<게우사>에 나타난 '가정'에 대한 인식과 그 의미

Abstract

A novel "Geusa" vividly shows Joseon's social circumstances in the 19th century. There are three main characters in this novel:Kisaeng Yuiyang, Walja Moosook and Moosook's wife. The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of the three characters on 'family' based on earlier discussions about this matter. As for Yuiyang's way of looking at family, she just sticked to the socially accepted contemporary paradigm and sought after life stability. Moosook was indifferent and irresponsible for his family though he must play the central role as the head of the family. His wife tried to manage her household, but she was just one of passive and ordinary contemporary women. Concerning the meaning of family for these characters, they placed significance on financial conditions as a means to establish and maintain family, and such a view was linked to the contemporary social circumstances of the 19th century. Basically,there was a vertically hierarchical order in family. The head came first, and then his wife and concubine respectively ranked second and third. In this novel, however, the hierarchical order was reorganized depending on their weight, namely how much each of them took the initiative in their family. Yuiyang was given the most weight as she was most active in managing their household, and Moosook was of the least significance. That was the reverse of the hierarchical order of contemporary family members, and it seemed that it was rooted in the change in values in the 19th century's Joseon Dynasty.