The narrator in the story under consideration plays the role of a modernist, interpreting the servant’s consciousness in everything and not just conveying his actions. This story is one of Akutagawa’s shortest works, but it is very memorable because of the complexity and multilevel nature of the narrative. The author raises such an issue as the climate emergency. Kyoto is in decline – over the past two or three years, various disasters have hit the capital: earthquake, hurricane, fire, famine, and epidemic. There was no one to keep order; thieves and robbers appeared on the streets. In his signature style, the author leaves more questions than answers. For example, a servant who has served a samurai almost all his life should be aware of the importance and rigor of the samurai code. However, Akutagawa goes against the code that obliges them not to show feelings in the face of danger, so the servant allows himself to react emotionally to an act that seems evil to him.
The author exaggerated an act that had already been considered, namely theft: “a strong hatred for the old woman gradually awakened in him” (Akutagawa 213). Akutagawa then builds his narrative on the justification of the woman who committed the atrocity, stating that there is no alternative to this. The author emphasizes the difficulty of choosing between life and death and the role of morality in poverty. For a woman, the path of theft was from the very beginning because this is the only way to earn a living. For a servant, on the contrary, becoming a thief is a new stage of life, even if it means sacrificing all principles: “he no longer hesitated whether to starve to death or become a thief” (Akutagawa 215). Readers are presented with a gloomy and pessimistic picture of life in poverty. Akutagawa concludes that one evil begets another, and a small crime is a big one, and no code will help here.
Works Cite
Akutagawa, Ryūnosuke. Rashomon. Teikoku Bungaku, 1915.