AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
KRISNA SARI MULYANINGSIH
Student Number: 034214050
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
KRISNA SARI MULYANINGSIH
Student Number: 034214050
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ii
FOUR MAKIOKA SISTERS IN TANIZAKI’S
THE MAKIOKA SISTERS
By
KRISNA SARI MULYANINGSIH
Student Number: 034214050
Approved by
Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S, M.Hum July 19, 2011 Advisor
iii
FOUR MAKIOKA SISTERS IN TANIZAKI’S
THE MAKIOKA SISTERS
By
KRISNA SARI MULYANINGSIH
Student Number: 034214050
Defended before the Board of Examiners On July 27 , 2011
and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
Name Signature
Chairman : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. ___________________
Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum ___________________
Member : Drs. F.X. Siswadi, M.A. ___________________
Member : Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S, M.Hum ___________________
Member : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum ___________________
Yogyakarta, July 29 , 2011. Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University
Dean,
iv
SURAT PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN
Saya yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini menyatakan dengan sesungguhnya bahwa
skripsi yang saya tulis ini tidak memuat karya atau bagian karya orang lain,
kecuali yang telah disebutkan dalam kutipan dan daftar pustaka sebagaimana
layaknya karya ilmiah.
Yogyakarta, 4 Agustus 2011
Penulis,
v
KEKUATAN serta PENGHIBURAN
diberikan Tuhan padaku
TIAP HARI aku dibimbingNya
TIAP JAM dihibur hatiku
dan sesuai dengan HIKMAT TUHAN
aku diberikan APA YANG PERLU
SUKA dan DERITA bergantian
MEMPERKUAT IMANKU
vi
for my beloved parents,
vi
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda-tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Krisna Sari Mulyaningsih
No. Mahasiswa : 034214050
demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
JAPANESE WOMEN STEREOTYPES AS SEEN THROUGH THE FOUR
MAKIOKA SISTERS IN TANIZAKI’STHE MAKIOKA SISTERS
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada
Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam
bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secra
terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan
akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya
selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 03 Agustus 2011
Yang menyatakan,
(Krisna Sari Mulyaningsih)
viii
First of all, the writer would like to thank her academic advisor, Elisa Dwi
Wardani, S. S, M. Hum, for her guidance and advice during the process of writing
this undergraduate thesis. The writer thanks her also for understanding the writer
in times when she did not appear in front of her office’s door. The writer
apologizes for the problems she has given to her in these past four years (really,
has it been four years?). May God bless her, Mas Ucok (thank you for always “alarming” me throughMasSimbun), and little Gloria. The writer would also like to thank to the co-advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Widjanarka, M. Hum for the technical
correction he gave.
To Galang Fitra Wijaya, the writer thanks him for being a good listener
and critic. His critics and suggestions have motivated the writer to finish her
thesis. May he remain to be a wonderful companion for the writer and may God
bless every step he takes.
To the writer’s best friend, Nirma, the writer thanks her for always
supporting the writer during her bad times and scolding her during her crazy
times. Nirma’s independency, courage, and love inspire the writer a lot. Keep
fighting girl!
To Nita, Vivin, Wayan, and Novi, the writer thanks them all for their
supports. The writer misses the times they spend together. Wherever they are now,
may God bless them. Iit, finally the writer can catch up with her. Their same
“fate” bounds them together for these past years. May God bless her future as He
ix
reunite again! To the congregations of GKJ Sarimulyo (komisi pemuda, komisi anak, the choir groups, etc.), the writer thanks them for always mentioning her in every Sunday Mass’ prayer.
The writer’s deepest gratitude goes to the heroes in her life,BapakTugirin and Ibu Endang. The writer is truly sorry for causing them lots of troubles. Though it takes a long time, finally the writer can finish her study. The writer
thanks them for always believing her. To the writer’s sisterMbakDesi, she thanks her for her love and care. God bless her, Mas Ivan, and their beloved princeDek
Bagas.
Finally, the writer praises God for His blessings, loves, and guidance
through this time. The writer thanks Jesus, for raising her up every time she falls
down. The writer believes that every ordeal in her life is actually His way to make
the writer into a better and stronger person, and she thanks Him for that.
x
A. Background of the Study ………... 1
B. Problem Formulation ………. 7
C. Objectives of the Study………... 8
D. Definition of Terms ……… 8
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies ……….. 10
B. Review of Related Theories ……… 12
1. Theory of Character and Characterization ……….. 12
2. Review on Japanese Society in 1930s ………. 15
3. Theory of Feminism ……… 25
C. Theoretical Framework ……….... 28
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study ……….. 29
B. Approach of the Study ………. 30
C. Method of the Study ……… 32
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS A. The Characterization of Each Makioka Sisters ……… 34
1. Tsuruko ……….. 36
2. Sachiko ………... 43
3. Yukiko ……… 51
4. Taeko ………. 58
B. The Japanese Society’s Expectations on Women Based on the Characterization of the Four Sisters …………. 68
1.The Japanese Society’s Expectations on Still Unmarried Women ……….. 70
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The Characterization of the Four Sister ………. 74
1. The Stereotype of Dependent Women or The Angel Women ……….. 75
2. The Stereotype OF Monster Women ………. 86
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION……….. 89
BIBLIOGRAPHY……….. 94
xii
KRISNA SARI MULYANINGSIH. Japanese Women Stereotypes as Seen through the Four Makioka Sisters in Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011
Living in the middle of patriarchal society, such as Japan, women are powerless and have to experience their lives defined by men. In this kind of society, women become the objects that have no right to think and act freely. Because of these restrictions, women do not notice that actually they are being put into a position where men want them to be. This brain-washing appears in the shape of the expectations on women in society. It results in the pictures and the stereotypes of women in society. Since men hold the control of the pen and therefore the press, they are able to define and create image of woman as they choose in their male text.
In order to identify the stereotype of Japanese women in Junichiro Tanizaki’s novel, The Makioka Sisters, three problems are formulated. The first is how the character of each Makioka sister is described in the novel. The second is what the Japanese society expectations on women are based on the characterization of the four sisters. The last is how the characterization and the expectation given for them stereotype Japanese women.
