Love Suicides At Amijima Summary

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Onnarashisa, or female-likeness, is a particular type of archetype for Shingaku women and is seen by many men of the time to be the embodiment of prime femininity. This ideal desire of female-likeness is something that a real woman would be unable to live up to due to the high standards set by the men of the time; let alone that this notion was created by and for men. Often onnarashisa are characterized by submissive, loyal, caring women who do not show much jealousy and stay true to their honor while forgoing their own emotions. They usually are not aggressive, opinioned, dominant, or independent in any way, as these are seen as a negative and if they do have these characteristics they are seen as villainous or unlikable. As such, one could …show more content…

This idea can be seen if various literatures around the 18th century, however the ideas of onnarashisa can be heavily seen in the play Love Suicides at Amijima by Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Love Suicides at Amijima follows Tahei as he falls madly in love with Koharu and makes a suicide pact with her despite his marriage to Osan. During this play you can see how despite their shortcomings, Koharu and Osan can be great examples of onnarashisa. In Love Suicides at Amijima, there is a point in which Osan confesses to sending letters to Koharu in order to get her and Tahei to break up. While discussing this, she reveals that Koharu complied with her wishes despite what she wanted in order to save Tahei from the lover’s suicide. Koharu replied and said that “She would give you up, though you were more precious than life itself, because she could not shirk her duty to me” (Chikamatsu 350). This shows that despite how strongly Koharu feels that she will due her duty and accepts what is expected of her. Thus leading for Osan to also feel as if she owes Koharu something as a woman and says that “Alas! I’d be failing in the obligations I owe her as another woman if I allowed her to die. Please go to her at once. Don’t let her kill herself” (Chikamatsu 350). This also shows that Osan too

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