Annotating Mishima's Patriotism

I agree that women in that generations were taught to be submissive and once they marry they are like the husband’s property. It is also sad that they were only married for such a short time and she is willing to die with him.

-Sandy

This moment was very impressive description of Reiko’s feeling and operation. It is difficult thing to help her lover to finish the suicide. Meanwhile, the passage  portarys lieutenant’s determination to suicide.

Although this paragraph does show the societal duties of women towards their husband, it also shows the strength and pride that Reiko takes in her position as his wife. Her action of taking the knife shows her dedication to her husband. And the silent understanding afterwords shows the mutual respect and trust between them both. Shinji’s forewarning to his wife about the possibility of suicide also has a caring undertone to it. He wants to give her the chance to be prepared and prove herself; which she does.

Yup, it’s quite pretentious to me that they want to show people that they are patriotic enough to kill themselves. And I feel like the author is over glorifying their suicides.

Sandy, it is amazing how the last thing the Lieutenant, and Reiko did together was to make love to one another. Do you think there is a correlation or  a possibly theme associated with love and death in which Mishima is trying to portray?

I like your choice of scene to show simultaneity in the story. There were definitely a lot of conflicting emotions going through the character’s minds, such as the passion and death that you pointed it. The Lieutenant has a lot of thoughts running through his head at once and intertwining together, but the overall theme is that he feels a sense of freedom in both these acts.

I very much agree with this and discussed a similar idea in my most. The simultaneity that exists in the above sentence is clear, and is one of the more interesting sentences in the paper.

I agree with you that Reiko and lieutenant had S&M relationship, because she didn’t want to disobay her husband. It is not clear did she like it or she simply accepted to satisfy him.

I agree that the first part of the sentence, even though short and simple, tells a lot about Reiko. She is your typical traditional wife that is very loyal and obedient to her husband. I didn’t think much about the “coat” when I read through, so I think it is interesting that it could be a reference to Reiko’s feelings.