The writer used Feminism approach to surge those problem above, along with the theory of character and characterization, review of Japanese society in 1930s, and the theory of Feminism. Meanwhile, a library research is used as the method of this study.
xiii
KRISNA SARI MULYANINGSIH. Japanese Women Stereotypes as Seen through the Four Makioka Sisters in Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Facultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2011
Hidup di tengah-tengah masyarakat patriarkis, seperti Jepang, kaum perempuan tidak mempunyai kekuatan dan harus mengalami hidup mereka ditentukan oleh kaum laki-laki. Pada masyarakat jenis ini, kaum perempuan menjadi obyek yang tidak mempunyai hak untuk berpikir dan bertindak secara merdeka. Dikarenakan oleh batasan-batasan tersebut, kaum perempuan tidak menyadari bahwa sebetulnya mereka ditempatkan ke dalam sebuah posisi yang dikehendaki oleh kaum laki-laki. Pencucian otak ini muncul dalam bentuk ekspektasi bagi kaum perempuan di dalam masyarakat. Sebagai hasilnya adalah gambaran-gambaran dan stereotip kaum perempuan di dalam masyarakat. Karena kaum pria memegang kendali dari pena dan oleh karena itu percetakan, mereka dapat menentukan dan menciptakan gambaran perempuan sesuai dengan yang mereka pilih di dalam teks laki-laki mereka.
Dalam rangka untuk mengidentifikasi stereotip wanita Jepang di dalam novel Junichiro Tanizaki yang berjudul The Makioka Sisters, dirumuskanlah tiga buah permasalahan. Pertama adalah bagaimana tokoh dari tiap Makioka bersaudara dideskripsikan di dalam novel. Kedua adalah apa saja ekspektasi masyarakat terhadap kaum perempuan Jepang berdasarkan penokohan dari empat Makioka bersaudara. Terakhir adalah bagaimana penokohan dan ekspektasi dari empat bersaudara tersebut menstereotipkan kaum perempuan Jepang.
Penulis menggunakan pendekatan Feminis untuk membedah rumusan permasalahan di atas, bersama dengan teori tokoh dan penokohan, tinjauan mengenai masyarakat Jepang di tahun 1930an, dan teori feminisme. Sementara itu, metode yang digunakan adalah studi pustaka.
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
When we are talking about humankind we always find men and women.
Indeed, God creates humans in two kinds, which are based on the biblical philosophy
is intended to be equally the same, although physically different. Those are in God’s
standards. What about humankind’s standards? Since we are children, our parents or
the adults around tell us that boys and girls are different. They tell us not to cry too
much if we are boys or not to climb a tree if we are girls. Then when a kid asks the
parents why he or she cannot do that, the answer is always the same. It is because
others do not do that either.
Thus, what do we have here is: since we are born, we are already
distinguished into two sexes, men and women; and as we live in a society, our roles
are already decided, as Bressler states that sex is biologically determined while
gender is culturally determined (1999: 180). Being inhabitants in society, it is seen
proper to follow the society’s norms and values. As the result, humankind is not only
differentiated biologically, but also differentiated socially; based on society’s criteria
for each sex. Who decides the norms and values within society? It is them who
Being the majority in the world, men hold more superiority than women as the
minority. D. Jill. Savitt in the essayFemale Stereotypes in Literature (with Focus on
Latin American Writers) notes that men become the norm; because of that humanity
is viewed as masculine (http:www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1982/5/
82.05.06.x.htm). Since men hold control in society, they define what it means to be
human, including, therefore, what it means to be women. It supports what Aristotle
states that the male is by nature superior, and the female is inferior; therefore the one
rules and the other is ruled (Bressler, 1999:180).
It is a common knowledge that the ruler creates a situation where the ruler
itself can gain benefits. Just as well as the dominating men in our society. They are
able to make and control the values system in our culture and society. They are also
able to define women as what they like.
In this masculine world, the feminists declare that is man who defines what it means to be human, not woman. Because a woman is not a man, she has become the other, the not-male. Man is the subject, the one who defines meaning; woman is the object, having her existence defined and determined by the male. The man is therefore the significant figure in the male or female relationship and the woman is the subordinate. (Bressler, 1999:189)
Being put as the object, women cannot have the right to think and act freely. It
is not also because of the restriction of the men, but also because of the way the men
brain-wash women through the values of ‘ideal women’. Women themselves do not
notice and realize how they are being treated in their own society. They are hidden by
their own goals to be ‘ideal’ as requested by the society. To be an ideal one, a woman
then result in the pictures and the stereotypes of women in society. These
stereotyping has begun since long time ago as religious leaders and philosophers
Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine declared that women are really imperfect and
spiritually weak creatures. Darwin in his The Descent of Man also put women as a
past and lower state of civilization, while men are physically, intellectually, and
artistically superior (1999:183). Back to the East, the ancient Chinese labels men and
women as Yin and Yang. Yin represents the female, the negative, the darkness and
softness. The Yang, on the other hand, represents the male, the positive, brightness,
and hardness (Gender Stereotypes,
http://www.people.unt.edu/jw0109/misc/stereotype.htm). Moreover Kate Millet in
her Sexual Politics asserts that the cultural norms and expectations, such as: little
boys, for example, must be aggressive, self-assertive, and domineering, whereas little
girls must be passive, meek, and humble; are transmitted through television, movies,
songs, and literature (1999:183).
How are women stereotyped in literary world? According to Sandra M.
Gilbert and Susan Guban in theirThe Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and
the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination(1979), the male voice has for too long
been the dominant one in society. Because men also have the power of the pen and
therefore the press, they have been able to define and create images of women as they
so choose in their male text. Therefore women are being reduced to the stereotypical
images that often appear in literature. The two major images of women, they assert,
If a woman is depicted as the angel in the house, she supposedly realizes that her physical and material comforts are gifts from her husband. Her goal in life, therefore, is to please her husband, to attend to his every comfort, and to obey him. Through these selfless acts, she finds the utmost contentment by serving her husband and children. If, perchance, a female character should reject this role, the male critics quickly dub her a monster, a freakish anomaly that is obviously sexually fallen. (qtd. in Bressler, 1999: 186)
Women nowadays should be thankful for the critical thinking of some women
writers and thinkers in the eighteenth and nineteen century, such as Mary
Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Rebecca West, and so on (Guerin,1999: 198). These
critical women have already influenced other women around the world by showing
them the hidden fact of women’s position in society.
These women courageously try to challenge that paradigm. As Mary
Wollstonecraft stated in her bookA Vindication of the Right of Women(1792):
Women must stand up for their rights and not allow their male-dominated society to define what it means to be a woman. Women themselves must take the lead and articulate who they are and what role they will play in society. Most importantly, they must reject the patriarchal assumption that women are inferior to men. (Bressler, 1999: 181)
Her thinking, and also the other women writers’, have become the first step for all
women around the world to start figuring out and defining who themselves are, apart
from male’s domination in society. Later on, the development of this movement ends
up into what is called now as Feminism.
