Literary Elements
Ihara Saikaku used his skill as a "writer of vernacular fiction" to reach a wider audience (591). By writing in the way that common people could understand he was able to put forth very interesting ideas to his readers. By the style of writing I felt pity for the woman in the plot. As the way the author wrote from her view point you could really see her choices and how heavy they weighed on her. Being so young and having to have so many men to rely on and having lost them, been refused, or fleeing their company, must have been hard. Though she was strong and clever, it was a pity as she seemed to develop Stockholm syndrome with her Monk Husband (601). When she gained some freedom she is met by a crazed old woman who was in her situation at a time (602). Understandably she left after making the monk think she was pregnant. What a horrible scene to imagine! The crazy old woman could be a metaphor for the Sensuous Woman's intuition about her situation. As there were already many red flags, this may have just been the manifestation of her unease with her temporary husband (600).
Themes
The theme of the text seems to be the challenging of social norms and the exceptions on women and sex. While also serving as a warning. The old woman had a difficult life, and still ended up in the woods living alone. She suffered separation from society because "Rumors Started, but I couldn't stop myself." (595). This tale illustrates the wonders, heart breaks, and terrors of love.
Context
The Historical Context is something to keep in mind when reading this. The Life of a Sensuous Woman was first published in Japan around 1686. We know that the freedom of women and for us to be seen as equal people has only really been in rapid movement over the last hundred or so years. So for a text to suggest a sexually free thinking woman during this time was a stir. Sexual misconduct by women has been harshly punished ans scandalized throughout history, such as women being stoned in the bible or out cast like in The Scarlet Letter. The samurai who the old woman in this tale fell in love with (in her youth), and who she had her first sexual tryst with was put to death for their affair. While she was simply sent back quietly to her parents house. She was also thirteen and I shiver to think how old her lover was. But as it is said many times in the tale, times change. (595)
Saikaku, Ihara " Life of a Sensuous Woman" The Norton Anthology World Literature, Third ed., D, W. W. Norton & Company, 2012, pp. 593-602.
Wow, great job. I cringe at the thought too of how young she was and how old her lovers were. I know back then it was normal, even in the conventional sense, for fathers to marry their daughters off to older men for financial/social gain. I like how you pointed out this reading challenges social norms about women and sex. When a man does it, he is esteemed, but a woman is out casted. Great job.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I appreciated the formatting of this post since it was very easy on my eyes haha. That aside, your analysis of the literary elements was an interesting read. I wouldn't have imagined the idea that the crazy old woman could have represented an internal struggle of whether or not she should listen to her intuition. It does seem plausible as an idea because of how terrible her situation was with the monk.
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