芥川竜之介 「횻도코」 論 - 헤이기치의 허망한 몸부림 -

Abstract

Concentrating on Heikichi Yamamura, the main character of the early short story “Hyottoko” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the present article explicates the figure depicted in the story and examines the unique features of the story as well as Akutagawa’s recognition of humans and reality. For Heikichi, a person who is “very modest to anyone,” sake is an “appreciated” thing which lets him “behave boldly in front of the others.” On the other hand, Heikichi tells lies without hesitation everyday,” and he himself wonders “why lies come out of his mouth so easily.” Like sake, lies vitalize his life, and they can be viewed as the means of self-expression. He “gets drunk with a cup of sake,” and steps on the side of a Hanami-boat. He then performs a dance called “Hyottoko Mai,” and dies due to a stroke in the middle of dancing. The Hyottoko mask is a tool which makes even bolder Heikichi, who has already behaved boldly with the help of sake, and which may hide his identity. He dies because of sake, which revitalizes his life and which serves as the means of self-expression. At the end of the story, the Hyottoko mask is taken off his face, and the mask “looks up at” him “just as usual.” This paradox relativizes, and enlarges, his blank life. Therefore, we can reveal Akutagawa’s cynical view of humans and Nihilism, the idea that one cannot live a desired, subjective, and autonomous life in any strict sense.