Rashomon Compare And Contrast Essay
Akutagawa’s “Rashomon” and Süskind’s Perfume introduce the audience to their own portrayal of evil that contrasts the clichéd literary concept of bad always being triumphed over by good. Evil is particularly developed in their works to achieve a similar purpose: to reveal the social stigma and corruption of human society. Notwithstanding the similar surrounding—Akutagawa’s crumbling Rashomon gate and Süskind’s degrading depiction of Paris—that reflects the equally declining state of the society, they employ different approaches in portraying evil. Akutagawa establishes evil as having an ambiguous nature while Süskind relates evil through the sense of smell, with both treatments effectively disclosing the human depravity residing within their
…show more content…
work. Both use different literary techniques to achieve their motive; Akutagawa hints at the ominous presence of evil through contrasts and imagery; while Süskind incorporates evil with his first sentence introducing Grenouille as ‘one of the most gifted and abominable personages’ (p.
3) of his era.
Both authors use different treatment of evil to achieve their similar revelation of human corruption. Despite “Rashomon” being a short story, Akutagawa does not introduce evil at the very beginning but foreshadows evil slowly, obscurely as it establishes throughout the story, contrasting Süskind’s plausibly opposite method of implementing evil from the beginning in spite of Perfume as a novel. Relating to the modernism brought to traditional Japan, Akutagawa first uses colours—using their significance in Japanese culture—in representing evil thus revealing the society’s condition. His first subtle hint of evil is through the gate’s ‘crimson lacquer’ (p. 31) that has ‘rubbed off here and there’ (p. 31), signifying that the once great construction no longer radiates with vitality and spirit; it is now a ‘hide-out … place for abandoning unclaimed corpses’ (p. 31). Akutagawa tarnishes the religious belief of the corrupted society with ‘broken pieces of Buddhist images’ (p. 32), their lacquer, ‘gold … worn off’ (p. 32); implying that the society’s withering faith in religion is associated with their current dishonorable …show more content…
state. The society no longer respects the heavens as the pieces are simply ‘heaped up … as firewood’ (p. 32). A few other colours, such as ‘white droppings’ (p. 32) symbolising humility instead of cleanliness and, ‘worn blue’ (p. 32) indicating depression, develops the ambiguity of evil lurking behind the veil of words. Evil is then ominously intensified when the servant observes the ‘fat black cloud … jutting out …’ (p. 34) before Akutagawa abruptly brings evil to light by striking the fear of evil upon the servant as ‘The unknown, the evil terrified him’ (p. 35). Akutagawa then emphasises the ambiguous nature of evil through the characters’ actions that flicker between being bad or good. By manipulating the horrendous act of the old woman ‘who makes wigs from the hair of the dead’ (p. 38) with the harmless intention ‘to sell, for scraps of food’ (p. 38)—a necessary requirement to survival—the author makes the reader question whether it is wrong to do so since she is not harming anyone and ‘if she hadn’t she would have starved to death’ (p. 39). It reveals the desperate condition of society to commit immoral acts in order to survive, such as the dead woman with the hair the hag was pulling, who sold snake flesh to the guards but claimed it to be dried fish. When the servant echoes the old woman’s concept by robbing her of her clothes, Akutagawa is not implying that he eventually chooses to walk down the path of evil. It brings the reader to discern evil as ambiguous and correlative with good since the servant’s evil deed is justified just like the hag’s actions, by robbing the hag to demonstrate the flaw in her perception.
In Perfume, Süskind relates evil through stench to reveal the ugly facets of humanity.
He underlines this relation through Father Terrier’s description of how human odour is ‘always a fleshly … sinful odour’ (p. 16), correlating evil and odours together to satirise the conventional assumption of the olfaction being the basest of sense. He proves the belief wrong by demonstrating the olfaction’s capability of revealing human depravity, successfully creating a putrid realm as stench ‘reigned in the cities’ (p. 3); giving the reader insight of how these places are foully filled with transgression through his array of olfactory diction. From the streets that ‘stank of manure … stench of congealed blood’ (p. 3), to the stench of ‘sweat … tumorous disease’ (p. 3) of people, everything is assigned with at least an unsettling odour to further emphasise the evil embodied in the novel. ‘The stench was foulest in Paris’ (p. 4) where Grenouille is born, which is interestingly ‘the most putrid spot’ (p. 4) as it correlates highly with him as a being of great evil. Jean Bussie’s ‘hysterical, hot maternal sweat’ (p. 128) reflects her delirious superstitious beliefs that overrides her motherly instinct as she believes him being ‘possessed by the devil’ (p. 10) when he is still an infant because he ‘doesn’t smell at all’ (p. 10), refusing to see him like the other babies she has taken care of. His unsettling lack of odour here is not a sign of purity nor does it indicate that he is not
sinful. Süskind makes an exception of relating evil to odour in Grenouille’s case – he in fact mocks the relation between purity and odourlessness of a being by making Grenouille’s lack of odour signify his amorality, or worse, his incomprehensible evil. The fact that he does not smell instills fear to those around him instead and his discerning nose makes even Father Terrier, supposedly holy and virtuous, feel ‘naked and ugly’ (p. 18) with the smell of the latter’s ‘vinegary breath’ (p. 128) causing his ‘filthiest thoughts … exposed to the greedy little nose’ (p. 18).
