, unappeasable loyalty.

## Who they are

The good Anna runs Miss Mathilda's household for five years, ruling kitchen and street with a strained voice, a glittering eye, and the friendship of every policeman on the beat. She is worn thin by under-servants, by Miss Mathilda's faint-hearted refusal to scold, and by her own rigid sense of how things ought to be. Her arduous, troubled life — its small tyrannies and its deep devotions — carries the first of Stein's three lives and sets the book's tone of patient, unglamorous endurance.

## Relationships

### [Melanctha Herbert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/melanctha_herbert)

_friendship_

Anna and Melanctha share a brief but intense friendship, with Anna drawn to Melanctha's vitality while disapproving of her behavior.

### [Peter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/peter)

_romantic_

Anna has a brief, unsatisfying romantic involvement with Peter, a man who fails to meet her emotional needs.

### [Molly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/molly)

_friendship_

Molly is a kind but ineffectual friend to Anna, offering sympathy but unable to help her escape her destructive patterns.

### [Julia Lehntman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/julia_lehntman)

_social_

Julia, Mrs. Lehntman's daughter, is a casual acquaintance of Anna, often caught in the middle of Anna's obsession with her mother.

### [Sallie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/sallie)

_friendship_

Sallie is a loyal but pragmatic friend to Anna, trying to guide her toward healthier choices.

### [Baby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/baby)

_family_

Anna's baby is the child she desperately clings to, but her unstable life leads to the baby's death from neglect.

### [Melanctha Herbert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/melanctha_herbert)

_friendship_

Anna and Melanctha share a brief but intense friendship, with Anna drawn to Melanctha's vitality while disapproving of her behavior.

### [Melanctha Herbert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/melanctha_herbert)

_friendship_

Anna and Melanctha share a brief but intense friendship, with Anna drawn to Melanctha's vitality while disapproving of her behavior.

### [Julia Lehntman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/julia_lehntman)

_social_

Julia, Mrs. Lehntman's daughter, is a casual acquaintance of Anna, often caught in the middle of Anna's obsession with her mother.

### [Baby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/baby)

_family_

Anna's baby is the child she desperately clings to, but her unstable life leads to the baby's death from neglect.

### [Sallie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/sallie)

_friendship_

Sallie is a loyal but pragmatic friend to Anna, trying to guide her toward healthier choices.

### [Sallie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/sallie)

_friendship_

Sallie is a loyal but pragmatic friend to Anna, trying to guide her toward healthier choices.

## In the story

### [Three Lives](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/chapters/three-lives)

Introduced as 'the good Anna,' a devoted servant whose life is defined by self-sacrifice and routine.

### [The Good Anna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/chapters/the-good-anna)

The central figure of the chapter, a German servant devoted to Miss Mary Wadsmith, known for her strictness and self-sacrifice.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/chapters/i)

The good Anna, a small, spare German woman about forty, who manages Miss Mathilda's house with a sharp voice and firm hand.

### [II: The Life of the Good Anna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/chapters/ii-the-life-of-the-good-anna)

The protagonist, a hardworking German servant who manages households and forms deep attachments to her employers and friends.

### [III: The Death of the Good Anna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/chapters/iii-the-death-of-the-good-anna)

Anna struggles to make a living as a boarder-keeper, works herself to exhaustion, and dies after an operation.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters/anna_federner
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/three_lives_se/characters