According to Maggie Humm in A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Feminist
Literary, feminist movement has developed in tandem or together with the
the growth of the feminist movement is inseparable from feminist criticism (qtd.in
Humm, 1994: 3). Therefore, feminist literary criticism is a part of feminist struggle.
Peter Barry inBeginning Theoryasserts that feminist literary criticism realizes
the significance of the images of women promulgated by literature; and it is vital to
combat them and question their authority and their coherence (2002: 121). Based on
this notion, the writer is interested in analyzing how women are stereotyped through
the characterization of the four Makioka sisters in Junichiro Tanizaki’s novel The
Makioka Sistersor known in Japanese asSasame Yuki.
As has been known for so long, Japan began to open itself to the outside
world during the Meiji Restoration. Because of that Japan received many influences
from many countries, especially from the Western ones. These influences came into
Japanese society through many tools and shapes, such as political views, education,
fashions, culinary, cinemas, magazines, music, industries, and many more. These new
things helped the Japanese people to come into a new period, which was
modernization. Aside from the positive effects of the modernization, the arrival of the
Western brought some consequences, particularly for Japanese women. Threatened
by the perspective of the Westerners toward the portray of Japanese people, the Meiji
government attempted to increase the quality of Japanese people. The norms and
idealism of the samurai (considered to be the high class) were adapted and applied to
the entire Japanese society.
ordinary people. This way of thinking was entirely foreign to Tokugawa-period Japanese, who assumed that people of different social groups and statutes would off course, behave differently…these stranger Westerners tended to regard any single Japanese person as representative of the whole society, and that they were prone to highlight the common people—scantily-clad servants in this case—as representative examples. (Good Wives and Wise Mothers, http://www.east-asian-history.net/textbooks/172/ch11_main.htm)
As the result, the gap between each classes (high and low) was getting closer, and yet
the gap in gender roles (man and woman) was getting farther. It was because the
Japanese high class was the follower of both Confucianism and Buddhism concepts.
These concepts clearly subordinated women. These kind of concepts, which once
only experienced by high class women, were adapted and used for the entire Japanese
society. Because of that, Japanese women in general were experiencing a more rigid
and strict norms than ever before.
Back to the object of this study, the novel tells about the story of four sisters
inside the patriarchal society of Japan. It pictures their struggles in order to increase
their family’s name that is getting in decline, and at the same time to find their own
happiness and self-satisfactory without having to break any rules and values of their
society.
Each of the Makioka sisters has different characters and also lives, and yet
they have one thing in common that they are actually restricted by the moral demands
and values around their patriarchal society. Covered in one main conflict about
finding the best prospect husband for the third daughter, the writer sees that there
in being a true Japanese woman or in being a true-self woman in the middle of a
patriarchal, yet fluid society and the long well history of one’s family.
However, the four sisters also portray the condition of Japanese women at that
time. Although modernization has penetrated Japan, the traditional values and the old
philosophies still keep their traces in the middle of this patriarchal society. As the
result, Japanese women are trapped in between the traditional values and the modern
awareness.
Moreover, as a patriarchal society, Japanese has the right to define women
through the expectations that given to them. Here the writer is interested to look upon
the expectations that given to the Japanese women (through the four Makioka sisters)
which can reduce them into some stereotypes. Hopefully, through this study, the
stereotyping of Japanese women can be revealed and can give contribution to the
understanding of feminist literary criticism nowadays.
B. Problem Formulation
In order to make the study clearer, as well as to limit the scope of the study,
the writer has formulated the problems as follows:
1. How is the character of each Makioka sisters described in the novel?
2. What are the Japanese society’s expectations on women as reflected on the
characterization of the four sisters?
3. How do the characterization of the four sisters and the expectations given for
C. Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study is to analyze the Japanese women stereotypes
as seen through the characters of the four Makioka sisters by answering the questions
presented in the problem formulation.
The first problem formulation helps the writer to find out the characterization
of the four Makioka sisters.
While the second one is to find out the Japanese society’s expectation of
women as reflected on what can be concluded from the characterization of the four
sisters.
The last problem formulation is to find out how the characterization of the
Makioka sisters and the roles of Japanese women can put Japanese women into some
stereotypes.
D. Definition of Term
To avoid any kinds of misinterpretation in understanding this study, there
should be some explanations of the term stereotype.
Stereotype
Based on Webster Online Dictionary
(http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org), a stereotype is a simplified and or standardized conception or image
with specific meaning, often held in common by people about another group. It can
be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the
Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false
association between two variables that are loosely if at all correlated. Stereotypes may
be positive or negative in tone. They are typically generalizations based on minimal
or limited knowledge about a group to which the person doing the stereotyping does
not belong. Persons may be grouped based on racial group, ethnicity, religion, sexual
10
THEORETICAL REVIEWS
A. Review of Related Studies
According to Isoji Asou in his bookSejarah Kesusastraan Jepang (Nihon Bungakushi), Junichiro Tanizaki is a follower of Tanbiha style (aestheticism). He always pictures the beauty of women and emphasizes the strange beauty of the
sensitive part of women. He pictures women as graceful and hopeless creature, yet
they hide their strength and their mysterious beauty. The motives of his stories
never changed. He straightforwardly portrays the strange beauty that is always
hidden in the middle of the society.
Added with what is said in http://www.psychcentral.com/psypsych/
The_Makioka_Sisters_(novel), many of his works involve a strong component,
combined with explorations of spiritual and aesthetics, particularly by Japanese
aesthetics in opposition to or collision with Western values. In this novel, his lusty
concerns are only hinted upon at margins, while the characteristics of Japanese
intersection of culture, art, family, and beauty and its contrast to heartless
modernity is on full display.
While Emily White states in http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/
detail/-/0679761640?v=glance that Tanizaki wrestled throughout his career with
the idea of a country where tribes of aristocrats live as relics, grasping at the past
Ika Widhy Retnary in her undergraduate thesis entitled The Influence of Social Class on the Selection of Yukiko’s Mate as Seen in Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sistersputs the focus on the values of the Japanese middle class society in relation to the selection of Yukiko’s mate. She states that the primary importance in the
Japanese family is the duration of its name, the family lineage, and the family
tradition. That is why marriage in Japan becomes a means to maintain the social
responsibility and to follow the general accepted rules in society. Moreover, the
long finding of Yukiko’s mate happened because the Makiokas are really proud of
their position in society that they set a high standard for the candidates. Yet,
unlike the usual Osaka middle class marriage which is totally parents’ choice and
which makes the couple have no right to choose, the Makiokas still consider
Yukiko’s opinion in the mate selection (2004: 46).
