Buy essay on Natsume Sōseki

It goes without saying that Natsume Sōseki is one of the brightest Japanese writers of the Modern Era, who perfectly described in his novels an outstanding Japanese culture, with all it peculiarities. He depicted his characters and events in such an impressive philosophical manner, which attracted attention to his creative works even now, when his literary heritage became the object of investigation. His novel Kokoro is considered the masterpiece among his works and could be translated into English as heart, but it could be related to as shaded word and could suppose the translation as the heart of things or feelings. This perfectly reflects the internal thesis of the novel related to the emotional perception of changes, the feeling of solitude and understanding the others’ feelings. This essay would examine such background thesis the changing roles of woman. How the woman characters perceived within the novel.
Edo Era Women Compared to the Women of the Meiji Epoch within the Pages of Kokoro
Within the pages of the book there could be found two types of women presented. Women of the Edo epoch and women of Meiji epoch, they are compared and contrasted to each other as the two absolutely different epochs. The Edo period supposed definitely another understanding of women’s role in the family than it was in Meiji epoch. The Edo period characterized woman within the family life as good wife, who are good in housekeeping and give birth to many children. Women in the Edo period had to defer to their husbands. They were shy and do not actively participated within the social life. This image is perfectly realized with the help of the anonymous narrator perception of old fashioned tradition and firstly he considered his Sensei wife to be such type of women. It is essential that he depicted her as typical Edo period woman: “I did not even feel, when I was with her, that intellectual gulf which so often separates men from women. Indeed, I soon forgot that she was a woman, and came to regard her as the one person with whom I could share my sincere and sympathetic interest in Sensei” (Sōseki, 1914). The author devoted to rather significant part of his thoughts to the female part of the society, but as we see he did not find the wife of Sensei attractive, he even did not consider her a woman, but some kind of essential part his friend’s life.

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The same time
The other category of women described within the pages of the book is women of the Meiji period and they significantly differ from those who were in the Edo times. The society became more Western and women in Japan became Westernized. These women became more attractive to the author. Who were they women of the Meiji era? It is a well known fact that social demands towards the role of women in Meiji epoch have significantly changed and this happened due the changes within the educational system. Women played there a great role. Additional responsibility appeared in the family role of female alongside with the housekeeping and marital obligations it was responsibility for their children education. Being a good wife in Meiji epoch was to become a support for the husband. As it happens the role of female education grew and grew with this the significance of their social role. They become a friend, understanding and loving. The young man, the storyteller, being attracted to women, but he was also afraid of that began to understand Sensei wife and the attraction of Meiji time women: “I began to understand Sensei’s wife better. I was deeply impressed by her capacity for sympathy and understanding. What also impressed me was the fact that, though her ways were not those of an old-fashioned Japanese woman, she had not succumbed to the then prevailing fashion of using “modern” words” (Sōseki, 1914). The author masterfully depicts attractive women of the Meiji epoch, which are using the advantages of the western culture. With special attention he depicts different features that help the reader to understand the positive influence of the Western world on the Japanese culture and the changes of the women role during the Meiji epoch. That is perfectly depicted in the bath scene, when the narrator came to visit Western baths and noted that women were very modest, but the same time very attractive to him (Sōseki, 1914). It goes without saying that contrasting the image of old fashioned Japanese women and family relations between men and women towards the more western type of family and relations, when women started to play more significant social role alongside with the men.
In the end I would like to make a stress on the fact that background thesis is also very important for understanding the novel as the internal thoughts reveal the problems, which the author considered to be very significant for his country.

 
References:
Natsume Sōseki. Kokoro. Translated by Edwin McClellan. 1914