Power of Gender

A man and a woman clearly are different creatures. That’s why society treats them different.  Therefore there are so many things that any man can do and come out dry from the water, where for any woman even one of those actions could be crucial. In the Life of a Sensuous Woman by Ihara Saikaku and in the Don Juan by Lord Jorge Gordon Byron we meet a man and a woman, who are happened to be in the same circumstances yet end up with a different outcome.  Through the history we know one became a world known hero-lover and  the another one is ashamed forever. There is no need to explain who became who. In order to understand different reaction of the society on these two characters we need to look closer into the circumstances: of how this two different characters grew, what was their first love experience and how did people treat them.

Beginning of both stories are pretty sad. Don Juan and Sensuous Woman had to go trough a rough time during their childhood. The boy had to face continuous fighting between his parents, he also was overload with school, and the most important, he didn’t feel love from his mother, simply because she wasn’t able to give that love. For a little girl times were even rougher. Her family lost aristocracy status in the society, and they had to face poverty. As she claims “we were so miserable we didn’t want to go on living”.(Saikaku, 594). Both of them managed to survive through experience. However, there is no doubt it damaged both of them emotionally.

Both of the characters had an emotional first love experience. However, the circumstances in which those two experiences were happening forced characters to irreversible changes. The sensuous woman lost here first love because their relationship was forbidden by the rules of Japanese society of seventeen’s century.  As she says, “He (her first love) lost his life for what we’d done”.(Saikaku, 595). For sometime she was miserable yet she learned how painful love could be and eventually moved on on her life with a huge scarf on her heart. Her love was pure and innocent. But people thought differently. They took away her precious from her. They killed naivety and forced her face the cruel reality.

Don Juan also got into forbidden relationship in the society. He fall in love with a married woman. Everybody seemed to be fine with it, except her husband. In addition, narrator always makes fun of the husband. He is represented as jealous, stupid, suspicious man. Automatically, reader supports adventures Don Juan and  despises the poor husband. Don Juan learned from this experience that all the rules can be broken and punishment can be avoided. He realizes that he is clever enough to take anything he wants and “ get out dry from the water”.

Later on the sensuous woman says, ”I was amazed to discover that the councilors thought it was my fault. They said I was a woman from the capital who liked fancy sex and had worn out their lord.”(Saikaku, 599) Men were always blaming her for their weakness or inability. Since men were more powerful than women in seventeen century, their word was almost equal to a law. Reputation is such a sensitive thing, yet men did everything to sensuous woman to squelch her reputation.

The main ideas of both stories mentioned by two authors in the beginning of the texts. Saikaku writes, ”A beautiful woman, many ages have agreed, is an ax that cuts down a man’s life” (Saikaku, 593), where Lord Byron states,

I WANT A HERO, AN UNCOMMON WANT,

WHEN  EVERY  YEAR AND MONTH SENDS FORTH A NEW ONE,

TILL AFTER CLOYING THE GAZETTES WITH CAN’T,

THE AGE DISCOVERS HE IS NOT THE TRUE ONE.

OF  SUCH AS  THESE I SHOULD NOT CARE TO VAUNT;

I’LL THEREFORE TAKE OUR ANCIENT FRIEND DON JUAN. (Byron, 46)

Clearly woman is represented as a cruel creature who can destroy man’s life, where Don Juan is represented as a cool guy, who is like a hero among us and the author with a pleasure wants to tell us his story.

In conclusion, the man and the woman are always going to be treated different by the society. However, judging of their actions should be free from a gender. Morality, as well as honesty, and respect has no gender. If someone did wrong or good it has to be admitted as it is.