Drama: Domestic Tragedy - Essay Example

Drama: Domestic Tragedy In the Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu, one of the constituent topics in The Love Suicides at Sonezaki and The Love Suicides at Amijima is domestic tragedy. This topic falls under the scope of tragedy plays in drama. In English phonology, tragedy refers to a disastrous event which results in a negative consequence like injury or even loss of life. Within the literature element of drama, tragedy refers to a literary work where the main character undergoes distress, suffering or death at the end of a play. The distress or loss of life experienced at the end of a drama results from the inability of the main character to cope with some adverse conditions. In drama, the protagonist, who is usually a man assuming a significant role in the play, gets into trouble. This protagonist gets into the disastrous state after as a result of inadequacy in personal skills meant to enable him handle an underlying situation. Tragedy plays postulate the aspect of individuals who drops from a prosperous position to disaster or even death in the society (Chikamatsu and Keene 39). In most cases, the causes of the protagonist’s fall results from faults of a third party and are beyond his control. Tragedy drama aims at eliciting emotions of fear and pity from the target audience. In most cases, this drama results in pity among the audience because the protagonist, who is a hero in the drama, goes through an enormous suffering than the offence he committed. In drama, tragedy falls under two categories, classical tragedy and domestic tragedy. In his plays, Chikamatsu demonstrates the aspect of domestic play. Domestic tragedy is a drama which adopts ordinary or common people as the main characters. It contrasts with classical tragedy where the main character is a highly esteemed member of society. The ordinary person, who assumes the role of a protagonist, possesses positive qualities at the start of the drama. However, the protagonist still goes through all the misery and sorrowful happenings at the end of the drama (Chikamatsu and Keene 12). Unlike classical tragedy drama which focuses issues of state importance, domestic drama revolves around family affairs. The protagonist in this drama meets his death in an unexpected manner. During the development of the drama, audiences get to learn of some hidden attributes possessed by various characters in the play. These attributes reveal in an ironic manner. It is the duty of the audience to work out why certain characters depict certain behavioral pattern in the play. Based on Chikamatsu’s play, the theme of domestic tragedy dominates two plays, which include the Love Suicide at Amijima and The Love Suicides at Sonezak. In The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, the renowned Japanese writer, Chikamatsu, depicts the concept of domestic tragedy in this drama. This drama involves a young merchant called Tokubei and a young lady named Ohatsu who she has fallen in love. Both the actors are ordinary people who engage in common economic activities within their social settings. During the start of the drama, Tokubei displayed some elements of negative social quality of coldness towards his lover (Chikamatsu and Keene 64). In addition, Tokubei had an immense deal of introversion towards other especially Ohatsu. As a result, Ohatsu decided to confront her lover on the issue of introversion and the uncaring attitude he displayed towards her lover. Despite his negative attributes, Tokubei was kind and generous when he provided financial assistance to his long time friend. However, the protagonist’s down fall started when Kuheiji refused to refund the borrowed money back. As a response action, Tokubei decided to take revenge by inflicting physical injuries to Kuheiji. This led to his dismissal from the current work place (Chikamatsu and Keene 72). As an act of retaliation, Tokubei received a thorough beating from Kuheiji’s crew. In the process of his recovery, Kuheiji followed Tokubei and arrested him for execution. As a result, the two couples, Tokubei and Ohatsu planned to commit suicide together after a successful escape from their captors. The play ends when both couples slit their throats. In The Love Suicide at Amijima, Chikamatsu employs domestic tragedy in the play. This play contains all the elements requisite for an ideal domestic tragedy. At the start, Tokubei displayed some social weaknesses towards the closest friends. However, these social weaknesses were neutralized by his kindheartedness. Disaster started when the protagonist decided to finance his friend. In this context, Kuheiji is responsible for the inception of Tokubei’s downfall. Through the play, the protagonist undergoes a series of repeated miseries. This led to the development of critical circumstance that was beyond Tokubei’s control. This made him contemplate on committing suicide (Chikamatsu and Keene 83). On the other hand, the Love Suicides at Amijima contains all the elements of domestic tragedy, which includes a protagonist and a sorrowful ending. This play involves two lovers who were forced by the prevailing social and cultural climate to commit suicide. Jihei, who is the protagonist in this drama, marries Osan and established a stable family. At this inception stage, Jihei is a responsible family man who provided all the necessary logistics to his family members. As the play progresses, the protagonist falls in a mutual love with a prostitute named Koharu. As a result, the two lovers vowed to enter into eternal love. At this juncture, Jihei realized that he could not rescue his lover (Chikamatsu and Keene 76). This made him contemplate about committing suicide in the first available opportunity. However, Jihei’s wife, Osan, advised Koharu to sever their relationship in order to save each other’s life. Koharu did exactly had per Osan’s advice. At this moment in the play, another character enters the play. Tahei, a wealthy cupid rival, takes Koharu and marries her. This act resulted in the highest humiliation on Jihei. As a result, Jihei and his wife, Osan knew that Kahoru will take away her life because of the eternal love vow they had made with Jihei. Jihei and his wife resolved to acquire financial strength in order to save Kahoru. In the process of gathering wealth, Osan’s father came in and took her daughter away from Jihei. This motivated the protagonist into sneaking with his lover, Kahoru. Jihei and Kahoru managed to escape and ended up committing suicide (Chikamatsu and Keene 87). Domestic tragedy materializes in all the scenes of this play. The actors are common people in the society. The protagonist stars off as a faithful family man. However, he falls in love with a prostitute and vowed to consider it as an eternal love. However, the situation changes when another character, Tahei, buys off Jihei’s lover for marriage. This was the beginning of the protagonist’s downfall. The humiliation that followed after lost grip of Kahoru made him make a final decision of auctioning their assets. This miserable situation continued until the lovers’ death (Chikamatsu and Keene 37). Work Cited Chikamatsu, Monzaemon and Keene, Donald. Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. Print. Read More