Faced with the prospect of having to choose a career, Michael decides not to become a defense or prosecution lawyer or a judge, as the trial has left him with a distaste for these professions. He falls into a research position, and despite his and his wife’s belief that it is an escape from the responsibilities of the present, Michael is “relieved” to escape, recalling his youthful attraction to Hanna’s “invitation to forget the world.” However, unlike his teenage escape to his affair with Hanna and to her “obliviousness” to the world, Michael’s position as a legal historian allows him…