1
THE EFFECT OF FAILURES IN ACHIEVING
BELONGINGNESS AND LOVE NEEDS IN MIZOGUCHI’S LIFE
SEEN IN MISHIMA’S THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN
PAVILION
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
CAECILIA MURYANI
Student Number: 004214120
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
LET YOUR HOPE KEEP YOU JOYFUL
BE PATIENT IN YOUR TROUBLES,
AND PRAY AT ALL TIME
(ROMANS 12: 12)
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to:
My Beloved Parents: Pak Dar and Bu Dar
My Brothers and Sisters
My Lovely Friends
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank the Almighty Jesus Christ for His guidance. He has given His blessing to me so that I could finally finish my thesis.
I would also like to express my deep gratitude to those who have given me a great amount of help, support and guidance in writing this undergraduate thesis. I am particularly grateful to Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M. Hum., as my advisor, who has guided me patently in the writing process and has given me time to consult this thesis until it is done. I am also grateful to Mrs. Dewi Widyastuti, S. Pd., M. Hum, my co-advisor, for reading my undergraduate thesis and for corrections and suggestions to improve my undergraduate thesis. I would also like to thank all lectures and staffs in secretariat of the English Letters Study Programme of Sanata Dharma University.
I would like to express my gratitude to my beloved father, L. M. Daryono and my mother M.M. Adi Mursih. They have prayed and given their care, patience, and support. I also would like to give my regard to my brothers, Wawan and Hendrawan. My special thank goes to my best friends in English Letters Study Programme of 2000, especially Rita, Titin Wiwin, Angel, Novi, Andrie and Siti for their support and time in giving me a great moment of friendship. I give my special thanks to Wahyu Captain, Bayou, Andi, Husein, and Widi Kuncoro Sakti. They all give me encouragement at the most frustrating and critical moments. I would also like to give my regards to Emy, Devie, Adin, Siegfrieda, Wina, Vita, Rika, Ana and Donata. They all have given me great memories, motivation, spirit and I learn a lot from our friendship.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 6
A. Review of Related Studies ... 6
B. Review of Related Theories ... 8
1. Theory of Character and Characterization ... 8
2. Theory of Personality... 11
3. Theory of Motivation ... 13
4. Theory of Loneliness... 17
5. The Relation between Literature and Psychology ... 19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY... 22
A. Object of the Study ... 22
B. Approach of the Study ... 23
C. Method of the Study... 24
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS... 26
A. The Characteristics of Mizoguchi ... 26
B. Mizoguchi’s reason in Searching Belongingness and Love Needs... 34
C. The Effect of the failures in achieving Belongingness and Love Needs... 44
CHAPTER V: Conclusion... 54
BIBLIOGRAPHY... 56
APPENDICES... 58
Appendix 1: The Summary of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion... 58
ABSTRACT
CAECILIA MURYANI (2008). The Effect of Failures In Achieving Belongingness and Love Needs in Mizoguchi’s Life seen in Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden
Pavilion Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata
Dharma University.
As a living creature, human beings will try to fulfill their needs. There are two basic needs of human being. Firstly is the physical needed and the next is psychological need. Failure in fulfilling the need for living might cause someone experience psychological problem. In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima showed the darkness of human characteristics through the character of Mizoguchi. His failure in fulfilling his needs affect his behavior. In the end of the story, he killed all the people he loved.
In this thesis, the writer analyzed the effect or the consequence of failure in fulfilling the need experienced by Mizoguchi in Mishima’s novel from psychological point of view. This thesis has three objectives. First is to know the characteristics of Mizoguchi. Second is to know Mizoguchi’s reason in achieving his need. The last one is to know the effect of failure in fulfilling the need of love and belongingness in Mizoguchi’s characteristics.
The writer of this thesis did a library study in order to answer the problems presented. The writer used psychological approach to identify how the failure affects Mizoguchi’s life.
The writer concluded that Mizoguchi’s failure in fulfilling his need affect his behavior. Mizoguchi was once an introvert, quiet person but had good emotional control. After he had failed in his adventure in ordered to fulfill his need of love and belongingness, he transformed into a person whose behavior tends to be negative. Mizoguchi had never received enough attention from his parents, and that condition was worsening since he had no friends. That situation made him feel lonely, and for this reason he wanted to look for belonging and love in Kinkakuji temple. He hoped that he could find the real relationship among human being in the temple so that he could get belonging and love needs. His failures to find the meaning of real human relationship made him feel depressed and can not live in peace with his surrounding. Mizoguchi killed all people in the temple, in which those people are the people he loved.
ABSTRAK
CAECILIA MURYANI (2008). The Effect of Failures In Achieving Belongingness and Love Needs in Mizoguchi’s Life seen in Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden
Pavilion Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Sebagai mahkluk hidup, manusia akan berusaha untuk memenuhi kebutuhan mereka. Ada dua macam kebutuhan dasar manusia, yang pertama adalah kebutuhan fisiologis dan yang kedua adalah kebutuhan psikologis. Kegagalan dalam memenuhi kebutuhan hidup, dapat menyebabkan seseorang mengalami gangguan secara psikologis. Di novel, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima memunculkan sisi gelap dari karakter manusia lewat karkter Mizoguchi. Kegagalan dirinya dalam memenuhi kebutuhannya membawa dampak pada tingkah lakunya. Pada akhir cerita, dia membunuh semua orang yang dia sayangi.
Pada skripsi ini, penulis akan menganalisis efek atau dampak kegagalan pemenuhan kebutuhan dari Mizoguchi yang ditinjau dari segi psikologi pada novel Mishima. Ada tiga tujuan yang disajikan dalam skripsi ini. Tujuan pertama adalah untuk mengetahui karakteristik Mizoguchi. Tujuan kedua adalah untuk mengetahui alasan Mizoguchi untuk mendapatkan atau memenuhi kebutuhanya. Tujuan ketiga adalah untuk mengetahui dampak dari kegagalan memenuhi kebutuhan akan kasih sayang dan cinta terhadap kehidupan Mizoguchi.
Penulis melakukan tinjauan pustaka untuk menjawab permasalahan di skripsi ini. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan psikologi untuk mengetahui bagaimana kegagalan tersebut mempengaruhi kehidupan Mizoguchi.
