Summary Of Toshiko

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In the story Yukio Mishima describes Toshiko as a rich married woman, who is concerned about the future of an illegitimate child that was born in her home. Toshiko feels alienated by her husband, and finds herself felling alone. Toshiko is overly sensitive, timid, introverted, and is very submissive to her husband. Toshiko is also concerned with her physical appearance and her weight. Toshiko’s evening begins when she meets her husband at a club where she overhears him telling a group a friends a story of the nurse they hired to care for their child giving birth in their home. “It’s a fantastic story,” he was saying, gesturing flamboyantly as if in an attempt to outweigh the attractions of the dance band.” She then relives the memory of that day, which is a constant …show more content…

The first lesson that Toshiko learned was to accept being invisible and alone. Toshiko has a stressful and troublesome life. Throughout her life she deals with being overly oversensitive, and is concerned with her weight and physical appearance; as an adult she is described as transparent. “Toshiko had been oversensitive since girlhood: that was her nature. As the result of constant worrying she never put on weight, and now, an adult woman, she looked more like a transparent picture than a creature of flesh and blood. Her delicacy of spirit was evident to her most casual acquaintance.” Toshiko is married to a very popular actor and she is unable to adjust to her husband 's lifestyle. Because her husband has hectic schedule he has absolutely no time for Toshiko, and she feels invisible to him. All of these challenges teach Toshiko her first lesson of the story: to accept being invisible and alone. The story beings with Toshiko’s husband putting her in a taxi and sending her home alone, after an evening at the club. Toshiko begins to remember that while at the club she

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