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

In Life of a Sensuous Woman, the narrator reacts to her profession in many ways. One that stands out is that at first, she showcases a feeling of regret. Although she has this feeling of regret towards her profession, the narrator eventually puts it behind her and doesn’t think about the things she’s done. When she goes on to explain her story of the Young Samurai, she states, “I thought about killing myself. But the days went by, and you know, I completely forgot about the man. It’s amazing how quickly a woman’s mind can change.” Her initial reaction is to feel regret and not wanting to be a part of this world anymore. Yet, as time passes, she puts these events behind her and continues about. As she continues to tell her stories, she begins to talk about the time she became the temporary wife of a Priest in exchange for money. In this instance, she mentions, “living like this was depressing enough, but sleeping with the Priest made me even sadder. It was just a job, and there was no love in it.” Her sign of regret is portrayed through this quote. Yet, she goes on to say “Later I got used to the situation and even came to enjoy it.” The narrator shows how quickly a woman’s mind can change as she is able to place this depressing feeling behind her and continue about.

• Jorge

Jorge, I like how you use the one situation with the Priest and show an example of how her feelings for the profession changed. Despite the fact that she was depressed about her way of life at first, as time went on she came to be more accepting of what she did. In fact, at one point, the narrator says, “When I got there, the old retainer thought I was even better than the woman in the painting, so the search was called off.” Through this quote we can see that there is a tone of acceptance in her feelings about what she did. She comes to think that perhaps she’s simply the right woman for the job. And maybe, the readers can connect that she was simply born to be in the life that she was thrust into. But then we move into another situation in which she says, “I was suddenly dismissed and sent all the way back to my parents— again.” This implies that even though she had come to accept her situation and her affinity for the occupation, she still disliked it in many ways— such as that of being on the receiving side of negative judgment. Once again, this can be seen as a shift in her opinion about her profession.

• Aly

Jorge brings up a good point that the narrator senses a great feeling of regret but I believe that she felt a great amount of love for herself and others.  Aly also has good reasoning for why the narrator may have been depressed at times but from the quote “I could make the woman who read one of my letters fall deeply in love with the man who’d asked me to write it”, you can see that she did believe in love and was happy about it.  During this time of being a calligraphy teacher, all the letters she wrote were all about love and it was so easy for her to write about.  Even though she wanted to stay away from men when she started the school soon enough she wanted love again.  When the narrator says “You’re just not getting anywhere with her. Why don’t you love me instead”, it just helps show that even when the narrator does not want or need love, it will always be apart of who she is.

• Preston