A young talent in a foreign land, he met a dancer who had no money to bury his father, and out of pity, he gave the woman a sum of money to help her tide over the difficulties. In addition to gratitude, the woman gave birth to a little admiration, and the youth was also touched by her beauty and kindness, so the two fell in love.
It sounds like one of the most common themes in traditional Chinese novels: the story of talented women, and there are many elements such as distress, charity, and love. In fact, this is the plot of the novel "Maihime" by Japanese writer Mori Ouwai, and his narrative structure has the shadow of the "talented lady" style story, but there is no lack of uniqueness in character setting and plot arrangement.
The story of Maihime takes place during the Meiji Restoration, when the protagonist Toyotaro enters a ministry after graduating from the University of Tokyo with honors, and a few years later is assigned to Germany to study law, while also studying law at a local university, and is a young man with a bright future. The heroine Alice is a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl, she is beautiful and innocent but her family is poor, and she has suffered a huge family change after the death of her father. Toyotaro appears by her side like a "savior", giving her material support and allowing her lonely heart to find something to rely on.
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As a writer known for describing "impossible love", Mori Ouwai did not give Toyotaro and Alice a happy ending, and finally Toyotaro left Germany for a career future, and the abandoned Alice suffered from paranoia in extreme stimulation and spent the rest of her life in a mental hospital. The once-hot love affair is now a lose-lose situation, but Yu Toyotaro repents alone during the long night.
A combination of male and female appearances, but in the end, it ended in a dismal end, where is the source of this tragedy? An in-depth analysis of the three levels of Toyotaro, Alice and the author MoriOka may reveal one or two.
01 Begins with pity and ends with weakness: The love between Toyotaro and Alice begins and ends
In the novel, Toyotaro lost his father at an early age and was raised by his widowed mother alone, but he excelled in his studies, graduating from a university in Tokyo at the age of 19 and becoming a public servant in a certain department, which was deeply appreciated by his superiors. For a young man, such a life path is a smooth sailing.
At this time, during the Meiji Restoration, all areas of society were undergoing Westernization reforms, so that they could get unprecedented attention compared to family origin and economic status, and Toyotaro was given the opportunity to study in Europe, and the bright future seemed to be close at hand.
However, life abroad did not go as smoothly as Toyotaro expected. In the face of the strange and drunken flower world, he can also think of himself as "never moving" and try his best to resist the temptation of the outside world. Under the influence of modern civilization and the spirit of freedom in the European world, his world of thought began to ripple, and he realized that his mother wanted him to make a "living dictionary" and his superiors wanted him to make a "living code", but his heart was resistant to it. In correspondence with his superiors, he began to talk about the spirit of the law, rather than sticking to the individual text of the law. The law courses that he was supposed to study in the local area were beaten into the "cold palace", and the topic of literature, history and philosophy formed a strong attraction for him.
Toyotaro's "change" caused dissatisfaction from his superiors, who usually immersed himself in hard reading, rarely drank and chatted with his peers, and gradually made him "marginalized", inexplicably ridiculed and excluded, and his living situation was not satisfactory.
The dancer Alice appeared not sooner or later, just when he was depressed.
The innocence and helplessness of the young girl Alice stimulated his inner desire to protect, and he gave her material help to help her out of the troublesome trouble.
As it is said in the Book of Poetry: Throw me a papaya, and repay it with Qiongju.
Alice gave Toyotaro a lingering love, even when Toyotaro was removed from his post and had to write a newsletter for the newspaper. Their love is a type of mutual warmth in a difficult situation, and its initial root is gratitude to each other, which in turn gives birth to love.
In this relationship, Alice is clearly the one who loves more deeply, Andotaro loves Alice, but he loves himself more, and this contrast is evident in his final choice.
Through the recommendation of his friend Kenkichi Aizawa, Toyotaro was given the courtesy of the chancellor and had the opportunity to return to japan, provided that he was completely separated from Alice. Toyotaro was very entangled, but his weak disposition made him reply in the affirmative immediately.
From this moment on, his love affair with Alice came to an end, he did not dare to tell Alice directly about his choices, and even suffered from inner pain until he fell ill in bed, and finally his friend Kenkichi Aizawa told Alice about this bad decision.
Alice went mad and became a demented baby, and Toyotaro returned to his homeland, pain like a ghost in the middle of the night, haunting his heart and not dissipating for many years.
A relationship that began with pity and gratitude destroyed the lives of two people.
02 Alice: The humility of the dancer is a female dilemma created by the times
In the story of Maihime, the one who is hurt the most is Alice, who shouts in despair: "My Toyotaro, you have deceived me to this point!" Such a mournful sound reminds people of Du Shiniang in the Ming Dynasty story "Du Shiniang's Anger sinks a treasure chest", she pinned her hopes on the rich man Li Jia, who was sold to Sun Fu, and when she threw a piece of treasure jewelry down the river at the bow of the ship, she probably had the same state of mind as Alice.