Supporting the study above, Hillary Panian in her essay The Makioka Sisters and Pedro Paramo, claims that Tanizaki used the novel to tell the tale of four beautiful sisters whose lives are encompassed by a word of tradition and
propriety, or she calls it as formalities.
This prestigious Osaka family presumes that they must adhere to every formality to its highest degree in order to uphold their reputation and honor. (Panian, 2002)
The culture and the time in this novel are experiencing pressures and obligations
due to the character’s belief in observing formalities and traditions. According to
her, the novel shows that some aspects of life are shared in every culture and
Based on these studies, the writer attempts to analyze how Japanese
women at that time were being put into some stereotypes because of the
traditional values and system that restricted and reduced them into creatures that
were made by the Japanese patriarchal society.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
This theory is considered to be used in this study in order to answer the
first problem formulation. Here, the writer uses what Abrams has stated in A Glossary of Literary Terms that the character is a person presented in a dramatic or narrative work who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with the
moral and discussion qualities that are expressed in what they say, the dialogue,
and in what they do, the action (1981:20). Through his definition, it can be
concluded that the character’s moral and natural qualities are seen through their
speech and action.
While M.J. Murphy in Understanding Unseens: An Introductory to English Poetry and the English Novels for Overseas Studentsdefines the ways in which the author attempts to make his character understandable to, and come alive
for the reader (1972:161-172):
1. Personal description
The author describes a character through his or her appearance (the face,
2. Character as seen by another
The author describes a character through the eyes and opinions of another
character, so that the readers will get a reflected image.
3. Speech
The author gives us insight into the character of one of the persons in the
book through what the person says. Through his or her speaking with
another, or through his or her opinion, the reader can get some clue of his
or her character.
4. Past life
The author gives us a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s
character by letting us learn something about a person’s past life. This can
be done by direct comment by the author, through the person’s thoughts,
through his conversation or through the medium of another person.
5. Conversation of others
The author gives us clues to a person’s character through the conversation
of other people and the things they say about him. What people talk about
with other people and things they say might give the reader clues about the
character of the person spoken spoken about.
6. Reactions
The author gives us a clue to a person’s character by letting us know how
that person reacts to various situations and events.
7. Direct comment
8. Thoughts
The author can give us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking
about. Here the reader has the advantageous to know what the character
has in his mind.
9. Mannerism
The author can describe a person’s mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies
which can tell us something about his character.
Since character and characterization are related to each other, the writer
sees that it is also important to know what characterization meant to be.
According to Holman and Harmon, characterization is the creation of the
imaginary persons so that they exist for the readers as life like (1986:81). Meaning
to say, characterization is the process and character is the result.
Furthermore they stated that there are three fundamental methods of
characterization. First is the explicit presentation by the author of the character
through direct exposition, either in an introductory block or more often piecemeal
throughout the work, illustrated by action. Meaning to say, the reader can directly
know and understand the attributes of the character through the text itself. Second
is the presentation of the character in action, with little or no explicit comment by
the author. Here, the reader is expected to be able to deduce the attributes of the
actor from the actions. Third is the representation from within a character, without
comment on the character by the author, of the impact of actions and emotions on
the character’s inner self. In this method, the reader is also expected to get a clear
2. Review on Japanese Society in 1930s
Since literature is an imitation of outside world, that it represents and
expresses life, it would be better for the writer to describe Japanese society in the
same years as in the novel. In general, as stated in
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fiske/135b/japan.htm, Japan history can
be divided into two major parts. The first part is Japan before the Meiji
Restoration in 1868, or the feudal period, and the second part is Japan after the
restoration. It has been known for so long that this restoration brought Japan into
the new world. Before the restoration, Japan was a feudal country. Strict class
divisions were enforced between samurai, peasants, merchants, and artisans.
Respect and obedience were the code of the day. In this era, Japan was closed to
the outside world. It all changed when in the 8th of July 1853 Commodore Perry
and the American armies entered the bay of Yedo (Straelen, 1940:81). Through
long waiting and negotiating, finally in 1854 the first treaty between America and
Japan was signed. The harbors of Shimoda and Hakodate were opened to America
ships, and later on European nations followed to come (1940:82).
Then, in the beginning of 1868, the young emperor (Meiji) claimed the
restoration of the old imperial power and the abolition of shogunate. Slowly but
sure Japan started its modern march and left behind its feudal system. Taken
Europe as its teacher, Japan opened itself to the outside world. As Western
triumph entered, the competition between Japan and the West begun. A new Japan
During the Meiji era, a modern nation state was firmly consolidated, a
constitution was promulgated, a central government was established, the class
system was abolished, a national system of education was put in place, a modern
legal code was adopted, and a formidable military and industrial machine was
assembled.
However, as mentioned in introduction part, though the restoration
brought the gap between each class to be much closer, the gap between gender
roles was experiencing the opposite. In order to compete with the Westerners, the
authorities of the Meiji, who was mostly came from the samurai class; saw the
importance for the Japanese to increase their quality of human resources. Since,
their background were samurai, they then used their background’s idealism and
applied them to the whole country.
The Meiji state took the samurai ideal of gender roles, watered it down somewhat and adapted it to an industrial society, and then attempted to imposed it on the entire country.
The direct impetus for the early rounds of behavioral regulations of the 1870s and 80s was to change the way that Japanese citizens appeared in the eyes of Western foreigners visiting or residing in Japan. It was because the way that these foreigners perceived Japan’s people had serious implications for international politics and diplomacy.
