The Tale of Kieu: Thuc Ky Tam - Essay Example

The Tale of Kieu: Thuc Ky TamIt is necessary to stress that there are a lot of significant characters in The Tale of Kieu. The character of Thuc Ky Tam is one of them. It should be noted that there are two features that may characterize this person. He possesses both strength and weakness. These traits of character seem to contradict with each other. Throughout the epic the readers come across the situations that demonstrate either Thuc Ky Tam weakness or strength. Practically all of them are closely connected with women – the character’s beloved and his first wife.

In general, although Thuc Ky Tam frequently demonstrates his weakness, he is not afraid to achieve the purposes in his life; this proves that he is a strong man as well. The most important events in Thuc Ky Tam’s life are connected with women. When the character saw Kieu, he decided not to waste much time on dating. The man started seeing her at once on the regular basis and did everything possible to become her husband. He managed to persuade the judge in his love for this woman and soon they married.

Although Thuc Ky Tam’s father was against the marriage with prostitute. This attitude did not stop the character under consideration and he demanded the things he had wanted. This situation is the evidence proving the strength of Thuc Ky Tam. However, there are also several situations proving the character’s weakness. For example, Thuc Ky Tam could not tell his first wife that he had married to another woman. He lived a year with the first wife and had negative consequences of his own weakness.

Thus, Thuc Ky Tam had to search for his beloved for a long time and then they could not see each other for a year. It was possible to avoid this if Thuc Ky Tam had not postpone the talk with his first wife. So, the character’s relations with both his wives give an opportunity to understand his character better.Works CitedDu, Nguyen. The Tale of Kieu: A Bilingual Edition of Nguyen Du’s Truyen Kieu. Trans. Sanh Thong Huynh. Binghamton: Yale University Press, 1983. Print.