yukiko's beauty

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

while reading the story we need to read (concerning the makioka sisters), if you want, try to keep in mind some things that i discovered regarding the character Yukiko.
throughout the reading yukiko seems to maintain an element virginal beauty; its somewhat hard to put in words, but its almost like how many authors decry the death of innocence. i discovered through sources that yukiko, despite her respectable stubborness to marry, eventually surrenders and caves in.
i could not help but notice the correlation between this theme and the theme that many american/uk writers love to bring about, which is the death of innocence. personally, i can't get enough of things related to that theme. in this case, i would see it as yukiko and the 'erosion' of her life. while unmarried, she maintained a youthful beauty ; and her solitude and virginity seemed to be something unique and respectable.
yet we can all understand. there is ALWAYS a point when humans bend. whether we like to admit it or not, we're weak beings. so when she unforutantely marries, perhaps thats a signal of her own death of innocence, or maybe more appropriately said in this case, the death of her uniqueness. its really too bad that she coudln't stay youthful and 'beauty' forever....
there's themes just bursting out of this one. death of innocence, fall of the virgin, fall to conformity and loss of uniqueness. it all depends on how you look at it. =]

[Anonymous]

Reading this story, I got a totally different interpretation of the plot and theme behind this. I saw it as Yukiko turning down the marraige proposal that her brother-in-law (Tatsuo) tried to set up because the prospected-husband from the Saigusa family seemed dull, unintelligent, and untalented. I feel that Yukiko emboidied the change occuring in marriage decisions and the shift towards the woman making an individual choice of a mate/husband rather than accepting an arranged marriage. In the second chapter she was against the arranged mate choice that Tatsuo as setting up which symbolizes opposition to the old ways and customs. For this guy was very financially secure and lived in a province rather than the city. While he seemed super qualified for the family in the order of respect and status, Yukiko opposed this arrangement, and rather wanted a husband who had intelligence, conversation, and intelligence. This shows that she wanted to choose a mate based on a personality she can enjoy the rest of her life rather than money and status she would inherit. Thus, the change here is significant, and Yukiko is the exact opposite of what everyone describes her to be. Yukiko emobodies a great deal of boldness behind her "quiet and inncocent" composure.

[Anonymous]

I think I agree a little with both of you guys. Do you know who it was that she caved in and married in the end? If it was someone like the person Tatsuo tried to set her up with, I can understand why you see her as being weak. But her ability to resist Tatsuo's arrangement in the first place shows some traits of strength that I quite like.

This story reminded me a lot of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in that the main female insists on having a husband that she can respect, even if it means snubbing a wealthy and socially connected suitor. I don't know what type of man she decides on marrying, and that really affects the themes of the story. I wonder what happens in the end?

I thought it was also interesting that the reading reflected some subjects that we were discussing in class, like the Confucian ideal of being "complete" by the age of thirty. This suggests that anyone not married by that age has something "wrong" with them, as was indicated by the prospect who was forty and not yet married. Also because everyone was now talking about Yukiko because she was past her "prime." I thought this runs parallel to Western thought, even if Western thought isn't due to Confucian principles. In society we often think of single people in their thirties as deficient somehow because they weren't able to get a spouse. Therefore there must be something wrong with them according to many societies. (I cite Bridget Jones as an example). Although we're slowly stepping away from this, I think this mentality still lingers in society today.

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