(Good Wives and Wise Mothers, http://www.east-asian -history.net/textbooks/172/ch11_main.htm)
As a general rule, the higher one’s social status, the more rigid were the
gender roles. In this view, men were commonly associated with ‘production’
‘outside’ the home and women with ‘reproduction’ ‘inside’ the home. Because of
it, the mindset of Japanese people, particularly the teenagers or young adults
changed dramatically. The new paradigm brought them into a more rigid and strict
The Meiji state became a strong, centralized government, and it took a great interest in the private lives and personal behavior of Japan’s citizens. Through official pronouncement, civil law, a school system, and simply by taking the lead socially, the Meiji state tried to impose upon the whole of Japan a set of slightly-watered-down samurai norms for gender. The result was a gradual transformation in the thoughts and behavior of the masses. (Good Wives and Wise Mothers,
http://www.east-asian-history.net/textbooks/172/ch11_main.htm)
Seeking also the importance to prepare the next generation of Japanese people to
face the competition with the Westerners, the Meiji state started to work on
promoting their owns visions to ideal behavior for Japanese women; behavior
intended to strengthen the nation. This official vision of ideal womanly behavior
turned out to be a modified version of former samurai ideals, slightly reduced in
severity and with one important addition: the idea of motherhood. This paradigm
even though was not as strong as before, still occurs in Japanese people’s minds
nowadays.
a. Japanese Kinship System
The Japanese kinship system during the 1930s up to the beginning of the
1940s was still influenced by the old system of the feudal period. During the
medieval period (Kamakura and Muromachi) Japan imported the concepts of
Buddhism and Confucianism from China. In the late 16th century, the emperor at
that time trying to bring order out of chaos begun to put together an amalgamation
of Shinto (the local’s belief), Buddhism, and Confucianism concepts to justify
their rule and stabilize society from top to bottom (Tonomura, Walthall, and
the possibility of action for everyone in society accordance with rank and status
(1999:8).
The amalgamation of many concepts formed the ie system that according to Hall and Beardsley is a patrilineage, a network of households related through
their respective head, comprising main houses, branch houses, and the branches of
branch houses traced down through generation (qtd.in Davies and Ikeno,
2002:119). This system involves an extended membership family system,
including not only family members, but also servants; house holds workers, and
so on.
Different from the European family, in Japanese family system, or ie, the couple is not the center. The center in its system is the great family. So, the
couple, or the nuclear family, only has a second significance. Compared to the
European family, the Japanese cannot live their lives wherever and however they
please (Straelen, 1940:129). In this patriarchal system, the chief male has great
power and the other members have to obey his desire. The members of the family
have to preserve the primary importance, which are the duration of its name, the
family lineage, and the family traditions.
There was also family law section of the civil code, which was enacted in
1898 and was valid until after World War II. The content of the law can be
regarded as the support for the ie system.
allowed parents to control the lives of their children because they needed the consent of their parents when they married, divorced, took part in adoption, or engaged in business or other occupations. Parents could choose where their children lived, and managed their children’s property and that of their children’s wives. (Davies and Ikeno, 2002:123)
Later on, by the effects of modernization and also the World War II, this
family system begun to waken.
b. Japanese Women in 1930s
According to Hitomi Tonomura, Anne Walthall, and Wakita Haruko in
Women and Class in Japanese History, the importation of Buddhism and the continental philosophical and political system plays a great deal in shaping Japan
nowadays (1999:2). In Buddhism concepts, the position of women is very low.
They are incapable to raise themselves to the rank of Buddha. Women are also
blamed because they are considered aslustthat hindered Buddhist men’s ability to seek enlightenment (1999:4). Moreover, women are treated asJigoku no Tsukaior
Messenger of Hell(Straelen, 1940:64). Almost the same as in Buddhism concepts, in Confucianism concepts women are treated close to slaves. The Confucian
brought the idea of men outside and women inside. The old Confucian adage said
that a woman should in youth obey her father, in maturity her husband, and in old
age her son. For the Confucians, it was a desirable thing to have a stupid wife
because in their viewpoint a wise woman is more to be a curse than a blessing
(1940:86). Moreover, the inferiority and the passiveness of Japanese women
happened because they were affected by the Confucianism concepts about the five
worst maladies in women’s life, which were indocility, discontent, slander,
Here are five worst things about women from theOnna Daigaku: 1. They are indocile because they are not calm and peaceful. 2. They are discontented because they are not happy.
3. They slander other people. They say bad things about other people. 4. They are jealous.
5. They are silly.
(The Greater Learning for Women in Edo, http://www.gallery.sjsu.edu/ heian/learning.html)
The Buddhism and Confucianism concepts could give strong influences to
the Japanese people, both social and individual life, because of the ie system, or the Japanese family system. It was created from the amalgamation of those two
concepts added with the Shinto concepts. Therefore, the family and the social
system in Japan are so patriarchal.
The position of women was low in the ie system, since it was believed that they were inferior to men. Even if they married well, women were in a weak position because they could be sent away for any reason. They had to adjust themselves to the customs of husbands’ ie and work hard to satisfy their husbands’ parents. Most important, they had the duty of bearing children, and if wives could not fulfill these obligations, they were often forced to divorce (2002:121).
In the iesystem, women are powerless. In that situation, the main role of women was to give birth to a son in the family. In other words, they became the
borrowed womb because they produced successor and helped to shape blood relation and family connections although they were treated unequally (Tonomura,
Walthall, and Wakita 1999:305). The newly-wed wife must absolutely plunge and
submerge herself in the new family, if not, she was not qualified to be the member
of the family (Straelen, 1940:129). The sacrificing of a new wife was symbolized
through the white clothes she wore during the marriage ceremony that meant the
color of mourning. The mourning because she died to her own family to enter into
During the feudal era, part of Japanese women who experienced these
horrid and subordinated conditions was only those who belonged to the samurai or
wealthy merchant family. However, when Emperor Meiji took the crown, these
regulations were spread through the entire Japan that not only those Japanese elite
women, but whole Japanese women started to experience that.
Japanese women were demanded to act and behave appropriately that
there was also a handbook used by them in order to be a good wife called Onna Daigaku (the greater learning for women). It was the bible of the women of feudal Japan of which a copy was given to every girl when she married and which
even today has influence to a considerable extent (1940:19).
According to an article in the December 1939 issue of Cultural Nippon
(published by theNippon Bunka Chuo Renmei, [http://www.e.budo.com/forum/ archive/index.php/t-234.html]),Onna Daigaku, written by Kaibara Ekiken (1630-1714), was a very popular book during the Edo period. In the text, the author lists
seven actions by a wife that demands that she leaves her husband’s home:
1. A woman who is disobedient to her parents-in-law shall leave.
2. A woman who bears no children shall leave, because it is for the succession of offspring that a girl is taken for a wife. If, however, the woman is right-minded and well-behaved, without jealousy, she may adopt a child, instead of leaving her husband, from a family of the same name (as her husbands). Nor need she leave in case when a concubine has a child.
