Ideal Man and Woman in The Tale of Genji Essay

In this day and age, people tend to avoid being different. Fitting in with the status quo when it comes to physical attractiveness is considered the proper thing to do, yet in The Samurai’s Garden, the characters show their beauty in a unique way. Due to their circumstances, Sachi, a once beautiful member of a leper colony, Stephen, a young Chinese student diagnosed with tuberculosis and Matsu, a quiet man who chooses to live in near seclusion, are all regarded as outcasts. However, these challenges give them a chance to grow and mature into truly beautiful people, especially on the inside. Through unveiling Matsu and Sachi’s distinct personalities, Stephen discovers another dimension to beauty; through this, Tsukiyama conveys that the most

What are their outstanding qualities? Does the author give any indication as to how or why the character developed these qualities?

The various female characters in the novel have no real power of their own and were controlled by the male figures in their lives. This is most evident in the prevalence and acceptability of polygynous marriage at the imperial court. Genji’s father has several concubines, one of which is his mother. Genji’s mother, Lady Kiritsubo, is of relatively low rank and lacks any political influence at court despite being favored by the Emperor. The reason behind her lack of influence is that she lacks parental support at court. Her father, a Grand Counselor, is dead and her mother cannot provide political support. The fact that Lady Kiritsubo has no political influence despite her mother being alive and potentially being able to support her demonstrates that, on their own, women have no political power and that this must be derived by the men in their lives. In addition to deriving their influence from men, women at the imperial court are judged primarily for their physical appearance. This is illustrated by the fact that Emperor Kiritsubo remembers most fondly about Lady Kiritsubo is her appearance. He is so fixated on her appearance that following her death, it stated that he could not forget her and “summoned various women who might console him, but apparently it was too much to ask in this world for one who even resembled her” (p. 21). Interestingly, the woman he finally takes as a wife and consort, Lady Fujitsubo, bears a striking resemblance

The author who brought to us The Tale of Genji, a novel now regarded as the first written novel in history, left behind an arguably more treasurable artifact: a diary that opens a window into history. The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Lady Murasaki Shikibu gives the reader a glimpse of the imperial court during eleventh century Japan and presents the past in an illuminated vision. Being an attendant in the imperial court, Lady Murasaki is frequently involved with the activities of elite Japanese women. Her day-to-day interaction with the nobles and elites enhance her account with the curious perspective of an elite female. As a woman, Lady Murasaki's descriptions are oriented around clothing

In any era of ancient society, only a wealthy man could afford to surround himself with a number of women, each playing a different role in his life. However, the Olympian pattern survived as the ideal. On the human level, Pomeroy shows how the "ahistorical oral tradition (Pomery 1995)" of epics by Homer provides us with a set of attitudes toward women which may reflect back to the Bronze Age. Pomeroy provides a good discussion of marriage patterns alluded to in the epic cycles, based on the marriages of royal women such as Helen,

The values, makoto and aware, are also deeply ingrained into The Tale of Genji and are a recurring theme within the work. The men are always searching for women with sincere characteristics, and the women are always chasing after Genji, who is a paragon of sincerity. The value of aware is quite Buddhist in nature and describes the impermanence of all things. This is definitely the most significant religious influence on The Tale of Genji because aware is the abounding theme throughout the tale. Genji is constantly witnessing the impermanence of life. One such example is when he loses his wife, Aoi, to childbirth. She is very sick and fragile after the birth of their son, and Genji is deeply moved by her fragility, “The sight of her lying there, so beautiful yet so thin and weak that she hardly seemed among the living, aroused his love and his keenest sympathy” (Tyler, 179). After Aoi’s death, Genji takes it hard and “life was intolerable to him” (Tyler, 180). The feeling of aware is embodied in Genji’s reaction to Aoi’s sickness and death; moreover, the fragility of life is made clear to him

Genji tries to follow some aspects of Buddhism but others not so much such as monogamy, as he has many affairs in his lifetime. It is believed that all the

• What are their outstanding qualities? Does the author give any indication as to how or why the character developed these qualities?

