Unrequited Desire In The Tale Of Genji

Unrequited Desires While Pére Goriot, by Honoré de Balzac, and The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, are separated by hundreds of years and socialite nuances, they are connected through similarly intense and unfulfilled desires with the power to mold characters. In Pére Goriot, Balzac allows Goriot’s desires for his daughters’ happiness and unrequited filial love to degrade a once noble man into a permissive and weak parent who feels his failures both emotionally and physically. In Genji, this same dedication to their desire is presented through Kaoru as his love and aspirations for the elder Uji princess corrupt his true nature and sanity. While Goriot and Kaoru are hindered by different aspects of society and legitimacy of their love, the works show that unrealized desire can be the cause of detrimental obsessions that are fatal to either them or others. Father to two daughters of 1800’s Parisian society, Monsieur Goriot is a slave to fulfilling his …show more content…
The consequence for failing the desire of the elder princess, she is consumed by her loss and she starves herself to death leaving Kaoru’s wants unfulfilled. Unable to overcome his desire for her, Kaoru then attempts multiple times to have women such as the younger princess, his wife, and Ukifune take her place. In addition, this obsession of his soulmate leads him to become rivals with Niou who wants the same women, attempt to control and conform multiple women to her image, and drives Ukifune to insanity between her desires of both men. A central desire at the end of the work, Ukifune is the most directly affected as she attempts to commit suicide to avoid having to pick between both men. Although Karou never seems not to be directly affected, his mental balance and relationships with others are corrupted in his unattained