3. A licentious woman shall leave. 4. A jealous woman shall leave.
5. If the woman is infected with leprosy or some other bad disease, she shall leave.
Then, when the Westerns started coming to Japan, the state saw the
importance to increase the quality of the local human resources in order to
compete with the foreigners. To create a high-qualified citizen, the good quality of
education should be provided to men beginning from the early age. This
responsibility lied in the hands of the mothers. That was where the idea of
motherhood came from.
Social commentators and government officials pointed out repeatedly that child raising was terribly important work for the nation. After all, mothers were charged with bringing up the next generation of Japan. The ideal social role for women in the new Japan was to produce, nurture, and educate children within the context of managing house hold. Women, in other words, should be ‘good’ wives and ‘wise’ mothers.
(Good Wives and Wise Mothers, http://www.east-asian-history.net/ textbooks/172/ch11_main.htm)
The slogan of ‘good wives and wise mothers’ (Ryōsai-kenbo), coined firstly by scholar and social commentators Nakamura Masanao (1831-1891),
came to express concisely the official view of women’s social roles in Japan.
Starting in 1911, training to be a good wife and wise mother became the corner
stone of the school curriculum for girls.
The curriculum designed for girls emphasized homemaking and the desirability of being virginal at marriage and chaste thereafter, in addition to the standard injunction to obey one’s parents and one’s husband.
(Good Wives and Wise Mothers, http://www.east-asian-history.net/ textbooks/172/ch11_main.htm)
This slogan’s demands included mothers, who were not only good and wise, but
also able to cook, to keep a clean house, and to maintain ones’ physical
appearances. Cultural or artistic qualities were also important. For example, some
women worried about the appearance of their handwriting. Calligraphy was and is
tended to regard a person’s handwriting as a direct extension of his or her
personality.
On September 14 1871, the ruling sent out a note that said people who
went abroad should take with them their wives, daughters or sisters, so that
women could receive education and learn the way other culture bringing up
children (1940:175). Yoshio Maeda in Gunkoku Fujin Tokuhon (Reading for the Women of a Nation at War) said that mother must never forget that she rears her child not for herself but for the country, as a sacred deposit entrusted to her care
by the emperor (qtd.in Straelen, 1940:175), just as similar as what Kathleen S.
Uno explained in her book Household Division of Labor that Ryōsai-kenbo
presumed a grater degree of female competence; if properly educated, mothers
could prepare their children to be good subjects of the emperor by instilling in
them diligence, loyalty, and patriotism. Mothers would render service to the
nation from the house (qtd.in Good Wives and Wise Mothers, http://www.east-asian-history.net/textbooks/172/ch11_main.htm)
The state and the broader society emphasized the positive message of the
glorious service to the nation that women might render as good wives and wise
mothers through various mediums, such as the schools, movies, or magazines.
At the movie theatre: “Many (movies) of which Ella Wiswell attended with village woman dealt with the contrast between good wives, women who were ‘truly Japanese’, as opposed to bad ones, who were invariably ‘modern’ young women badly infected by foreign ways that rendered them disobedient and selfish. “And the popular woman’s magazines: “featured love stories in which the good, Japanese woman always won out, albeit not without undergoing severe trials and suffering, and the bad, foreigner-like women paid the price for their liberated behavior.
This kind of propaganda succeeded in its way to frighten Japanese women that
there even occurred a corresponding negative message: “do not try to do anything
with your lives other than being good wives and wise mothers.”
Back to the emperor’s note, as its impact Japanese women who traveled
abroad started to realize their low status in society, compared to the other
women’s they had visited (1940:51). Moreover, Yutaka Hibino in Nippon Shindo Ron (the National Ideals of the Japanese People)stated that the influx of Western books, magazines, and moving pictures brought a world of enlightment to the
feminine population (qtd.in Straelen, 1940:96). They started to compare
themselves to their Western fellows.
Beneath their passionless mask, the Japanese wife feels like her Western sisters—just like that sister who prays and prays, even while delighting some evening assembly of beauty and fashion, for the coming of the hour which will set her free to relieve her pain alone (1940:23).
The growing industry at that time also brought some good opportunity for
the Japanese women. The need of human resources made the Japanese women
worked as laborers. Yet, the working women existed only in urban areas or those
who came from poor families. The others women preferred not to work outside
because the working women were still categorized as loose. Women stepping outside the house were easily perceived as threatening to overturn conventional
moral standards (Tonomura, Walthall, and Wakita, 1999:10).
Hence, during the 1930s up to the beginning of the 1940s, Japanese
women were in low position. They became less-important, and they are shaped
effects of modernization and the Western influx, they had begun to realize their
inferiority. Yet, they were still in under controlled of their patriarchal society.
B.3. Theory of Feminism
a. Definition of Feminism
According to Jane Pilcher and Imelda Whelehan in Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies, the word Feminism is originated from the French word
Féminisme in nineteenth century. The word was used as a medical term to describe the feminization of a male body, or to describe women with masculine
traits. Later on, this word is used to denote a political stance of someone
committed to changing the social position of women (2004:48).
Furthermore, Margaret L. Andersen states in her book Thinking about Women: Sociological Perspective on Sex and Gender that Feminism begins with the premise that women and men’s position in society are the result of social, not
natural, or biological factors. The meaning of Feminism has been developed and
understood in different ways, but it begins with the idea that social institution and
social attitude are basis of women’s position in society.
All feminists believe that societies are patriarchal, controlled by males.
Because of that women become the ones who are controlled. The controller, or the
men, will define every aspect in society, including women. Therefore, men, the
controller, are powerfull, while women or the controlled ones are powerless.
determined by the male. The man is therefore the significant figure in the male/female relationship and the woman is the subordinate (Bressler, 199:189).
Being the controlled one, women have to face the condition where they have no
freedom in thinking and acting. They are bounded by their own society, which are
patriarchal. The systems and the values of society restrict them into becoming a
free individual. In brief, Margaret L. Andersen sums up the ideas about feminism
into four points, which are equality, liberty, women’s right to be themselves, and
opportunity of career.
b. Feminist Literary Criticism
As has been stated in the first chapter, feminist movement and feminist
literary criticism develop in tandem. Feminist literary criticism becomes a part of
women struggle since the society is represented through language. To analyze
language what needed is criticism. Thus language is the field of study and the
critics is the utensil or the weapon to analyze it. However, since language is the
product of the society, where the majority in it is men, language is always
patriarchal. David Lodge in the Language of Fiction asserts that the novelist’s medium, language, is never virgin: words come to the writer already violated by
other men (qtd. in Humm, 1994:4)
According to Charles E. Bressler in his book Literary Criticism: an Introduction to Theory and Practice, there is not one but a variety of feminist theories. Yet, behind all these seemingly contradictory voices and theories, there
believe that women are oppressed by the society. The aims of feminist critics are
to define the true-self of women and to stop the oppression of women.
