"Hunger and Thirst for Love" is a novel by Yukio Mishima with few characters and a simple story with spoiled love as the lead. The novel tells the story of the heroine Etsuko who suffers blatant betrayal and extreme disgust from her husband Ryosuke. As a result, she gradually lost her sincere feelings for love, and her hunger and thirst for love arose in her heart, as well as a strong desire for possession. After Ryosuke died prematurely due to illness, he was seduced by his father-in-law Mikichi at home. At the same time, Etsuko fell in love with the young, strong, and youthful gardener Sanlang, and her shackled heart burned again, and her dusty true feelings began to jump again. Mikichi pushed her into the frozen darkness. Etsuko knows that there will never be another chance to walk with Saburo, and that her love for him and the torment she suffers will continue to rise over time. So, on a moonlit night, she induced him to say the words "I love you" and killed him.
What causes Etsuko's hunger and thirst for love? It was her dead husband, Ryosuke. She was born into a noble family. In order to obtain her rich property, Ryosuke married her. Unexpectedly, she only inherited a small number of poor stocks. Ryosuke's plan failed, so he beat her into the "cold palace", making her lose her normal right to love. When she received true love like a normal person, she was tempted and suffocated by her father-in-law. Eventually, she killed the killer and ended her lover's life.
Etsuko, devastated by Ryosuke and Miyoshi's father and son, embarks on a path of no return, on which she never returns. After killing Saburo, Miyoshi helps her dispose of the body and clean up the scene. During this process, Mikichi's hands trembled, and she couldn't even hold the towel tightly, but Etsuko was unusually calm. In her opinion, the person who tormented her has disappeared since then, the heart that loves him has been closed forever, the pain in her heart has been exhausted, and the tired body and mind have gradually relaxed. So, that night, she got a brief deep sleep. This is a strong and terriblely straightforward woman.
This is another woman who is stupid and helpless to reality. She was toyed with by Miji's father and son, and she had decided to be a widow, but she could not withstand the temptation. Willing to be realistic, depraved. Ryosuke's betrayal, she could have fled, but let things go; Miyoshi's temptation, she could have refused and chosen to leave, but indulged in it. Under the pressure of Miyoshi's step-by-step battalion, he has no scruples about killing Sanro. The moment she picked up her hoe and smashed it at Sanro, she smashed her own only normal human love, and the gap shot into the light in her heart. Since then, only a twisted and dark life has been left.
Etsuko is pathetic. Her only longing to love and be loved was destroyed by the Miji family. She is hateful again, because she ends up being the same kind of person as the hateful person.
Ryosuke is pitiful, he calculated everything, and finally took his own life and died early.
Mikichi was pitiful, and even though he finally got Yuezi, he could sleep with Yuezi in his arms at night. It's just a pity that for such a dead tree, neither can it satisfy Yuezi physically, but at the same time, it can't get Yuezi's heart, which is a cold twisted heart.
Sanro was the most pitiful. The description of Saburo in the article is ignorant of love and full of wildness about sex. Dark skin, sweaty muscles, unlimited physical strength... These descriptions all reflect the simple beauty of Saburo. But at such a young, energetic, and infinite future, he was ruthlessly killed by a woman who was still tearful and confessed a second ago. Until his death, he did not understand why this was the case.
I suddenly remembered another work by Yukio Mishima, Kinkaku-ji Temple. Everything that is beautiful is eventually destroyed. Kinkaku in "Kinkaku-ji" and Sanro in "Hunger and Thirst for Love" are symbols of beauty, but in the end they can't escape the fate of being destroyed. The person who destroys beauty shows hunger and thirst for love, distortion.
The story of "Hunger and Thirst for Love" is very simple, and the whole text does not have a tortuous line, but it can write this kind of ordinary trivia into three points, which shows the author's writing skills.