Kemudian, penulis dapat mengambil kesimpulan bahwa kegagalan Mizoguchi dalam memenuhi kebuthuhannya membawa dampak pada tingkah lakunya. Mizoguchi berubah mejadi berkelakuan negatif. Mizoguchi, yang dulunya seorang yang tertutup, pendiam, mempunyai kontrol yang baik terhadap emosi. Setelah dia gagal dalam pencariannya untuk memenuhi kebutuhannya akan penghargaan dan kasih sayang, dia berubah menjadi seseorang yang cenderung berperilaku negatif. Mizoguchi tidak pernah mendapatkan perhatian dari orang tuanya. Keadaan itu diperparah karena dia tidak mempunyai teman. Keadaan itu membuat dia merasa kesepian. Alasan inilah yang membuat dia ingin mencari penghargaan dan kasih sayang di dalam kuil Kinkakuji. Dia berharap bahwa di kuil itulah dia akan menemukan hubungan yang sesungguhnya antar umat manusia, dimana dia bisa mendapatkan kasih sayang. Kegagalan dia untuk menemukan arti dari sebuah hubungan antar umat manusia membuat dia depresi dan membuat dia tidak bisa hidup dengan damai bersama orang- orang disekelilingnya. Mizoguchi mampu membunuh semua orang yang berada di kuil dan orang-orang itu merupakan orang yang dia sayangi.
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
As living creatures, human beings are not perfect. That is why human beings will always change. Morris states that personality is a person’s psychological signature which related to motives, tendencies, outlooks, and emotions. Each person will change their psychological signature as a respond to the world (1990: 450). Another statement is coming from Hurlock; she states that human always experiences personality changes. These changes are influenced by many factors, such as their needs which also change all the time and the society or the important person around him or her (1976: 19). Human personality continuously changes and progresses. The changes depend on each individual, how they will deal with many situations in their lives.
Based on Maslow’s theory, seen from the psychological aspect, the writer considers that the belongingness and love needs are the most important aspect. As stated by Hauck (1983: 16), many people would put love as their most important human need. In order to survive or satisfy the needs, a person needs to build an interaction with others. It is because humans are known as a social being. They cannot survive without other’s help. Since it is not easy in making the relationship, sometimes problems may arise in human’s relationship. Furthermore, if an individual perceives that he or she is powerless and live in disharmony with his or her surrounding, it will result alienation. In addition, according to Maslow the failure to satisfy the human basic needs can bring an impact toward an individual’s psychological life. The failure to satisfy the needs can be one of the motivations which can cause some reaction which sometimes can not be easily known. His attitude may be a result of an influence from his surrounding or from him or herself, or it can be both.
The feeling of belongingness and love can also teach them how to share, appreciate and respect others.
In fact, it is not only children who need to be loved but also everyone else. If everyone has the feeling belongingness and love, people could live in harmony. Belongingness in here means acceptance. Everyone wants to be accepted by his surrounding, even though they have to do something which they do not like. Acceptance is one of the important aspects that people should pay attention. Nowadays, a person who does not have good ability in every aspect and does not have attractive look is hard to be accepted by the society. That is why he or she experience alienation. Life is harder for a person who was born with unattractive physics, comes from simple or poor family and does not have enough ability.
his friend’s mother because he can not accept her reprimand when he stays in his friend’s house.
The issues above are also seen in Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Mishima shows how the lack of love and belongingness could bring such great impact toward a person’s personality. In this novel, Mishima shows a portrait of a young acolyte who failed to satisfy his needs. His name is Mizoguchi. His unpleasant memory when he was a child taunted him. His life seems complicated; he has many problems in his life. At the end of the story, it tells how Mizoguchi decided to get his freedom in order to end his misery life. He takes an extreme action with killing people he cares about. The novel is interesting because it does not merely about romance or other usual aspects that people found. On the contrary, this novel contains psychological problems, such as the feeling of pressure, alienation, obsession, hatred, loneliness, and depression.
study is on the life of the main character. Why Mizoguchi tries to achieve the belongingness and love needs? How is Mizoguchi’s failure affecting his life?
B. Problem Formulation
In this study, the writer formulates three problems that will be analyzed. The problem formulations are presented as follow:
1. How are Mizoguchi’s characteristics presented in the novel?
2. Why does Mizoguchi try to achieve the belongingness and love needs? 3. How is Mizoguchi’s failure in achieving his needs affect him?
C. Objectives of the Study
The purpose of this study is to get deeper understanding about the novel by answering the problem formulations as the focus of this study. Therefore based on the problem formulations stated previously, the study has three aims.
6 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
There are some criticisms toward Mishima’s work on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Yasunari Kawabata, the first Japanese writer who won a Nobel Prize, gave a statement “a writer of (Mishima’s) caliber only appears once over 200- 300 years. No Japanese writer before or after his death has received the extent of international attention and administration bestowed upon Mishima” (http://www.geocities.com/westHollywod /375/Mishima.html).
Andress Roman from Santiago wrote “ from all Mishima’s works The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is one of his most extraordinary works, his linguistic use to describe psychological extreme situations and the sense of beauty surrounding them and innate to their being, acquires here an epic touch” (http://www.mnsu.edu.// comdis/kuster/Bookstore/shortview.html). A criticism taken from http://www.washburn.edu/reference/bridge24/Mishima.html, states that the Temple of the Golden Pavilion is more substantial book; it is based on a real life story. It is a novel of psychological analysis. A kind of turning of Zen Buddhism is used to explore the tensions between illusion and reality, love and hate, beauty and ugliness.
Philip Shabecoff conveys “Yukio Mishima’s novel, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion was his masterpiece. Mishima is really going at it with his whole heart. He has a tremendous gift of words, and it has never been richer than this new book. In Japan the novel is a masterpiece.” In the novel’s soaring climax, Mizoguchi tries desperately to free himself from his fixation (www.booksmilion.com/ncom/books?pid=9780679752707). Mr. Keene on Japanese
Another reviewer named Kalem, wrote that the late Japanese writer Yukio Mishima in the Temple of the Golden Pavilion told about the life of a young man with such woefully abraded nerves that he feels asphyxiated by a sense of the past (http://www.time.com/time/archive/printout/0,23657,910169,00.html).
Based on those views, the writer believes that this novel is worth further analysis. Those views can be the writer’s guide line to discuss more deeply about the main character. As stated by some reviewers that this novel is connected with psychological aspect, so the writer will discuss the main character more deeply from the psychological side which cause changes in Mizoguchi’s characteristics. It is different from other reviewers because this study not only sees the character itself but also the psychological factors which influence the character toward his behavior. The writer will take Mizoguchi’s failures in achieving his needs seen from one of the psychological factors. This topic will be used as the research of this study.
B. Review of Related Theories
In this study, the writer needs some theories as the basic guidance in answering the problems that become the focus in this study. In this study, the writer uses five theories as the guidelines.
1. Theories of Character and Characterization
Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms defines characters as “ the person presented in a dramatic or narrative work who are interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say (the dialogue) and what they do (the action).” Meanwhile, the main character is the most important person in the story. It can be the center of the story. Usually the acts of the story are focused to this character from the beginning to the ending parts (1981: 20).
