Shimizu Shikin’s “Two Modern Girls” and Higuchi Ichiyo’s story “The Thirteenth Night” are literally stories that show the issues of love and how it is different from other cultural issues like honor, tradition, and satire from a feminist perspective. The stories feature the issue of loss and love in a simple but compelling way. It is unique how the two women approach the issues through character transformations in the stories. The experiences of the different characters in both stories give a critical insight into the underlying social issues affecting Japanese society. The authors show the variation over time and display the society standards at the time. In both stories, the women characters appear to be revealed and developed in consideration …show more content…
The women in the stories burst the bubble that the institution of marriage is simple and easy. Referring to this aspect of marriage and Oseki’s decision to get a divorce, her father thought about how he could let her change the fine clothes she was wearing as a married woman to the working robe of a daughter of poor parents (Higuchi 247). Here, the author reveals a harsh reality with respect to the idea that woman without a well-off man does not have proper conditions for organizing her life, which means that female autonomy is impossible while she is either a wife or a daughter. In “Two Modern Girls,” Hanako, in her naivety, cannot comprehend that Yoshiro is only out to use her. The reason why Yoshida asked for marrying the girls was that “he deferred his debts and has asked not one but two well-to-do women to marry him” (Shikin 473). In this situation, the objectification takes place in terms of viewing a marriage only as a way to save his status and financial opportunities. Nevertheless, Kimiko is able to overcome the notion of society that she is an object and shows herself as an individual who is capable of acting autonomously. Nevertheless, she is in the position to refuse the advances of the Yoshiro as her family is rather well-off. As a result, she manages to become more than just an object of male desire unlike her friend Hanako who stays to live with her brother as she cannot live independently from a