The Tale of Genji is one of the most important stories of ancient Japanese literature. Japanese scholar Sin Ohno said that there is no literature written during the Heian Era which is written in as precise language as The Tale of Genji. The author, Murasaki Shikibu, is a woman. In this tale, we can see the concept towards marriage of women during her period.

Murasaki often doesn’t wish to see Genji or speak to him, so their relationship is troubled at times, but also quite strong and passionate. Genji wants her in the role of the perfect woman, but Murasaki hopes for different things. Murasaki is envisioned by Genji to be the ideal women, so evidently Genji wants her to be an intrinsic part of his life, and therefore spends a lot of time pursuing Murasaki, though her daughter role and the role of possible lover alters the way Genji pursues her. Murasaki has the power to resist however, and she at times neglects Genji, which occasionally upsets him. This could parallel how Genji treats Aoi as often times, Murasaki does not want Genji to be part of her life. Each of these three examples clearly outlines the different roles and influences women play throughout Genji’s life, and each one has the power to bring out different emotions and characteristics in Genji.

The general community around Genji is probably similar in the audiences understanding of his character because Genji was still only 17 at the time, and thus for them to lament based mostly on his beauty is a portrayal of society’s love for an ideal and perfect beauty. However, this standard was not only put on males, but also placed on females. In chapter 2 of Genji Monogatari they speak of many women and the physical characters that fit the ideal women is that which is “pretty, innocent, and young.” The stress men put on beauty is shown in one example said by the Chief Equerry of the story. In that example, the only thing that he found disagreeable with one of his lovers was that “lest her lack of looks offend me.” Going back to Genji’s beauty, the men of Genji Monogatari must have been deeply obsessed with perfect beauty as during chapter 2 they found Genji so beautiful they wished he was a woman. It is important to note, however, that while the story emphasizes the importance of beauty in an ideal man or woman, there is never an actual description of physical characteristics make a “perfect beauty.” In any case, while beauty is subjective and not defined in Genji, it is clear that it is an important opinion one must have for another before a person can be considered ideal.

Woman, the most deprived group of humans, is the architect of civilization, the centre of the family, the protector of the house, the inspiration and strength of man on every front, who shaped the purpose of human race. She has proved that she is not weak, brittle and delicate, though physically weak yet spiritually

The death I have chosen to discuss occurs in chapter four of The Tale of Genji. In this particular portion of the story, Genji meets a mysterious girl who is quite fragile and secretive. They develop a close relationship, but one night, the unnamed girl dies beside him, and this devastates both Genji and her companion Ukon greatly. They send the body to an isolated hut and call some priests for her, and there is nothing extravagant that happens; Genji does not see her much after they discover that she was not breathing; after he helps put the body in the carriage, he goes to see her for a brief few minutes by horse. Despite their short time together, Genji’s grief over her death is overwhelming and comparable to that of Ukon, who, in contrast,

Ryuji is first presented as a simple man whom also have strong traditional beliefs. However, he has been influenced by Japan’s westernization to change his social status and keep up with the rapidly influenced Japanese society. Ryuji is a person who is pleased with his physicality, however his personality is depicted by Mishima as “unsociable and eccentric” [pg 15]. This is done by Mishima to make us feel sympathetic towards Ryuji because his loneliness makes him seem weaker although he is presented as a

In order to understand Genji's love, it is critical for us to look back upon his very beginning of love and life, as it originates with Lady Fujitsubo during his childhood and puberty phases. Lady Fujitsubo accompanies Genji within the process of his psychological and physical development as the role of mother and sister; with her perfect talent and appearance plus the natural Oedipus complex, Genji developed a deep adoration toward her. As the very first women Genji had ever loved, Lady Fujitsubo was the one of "eternity". The relationship between them had never approached to a completion, which left Genji with regret and void throughout the rest of his life; ever since that, his life-long goal of love was to love someone that "is" Lady Fujitsubo. Every woman he loved afterward had one or more parts of Lady Fujitsubo involved; the most obvious