Tale of Genji Overveiw

The men expected the "hidden flower" to be from the upper class, however, middle class was acceptable. Being in the lower class was totally unacceptable. The woman must have flawless beauty, intelligence, faithfulness (even though this was hypocritical), and submission. Submissiveness is a wishy-washy characteristic because Genji was most attracted to those that rejected him and did not accept his advances as Murasaki and Aoi did. Genji wanted to mold the perfect woman or "hidden flower" out of Murasaki. She was hidden away and he kidnapped her to make her into who he wanted her to be. Genji seemed to enjoy the chase and challenges involved with women. He seemed to move from one woman to the next to boost his self esteem and solidify his image as a man. Each woman had admirable traits; however, each woman had very distinctable flaws to Genji, which discredited her from being the "perfect" woman. For example, Murasaki was very young and not submissive due to her immaturity. Aoi was very harsh and provided no chase for him because she already belonged to him. Rokujo was seven years older than Genji and was very jealous. The Saffron Flower did not possess the flawless beauty that was desired. All of these women were beautiful in their own ways; Genji was too blind to realize it. 2. Geni was charming on the exterior to most that knew him. However, a closer examination reveals that he is selfish, uncompassionate, unfaithful and superficial. He is everything I am not looking for in a man. He sees what he wants and he takes it, as he did with Murasaki. He is very hypocritical. Genji expects his wife to be faithful to him while he is constantly sharing himself with other women. Lady Murasaki does praise Genji; however, her compliments do not match his actions. Lady Murasaki might have experienced a similar experience in her own life. She might have been using Genji as an example to show how men are praised for doing immoral acts such as being unfaithful when women are