Both authors use different literary techniques to achieve their own concept of evil and ultimately achieving their similar motive of revealing human depravity. In “Rashomon”, Akutagawa implies contrasts between light and darkness as to highlight the choices that the servant is facing, which is between evil and good. Ambiguity is implied again through how Akutagawa insinuates the ‘feeble’ (p. 36) light as not necessarily a sign of goodness—for he uses light here to enlighten the disintegration of humankind which takes in the form of the corpses that is strewn about like ‘clay dolls’ (p. 36) that never seem to ‘ever been alive’. As the story nears the end, darkness is used to shroud the evil that is illuminated by the light earlier, with ‘Beyond this was only darkness … unknowing and unknown’ (p. 40) to further emphasise the mysterious ambiguity enveloping the nature of evil, giving the reader the notion of how evil can easily be revealed and concealed. The contrasting elements also accentuate the rise and fall of the society, and with the shroud of ‘darkness’ (p. 40) in the end, Akutagawa hints at humankind’s eventual downfall and corruption. Another technique Akutagawa has implied is the images of ascent and descent to portray the flickering temperament of evil. The servant first ‘sat on the seventh and highest step’ (p. 32) in the beginning, highlighting his initial state of him still being good, still undecided on which path he should choose. After he ‘set foot on the lowest step’ (p. 35) it is as if he has delved into the depths of evil and this is depicted further when he encounters what he originally thought an evil creature – the ‘ghoulish’ (p. 36) hag that is in fact the old woman. Thus, the servant fleetingly ‘rose from the stairs’ (p. 37), rising to the justification of vanquishing evil. Evil is then however brought up on top of good when the servant ‘rushed down the steep stairs’ (p. 40) and it signifies the variability of the line between good and evil. As the hag ‘peered down … in the torch light’ (p. 40), Akutagawa manipulates the image of descent and light to flummox the reader into finding the true nature of evil; and to what extent does it lie. Some, like the hag, commit evil acts but with non-evil intentions – merely to live, making the reader question whether evil should be seen as a mechanism to human survival.
Contrastingly, Süskind’s evil is not masked away behind words – he already introduces Grenouille as one of pure ‘wickedness’ (p. 3) and uses literary techniques to strengthen his portrayal of evil even more as to disgust the reader with it. Grenouille is ‘an abomination from the start … out of sheer spite and sheer malice’ (p. 22), and Süskind often associates the animal symbolism of the tick to him, describing how Grenouille, like the tick, would wait for the ‘most improbable of chances … bite into that alien flesh …’ (p. 23). His tick-like demeanour causes the prominent characters he meets, from Madame Gaillard to Druot, face an unusual death that also reflects their immorality. Another technique in Perfume is the foreshadowing of the irony that looms over every character. Before Baldini encounters Grenouille and is contemplating about retirement, he sees ‘before his eyes … flowing away like a river’ (p. 61), foreshadowing his ultimate fate later when he ironically dies, with him, his house and entire wealth suddenly ‘hurled into the river’ (p. 116). Süskind implies this foreshadowing to Grenouille as well, through how the character meets his cannibalistic end—treating him like an animal—‘out of Love’ (p. 263), after all the evil acts he has committed to concoct the ultimate, ‘angel’s scent’ (p. 160) to have anyone ‘with his whole heart … love him’ (p. 161).
Akutagawa and Süskind portray evil in their own way to reveal human depravity. Both authors’ concept of evil is different however, Akutagawa producing evil of ambiguous nature while Süskind creating purely malevolent evil, with both depictions of evil effectively exposing the fraudulence of the society. Through this revelation the reader is reminded of how disgusting, loathsome beings humans could be; and the fact that we try to hide or be ignorant of this makes us more undignified.
