Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/95

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Regarding the characterization of Yoshiko, Katai presents her as a "new woman" in the initial stages of Futon but in the final analysis Yoshiko reveals that she is not a "new woman" as compared to Anna. Why, then, was Yoshiko not portrayed like Anna? To find the key to this question it would be advantageous to analyze once more the theme of Futon and uncover what were the latent characteristics of Yoshiko so that we might be able to perceive the reason for her behavior as portrayed in this story. On examination it appears that she possesses an unusual amount of personal charm, since she attracts such a disciplinarian who was himself doomed to be burdened by tradition. This being the case, let us now ask ourselves if she possesses this presupposed magnetic attraction attributed to her? The answer appears to be in the affirmative. The next question is who is the leading character according to the theme of Futon--Tokio or Yoshiko? The answer is Tokio; therefore, we can say that Yoshiko should not have the same or stronger personality than that of Tokio who is the principal character.

In summation it is to be noted that Katai partially adopts those conflicting situations from Einsame Menschen and uses them with his main characters in Futon. In other words, Katai did not follow closely any characters from Einsame Menschen in Futon as our foregoing character analysis of both stories confirmed. As a result, this analysis establishes that all the characters in Futon are of Katai's own creation as set forth in his theme: "A mentor falls in love as others do, and if a mentor falls in love with his pupil, how can love be prohibited between them?"