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

The female lead’s in Feng Menglong’s, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger,” and Saikaku’s narrative, Life of a Sensuous Woman are both similar to each other in being prostitutes, but they couldn’t be more different from one another.  I found the prostitute in Life of a Sensuous more disconnected emotionally in comparison with Du Tenth.  Even in reading it there was almost a disconnect.  She finds herself sleeping with man after man, some of whom she admits to not caring for then finding herself attached and “falling for” just as swiftly.  She teeters on the edge of love and lust in my opinion, and confuses the lather with love in most instances.  Du Tenth on the other hand is attached to one man, her supposed true love.  When he failed her financially, she sacrificed for their love.  “…This is my private savings.  My love, you may take it…”, she gives him all of her savings so they could be together.  But she doesn’t do this just once, she does it again when he squanders money on “whoring” and other trivial pursuits.  She finds herself sharing money that was given to her, to share among them together for traveling.  “My husband don’t be troubled.  The collection made by all my sisters will surely help us out.”  It’s hard not to sympathize with someone who’s doing nothing but making sacrifices for someone who who does nothing but make selfish decisions.   On the other hand it’s easy to be unsympathetic towards someone who confuses lust for love, as she has never had to make any true sacrifices because there was no real love (real or unreal) to sacrifice for. In the end Du Tenth ends up making the ultimate sacrifice, her life.  Who can’t sympathize with that?