국문장편소설 <완월회맹연> 속 아버지 형상과 그 의미－자식의 혼사 과정에서 보이는 성향을 중심으로－

Abstract

This study was attempted to examine the image of fathers, who are usually a major characters in Korean full-length novels yet relatively less highlighted than mothers, with emphasis on a Korean full-length novel titled Walwolhoemaengyeon. The process of preparation for offspring’s wedding was the scene selected to unravel and focus on the characters of fathers, not husbands or men. In Walwolhoemaengyeon, the images of fathers shown through the process of preparation for offspring’s wedding include a father who is disappointed by intended exclusion by his family (Jung, Jam), a father who forces his faith regardless of the offspring’s opinion (Jung, Sam), a father who loses his mind due to his love toward the offspring (Jung, Yeom), a father who intends to fulfill his deficits through the wedding (Jang, Heon), and a father who is helpless between love toward offspring and respect for his stepmother (Han, Je Sun). These images expressed in the process of preparation for offspring’s wedding display the paternal love with various complicated conditions to suggest or seek the ideal image of a public father, rather than a personal father. Next, the wedding of offspring is a rite of passage to ‘become a father.’ In this process, they can prove their qualities as fathers and achieve growth as fathers. Finally, the paternal authority that is relatively firm in all other situations cracks to expose the true characters of fathers with no tailoring. The fathers in Walwolhoemaengyeon are the new quilts of memories created by the upper class women based on their memories of fathers or husbands and their wishes for the ideal images of fathers in the process of creating and enjoying the Korean full-length novels.