다자이 오사무의『등롱(燈籠)』고찰 -여주인공의 자아인식을 중심으로-

Abstract

This study aims at contemplating on the self-awareness of the heroine of a novel “Hanging Lantern.” In other words, the goal of this study is to identify the characteristics and significance of a female character depicted by a male writer from the perspective of feminine writing. Sakiko, the heroine, is a woman of passive character and negative self-regard. She feels compassion and affection for a person named Mizuno, which even leads to her getting involved in a theft. However, Sakiko experiences a significant inner change as she is violently driven to the corner by the social norm and morals. Sakiko, discovering weakness in herself, converts her thoughts in a positive direction rather than grieving over criticisms cast on her from the outside. This is her expression of consciousness to objectify her family including herself. Sakiko recognizes that she herself is a weak person. however, she rises above it and tries to show herself out confidently by bringing up her weakness to the surface. A subject is recognized as a subject only when it gets in contact with others. Sakiko discovered the causes of her inability to communicate and her isolation from the world inwardly rather than looking for them outside. She looked forward to the future of change through her family. She sets herself to live in the real world based on the love from her family. This also connotes her passion to pursue relationships with others by changing herself as she is now. Therefore, what Sakiko needed for her bond and link with the world as a person who had been caught up by the awareness of being a weak person, and thus closed up from the world was self- awareness to recognize herself as a subject.