Barnett in his book Literary for Composition says that the character is the cause of events that happen in a story since he has his character traits and he responses to the other character he meets. Barnett adds that character is defined into two meanings the first is a figure in a literary work and the second is a figure of someone’s personality that divided into mental and moral qualities. The writer will use the second term for this study because it deals with the psychological factors of the person. There are some important factors that must be considered when the readers want to know more about the character. First is what the character says and does. Through the character’s own attitude and way of speaking, they will know deeply what kind of character that he observes. The second is what the other character’s comment and action toward the character (1988: 71).
and the degree of sensitivity of the character. Second, he can use dramatic means and place the character in situations to show what the character is by the way he speaks or behaves (1971: 20). The readers can know the characterization from the appearance, behavior and the dialogue of the characters.
Holman and Harmon (1986: 83) point out that character may be static or dynamic based on their development and changes. Static characters are characters which do not undergo any changes in their behavior, appearance, disposition and their way of thinking. Till the end of the story, they remain as they are in the beginning of the story. The second is dynamic character. Dynamic characters undergo changes in their personalities, outlook, and the way of thinking. The experience and actions they do from their characters. The outside forces such as the other characters, conflicts and actions, and the internal forces such as belief and desire may change their character. A dynamic character may change to better character, but the changes can also become worse rather than in the beginning of the story.
negative changes because their condition becomes worse (1974: 71). A static character is a person who does not come to the development of the character although he faces many problems in his life. On the other hand, dynamic character is based on the change of the character, whether the change of the personality or the outlooks. Changed characters can be change in better or worse characters.
William Hudson wrote an author’s success in characterization depends on his method in giving detailed description toward his characters. In a play performance, characterization can be shown from gestures, make up, customs, and the look of the characters. Different with novel, all those principles descriptions are based merely on orders imagination only. Thus, it is very important for an author to give vivid description about his characters. There are two methods of characterizing characters in a story: direct or analytical and indirect or dramatic methods. In the former method, a novelist pictures his characters from outside, gives the reader detailed information. The novelist informs their passion, motives, thought, and feeling, explains and comments. The author also gives judgment upon his characters. In the later method, a novelist leaves the characters to reveal themselves through their dialogues and action, and portrait of a character through comment or judgment from other characters (1958: 147).
2. Theory of Personality
can occur when there is a condition that leads to new emotion, information, or responses (1981: 533). The earliest years of life are important to form the basis for an adult personality. However, there is no final personality. Therefore, he or she then may behave in a totally new way, it means that new emotions may be formed and new attitudes will develop. Moreover, Byrne and Kelley, point out also that when an individual is faced to new facts, there may be dramatic changes in the info-belief system, new expectancies, and perhaps new emotional responses and attitudes as well.
Elizabeth Hurlock in her book Personality Development stated that an individual’s personality pattern is the product of learning during the course of social relationships with people both within and outside his home. There are three major factors which determine the development of one personality pattern. First of all is the individual’s heredity endowment, the second is the early experiences within one’s family, and the last is important events outside one’s home environment. Therefore one’s personality pattern comes from the interaction of the second and third factors (1974: 19). This statement above means that personality development depends on the important events that happen in a person’s early life and the persons who take part in them.
The personality development can be influenced by some factors. Horton and Hunt say that the factors that can influence the personality are heredity, physical environment, and culture (1980: 114). Heredity is an inherent factor from our parents, which is presented from born. Physical environment is the environment around us, such as parents, siblings, friends, and other people. Culture in society would also lead a development in a personality through experiences which were experienced by the people in the society.
3. Theory of Motivation
Lewin pointed out that several forces may at the same time give influence on behavior; thus behavior was the result of the total forces acting upon the individual. In Lewin’s theory, “the behavior of individual is seen in relation to both internal and external forces acting upon individual. Behavior is regarded as the result of the conditions presents within the person and the psychological environment in which that person is immersed” (1981: 225).
Abraham Maslow in Larry A. Hjelle and Daniel J. Zeigler’s book entitled Personality Theories: Basic Assumptions, Research, and Applications defines motivation, which relates to the human needs. He believed that much of human behavior can be explained by the individual’s tendency to seek personal goal states that make life rewarding and meaningful. Maslow proposed that human desires (i.e., motives) are innate and that they are arranged in an ascending hierarchy of priority or potency. It is known as Maslow’s hierarchical theory of motivation (1981: 368- 374). In order of potency, there are five kinds of needs. The needs are: basic physiological need, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, self- esteem needs, and self- actualization needs.
a. Physiological Needs
The most basic, powerful and obvious of all human needs are his needs for physical survival. Included in this group are the needs for food, drink, oxygen, activity and sleep, sex, protection from extreme temperatures, and sensory stimulation. A person who fails to satisfy this basic level of needs will not be around long enough to attempt to satisfy higher- level needs. Physiological needs dominate human desires, forcing them on one’s attention before higher-order goals can be pursued (1981: 369- 370).
b. Safety Needs
of their relative helplessness and dependence on adults. Maslow further noted that parents who apply only unrestricted, permissive child- rearing practices do not satisfy a child’s safety needs. Maslow cited parental quarreling, physical assault, separation, divorce and death within the family as particularly harmful to a child’s sense of well- being. In effect these factors render the child’s environment unstable, unpredictable, and hence unsafe (1981: 370- 371).
c. Belongingness and Love Needs
The belongingness and love needs constitute the third hierarchical level. These needs emerge primarily when the physiological and safety needs have been met. According to Maslow, love and belongingness needs constitute part of human basic needs, particularly psychological needs. The need of belongingness and love is important. People with unsatisfied need for love or the feeling of belongingness will experience alienation (1971: 44). According to Maslow, love is not synonymous with sex and love needs are not restricted only to romantic love and parent-child love. They include the feeling of closeness between two good friends, the feeling of neighborliness that exist in some communities, or the feeling of good fellow ship that occurs to satisfy their love needs.
The failure to satisfy the needs for security relationship with others caused someone get psychological problem and will behave negatively. The psychological problems are related to spiritual disorders, to loss of meaning, to doubt about the goals of life, the grief and anger over a lost love, to seeing life in a different way, to loss of courage or hope, to despair over the future, to dislike for oneself, to recognition that one’s life is being wasted or that there is no possibility of joy and love (1981: 371- 372).
d. Self- Esteem Needs
Maslow divided self-esteem needs into two subsidiary sets: self-respect and esteem for other people. The former includes such things as desire for competence, confidence, personal strength, adequacy, achievement, independence, and freedom. An individual needs to know that he or she is worthwhile. Esteem from others includes prestige, recognition, acceptance, attention, status, fame, reputation, and appreciation. A person seeks self-esteem only after he or she achieves the belongingness and love needs.
A person who has self-esteem is more confident and capable and more productive. When self-esteem is absent the individual has feelings of inferiority and helplessness, which result in discouragement and possible neurotic behavior (1981: 372- 373).
e. Self-Actualization Needs
If all the foregoing needs are sufficiently satisfied, the need for self- actualization comes to the fore. Self- actualization is the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. Self- actualization is a person’s desire for self- improvement, his or her drive to make actual what he or she are potentially (1981: 373-374).
