After Oseki accidentally runs into Roku, she learns a lot about what he has been going through. There is a lot of irony in this run in because both Oseki and Roku were very unhappy with their lives. Oseki should be living lavish because she is married, is wealthy, and higher in the social class. But despite her having everything a person can ask for, her marriage is unhealthy. She is very unhappy with how things are with her husband because of how he mistreats her. Roku is not happy because for one he is financially unstable, he lost a daughter, and his marriage is also not doing well. This meeting is so ironic because despite their social class they have a lot in common. Their meeting connects to Marxist theory because both of them are under two different classes and they both have similar struggles.
Oseki represents what it was to be a woman in her time. Back in her era women weren’t respected, they had no legal rights, no power over anything. Women were under the power of men. Their role was to keep their households clean and keep their family fed. They had to do whatever their husbands told them to do in order to keep them pleased. it was hard for women to navigate through systems of power because they were not educated enough how men were in that time because they had been following a system and role that was made for them to follow to please their husbands when they get married.
One thought on “Marxism in the Thirteenth Night & Feminism in Ichoyo”
I agree with you though they are in different social classes they undergo similar hardships that they have in common.