Word count (excluding citations): 1588 words
All references taken from:
Akutagawa, R. Rashomon and Other Stories, Takashi Kojima (Trans), Liveright Press, New York London 1970.
Süskind, P. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, John E. Woods (Trans), Penguin Books Australia 2003.
work. Both use different literary techniques to achieve their motive; Akutagawa hints at the ominous presence of evil through contrasts and imagery; while Süskind incorporates evil with his first sentence introducing Grenouille as ‘one of the most gifted and abominable personages’ (p.
3) of his era.
Both authors use different treatment of evil to achieve their similar revelation of human corruption. Despite “Rashomon” being a short story, Akutagawa does not introduce evil at the very beginning but foreshadows evil slowly, obscurely as it establishes throughout the story, contrasting Süskind’s plausibly opposite method of implementing evil from the beginning in spite of Perfume as a novel. Relating to the modernism brought to traditional Japan, Akutagawa first uses colours—using their significance in Japanese culture—in representing evil thus revealing the society’s condition. His first subtle hint of evil is through the gate’s ‘crimson lacquer’ (p. 31) that has ‘rubbed off here and there’ (p. 31), signifying that the once great construction no longer radiates with vitality and spirit; it is now a ‘hide-out … place for abandoning unclaimed corpses’ (p. 31). Akutagawa tarnishes the religious belief of the corrupted society with ‘broken pieces of Buddhist images’ (p. 32), their lacquer, ‘gold … worn off’ (p. 32); implying that the society’s withering faith in religion is associated with their current dishonorable …show more content…
state. The society no longer respects the heavens as the pieces are simply ‘heaped up … as firewood’ (p. 32). A few other colours, such as ‘white droppings’ (p. 32) symbolising humility instead of cleanliness and, ‘worn blue’ (p. 32) indicating depression, develops the ambiguity of evil lurking behind the veil of words. Evil is then ominously intensified when the servant observes the ‘fat black cloud … jutting out …’ (p. 34) before Akutagawa abruptly brings evil to light by striking the fear of evil upon the servant as ‘The unknown, the evil terrified him’ (p. 35). Akutagawa then emphasises the ambiguous nature of evil through the characters’ actions that flicker between being bad or good. By manipulating the horrendous act of the old woman ‘who makes wigs from the hair of the dead’ (p. 38) with the harmless intention ‘to sell, for scraps of food’ (p. 38)—a necessary requirement to survival—the author makes the reader question whether it is wrong to do so since she is not harming anyone and ‘if she hadn’t she would have starved to death’ (p. 39). It reveals the desperate condition of society to commit immoral acts in order to survive, such as the dead woman with the hair the hag was pulling, who sold snake flesh to the guards but claimed it to be dried fish. When the servant echoes the old woman’s concept by robbing her of her clothes, Akutagawa is not implying that he eventually chooses to walk down the path of evil. It brings the reader to discern evil as ambiguous and correlative with good since the servant’s evil deed is justified just like the hag’s actions, by robbing the hag to demonstrate the flaw in her perception.
In Perfume, Süskind relates evil through stench to reveal the ugly facets of humanity.
He underlines this relation through Father Terrier’s description of how human odour is ‘always a fleshly … sinful odour’ (p. 16), correlating evil and odours together to satirise the conventional assumption of the olfaction being the basest of sense. He proves the belief wrong by demonstrating the olfaction’s capability of revealing human depravity, successfully creating a putrid realm as stench ‘reigned in the cities’ (p. 3); giving the reader insight of how these places are foully filled with transgression through his array of olfactory diction. From the streets that ‘stank of manure … stench of congealed blood’ (p. 3), to the stench of ‘sweat … tumorous disease’ (p. 3) of people, everything is assigned with at least an unsettling odour to further emphasise the evil embodied in the novel. ‘The stench was foulest in Paris’ (p. 4) where Grenouille is born, which is interestingly ‘the most putrid spot’ (p. 4) as it correlates highly with him as a being of great evil. Jean Bussie’s ‘hysterical, hot maternal sweat’ (p. 128) reflects her delirious superstitious beliefs that overrides her motherly instinct as she believes him being ‘possessed by the devil’ (p. 10) when he is still an infant because he ‘doesn’t smell at all’ (p. 10), refusing to see him like the other babies she has taken care of. His unsettling lack of odour here is not a sign of purity nor does it indicate that he is not
sinful. Süskind makes an exception of relating evil to odour in Grenouille’s case – he in fact mocks the relation between purity and odourlessness of a being by making Grenouille’s lack of odour signify his amorality, or worse, his incomprehensible evil. The fact that he does not smell instills fear to those around him instead and his discerning nose makes even Father Terrier, supposedly holy and virtuous, feel ‘naked and ugly’ (p. 18) with the smell of the latter’s ‘vinegary breath’ (p. 128) causing his ‘filthiest thoughts … exposed to the greedy little nose’ (p. 18).