Bandura in his book entitled Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory, he claims that humans’ motivation comes from their interpretations about stimulus events which bring them to organize the information they brought before finally derived them into beliefs that leads them doing a positive or negative action (1986: 183). The greater effort can mobilize people into a real action if they are confident they can do it (1986: 301).
4. Theory of Loneliness
Emotional loneliness brought about by the loss of a significant relationship in one’s life through death or divorce. The only means by which this loneliness can be remedied is by finding another equally important relationship to fill the void, not just by becoming socially active in a superficial, non intimate manner (Weiss, 1973: 215).
Social loneliness could happen to the person who loses his social integration in communication that he can receive from friends or his partner. It is involves the deficiency of a social network or the absence of a place in an accepting community (Weiss, 1973: 215).
The quotation above shows that loneliness comes from internal side, which is from the person himself. It also comes from the external side that is community. People who suffer from emotional life are the people who have no families and relatives. They do not get enough affection since their families leave them or already died. Social loneliness comes from the attitude of the society toward the individual. It seems that there is a gap between the society and the individual. Both the society and individual can create the gap.
overwhelming feeling. There is a feeling of despair like a feeling as if one is going to break apart any minute. The sixth is feeling of having no control over loneliness. It may be that individual is trapped in a situation they would rather not be. Such in the case of the lover who lost his or her lover; the object of affection is gone. Seventh is feeling of no emotion. At some point in time, people may face of not to have feeling anymore, people become so overburdened with all the pain. Eight is feeling of being scared and afraid. Ninth is feeling of anger. They feel that the world has hurt them and it makes them angry (http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/loneliness/understanding_ loneliness.htm).
5. The Relation between Literature and Psychology
The relation between literature and psychology comes from Wellek and Warren (1956: 91). They stated that characters in plays and novels are judged to be psychologically true. This implies that sometimes an author uses psychological theory consciously to set a figure or a situation.
Psychological critics view works through the lens of psychology. They look at the psychological motivations of the characters and the authors themselves. Basically, literature reflects the life and represents realistic of human motivation and behavior, while psychological criticism may focus on the creativity of the artist or analyze the fictional characters’ motivation and behavior. It is clear that literature and psychology are two different fields, but they influence each other. Literature may contain the application of the psychology rule in the work (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 93).
According to Kalish in his book The Psychology of Human Behavior, literature “holds the mirror up the man”. It means that an author make the character seem more life-like than the real people whose behavior the psychologist attempt to describe. The authors can use the understanding of human behavior by drawing from the deep sensitivity of good authors (1973: 8).
C. Theoretical Framework
The writer takes some theories to answer the problems proposed in the problem formulation. There are some theories on character and characterization, relation between literature and psychology, theory of personality, theory of motivation and theory of loneliness.
Since the writer takes a novel as the subject of thesis and the discussion is related to the main character’s psychology, relation between literature and psychology is needed. The first analysis is Mizoguchi’s characteristics. He is the main character of this novel and plays an important contribution to the story, so this study will remain on the main character. Therefore, the writer applied the theories of character and characterization. The theories are used to understand the characteristics of Mizoguchi. This study learns the characterization and characteristics of the main character by examining his dialogues, actions, and other character’s opinion about the main character.
22 CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is written by Yukio Mishima. Yukio Mishima, at thirty two, already has some fifty volumes of works such as: novels, stories, essays, and poetry. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is the fourth book to be published in America. The novel was published in 1956 by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc. of Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, Japan. The novel was sold over 300,000 copies, and was made into the film The Conflagration (Enjo) in 1958, directed by Kon Ichikawa (
http://www.bookrags.com/shortguide-thirst_for_love/adaptations.html). In this study, the writer used the thirty second
printing in 1997 and was printed in Singapore. The original title of the novel is Kinkakuji Temple. The novel has been translated into English by Ivan Moris. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion contained of 262 pages and divided into ten chapters.
feels utterly lonely until he becomes an acolyte in Golden temple. In the temple, Mizoguchi hopes for nice companionship of his fellow and the affection of the superior. Mizoguchi admire the beauty of the Golden temple, but he can not live peacefully in the temple. His thought about getting nice companionship from the acolytes never becomes true. He felt disappointed with that condition. As the climax for all his problems, he decided to burn the temple.
B. Approach of the Study
Since the study is related to human psychology, the psychological approach is applied. According to Rohrberger and Woods, both literature and psychology discuss people and human lives. Literature discusses human and their lives and those are expressed through languages as works of literature. Meanwhile, psychology is a study of a man’s life together with his mind and behavior (1971: 6-15). Psychological approach draws on different body of knowledge based on human mind and behavior and on how they influence each other. It deals with human thoughts, actions, personality and experience (1971: 14).
C. Method of the Study
In analyzing the data, the library research method was used where there are some sources to support this study. All of the data that the writer needs to support this study were collected from the library research activities. The data or the sources were divided into primary and secondary sources. In this study, the writer take one of Mishima’s novel entitled The Temple of the Golden Pavilion as the main reference. The secondary sources were collected from books about theories on character and characterization, theories which connected with human’s psychology. The other information was taken from the internet.
There were some steps to answer questions in the problem formulation. The first step was reading the novel for several times and tried to understand the content of the novel deeply. The writer was interested on the main character to be analyzed. In this study, there were three problem formulations, which focusing the attention on the psychological factors which influenced main character’s characteristics. In order to get its full comprehension of the novel, the writer wrote down the important information.
26 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter is intended to answer the questions stated in the problem formulation. The problem formulation consists of three questions. The first is about the description of the main character, Mizoguchi. The second is Mizoguchi’s reason in searching the belonging and love needs. The third presents the effect of Mizoguchi’s failure in achieving his needs towards his life.
A. The Characteristics of Mizoguchi
Mizoguchi, the narrator of the story, is a young acolyte in the Golden temple. He was born as the only son in his family. His father is a priest in Nairu temple and his mother is an ordinary person. Mizoguchi and his parents live in a lonely cape in the north east of Maizuru. Since his childhood, his father has often told him about the Golden temple (p. 3).
To go deeper to Mizoguchi’s traits, this part is the discussion of the description of Mizoguchi. The analysis uses the theory proposed by Barnet (1982: 12). Based on the theory, there are four ways that can be used by the readers to understand the character. The first way is what the character says; the second is what the character does. The action that the character did may indicate his characteristic. The third is what other characters said about the character. The description of Mizoguchi can be seen through the point of view and comments of other characters. The last is through the other characters’ action. The readers may indicate what the character could do. Therefore, Mizoguchi’s traits are analyzed by applying those methods.
temple, his father has another plan for Mizoguchi. His father needs Father Superior’s help in financing Mizoguchi’s school fees.
