YI KWANG-SU HEARTLESS IS AN ELEMENT OF N
YI KWANG-SU HEARTLESS IS AN ELEMENT OF NEO-CONFUCIANISM ON ARRANGED MARRIAGE IN OLD KOREA
This paper focuses on the fictional work of Yi Kwang Su’s Heartless (1917) to explore how the theme of arranged marriage destroys the lives of the youths in the text. The author of Heartless features examples of unhappy arranged marriages and ruined relationships. This paper focuses on discussing the impact of arranged marriage on both male and female characters in the text. However, the theme of arranged marriage is not peculiar to Korean literature but also present in some of African novel. Thus, this paper is going to compare Arrangers of Marriage (2009) with Yi Kwang Su’s Heartless (1917). Arrangers of marriage is one of the short stories from Adichie Chimamanda’s collection of short stories titled The Thing Around Your Neck. Arrangers of Marriage is a story that fuels the themes of dislocation and alienation of a young woman, Chinaza, who was arranged to marry a young man, Ofodile.
Yi Kwang Su’s Heartless shows how arranged traditional marriage in Korea mostly among the noble class in the Neo-colonial era. This arrangement takes place irrespective of the ages of both sexes involved. Further explores how arranged marriage is dependent on honoring the wishes of parents or elders. Similarly, Chimamanda’s Arrangers of marriage shows that the arranged marriage is about honoring the elders, but this system of marriage is inevitable without some emotional and social disorientation. Thus, both Yi Kwang Su’s and Chimamanda Adichie though from different sides of the world through their work treats the disillusionment that comes with the arranged marriages.
This paper focuses on the fictional work of Yi Kwang Su’s Heartless (1917) to explore how the theme of arranged marriage destroys the lives of the youths in the text. The author of Heartless features examples of unhappy arranged marriages and ruined relationships. This paper focuses on discussing the impact of arranged marriage on both male and female characters in the text. However, the theme of arranged marriage is not peculiar to Korean literature but also present in some of African novel. Thus, this paper is going to compare Arrangers of Marriage (2009) with Yi Kwang Su’s Heartless (1917). Arrangers of marriage is one of the short stories from Adichie Chimamanda’s collection of short stories titled The Thing Around Your Neck. Arrangers of Marriage is a story that fuels the themes of dislocation and alienation of a young woman, Chinaza, who was arranged to marry a young man, Ofodile.
Yi Kwang Su’s Heartless shows how arranged traditional marriage in Korea mostly among the noble class in the Neo-colonial era. This arrangement takes place irrespective of the ages of both sexes involved. Further explores how arranged marriage is dependent on honoring the wishes of parents or elders. Similarly, Chimamanda’s Arrangers of marriage shows that the arranged marriage is about honoring the elders, but this system of marriage is inevitable without some emotional and social disorientation. Thus, both Yi Kwang Su’s and Chimamanda Adichie though from different sides of the world through their work treats the disillusionment that comes with the arranged marriages.
