Susanna Domosi
The first ever relationship that the narrator has with a man is a case of forbidden love because the man is a samurai. The narrator was only eleven years old when she was having this affair with the samurai: “It was hard for us to meet, but I managed to arrange things sometimes, and we were able to make love. Rumors started, but I couldn’t stop myself” ( Saikaku, 595). The narrator shows no restraint in this section of the book and does not foresee the consequences of their affair at the time. Since the Samurai she was seeing was killed and she was punished by being sent back to her family, it is instilled in the narrator from a very young age that real love is not beneficial in the society she lives in.
Later on when the narrator is working as a Monk’s wife in a worldly temple, the narrator demonstrates her development by revealing the self control she has built up: “I found myself… wishing he would come back…After a while I forgot my loneliness…” (Saikaku, 601). With age and experience, the narrator gained better control of her emotions and was better able to handle dealing with men in this section of the story. She was now capable of separating her work and her emotions, even though this is something she confesses as being immoral at the end of the story.
Jiwoo Han
As Susanna stated, I completely agree with her. The love is not beneficial for both a young woman and man in her society. Also, this causes a horrendous consequence with serious punishments, especially for a samurai. On top of that, it seems that this love is not mature. “But the days went by, and you know, I completely forgot about him” (Saikaku, 595). This shows pretty clearly that she does not have a deep affection for a samurai.
When the woman went to Edo and becomes a mistress of a Domain lord, her way of loving a man appears. “I’ve always been an unlucky woman, buy with the lord I was fortunate. He was tender to me, and we enjoyed lovemaking” (Saikaku, 599). Her relationship with a man is so much dependent on how a man treats her. Her attitude of maintaining the relationship with a man is quite passive rather than active.
She has, however, changed in the section of A Teacher of Calligraphy and Manners. She tends to be more active to win a man’s love. “Why don’t you love me instead? We’d have to talk about it, of course, and we’d have to set looks aside. But I’m kindhearted, and with me you can realize your love without even waiting. You’ve got a lot to gain with me right now” (Saikaku, 604). By her being more enthusiastic to get his love, she makes love with him. As time goes by, the woman’s attitude to the relationship with a man has changed.
Daphne Young
Although I agree with Jiwoo when he said, “her relationship with a man is so much dependent on how a man treats her,” I disagree with his next statement where he said that the woman’s attitude to relationships with men changed. I don’t think her relationship towards men have changed at all. Throughout the text she seems very selfish, wanting sensuous love rather than the man she is making love to. Her opinion and feelings change almost instantly when the situation is not benefiting her.
We can see this selfishness in her story with the samurai. Because it was a forbidden love, the samurai was executed while she was only punished and sent away. She mourned for him, but soon she forgot about him. “It’s amazing how quickly a woman’s mind can change.” (595) When she becomes the monk’s wife, at first we can see that she was depressed, but then she began to crave his presence and enjoy her situation. However she gets spooked by a woman she meet and planned an escape. In the section A Teacher of Calligraphy and Manners, she helps a young man write love letters to a woman he is trying to pursue. Soon she falls in love with him and tells him to love her instead, as he had become very dear to her. However, almost instantly after some remarks that he makes, she says “there was no shortage of nice men in the capital, and I decided I’d have to look somewhere else.” (604)
1 response so far ↓
j.devine // Feb 24th 2017 at 9:10 am
Just as Susanna stated, it is clear that the woman’s emotional maturity changes throughout the story. Susanna comments on how the woman does not show any restraint in the beginning section, which really shows how young and inexperienced the narrator is being that she is only 13 years old. As Jiwoo states, although the narrator claims to have a deep love for this first encounter, she also says she forgets the man pretty quickly. The reader can see that the narrator moves along her stories with growing maturity and knowledge in dealing with her emotions and her work. Although I can see a change in the woman, I can also agree with Daphne in saying that the woman appears to be selfish in her relationships throughout the story, and this does not change. The woman appears to use love for her own advantage in several different occasions, like when she drains the life out of the man in “A Teacher of Calligraphy” for her own pleasure. It is almost as if she uses love against people along with her own self pleasure.
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