Talents lose their "morality", beautiful people are obsessed with wrong payment, and life is extremely bitter, which is nothing more than this.
Is Alice's fate predicament only because of love? Obviously not, more in the limitations of the times.
Alice's family was in poor financial condition and had to work as a dancer in a ballroom, and at the end of the 19th century, dancing was a low-status profession, and was even called "the slave of our time". They spend a lot of time practicing dance, but the income they get is very meager.
In order to make a living, some of them have become the children of rich families, relying on their young bodies in exchange for the cost of life. The "Nana" written by the french writer Zola, the ballerina in the painting of the Impressionist painter Degas, showed the living conditions of this group from different angles.
In the career of a dancer, Alice did not blindly sink, there was protection from her family, and more was the persistence of her temperament. As a despised dancer, Alice did not relax in practicing dance, and all the way to the second dancer of the theater. Influenced by her father, she often flipped through some books, and after spending time with Toyotaro, she was able to enjoy reading more and more. Even when the cost of her father's funeral was out, she did not succumb to the theater owner's attempt to take advantage of the fire.
In the social environment at that time, hard-working and talented like Alice could not support herself by dancing, and once the family encountered changes, there was no way to find it. Toyotaro's appearance was like a straw, or a beam of light, lighting up her bleak life.
However, for a low-level woman like Alice, even love is almost a luxury. Toyotaro's "abandonment" is also largely considered by the gap in social status, Toyotaro has a deep obsession with fame and fortune, let him put down everything and Alice to live in poverty, he is also difficult to reconcile after all.
03 Toyotaro and Mori Ogura: Men in the collision of old and new cultures
From the perspective of literary creation, the story of Maihime has a strong autobiographical color, and the experiences of the authors Mori Ouwai and Toyotaro have many overlaps, and they are both influenced by the new and old cultures, the eastern and western civilizations.
Born in a family of doctors, Mori went to Germany to study when he was young, and he began to read ancient Greek literary classics, Goethe's poetry and novels, Western philosophy and other books, absorbing Western ideological theories such as "freedom" and "civil rights". The oriental imprint on his body is equally profound, and in the traditional education he received since childhood, Confucianism is deeply rooted, and he looks forward to a happy life of meritorious achievement and rising to the top.
While in Germany, Mori had a relationship with a local woman, and after returning to Japan, the woman once went to his home and wanted to marry her lover. However, Mori Ou was under pressure from his mother and watched as the woman was chased away by her family and disappeared from nowhere.
After that, Mori Ouwai's official eunuch career was smooth, his literary achievements were quite high, and he also invented the square-eye map, which can be said to be "successful and famous" in the secular sense. Toyotaro returned to Japan and cleared him of the accusation of "misconduct in life", which is probably also a promising career.
In the novel, Toyotaro exudes infinite chagrin and remorse for his once chaotic behavior, and when it comes down to the reasons, in addition to dissecting his own weak disposition, he has a vague hatred for Kenkichi Aizawa, a friend who tells Alice the truth.
This idea itself is rather "shirking responsibility", because Aizawa Kenkichi only relayed to Alice what he "should" tell but "did not dare", and his cowardice only slightly delayed Alice's emotional collapse, and the source of the tragedy was caused by the moment he did not dare to say "no".
Mori Once Said that Maihime is "a milestone in the little journey of a small person's life", and ThatUtaro certainly has something to hate, and his egoistic tendencies push a woman into the abyss of pain. But a figure like Toyotaro is not an unforgivable person, he once pursued an independent thought, he struggled hard, but once again bowed his head in front of reality. He found out the "faults" of outsiders to whitewash his cowardice, but the self-blame and repentance never stopped.
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04 Conclusion: The tragedy created by "ordinary people" is the most desolate
The philosopher Schopenhauer divided "tragedy" into three types, the first is created by the exhaustion of his power by the most evil man, the second is caused by fate, and the third is ordinary character, in ordinary circumstances, due to various unavoidable reasons, which eventually lead to tragedy. Of these, the third tragedy is the most poignant.
The story of "Maihime" can probably be divided into the third kind of tragedy, Toyotaro's growth background is that he has a desire for fame and fortune, Alice is a young girl at the bottom who longs for beautiful love, and the "third person" Kenkichi Aizawa hopes that his friends can have better career prospects. Their intention was not to hurt, but together they created a tragedy through and through.
When Toyotaro sits alone on the boat, only accompanied by dazzling electric lights and the loneliness around him, his heart can only appeal to the pen, and the past may dissipate like smoke, but the feeling of pain is a lifetime of bondage.