Mori Ogai's "The Wild Geese"

Mori Ogai was a novelist and a poet, he was also an officer and translator. His novel “The Wild Geese” is regarded as the most important. His family was noble, members were physicians of the Tsuwano Domain. After domains were forbade his family moved to Tokyo. After graduating Tokyo Imperial University he joined Imperial Japanese Army as a surgeon. In the army he read a lot, he learnt German and was very much interested in European culture and literature, the “Dancing Girl” is his the most beautiful novel, a very sensational, beautiful romance. He admired works of Schiller, Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen. He was a very versatile reader.

His writing style is very simplistic, his novels are dynamic, include lots of characters, they reflect the unique Japanese society, its sophistication, sensitivity and sensuality. The theme of the woman is a main one, the woman is a profound, heroic and graceful character, it demands respect, honor must be taken as a supreme. In the novel he describes a life of Otama, her relations with man, who shaped her fate. The book is very romantic, the suspense and feeling fills the pages, the books is sensual, the love between two lovers is the plot, the reality is aside as if it had not existed at all, it is, but lovers do not perceive it, day dreaming. Okada is a young student, very handsome, vulnerable, the woman he met – Otama overwhelms his senses. The woman appears to be a mysterious puzzle, hurt by love and life, her man of choice, a policeman – turned out to be married. She has to cope with the lie and life. A beautiful, young man – Okada, seems to put all her senses at ease. He is all she wants. She is not a vulnerable woman, she had choices, neither of it is chosen, instead, she decided to become a mistress, once again she is humiliated and deceived, she feels dirty, she doesn't see the way out of a vicious circle. The two lovers met once, Okada had to leave in pursuit of a new job, new experience. Nonetheless he thinks of Otama, of what could have been … or will be … he would love to foresee the future. Women of Ogai's novels are proud, sublime, strong, despite of humiliation they go on, they do not look back, even though, they are limited, their professions; geisha, mistresses, wives and maids, made them indispensably bounded to a man, who is far too strong to be disobeyed, he provided income, therefore women of Ogai's novels are limited, unhappy and helpless. The culture they were born in forces some certain features of behavior they cannot push away and get rid of. The man is a symbol of power and women cannot shake it off. Man has always been a core symbol in Japanese literature, He gives no freedom, He controls everything, women have no space, the perfect example of a man – superior governor is presented in “Toddler Hunting” by Kono Taeko - his limitless power and strength is seen in the way he makes love with a woman – hurting her and reminding, that there are rules. Otama is very much loved by her father, she is unbelievably beautiful, for that reason, he rejected lots if engagement offers, he knows his daughter is proud and stubborn, yet, she is also fragile and bruises easily, he knows she would never tell him if injustice happened to her, therefore he keeps her out of danger. Unfortunately, the daughter made mistakes, now, disgraced, regrets. What was done cannot be undone.

"… Through no fault of her own she was made to suffer persecution, and this was what she found so painful. When she was deceived and abandoned by the police officer, she had felt this mortification, and recently, when she realized that she must become a mistress, she experienced it again..."

Yet, the sense and perception governs the novel “The Wild Geese”- the couple first starts noticing one another, looking and seeing is a kind of a judgement, the woman looks and catches the man's interest, waits till he responses, they exchanges smiles and both know that the mysterious invitation has been accepted. The book is symbolic, everything has got a meaning, from the whisper to the real brutal killing, it brings a message of unavoidable destruction, the end. A tragic love is like a suicide, it kills the inner soul, kills in and out.