Usage of Characterization In Ryonosuke Akutagawa’s Rashomon
Despite coming from a different background than most other authors
that have so far been studied, Ryonosuke Akutagawa still wrote stories
that included similar ideas like internal and external conflict,
sacrifice of oneself for a higher cause, murder, human flaws and many
others. In addition to that, Akutagawa also used common literary
elements like motifs, symbols, point of view and irony. However, one
element that is prevalent in almost all of his works is
characterization. In two of his short stories, Rashomon and The Martyr,
characterization is used to develop their respective themes; in
Rashomon, characterization is equally important in building up the
theme as in The Martyr.
In Rashomon, characterization is used to show the theme that the
desperate situations that a person faces can result in the resorting
to means that compromise morals, and can even lead to hypocrisy.
Akutagawa does this through narration and behavior of the character.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist is faced with the
dilemma of either being honest and dying of starvation, or to be a
thief and steal from the corpses that were scattered around. However
even after much consideration, he was still “unable to muster enough
courage to justify the conclusion that he must become a thief”
(Akutagawa 34). Through this, it is evident at this point, the
protagonist was still somewhat reluctant to compromise his morals even
for survival, and if possible, he would definitely consider other
means. With time though, the protagonist does eventually decide to
compromise his morals, and he did not even have to “wonder whether he
should starve to death or become a thief. ...
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...gh they may have shown approval initially.
In the two different stories, characterization is used to prove the
themes, and in both cases, they are equally important. However, there
are similarities and differences as to how characterization is used.
One similarity that they share is the fact that in both stories,
characterization is mainly shown through narration. Indeed in both
cases character traits can be extracted through speech, but they are
more apparent in the narration. On the other hand, one difference is
that in Rashomon, there was only a single person that was being
characterized to prove the theme, and this character was less of a
one-dimensional figure than the characters in The Martyr, whereas in
that story, a whole community was being characterized through their
actions, as well as through the introspection of one member of the
community.
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...ng The Tell-Tale Heart by Edger Allan Poe, I was able to pull out characteristics that I thought were important in understand the story. The narrator has no physical descriptions in the story so it was easy to move away from his/her physical description to their emotional characteristics. In the story emotions are especially important to understanding why a character thinks the way they do.The unanswered question will always be why the narrator killed the old man. If he says its not for the money and it is stated that he has never done anything wrong to hurt the narrator than it leaves the readers open to have their own thoughts what the answer to this puzzle that Poe has created through his characterization of the narrator. Having an unstable creates different characteristics but I felt that I would characterize the narrator as being secretive, insane and nervous.