“Now this child, you see…..” Hearing Father’s words, I turned towards him. In the almost dark room, father was about to entrust my future to father Dosen.
“I don’t think I shall live much longer,” Father said. “I want to ask you to look after this child when the times comes”
Father Dosen……but simply answered: “very well, I’ll look after him” (p.28). Not long after his visit to the temple with his father, his father died because of hemorrhage (p.30). After his father death, Mizoguchi join in the Golden temple. He officially becomes an acolyte in the temple. He does not need to worry about his education fee, the Superior now take the responsible of his late father. The Superior is the one who will pay all Mizoguchi’s cost of life.
His course at the east middle school had been interrupted before he graduated. The Superior, Father Tayama Dosen, arranged that Mizoguchi should continue at the middle school of the Rinzai Academy (p.35). His father wishes that his son will be an educated person is fulfilled. Besides going to school, Mizoguchi also works in some factories. In the temple, if an acolyte has the Superior’s recommendation to enter university, he will be taken into consideration as the next leader. In this case, Mizoguchi is the person who gets the Superior’s recommendation.
“Look here!” he said. “I’m planning to send you to Otani University as soon as you graduate from school. Now you must study hard, my boy, so that you’ll have a good record when it comes to matriculating. That’s what your late father would have wanted (p.79).
Besides getting a formal education, Mizoguchi also study and learn something else in the temple. The subject that he studies is not the same as in the formal school. In the temple he studies reciting the sutras, following the Superior lecture about the sacred scriptures. There, Mizoguchi also learn about disciplines and responsibility. Mizoguchi has a plus point as an acolyte; he can speak English quite good. In fact, he can speak English fluently (p. 74).
Mizoguchi is described as an unattractive person. It is true that human beings are the highest creatures that God has made, but nobody is perfect. Each person has their own ability and characteristic. Each person has their own personalities, outlook, the way of thinking and behavior. Mizoguchi, the main character of the novel, describes his physical appearance through the dialogues of what he said in the novel.
Until then I had never seen a face so full of rejection. My face, I thought, was one that had been rejected by the world….. (p. 14).
If beauty really did exist there, it meant that my own existence was a thing estranged from beauty.
At such times, however beautiful the face may be, it will be transformed into an ugliness exactly like my own (p.43).
After I had taken off my clothes, many more layers were taken off me….my ugliness and my poverty (p.228).
From the quotations above, the writer can conclude that Mizoguchi is not good looking. His appearance is getting less attractive because he is suffering from stammer. Since he is a stuttered, he has difficulties in communicating with others. It makes him look more unattractive in other people’s view.
she realized that it was I, she only looked at my mouth…she was only looking at my mouth. “Good Heavens!” she said “what an extra ordinary to do. And you only a stutterer!” (p. 12). The only points of the difference were that I was a stutterer and that I was a trifle uglier than the others (p. 35).
Being an unattractive and stammer brings misfortunate for Mizoguchi in building his relationship with others. Mizoguchi does not have any close friends, he is a lonely person.
Mizoguchi is an introvert. He does not like to tell his problem to the others. An introvert is a quiet person who is more interested in their own thoughts and feelings than spending time with other people. An introvert person has some characteristics, such as silent or not talkative, keeps many secrets, shy or not easy to adapt in new situations, and difficulties in making new friendship. Mizoguchi keeps the feeling for himself; he never talks to anyone else about his life and his problem. When he still in the East Maizuru Middle School, he always been taunted by his school mates. As the result Mizoguchi becomes a solitary person, he does not have any friend to be his talk- friend to share what he feels.
…… I was sitting by my self on the ground a few yards away. Such was my manner. Such was my manner toward the May flowers and toward the pride-filled uniform and toward those bright peals of laughter (p. 7).
“Why don’t you answer me something? Are you dumb?”
“I’m a st- st -stutterer,” replied one of his admires in my stead, and they all doubled up with laughter (p. 7).
My solitude grew more and more obese, just like a pig (p.9).
Mizoguchi comes from a poor family; his parents are only an ordinary people. His father is a simple country priest and he has a shabby mother. That is why, he does not have enough confident. His unconfident makes Mizoguchi difficult in making new friendship. When Mizoguchi attended the Golden temple, there is only one person who approaches him. His name is Tsurukawa. He is the only person who wants to build a friendship with Mizoguchi. When both of them are making a friendship, Tsurukawa becomes the only person who becomes Mizoguchi’s talk- friend. Further, Mizoguchi consider Tsurukawa as his positive pictures (p. 83).
When Tsurukawa and Mizoguchi are in college, Mizoguchi has one extra friend, his name is Kashiwagi. Different with Tsurukawa who never says anything about Mizoguchi, Kashiwagi consider Mizoguchi as an odd fellow (p.212). It is because Mizoguchi’s mind is not easily understood by others. Mizoguchi confess that he is not easily understood, because he likes provoking doubts in the mind of others (p.40).
looks. Further, Uiko reports the incident to her mother, as the result Mizoguchi’s uncle scolded him harshly.
Day and night, I wished for Uiko’s death. I wished that the witness of my disgrace would disappear. If only no witnesses remained, my disgrace would be eradicated from the face of earth (p. 12).
Strangely enough, I had not thought about it until that moment, but now it was clear to me that I had been hoping for the death of the girl in the lodging house, who had been the witness of my shame (p. 149).
The quotation above shows that Mizoguchi could manage his emotion. From the outside he looks fine in facing the person who already hurts him, but from the inside he curses those people harshly. Out of the matter Mizoguchi has the power in cursing people or not, but his curse comes true.
Mizoguchi is a person who does not easily to forgive and forget someone’s mistake. It can be seen from the relation between him and his mother. Mizoguchi’s relationship with his mother is not in good mood. The problem is caused by an unpleasant memory in his past. His mother had an affair with another man, at that time he was about thirteen years old. The situation became worst because his mother made love with a man in the presence of his dying father.
….We did not have much mosquito netting in our temple. It was really a wonder that mother and I did not catch Father’s tuberculosis, since we all slept together under the same net; and now this man, Kurai, was added to our number… Fearfully I turned my eyes to its source. Then, as I gazed through the darkness with wide open eyes I felt as though a gimlet was drilling into the very center of my eye balls….there was a large white expanse of crumpled sheet separating me from the thing that I saw now;…All of sudden my open eyes were covered by something large and warm, and I could see nothing. Father had stretched his hands out from behind to cut my vision (p. 55).
It is difficult for Mizoguchi to forget that incident. He does not complain or anger toward his mother directly. He only keeps silent but in his heart he can not forgive his mother’s mistake.
There is a special reason that I have until now avoided writing about my mother. I do not particularly feel like touching on what relates to my mother. But ever since that incident occurred, I could not bring my self to forgive her (p. 54).
