Psychology In Ryunosuke Akutagawa’S Stories

Psychology in Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s stories

This essay aims to demonstrate the hypothesis that Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa, in his psychologically conditioned state of madness for a lifetime;Being a sick and nervous child who read books continuously in public libraries, manages to externalize his psyche through his stories by moving his intimate emotions, in which both in the story "Rashomon" and in the story "Body of Woman" intends to showA vindication of art, of the nobility of human life.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s nervous breakdowns, his visual hallucinations and anguish declined his literary production, however, he continued his success as a writer.

There are those who mention that:

Akutagawa is one of the most problematic, disturbing and discussed authors of the twentieth century, not only well known in Japan, but also in the West. He wrote more than one hundred stories, in addition to critical essays, travel chronicles and daily pages, through which it is possible to reconstruct his complex personality, both as a man and writer. In his last year of University he published his most famous story, Rashomon (1915). His fragile health and his nerves resented very soon and began to suffer from nervous breakdowns, anguish and visual hallucinations and to torment with the ghost of madness;From that moment on, her writing acquired a more hopeless and ironic tone, although without abandoning the imperatives of clarity and lucidity that she had imposed from the beginning;As Borges wrote, "extravagance and horror are in its pages, but not in style, which is always limpid".

Before committing suicide, at 35 years of age, he left, as an explanation, a letter to a friend entitled Notes for an old friend, who ends with these words: «We humans, being human animals, we have an animal fear ofDeath, the so -called vitality is nothing other than animal force. I am one of those human animals myself. My system seems to have gradually freed from that animal force, taking into account the little interest that I have left for food and women. The world in which I am now is one of the nervous, lucid and cold diseases. Voluntary death must give us peace, if not happiness. Now that I am ready, although it sounds paradoxical, I find the most beautiful nature than ever. I have seen and understood more than others and, in this I have a certain degree of satisfaction, despite all the pain that I have endured so far.»(Criado, Brief Narrative, 2013)

It can be seen that in the biography of Ryunosuke Akutagawa, since his childhood he was prone to have psychological tendencies derived from nerve diseases that made him suffer great pains, in his stories we can appreciate this psychology.

There are those who mention that:

Akutagawa’s stories were influenced by their belief that the practice of literature should be universal and gather Western and Japanese cultures. This is seen in the way in which Akutagawa uses a wide variety of cultures and periods of time in his works and, either rewrites the story with modern sensibilities, or creates new stories using ideas of multiple sources. (Wikipedia.Org, 2020)

In Akutagawa’s works, culture and the formation of an identity are manifested, which are the main subject in their stories, examines the formation of cultural identity during the periods of history in which Japan was more open to external influences. (Wikipedia.Org, 2020)

There are those who mention that:

“The image of the woman in Akutagawa’s stories was molded under the influence of the three women who took mother role in her life. “(Wikipedia.Org, 2020) His greatest influence was his biological mother, Fuku, who worried him to have inherited his madness.

Despite not having spent much time with Fuku, Akutagawa was strongly identified with his mother, in addition to believing that if at any time he went crazy life made no sense. However, it would be his aunt Fuki who played the most important role in his upbringing. Fuki controlled much of his life and demanding his attention, especially as he aged. The women who appear in Akutagawa’s stories, as well as the women who identified as mothers, were mostly written as dominant, aggressive, deceptive and selfish. On the contrary, men were often represented as the victims of such women. (Wikipedia.Org, 2020)

He was an expert in the modern modism enriched by having a deep knowledge of both the classical and contemporary literature of Japan, China, and the West.

In Rashomon, it is psychologically examined that the author’s thinking intends to administer to the viewer a practice about the dark character of truth, and the narrow relationship he maintains with the real event, depending on the particular position of the subject on the stage of the story. (Berenstein)

The scenario of a crime whose meaning is barely revealed through the subjective reconstruction of its protagonists, even when its density compromises its existence entirely.

Akutagawa’s story speaks of the many times inaprensible that have the facts of reality, of the ambiguities that affect the perception and understanding of the subjects, taking them to a true state of incomprehensible astonishment;It represents, at the same time, a metaphor and a reflection on the supports that support the foundations of truth, and provides, on the other hand, the possibility of questioning the intimate connection of truth with language, the narrow link that it maintains withthe real event and the particular position of the subject on the stage of the story. (Berenstein)

“In a decadent scenario, the camera falls on the faces of the characters crossed by the crispOf the facts ”(Berenstein).

At the door of Rashomon, colored by the thick cold gray of the mist, the stillness of the bodies contrasts with the intense agitation of souls eaten away by the mystery of a strange event. The opacity of the gloom frames the scene and provides a special delight to the look. The space provides a precarious, dirty and insufficient light, at the same time that reason is mired, by uncertainty, in the darkness of ignorance. The weather is that of a dense gloomy mantle (Berenstein).

In his story "Body of a woman", he makes admirable the beauty of his admirable wife in his naked body demonstrating great admiration to his human beauty, psychologically demonstrates feelings of love, hate and carnal desire.

The author Ryunosuke Akutagawa not only reflects psychology in his stories of "rashomon" and "body of woman", he also reflects them in his other stories such as "El Bosque" and "The nose" These stories were written with patience and attention forgive more emphasis to the characters surrounding them with problems until they them into a space of a certain psycho stiffness.

To conclude this literary essay, leaving aside any claim that tries to make sense of the unfathomable character of human destiny, and separating all interest to fasten the author’s work in the stories "Body of Woman" and "Rashomon", has been devoured bythe hallucinatory delusions of a melancholic life, already without strength or encouragement for literary creation.

Through Ryunosuke Akutagawa stories, he manages to externalize his psyche, fulfilling the hypothesis that the psychology of his stories is a vindication of art, of the nobility of human life.

References

• Berenstein, a. (s.F.). Plot and background.
• Narrativabreve.com. (3 of 2 of 2020). Narrativabreve.com. Obtained from Narrativabreve.com: https: // narrativabreve.com/2013/11/story-river.HTML
• Wikipedia.org. (3 of 2 of 2020). Wikipedia.org. Obtained from Wikipedia.Org: https: // is.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%Basuke_akutagawa