Suicide Committed By Lieutenant Shinki's Death

Many people say that a person who commits suicide is weak or selfish in that they bring it upon themselves to help others but then kill themselves to get out of a tough situation the easy way. However, like everything in life there are exceptions to this. Sometimes suicide is committed for the greater good; in this case it is considered a noble and honorable thing to do. Such is the case of the suicide committed by Lieutenant Shinji and his wife Reiko. The couple brought it upon themselves to kill themselves to preserve their honor and loyalty. Both of their deaths can be considered heroic however, Reiko’s death was more heroic.

To properly evaluate the characters for their heroism, the definition of a hero must be addressed. Sacrificing

She commits suicide just for her husband. From the moment she married a soldier she knew that the day her husband dies might come. She received a “soldierly lecture” from her husband asking her if she would be “steadfast in her resolve to accept” her husband’s death. In response to this she brought out the dagger her mother had given her as a symbolic gesture to her husband that she would die alongside him. This shows that she was willing to sacrifice her life out of commitment for her husband. Nobody except her husband benefitted from her death. Shinji benefits more than one person with his death while Reiko loses her life for much less. Therefore, since Reiko loses much more for her sacrifice and achieves much less, her death is more heroic. In addition to this, Reiko had to deal with much more grief than Shinji did. She had to basically throw her whole life away for her husband when she could’ve lived it without him. His friends had nothing to do with her yet she made the choice to die with him. Furthermore, she had to witness Shinji’s gruesome death as he disemboweled himself and then help stab him in the neck. “The volume of blood had steadily increased, and now it spurted from the wound as if propelled by the beat of the pulse. The mat before the lieutenant was drenched red with splattered blood… the entrails burst through, as if the wound was vomiting… as they slipped smoothly out and spilled over the crotch. The inclusion of such vivid detail is effective in portraying Shinji’s death as absolutely horrifying for Reiko to