The fact was probably that I disliked being confronted with the straight forward expression of love that one receives from one’s blood relatives, and I was simply trying to rationalize this dislike in various ways (p. 57).
I sat there tensely, filled with hatred for my mother (p. 60).
His silence is not without reason and meaning. Mizoguchi is bearing a grudge toward his mother in his own way. He never let his mother visits him before he becomes a fully priest in the temple. It means that his mother can not see him until he becomes the superior of the temple. Besides that, during the holiday he never visits his mother.
Mizoguchi can also be classified as a dishonest boy. It happens when he makes a quite fatal mistake. He caused a woman had a miscarriage; he stepped on the girl’s stomach. He never admitted his crime to the Superior. In fact, after he did the crime he gave the Superior two boxes of cigarettes. After he did the action, he never feels sorry toward what he had done.
There was no need for me to confess anything that had happened. I had only acted as I had because I was ordered and constrained (p. 78).
course was simply a bait to extract my confession: if I did not confess, he would withdraw his recommendation as a punishment for my dishonesty…… (p. 84-85).
Although Tsurukawa is Mizoguchi’s best friend, but he does not tell that he is the person who caused the girl’s miscarriage. Even when Tsurukawa ask him for the truth, Mizoguchi still does not admitted his crime (p. 83).
Mizoguchi is a cold hearted person, though his meanness only in his thought. His meanness can be seen from the way he likes in dealing with evil thought.
“If the people of this world, “I thought, “are going to taste evil through their lives and their deeds, then I shall plunge as deep as I can into an inner world of evil.” (p. 69).
Please let the evil that is in my heart increase and multiply indefinitely, so that it may correspond in every particular with that vast light before my eyes! Let the darkness of my heart, in which that evil is enclosed, equal the darkness of the night, which encloses those countless lights” (p. 71).
The deed of mine, which at the time had aroused no guilt feelings in me, that deed of trampling on the girl’s stomach, had gradually begun to glitter in my memory. The glitter of evil. Yes, that was it. It may have been a very minor evil, but I was now endowed with the vivid consciousness that I had in fact committed evil. This consciousness hung like some decoration on the inside of my breast (p.86).
The quotation above shows how Mizoguchi really enjoy his thought about evil. With those thought, it makes Mizoguchi have sense of cold- hearted.
B. Mizoguchi’s Reason in Satisfying His Belongingness and Love Needs
general feeling that most people have in the inside of their life. Hauck (1983:16) said that many people would put love as their most important human need. Considering this reason, no wonder that people will say that life without love is empty. Love cannot be touched but people can feel it. For example: love between parents and their children. Children cannot touch their parents’ love but they feel it. The children felt their parents’ love through their parents’ action. The children felt the affection and attention from their parents’. Love is considered as the key of life, because it brings happiness, though sometimes love also brings sadness or even madness. For example: a young boy does a suicide because he felt that his parents do not care about him. He felt that his parents are much care of his younger brother. The matter may be looks simple but the effect can be horrible. Another example, young men decided to end up his life because his girlfriend wants to break-off.
First, Mizoguchi tries to achieve the belongingness and love needs because he feels lonely. Loneliness becomes Mizoguchi’s basic cause that makes him want to love and to be loved. According to Weiss, loneliness can be defined as a chronic, distressful mental state whereby an individual feels estranged from or rejected by peers and is starved for the emotional intimacy found in relationship and mutual activity (1973: 214). Weiss also point out that there are some causes of loneliness. First is being abused or rejected by others, second is being unable to fit in. The last cause is felt broken hearted or missing someone else. Mizoguchi experiences those three causes.
When Mizoguchi was still in the old neighborhood in his uncle’s house and in his former school, Mizoguchi felt rejected by the people around him; in fact he felt that even the world reject him (p. 14). Mizoguchi feels lonely because his schoolmate never gives attention to him. Mizoguchi does not have a chance to build a friendship with his schoolmate. Mizoguchi suffers from a severe case of stuttering. This affliction makes him the object of ridicule amongst his schoolmates; his schoolmates always humiliate him (p. 7). Taunted by his schoolmate make him feels lonely.
Mizoguchi has a problem, he is there helping Mizoguchi to solve his problem (p. 84). Unfortunately, Tsurukawa is considered as the only friend that Mizoguchi has in the temple. Once again, Mizoguchi often received derision and insults from his surrounding, only Tsurukawa who does not humiliate him. Mizoguchi seems wondered about Tsurukawa’s behavior, Tsurukawa never teasing Mizoguchi about his stuttering. In fact, Tsurukawa does not care about that sort of thing at all (p.44). Both of them are often spend their time together. This matter makes Mizoguchi want to stay close with him. Unfortunately, when both of them are in college, they have to separate. Both of them want to make a new friendship in the new environment. Remembering that Mizoguchi often receive derision, insults even rejected, he becomes less confident. Since he does not have any courage’s to make a new friendship, once again Mizoguchi feels lonely.
because none of the other students used to approach him. The reason Mizoguchi has courage to approach Khasiwagi because physically Khasiwagi is a cripple; he has two clubfeet (p.91). Although Kashiwagi is a cripple, the way he treats Mizoguchi is different from Tsurukawa. Khasiwagi often mention about Mizoguchi’s lack (p. 93). After making conversation and trying to know one another, Mizoguchi starts interested in making friendship with Khasiwagi. Although Khasiwagi is a cripple man, but he never feels lonely (p. 103). This reason makes Mizoguchi interested in making friendship with Khasiwagi. Another cause that makes Mizoguchi feel lonely is because he is unable to fit in. Before he enters the temple and knows Tsurukawa, he feels that he cannot fit with the rest of the crowd.
Both the speaker and his listeners were stationary like monuments. I was sitting by myself on the ground a few yards away. Such was my manner. Such was my manner toward the May flowers and toward that pride-filled uniform and toward those bright peals of laughter (p. 7).
Khasiwagi as a friend suppose to do. Mizoguchi is unable to build friendship with Khasiwagi as close when he is with Tsurukawa.
The last cause of his loneliness is that he missing someone. In this case, Mizoguchi lost someone that he really cares about. He misses his only best friend, Tsurukawa. One day Tsurukawa has to go home to his home town because he has some family trouble. Mizoguchi does not really feel lonely, since there is Khasiwagi who can replace Tsurukawa for a while. Then that condition changed when the Superior tells to the acolytes that Tsurukawa is dead because of an accident. Hearing that news, Mizoguchi feels shocked and he starts to cry. It shows that Tsurukawa have an important meaning in Mizoguchi’s life. The condition is different when his father died, he even does not cry at all. Mizoguchi felt sorry because since he is closed with Khasiwagi, a little bit he started to neglect Tsurukawa.
…, but now, having lost him, I realized that his death severed the one and only thread that still connected me with the bright world of daylight. It was because of the lost day-light, the lost brightness, the lost summer, that I was crying.