Although feminist critics’ ideas concerning the direction of their criticism vary…They are women (and some men) who are struggling to discover who they are, how they arrived at their present situation, and where they are going (1999:198)
Feminist critics generally agree that the oppression of women is a fact of life that gender leaves its traces in literary text and on literary history, and that feminist literary criticism plays a worthwhile part in the struggle to end oppression in the world outside of text (Warhol and Herndl, 1997: x)
In literary world, the portray of the subordination of women can be seen
through the stereotype depiction of women character, such as angels, barmaids,
bitches, whores, brainless housewives, old maids, and so on.
Here, the feminists try to show the inequality between men and women
and also to awake all women in the world of their subordination. The feminist
theory reveals the importance of women’s individual and shares experience and
women struggles. The essences of women’s struggle are equality, freedom and
dignity to control their bodies, souls, and their lives (Fakih, 1996:99). Moreover
Lisa Tittle in Encyclopedia of Feminism cites the goals of feminist literary criticism as follows (1986: 184):
to develop and uncover a female tradition of writing
to interpret symbolism of women’s writing so that it will not be lost or ignored
by the male point of view
to rediscover old texts
to analyze women writers and their writing from a female perspective
to increase awareness of the sexual politics of language and style
Although all feminists may share a basic commitment to ending women
oppression, they do not always approach this problem from the same
philosophical or political base.
C. Theoretical Framework
In this study, the writer uses and applies several theories to solve the
problem formulations. The theory of character and characterization is used to find
out how the four Makioka sisters are described in the novel. Then to analyze the
kind of expectations that given to the Japanese women based on the
characterization of the four sisters, the writers combines the previous theory by
relating it to the review of Japanese society in 1930s. Lastly, to answer the third
29
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The writer uses the book of The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki. This 530 pages book was published by Mitsumura Printing Company in Tokyo in
1958. This English version of Sasame Yuki is translated by Edward G. Seidensticker. The novel had given the author many awards, such as The Culture
Award of Mainichi Magazine in 1947, The Culture Award of Asahi Magazine in
1949, and The Empire Culture Medal in 1949. This novel was adapted into a
movie by Kon Ichikawa in 1988. The movie was entitled Sasame Yuki. Some people said that the movie was not as good as the novel, yet this movie won six
awards and was nominated in seven categories in many awards.
Moreover, the novel is about a family in Osaka that is getting in decline. In
the past, the Makioka family was one of the respectful merchant families in the
society. The story focuses on their efforts to fine a good husband for the third
daughter, Yukiko, who is still unmarried in her thirty years old. In the end, after
struggling for years facing difficulties that seemingly always happened in their
family, they finally find a good man from a respectful and famous family who
B. Approach of the Study
In analyzing the problem formulation, the writer uses the Feminist
approach. According to Wilfred L. Guerin in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, feminism is concerned with the marginalization of all women, which is their being relegated to secondary position. Most feminist believe that
our culture is a patriarchal culture.
While according to Maggie Humm, there are three basic assumptions in
feminist criticism.
The first, gender is constructed through language and in visible in writing style…second, there are sex-related writing strategies,…the last assumption of feminist criticism is that the tradition of literary criticism, like the economics and social traditions of which it is apart, uses masculine norms to exclude or undervalue women’s writing and scholarship (1994:4-5)
Here, the feminist literary critics try to explain how power imbalances because of
gender are reflected in or challenged by literary text. One of the goals of feminist
critics is to expose any patriarchal system.
Despite their diversity, feminist critics generally agree that their goals are to expose patriarchal premises and resulting prejudices, to promote discovery and reevaluation of literature by women, and to examine social, cultural, and psychosexual context of literature and literary criticism. (Guerin,1999:197)
According to Elaine Showalter, an American feminist, the history of
women’s literary development can be identified into three phases. First is the
feminine phase (1840-80), then the feminist phase (1880-1920), and last is the
minority rights and to protest. During the third phase, dependency on opposition
(on uncovering misogyny in male text) is being replaced by a rediscovery of
women’s text and women (1999:198).
Showalter also provides critics with four models concerning the nature of
women’s writing that help answer problems in feminist criticism: the biological, linguistic, psychoanalytic,andcultural.
The biological emphasizes how the female body marks itself upon a text by providing a host of literary images and a personal, intimate tone. The linguistic model concerns itself with the need for a female discourse. This model investigates the differences between how women and men use language. It asserts that women can and do create language peculiar to their gender and how this language can be used in their writings. The psychoanalytic model, based on an analysis of the female psyche and how such an analysis affects the writing process, emphasizes the flux and fluidity of female writings as opposed to male rigidity and structure. (Bressler, 1999:185)
There are four most significant movements in feminist criticism, and from
these areas, there has been a general shift from a negative attack on male writing
about women and a shift towards positive delineation of women’s redefinition of
their identity in their own writing: gender studies, Marxist studies, psychoanalytic studies,andminority studies.
In its development, feminist criticism still has to face some problems that
lie within it (Guerin, 1999: 212-214):
1. Many women who think of themselves as feminist are somehow not
considered feminist “enough” by more radical feminist, and this often
leads women in the first group to reject feminism as a field of study
2. Many female critics also feel that feminist literary criticism has become
too theoretical and too radical entirely and has lost sight of both its social
roots and its application to reading text.
3. Question on what to do with male feminist critics. Many feminist believe
that no man can possibly read or write or teach as a feminist; some even
feel that men should be barred from teaching as feminist.
Back to this study, the Feminist approach is used since it covers some
aspects that are relevant to answer the problem formulation stated in the first
chapter. Therefore, it is important for the writer to understand some extrinsic
elements in the study, such as Japan society in 1930s and the ideology of
feminism of Japanese women to analyze the women’s struggle depicted in the
novelThe Makioka Sisters.
C. Method of the Study
The writer uses a library research in doing this study. There are two kinds
of data used, which are the primary and the secondary data. The primary data is
the novel itself, which is Junichiro Tanizaki’sThe Makioka Sisters. The secondary data are some theories that are used in this study, and some information and
criticisms from the internet related to the topic of the study.
The writer did the study in several steps. Firstly, the writer read the novel
several times in order to get a better understanding on the story and the characters.
