great works ii – 2850 jta 12:25-2:05: love letters from the world

             These two narrations shared the same profession in life but their experience and the way they dealt with it came to be different. Du Tenth is the main character in Feng Menglong’s, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger,” was a able to experience what it was like to love someone, unlike Saikaku’s character in “Life of a Sensous Woman”.Even though Du Tenth was a prostitute and slept with many men she was still able to fall in love. As it was described, “Nonetheless, the two grew ever more devoted to one another, and happily spent both day and night in each other’s company, just like a married couple” (501). Du Tenth, loved Master Li unlike Saikaku who just got used to the situation when she was stuck with the monk. Saikaku would describe that at first she hated being with the monk and it was a terrible situation, however as time went by it was as if she started to miss him. It was not her falling in love with him, it was almost her just accepting the situation that she was in and getting used to the fact that this was going to be her life. While reading Du Tenth’s story it felt like she cared more about the person she was with unlike Saikaku. Saikaku just went from man to man without having any connection with anyone, she never experienced betrayal. Du Tenth couldn’t believe she did get betrayed as she said, “You have abandoned me at mid journey and betrayed my earnest heart” (516). There is a sense of feeling bad for the character even though she is a prostitute where as when Saikaku was telling her story the reader might not have felt such a remorse towards the character.