How could I possibly make sure of Tsurukawa’s death in my mind without having seen his corpse and without having attended his funeral? The problem tormented me (p. 127).
The other cause is that Mizoguchi does not get enough affection from his parents. Born with unattractive looking and stammer, make Mizoguchi does not have enough confident. Considering his condition, his parents should give him a support and cheer his life up with love. A man who grows without love, respect, and affection can become a person who lives in pressure condition, while the other man who has love, respect and affection can bring such a good influence toward his personality development. As the only child, he experienced lack of love from his parents. According to Maslow, it is important to fulfill the belongingness and love needs. Being loved and accepted is instrumental to healthy feelings of worth. Not being loved generates futility, emptiness, and hostility (1981: 372). That is why, when people are fail to achieve love, the growth and the development of their ability will be troubled.
Affection or attention from parents is very important in building the basic character of a child. For example, there is a case; a kid who born with one normal eye. He can be considered as a handicap person, because he does not have two normal eyes. If his parents give him such attention, love and care, the kid will not lose his confident. When another person tries to humiliate him but his parents always by his side to support him, the kid will be stronger enough to accept his condition. In fact, the kid is able to grow up with full confident.
get truly affection and attention also support especially from his parents. Because of that, Mizoguchi seems does not have close relation with his parents. It was proved when his father died, he did not cry. Mizoguchi also could not accept his mother as part of his life. He feels disturbed by his mother existence.
“I am now under the care of the Rokuonji,” I told her “and I wish you would not visit me until I become a full fledged priest.” (p.59)
Even during the summer time I did not once visit the place where Mother was making her home (p. 130).
The quotation shows that Mizoguchi does not care enough toward his mother. His boyhood trauma still follows him, and it makes him difficult to forgive his mother and get closer to her. At that time Mizoghuchi was still thirteen years old boy. At that age, he should felt the warmth of a family, but on the contrary he sees his mother making adultery in front of his eyes (p. 54-55).
His parents’ wish makes Mizoguchi lives in pressure and it makes him feel uneasy. Mizoguchi can not choose his own way. Mizoguchi’s mother demanded that in the future, Mizoguchi has to be a Superior.
The only thing for you now is to become the superior of the Golden temple here. You must see that the Father really gets to like you, so that you can take his place when the time comes for him to leave. You understand, dear? That’s all your mother will be living for now” (p.60).
…Then she had appended the following sentence: “I don’t want to die until I have seen you with my own eyes as a priest in the Golden temple” (p.130). Then Mother’s hand reached out and began slapping me feebly across the cheek.
“You undutiful son! Have you no sense of your obligations?”
…..Of course, you’ll have to make your humble apologies to the Superior. I’ve apologized myself, but now you’ll have to go and beg him from the bottom of your heart to forgive you…….But you’re going to have to turn over a new leaf this time, or it’ll be the death of your poor old mother! I mean it, son! It’ll be the death of me if you don’t change yourself. And you’ve got to become a great priest…But the first thing is to go and make your apologies.” (p. 199-200).
children feel useless. It happens because as a son, he feels that he already failed to make his parents proud of him.
The feeling of being useless can evoke self- hatred and this act can cause him behave negatively. He can hurt himself; even can caused him to do suicide. In daily life, people can meet this kind of case. A boy ended his life by hung himself because he can not reach the first position in his class. He did this because he was afraid that his parents would mad at him. Another impact can be worst, when parents blame their son because of their failure, it can evoke hatred toward their parents. This matter also can be happen to anyone else, not only between parents and children. It can be happen between teacher and pupils, people in the neighborhoods, etc.
This condition can be seen in Mizoguchi’s life. He lives under pressure, he can not live peacefully. His wishes living in harmony with the people in the temple already vanished. He even can not live in harmony with the Superior. Mizoguchi also lack of love from his Superior. In matter of fact, he never knows whether the Superior really cares about him or not. Mizoguchi seems live in pressure, when he sees the Superior having a date with geisha, he afraid that the Superior will find him out (p. 160). The Superior makes Mizoguchi lives in pressure with his own way.
On the following day I waited for the Superior to call me in for scolding. This would be an opportunity for me to explain myself. But, just after that previous occasion when I had trampled on the prostitute, the Superior now began to torture me by passing the matter over in silence.
As a Superior, he should be wise, patient and open minded. Mizoguchi does not see that in Superior’s attitude. He sees that the Superior only thinks about himself and let the acolytes live in lack ness, and leave him in pressure.
C. The Effect of Mizoguchi’s Failure in Achieving the Belongingness and Love
Needs toward His Life
Mizoguchi tries to achieve his needs. He tries to get love from his mother and people in his surrounding. Mizoguchi never gets love from his surrounding, even from his parents. Since he was a child, his father only told him about the magnificent of the Golden temple. No wonder that Mizoguchi admires the temple. When his father sent him to the temple, he feels happy. Since the incident of his mother’s adultery, he hopes that he could find the warmth of human relationship in the temple. After his father death, he tries to satisfy his needs, the needs of belongingness and love. In order to get his needs, Mizoguchi tries to obey everything which is asked by his mother or the superior. Though he never gets love from his mother, Mizoguchi tries to fulfill everything that becomes his mother’s wish. He prefers to stay than to leave the temple. Though Mizoguchi lives in pressure because of the Superior’s attitude, he still put respect toward the Superior. The only thing that makes him still respect the Superior is the plan of the Superior in making him as the next successor. After Tsurukawa’s death, Mizoguchi lost something in his life.
long as one lived……”Let the darkness that is in my heart become equal to the darkness of the night that surrounds those innumerable lights!’ (p. 149). Though Mizoguchi already tries hard to do everything that becomes his mother’s wishes, he still can not achieve the belongingness and love from his mother. His failure in getting the needs and the death of his best friend really affect Mizoguchi’s life. The bad relationship between Mizoguchi and the Superior also affect Mizoguchi’s life. Mizoguchi feel disappointed when he found out that superior’s only thinks about his own pleasure. He decided to make the superior get angry on him, Mizoguchi started to neglect his study. Mizoguchi was absent for many times and got bad marks.
After I had made sure of the Superior’s anger by means of my trick with the photograph, I started to neglect my studies at the university. It was in my third year, however, that I really began to neglect my studies- not because I had any money to waste my time with, but simply from the joy of being idle.
When the first term finished, the university sent a report to the temple and I was reprimanded by the Superior. The reason for this reprimand was that my marks poor and I had been absent for so many hours, but what particularly irked the Superior was that I had missed the special classes in Zen practice, which only held for three days during the term (p. 172-173).
The Superior’s reprimands make the people in the temple act unfriendly toward Mizoguchi. That is why, since that day Mizoguchi hardly speaks to anyone else.
