Tale of Genji Themes
The Law of Karma
The concept of moral causality is used to explain events of the novel. Fate is related to past lives. Good actions will be rewarded and bad actions will be punished. In this formula, there is no escaping justice. For example, Kaoru seems to be the victim of severely bad luck. He knows, though, that he surely did something to bring on this ill fortune. "His thoughts on the road were of long ago. What strange legacy had brought him and the Eighth Prince together? A bond from an earlier life, surely, had tied him to this family and its sad affairs, and made him see to the needs of this last foundling, even."
Genji, of course, is highly sensitive to the cause-and-effect ...
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world: why one man, despite his virtue, seemed to have nothing but troubles to live with, or why another was blessed with continuous satisfaction. It was also employed to explain such strong emotional affinities as when one falls in love at first sight, for people once bonded together in a previous life were likely to be pushed together by force of karma."
Substitution
Throughout The Tale of Genji, male characters seek consolation for lost or unattainable loves in women of similar composition. Genji's father, the Emperor, is inconsolable after the death of Kiritsubo until he finds a woman, Fujitsubo, who almost exactly resembles her. Genji himself falls in love with Fujitsubo, a mother replacement. Later, he falls in love with Murasaki because of her resemblance to Fujitsubo. His interest in Yugao and her daughter Tamakazura stems from one love. Late in the novel, Genji's supposed son Kaoru loves Oigimi, and then her younger sister Nakanokimi, and then a half-sister Ukifune. ...
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"Tale of Genji Themes." Essayworld.com. March 8, 2011. Accessed March 30, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Tale-of-Genji-Themes/95735.
"Tale of Genji Themes." Essayworld.com. March 8, 2011. Accessed March 30, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Tale-of-Genji-Themes/95735.
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