Genji

Today I want to talk about Genji as a character. I personally find him to be a very interesting character. Specifically I want to talk about his relationship with the governor’s wife. Throughout the beginning of the story we hear all the men talking about their troubles with women. It is interesting to me what they expect out of women and how they find something wrong with many of them. It also is interesting to me how the relationship among men and women at this time is carried out. That brings me back to Genji’s relationship with the governor’s wife. In this relationship I feel like the roles are reversed. The governor’s wife leads Genji on for a considerable amount of time before realizing that she isn’t interested. At first she is just trying to play hard to get with the intentions of eventual being with him however she then changes her mind. During this time Genji uses her brother to serve as a messenger among the two. However once the relationship between Genji and the governor’s wife ends, Genji ends up sleeping with the boy. Although I know that the relationships among people were very different this still bothers me. I find it very repulsive that a man could have a “relationship” with a women and then just move on to her younger brother or any sibling for that matter like it isn’t a big deal. I know that he just slept with him and did not have an actual relationship but to me this is even more repellent.