The Price for Betrayal with the Magnitude of the Betrayal - Essay Example

Yugiri suffered with him as he tried to sit up”

Kashiwagi is a man of repute. The emperor’s admiration for him is evidence that he was a respectable man who was loved even by women who were old. In gatherings where the people went out to make merry, people would always remember him and wish that he was there as he was a perfect host for such events. In his conversations with the visitors that came to see him on his deathbed, he seems to be a man who has resigned to his fate. He also seems to expect that the worst would eventually come to him for the wrong that he had done. However, the people around him including his parents do not have an idea as to why he is ailing as the doctors cannot seem to find out what he is suffering from.

To a large extent, Kashiwagi was a leader who was hailed for all the good that he had done. Even his brothers regarded him as more of a father than a brother. His mother on the other hand is very fixated with her son to the point that she feels she would not have anything more to live for once he is gone. His wife, although aggrieved by the betrayal she suffered under him is at first reluctant to communicate with him but later softens her stand and writes him back. The saga that has led to the rift between Kashiwagi and his wife is only known by a small number of people. The rest of the society thinks that Kashiwagi was bewitched by a woman that he had been involved with but none can attest to that. Here, the gods seemed resigned to punishing Kashiwagi for the wrongs that he had committed and the price he paid was his life.

By sleeping with another man’s wife, his sister-in-law, did he deserve death? Was this betrayal deserving of death? Certainly, it seems that Kashiwagi bore the blunt for his actions. His partner by whom he sires a son suffers a brief bout but nothing too serious to cost her life. Only she and her husband seem to be aware that the child was Kashiwagi’s. Her husband even prayed that the baby born be a girl instead of a boy so that the resemblance to Kashiwagi is masked.

The hypothesis here is that mistakes done out of vanity always come back to haunt someone (Schlesinger 82). Despite his standing in society, what with being married to royalty, Kashiwagi had to face his blunder. He lost his life from a mysterious disease that could not be diagnosed and did not get the chance to see his bastard son. This hypothesis is informed by the fact that both people involved in the sin are ailed. The man passed on whereas the woman, who had also resigned herself to the same fate, ended up a nun. Her predicament is not too dissimilar to that of Kashiwagi since dying in childbirth was considered a curse. Therefore, her survival seems to be solely for the benefit of her son rather than her own.