On the other day, the Superior wants to meet Mizoguchi. Both of them are discussing about Mizoguchi’s future life. Since Mizoguchi neglect his study and get bad marks, the Superior really disappoint toward Mizoguchi. In fact, the Superior has a plan to cancel his intention in making Mizoguchi as his successor.
“How sad your late father would be to know about this!” he said. “Look at this letter! They’ve written again from the university in the stronget terms. You’d better strat thinking about what will happen if things go on like this.” And then he passed directly to those other words of his: “There was a time when I planned to make you my successorher. But I can now tell you quite plainly that I have no such intention.”
I remained quite for a long time. Then I said: “So you aren’t goping to back me up any longer?”
“Did you really expect that I’d go on backing you up after this?” asked the Superior after a pause (p. 175).
The Superior’s plan really makes Mizoguchi fall down. The only reason he still staying in the temple already ended. This matter becomes the climax of Mizoguchi’s failure in achieving his needs. His patience in facing the Superior ended into his hatred toward the Superior (p. 176).
Fails in achieving his needs and considered lives in pressure, Mizoguchi decided end his miserable life. He does not want to live with the feeling of unhappiness, depressed, loneliness and also hostility between him and the people in the temple.
At that moment a violent desire came over me to get away from all my surroundings, even if only for a short time. After I had withdrawn from the Superior’s room, the desire became still stronger and I could think of nothing else (p. 176).
obscurity in which I lived, leave my stuttering and all the other conditions of my existence (p.181).
Mizoguchi’s lack in belonging and love needs really make him live in pressure and loneliness. He tries to search freedom of his life; he does not want to live in unhappiness, loneliness, pressure anymore. That is why he tries to make a trip in order to get out from his boredom.
Mizoguchi does not know where he wants to go yet. He goes by train; in there Mizoguchi meets people who criticize about the Superior’s attitude. Though Mizoguchi hear the public criticism toward the Superior, but he does not pay attention about the criticism. In fact, he does not care about that at all. After for a while, Mizoguchi decided goes to Yura. He stepped down in the West Maizuru and walking along the road to Yura. Strangely enough, on the way of his trip, Mizoguchi has a plan. He wants to burn the Golden temple.
Yet that idea, which until then had never once occurred to me, began to grow in strength and size as soon as it was born. Far from containing the idea, I myself was wrapped up in it. And this was the notion that enwrapped me: “I must set fire to the Golden Temple” (p.191).
leaves the temple and lives without pressure. Second, he grabs his freedom by burning the temple; the place where he lives in pressure and felt unhappy.
For a moment I felt that I was on the verge of being caught up once more in the charm of life or in an envy for life. It was still possible for me to retrain from setting fire to the temple; I could leave the temple for good, give up the priesthood and burry myself in life like this young fellow. But instantly the dark forces brought me back to my self and abducted me from such ideas. Yes, I must burn the Golden Temple after all. Only then could a new life begin that was made specially to order for myself (p. 197).
When Mizoguchi arrived in the temple, her mother already stands in front of the gate to see him. Mizoguchi is hesitating to approach his mother, but the police push him forward. Considering his mistake, leaving the temple without asking for permission, he should be afraid toward his mother and the Superior. In fact, he does not afraid at all. He thinks that his mother is no longer can threatened him. He no longer cares about his mother’s wishes. It is time for him to do what he thinks is right for him.
Drawn-out hatred over the fact that she should have given birth to me in the first place, memories of that deep affront to which she had exposed me-an affront which, as I have already explained, did not leave me any room for planning my revenge, but instead simply isolated me from Mother. Those bonds had been hard to break. Yet now, while I sensed that she was half immersed in maternal grief, I abruptly felt that I become free. I don’t know why, but I felt that Mother could never again threaten me (p.199).
temple is going to be burn down. Mizoguchi continued to neglect his studies. When he is absent from class, he used to visit various shrines and temples (p.202).
One day he sees a student in the Myoshin temple. From his cap Mizoguchi knows that he comes from Kyoto University. Mizoguchi follows him, since the student buy a pack of cigarettes. Mizoguchi sees that the student has the same problem with him; the student’s life is full of unhappiness and anger.
He was far more beautiful than I, but I had no doubt that he was being impelled to commit the same act as my self because of the same loneliness, the same unhappiness, the same confused thoughts about beauty. As I followed him, I began to feel that I was witnessing my own deed in anticipation (p. 203).
After following the student, Mizoguchi felt disappointed because the student is not trying to burn the Myoshin temple but merely want to smoke. After seeing that, he decided to come home. When he arrives at the temple, Khasiwagi is already there and wants his money back. Khasiwagi gives Mizoguchi a loan for leaving the temple. When the time to pay back is come, Mizoguchi does not have any money to return the loan. As the result, Khasiwagi tells his matter into the Superior. Knowing this problem, the Superior gets mad.
He kept me kneeling outside the room. “Is this really your thumb mark?” he asked “Yes.”
This time, the Superior is hardly forgiving Mizoguchi’s mistake. Hearing the Superior’s words, Mizoguchi feel sure that the Superior is not really care about him for these years. He thinks that the Superior already has a plan to expel him from the temple. Thinking of the Superior’s plan makes Mizoguchi really reconsider his plan in burning the Golden temple.
Mizoguchi’s plan becomes obvious when he finds out that his best friend’s death is not because of an accident. Tsurukawa died because he decided to end his life by committing a suicide. After three years, finally Mizoguchi knows this matter from Khasiwagi. Tsurukawa sent letters to Khasiwagi, and told him about the journey of his life until he decided to suicide. Mizoguchi never knows about the friendship between both of them, because as far as he can remember, Tsurukawa never allows him making friendship with Khasiwagi (p.113). So, he thinks that it is quite impossible that Tsurukawa make a friendship with Khasiwagi. On the other hands, the fact that Tsurukawa died because of suicide really comes into surprise. Tsurukawa ended his life because of a love affair. His parents do not agree with his choice. The problem make Tsurukawa’s lives in an unhappy world. That is why he decided to end his life (p.214).
He always remembers the Superior’s plan of not making him as his successor but also about the plan of his expulsion from the temple. That is why his relationship with the Superior is getting cold.
Mizoguchi is still a virgin; he thinks that to be a virgin is important because it shows that he is still pure as a human being or in fact as a priest. In order to do his plan, he should lose his virginity.
It was certainly in order that I might live that I was planning to set fire to the Golden Temple, but what I was now doing was more like a preparation for death. In the same way that a man who has determined to kill himself might first pay a visit to a brothel in order to lose his virginity, so I was now setting out for the gay quarters (p.220).
When Mizoguchi feels sure that he will burn the temple, he must take care of himself. He does not want to get sick or even dead before his plan in burning the temple is success.
Since I had resolved to set fire to the Golden Temple, I had returned to the fresh…..