Both authors use different literary techniques to achieve their own concept of evil and ultimately achieving their similar motive of revealing human depravity. In “Rashomon”, Akutagawa implies contrasts between light and darkness as to highlight the choices that the servant is facing, which is between evil and good. Ambiguity is implied again through how Akutagawa insinuates the ‘feeble’ (p. 36) light as not necessarily a sign of goodness—for he uses light here to enlighten the disintegration of humankind which takes in the form of the corpses that is strewn about like ‘clay dolls’ (p. 36) that never seem to ‘ever been alive’. As the story nears the end, darkness is used to shroud the evil that is illuminated by the light earlier, with ‘Beyond this was only darkness … unknowing and unknown’ (p. 40) to further emphasise the mysterious ambiguity enveloping the nature of evil, giving the reader the notion of how evil can easily be revealed and concealed. The contrasting elements also accentuate the rise and fall of the society, and with the shroud of ‘darkness’ (p. 40) in the end, Akutagawa hints at humankind’s eventual downfall and corruption. Another technique Akutagawa has implied is the images of ascent and descent to portray the flickering temperament of evil. The servant first ‘sat on the seventh and highest step’ (p. 32) in the beginning, highlighting his initial state of him still being good, still undecided on which path he should choose. After he ‘set foot on the lowest step’ (p. 35) it is as if he has delved into the depths of evil and this is depicted further when he encounters what he originally thought an evil creature – the ‘ghoulish’ (p. 36) hag that is in fact the old woman. Thus, the servant fleetingly ‘rose from the stairs’ (p. 37), rising to the justification of vanquishing evil. Evil is then however brought up on top of good when the servant ‘rushed down the steep stairs’ (p. 40) and it signifies the variability of the line between good and evil. As the hag ‘peered down … in the torch light’ (p. 40), Akutagawa manipulates the image of descent and light to flummox the reader into finding the true nature of evil; and to what extent does it lie. Some, like the hag, commit evil acts but with non-evil intentions – merely to live, making the reader question whether evil should be seen as a mechanism to human survival.
Contrastingly, Süskind’s evil is not masked away behind words – he already introduces Grenouille as one of pure ‘wickedness’ (p. 3) and uses literary techniques to strengthen his portrayal of evil even more as to disgust the reader with it. Grenouille is ‘an abomination from the start … out of sheer spite and sheer malice’ (p. 22), and Süskind often associates the animal symbolism of the tick to him, describing how Grenouille, like the tick, would wait for the ‘most improbable of chances … bite into that alien flesh …’ (p. 23). His tick-like demeanour causes the prominent characters he meets, from Madame Gaillard to Druot, face an unusual death that also reflects their immorality. Another technique in Perfume is the foreshadowing of the irony that looms over every character. Before Baldini encounters Grenouille and is contemplating about retirement, he sees ‘before his eyes … flowing away like a river’ (p. 61), foreshadowing his ultimate fate later when he ironically dies, with him, his house and entire wealth suddenly ‘hurled into the river’ (p. 116). Süskind implies this foreshadowing to Grenouille as well, through how the character meets his cannibalistic end—treating him like an animal—‘out of Love’ (p. 263), after all the evil acts he has committed to concoct the ultimate, ‘angel’s scent’ (p. 160) to have anyone ‘with his whole heart … love him’ (p. 161).
Akutagawa and Süskind portray evil in their own way to reveal human depravity. Both authors’ concept of evil is different however, Akutagawa producing evil of ambiguous nature while Süskind creating purely malevolent evil, with both depictions of evil effectively exposing the fraudulence of the society. Through this revelation the reader is reminded of how disgusting, loathsome beings humans could be; and the fact that we try to hide or be ignorant of this makes us more undignified.
Word count (excluding citations): 1588 words
All references taken from:
Akutagawa, R. Rashomon and Other Stories, Takashi Kojima (Trans), Liveright Press, New York London 1970.
Süskind, P. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, John E. Woods (Trans), Penguin Books Australia 2003.