In Feng Menglong’s, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger”, Du Tenth escapes the betrayal of her lover by committing suicide. Similar to Du Tenth, the narrator in Saikaku’s, Life of a Sensuous Woman, questions her worth in living while living under the priests control. After growing comfortable, the narrator sees her future through a woman who has undergone many hardships while under control of the priest. “With strangers, say a third of what you think; don’t throw out all your heart’s designs at once” (513). Both the narrator and Du tenth kept many things a secret, whether it was wealth, emotions, or intentions. Both women found ways to escape their troubles after being betrayed by men who they trusted. Before diving into the river, Du Tenth says, “Born in an ill-fated hour, I fell into the bonds of a shameful life” (516). Both the narrator and Du tenth were aware of the shame associated with the floating world and the pleasure district. However, the narrator only saw escape and love as a dream while Du Tenth believed these to be a reality. Ultimately, Du Tenth’s plan of escape and love turned out to be nothing more than a dream, resulting in her death.
Assignment 2
September 17, 2015 Written by k.matthes | 5 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
5 responses so far ↓
j.kohan // Sep 17th 2015 at 8:11 pm
Du Tenth in Feng Menglong’s, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger,” and the narrator in Saikaku’s, Life of a Sensuous Woman may both be classified as prostitutes, however these two characters differ drastically in nature. The narrator in Saikaku’s narrative appears to lack any ability to love. She says, “With this single body of mine I’d slept with more than ten thousand men,” (610). Throughout all her encounters with men, could it be that she had not developed love with even one? Du Tenth on the other hand, is the victim of heartbrokenness by what appeared to be her one true love. Du Tenth, contrary to the narrator, truly undertook all measures in her power to attain love. She gave up her savings for her and Li to be together, “The padded quilt I sleep on contains a hundred fifty taels in odd change. This is my private savings,”(505). Not only so, but she even reached out to her sisters, who provided so much for the two to go on and live together. Li, oblivious to these efforts, sold her away; Li says, “He [Sun Fu] has it in mind to take you in for one thousand taels,”(514). To say that Li is a moron would be an understatement. Nonetheless, these concepts speak strongly about Du Tenth’s loving character, and what she was willing to do for another individual. In reading Saikaku, such character traits would not seem plausible for the narrator. For me personally, I did not feel much sympathy for Saikaku’s narrator at the end of the story. However, I sympathize strongly for Du Tenth, especially considering that she gave away her life.
j.kohan // Sep 17th 2015 at 8:26 pm
First of all, great thoughts and well written. The quote you chose, “Born in an ill-fated hour, I fell into the bonds of a shameful life”, is a great one and it did not initially catch my attention. It never occurred to me that Du Tenth was cognizant of her “shameful” lifestyle. Nonetheless, I think when discussing the narrator and her awareness it is key to mention that she did not really consider her wrong doings until the very end. As she said, she had affairs with thousands of men, how aware was she really. The answer is unclear but, I think that her guilt hit her only in the very end, as she looked back upon her life.
aj166127 // Sep 18th 2015 at 2:55 am
What an awesome connection you made between these two women! The best part of your connections with the narrator in Saikaku’s, Life of a Sensuous Woman, and Du Tenth in “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger”, is the way of they escaped their shame. First, I didn’t find myself thinking of Du Tenth’s shame as I was too caught up in her naivety. I saw her death as her ultimate sacrifice for love. I never linked it to dreams. In reading your blog I definitely agree with your analysis of love and dreams. If love is nothing but a dream, Du Tenth’s only way of escape had to be her demise.
s.kazinets // Sep 18th 2015 at 11:24 am
I was actually going to use the same quote that you mentioned about her being born into this type of life and how she accepted that. I think both of these characters definitely realized the situation they were in, but I almost felt like one knew this before the other. I feel like Du Tenth was more aware of the situation where Saikaku almost only realized that towards the end when she was about to take her own life. They both came to the realization that their lives were not ideal I just think it took one more than the other to come to that conclusion.
JMERLE // Sep 19th 2015 at 5:07 pm
Kelly,
You comment on several points of comparison of plot between the two women, and this is a good place to start. It would be more effective, however, to choose a character trait and then go more deeply into that. Your comment about shame could be an interesting focus for an essay, if you want to explore that more deeply.
8/10