여성에 의한 여성의 ‘주체’형성에 관한 고찰 -『십삼야(十三夜)』와 『깨진 반지(こわれ指環)』를 중심으로-

Abstract

The author has reviewed how to discover the female’s identity reflecting in masterpieces of the ‘Thirteen Nights’ by Higuchi Ichiyo and ‘The Broken ring’ by Shimizu Shiking in the meiji period. The two ladies, Oseki, in the thirteen nights, not educated novel heroine and ‘I’ in the ‘Broken Ring’, well educated and high school graduated modern lady’ are commonly described to obey the old social customs. The 2 happenings, one is the husband’s abuse and insult to Oseki in the "Thirteen Nights" and the husband’s double marriage in the ‘Broken Ring,’ were the obvious causes of divorce even in that times. Firstly, in the Thirteen Night, Oseki had recognized her identity by raising the question on herself in the middle of abuse and contempt by husband. She decided the divorce to recover her identity by considering more herself than love to children. However, Oseki's parents used to old social ideology, tried to persuade Oseki not to divorce to keep her love to children and her younger brother’s success, even Keeping marriage would require her sacrifice. Her parents succeed in keeping her in the old social system named ‘family’ by sacrificing her life with not divorcing. On the contrary, even I in the broken ring graduated the high school, she recognized the contradiction of living in the female in Japan by having seen her parents’ very formal conjugal relationship, which the highly educated mother treated husband her father just formal and she did not have any compassion on husband. Strangely hearing, when I was old enough to marry, ‘I’ got married to man chosen parents. After married, I got know the man had already wife. ‘I"decided the strategy to change her husband to keep family, even it may need her sacrifice and she allow the relationship between her husband and his first wife. The husband’s behavior, however, has been worse and worse and there was no change of her husband and its worse situation concluded their divorce by agreement. ‘I’’s divorce in the ‘Broken Ring’means that one woman escaped from the old aged social system given to woman and same time the spiritual freedom and economical independence from husband, equally from the man. Furthermore, by declaring the remaining life for the world, it shows her strong intention that she wants to recover the female’s social identity by breaking internally the existing communal society. By reviewing the 2 novels, the authors in the meiji period described the differentiation between 2 mixed conceptual situation in the female world, which there are the well educated, independent and self conscious women group as well and the following women group not breaking and just following the old social system and customs.