Dou E Death

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Recommended: People'S Attitudes Towards Death

Can death be considered non-tragic? Can your religion or culture belief make death acceptable and honorable? In this Classical Chinese Drama, known to be Hanqing’s most admired zaju play, he writes about an injustice done to a girl, by showing how her life is one whole misfortune. The events that occur to Dou E, go from bad to worse thought the play and they all beginning after her father gives her away to Mistress Cai, to cancel out a debt, help explain the great lengths people will go to “fix things”. The play displays the corruption of the morals, combined with Dou E’s decision to stay righteous, an innocent girl since a child, regrettably it was her fate to be unlucky as her life ended early from a false accusation.
Dou E is shown …show more content…

(Guan Hanqing, Ibid. p. 55)”.
Doctor Lu, not only tries to kill Mistress Cai, by strangulating here but he is stopped by Donkey and his father Zhang. Donkey blackmails Mistress Cai, into marriage along with Dou E, in exchange for them saving her from Doctor Lu’s strangulation. When she tries to pay him off instead Donkey is clear to inform her that if she refuses such offer he will have no choice but to strangle her himself. Cai decides to re-marry, in addition arrange a marriage for her daughter-in-law to marry Donkey. Dou E, upon hearing all this marriage talk from Mrs. Cai, tries to convince Mrs. Cai of her loyalty issues, explaining’s that her actions were considered unloyalty to the dead, as well as refusing to re-marry. Chinese culture, is a very strict culture that is based on loyalty. Those who go against that loyalty are highly looked down upon. Disloyalty of Mrs. Cai seems to be the downfall of her righteously loyal daughter-in-law.
During this section, we can see how loyal Duo E, is in respect to her dead husband, but also, Chinese culture beliefs. She states that some women are disloyal. “The women today are …show more content…

From the moment Dou E, Mrs. Cai, and Donkey walk in, it seems the Prefect already determined Dou E guilty of the crime. Dou E, shows us her commitment, beliefs, along with her growth in God. Demonstrating to us the audience that no one can stand between her, God and how she has full honor in her culture. She maintains her innocence; but to spare her mother in law a beating, she willingly choices to sacrifice herself by falsely confesses to the crime which sentences her to death. Yet, even right before execution, she asked for one more thing to prove her innocence towards this crime, although she will be content. She asked the executioner for a clean mat, with white silk streamers 12 feet long to hang from a flagpole. She insists that if she is wrongfully executioner not one drop of her blood will fall on the ground, yet it would fly up instead towards the white silk. She explains that it is the hottest day in the summer, and if injustice has been undeniably done, that three feet of snow will fall and cover her dead body along with a drought that will make the district suffer for three

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