Depth at a Further Glance: Female Emotional and Intellectual Life in “The Tale of Genji” Arianne Flit College

‘The Tale of Genji’ opens with the conflict generated by the Emperor’s preference for an unnamed consort. From its onset, it appears as if the tale treats its female characters as literary commodities - vessels of conflict, infatuations, and frustrations - rather than real, complex people. Even in the case of the main female characters such as Lady Fujitsubo, Lady Aoi, and Murasaki, the sensation that the reader can only view their feelings through the reductionist perspective of Genji and the main male characters in the Tale is ever present.

In general, women’s intellectual and emotional worlds seem to be mostly untapped by Murasaki. Where men’s desires and motivations are fleshed out, women’s are portrayed with less clarity and less often. This is particularly disturbing in the second section of ‘The Broom Tree,’ where the rape scene is focused on Genji’s experience and described entirely from Genji’s point of view. The reader is barred from gaining an insight into the victim’s thoughts and feelings, which is very troubling given the nature of this event.

At first glance, one could assume that Murasaki Shikibu fails to delve into women’s emotional and intellectual worlds because she doesn’t fully understand them, or because...