Secondly was collecting the data. The data were gathered from the novel itself and
and answer the problem formulations by elaborating the research problem with all
data and relating theories the writer used. In this analysis part, the writer answered
the first problem formulation by characterizing the four sisters using theory of
character and characterization. Then, by relating the characterization of the four
sisters to the review of Japanese society in 1930s the writer identified the
expectations of Japanese women. The last step, the writer applied feminist literary
criticism in order to understand how the characterization of the four sisters and
their expectations in society became the representation of Japanese women
34 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the discussion is divided into three parts, based on the
problem formulations stated before. The first part is to analyze how the four
Makioka sisters are described in the novel. Later on, these characterizations will
be used to analyze the second part, which is figuring out the expectations that are
given to Japanese women. Lastly, the third part is discussing about how these
characterizations and expectations put Japanese women into some stereotypes.
A. The Characterization of Each Makioka Sister
The Makioka sisters were from an old Osaka merchant family that had
fallen on hard times, as narrated here:
The Makioka were an old family, of course, and probably everyone in Osaka had heard of them at one time or another. But still—Sachiko would have to forgive her for saying so—they could not live on their old glory forever. (Tanizaki, 1958:7)
The old Makioka did not have any sons, because of that the husbands of each
Makioka woman received the family name. Here is the chart of the Makioka
family:
The Old Makioka
he ie system, a common system at that time regarding to handle one’s household. As explained before, this system enabled family to have one main
head house and some branch houses. The head of the main house surely was the
head of the family, the oldest one, and of course, male. In Makioka’s case, the
head of the family laid in Tsuruko’s husband, Tatsuo.
At first, the main’s house place was in Osaka, while the branch house
(Sachiko and Teinosuke’s house) was in Ashiya. However, for some purposes,
Tatsuo decided to move to Tokyo, while the original Makioka’s house was kept in
some relative’s care.
As has been stated in chapter two, Japanese society is a patriarchal one. In
order to gain a comprehensive understanding of Japanese patriarchal society, it is
best to analyze through the ones who are most affected by it, which are the
women. Here, the Japanese women are represented through the characters of the
four Makioka sisters.
In this problem formulation, the writer applies the theory of character by
M. J. Murphy and the theory of characterization by Holman and Harmon.
According to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms the character is a person presented in a dramatic or narrative work who are interpreted by the reader as
being endowed with the moral and discussion qualities that are expressed in what
they say, the dialogue, and in what they do, the action (1981:20). Through his
definition, it can be concluded that the character’s moral and natural qualities are
seen through their speech and action. Moreover, M. J. Murphy gives nine ways to
alive for the reader (1972:161-172); while Holman and Harmon’s characterization
functioned as the process of creating a character.
As we all know, the moral and natural qualities of a person are determined
by the society and the environment where he or she has been raised in. So, here
the characterizations of the four sisters are the result, or the product, of their
society, Japanese patriarchal society.
1. Tsuruko Makioka
She was the eldest daughter. When she was still young, her mother passed
away. Therefore, as the eldest daughter, she had to replace her mother’s position.
After her mother’s death, she had to control the house holds; including taking care
of her three younger sisters. When her sisters grew up, she got married to Tatsuo
and had six children.
Thus, since she was still young, she already held the responsibilities of the
house holds; and starting from there, her job remained the same.
Tsuruko had lost her mother early, and had had to take care of her father and sisters, and when the father was dead and the sisters were grown, there were her own husband and children and she had to work to revive the family fortunes. She had known more hardship than any of them; yet she had also had a more conservative education, and there remained in her something of the sheltered maiden of old. (Tanizaki, 1958:98)
Her situation undoubtedly had made her into a woman like what is described in
the following:
a. Conservative
Since Tsuruko was the eldest, and had raised her younger sisters after her
mother’s death, she put herself as a kind of role model for them. She always
themselves to the rest of the world. She would do everything in perfect ways and
avoid any mistake and misbehavior, even on a matter of writing a letter to her
sister in law.
And what, then, had Tsuruko been doing in five or six days since? She had been at her desk practicing calligraphy…She now had to write notes of thanks to all relatives on whom they had called, and this for Tsuruko was a heavy task. She was determined in particular not to be outdone by her sister in law, the wife of Tatsuo’s elder brother—a lady who was an expert calligrapher. (Tanizaki, 1958:102)
She received a more conservative education than her sisters, and because
she had been burdened with housework since a long time, she never had any time
to travel (Tanizaki, 1958:99). Because of that, when it came to comparison,
Tsuruko was the most conservative among the sisters. She refused the idea of her
youngest sister, Taeko, having a career because at that time, a woman with a job
was considered as loose (Tanizaki, 1958:14). She also had tried so many times to
urge her two unmarried sisters, Yukiko and Taeko, to move from Ashiya house
(Sachiko and Teinosuke’s house) to the main house because at that time
unmarried women should live with the main family. The fact that Yukiko and
Taeko chose to live with Sachiko worried Tsuruko, for the sake of her husband’s
reputation as the head of the family. Having tried unsuccessfully to persuade the
two unmarried sisters, Tsuruko finally asked her aunt to talk to both Yukiko and
Taeko, and also Sachiko.
Aunt Tominaga was of the view that, although the younger sisters might well stay with Sachiko while the main house was in Osaka, it would be better for them now to go to Tokyo. After all, they belonged in the main house. (Tanizaki, 1958:104)
Tsuruko would be in a difficult position, caught between her husband and her sisters. (Tanizaki, 1958:109)
All of these were the evidences that Tsuruko was conservative in mind.
When those are related to the nine Murphy’s elements of characterization, the
writer concludes that Tsuruko past life (had to replace her mother’s position
during her youth time) contributed in making her into a conservative woman.
Moreover her reactions toward the fact that her youngest sister had a job and also
the fact that her unmarried sisters refused to live at the main house showed how
conservative she was. Her careful mannerism (practicing her writing ability)
indicates that for her, the common know ledges and values in society were right
and should be followed. The attitudes of rebellion against all the values in society
were not prohibited and would give her and family a bad name and a bad
reputation. This also became the evidence of her docility toward the society’s
norms and values.
b. Docile
As has been discussed in the previous point, Tsuruko’s conventional
attitude and mind showed her docility toward the regulations in the society. She
behaved as a woman and also a mother that were expected by the society. Having
six children, she was able to handle her own house hold chores without ruining
her Japanese beauty appearance; something that Sachiko envied at.
