As I read “The Barrelmaker Brimful of Love”, a recent and familiar story was inserted into my thought, “The Wise Neighbor” by Pu Song-Ling. In “The Wise Neighbor” Mrs.Chu was the first wife of Mr.Hung and he wedded another woman, Pao-tai. Poa-tai was an obstacle in the way of Mrs.Chu from salvaging Mr.Hung’s affection and desires towards Mrs.Chu. She wanted to fight for her primary position as Mr.Hung’s first wife.The same conflict can be detected in “The Barrelmaker Brimful of Love”. In this story there are two men competing for the love of Osen, the cooper and Kyushichi. The cooper can be seen as the first “husband” because he’s the one that makes the advances towards Osen through the Old Nanny. Kysushichi can be comparable to Pao-tai because he becomes the obstacle that gets in between Osen and the cooper.
In each story there is a predictable outcome and that is easily established by the way the stories are structured. Pu Song-Ling’s story “The Wise Neighbor” structuring device comes into play chronologically (p777-779). After every one month Mrs.Chu goes back to the Mrs.Heng for the next step in winning her husband back. On the other hand in “The Barrelmaker Brimful of Love”, the structuring device comes from the events from the cooper and Kyushichi (p598). While Mrs.Chu follows every order from her neighbor and gets her more of her husband’s attention, the cooper thwarts each effort of Hyushichi.
Each story has a protagonist who plays as the manipulator. The neighbor is the manipulator in “The Wise Neighbor” and the Old Nanny is the manipulator in “The Barrelmaker Brimful of Love”. The neighbor uses actions to manipulate Mr.Hung’s desires and the Old Nanny uses her wise tongue to manipulate Osen’s feelings. Although the manipulation techniques are different, the result is the same.
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On another note, I found an ironies in “The Barrelmaker Brimful of Love”. On page 592 the seventh paragraph from the top, the cooper states he sent Osen “…hundreds of letters…” and on page 595 the seventh paragraph from the top, Osen asks the Old Nanny “Can he write letters himself…”. It’s either Osen never got the letters or is asking if the cooper is literate.
Moreover, there are probably other ironies as well but there’s many clear cut foreshadowing. On page 592 the Old Nanny tells the cooper “…terrible things…happen to people who did wrong in this world…” and that foreshadows the event in which Osen commits adultery with Chozaemon and they both end up dieing. They become a symbol of punishment for sinning. In addition to the first instance of foreshadowing, the last paragraph of page 600 continuing on to the second paragraph on page 601 lead to the climax of Osen and Chozaemon committing adultery. The last foreshadowing comes from page 593 the last sentence right before the title. This line also can be juxtaposed to the title on page 601 “Life Is Shorter Than a Toothpick Made from Woodshavings” and this is where Osen takes her own life.