『金閣寺』　: 現実と復讐

Critics agree that The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is one of the most representative novels by Mishima Yukio and some argue that it is his best work. Yet critics like Nakamura Mitsuo and Kobayashi Hideo demur to such a suggestion. The bone of contention is the character development of the protagonist Mizoguchi. Nakamura and Kobayashi are unimpressed by the paucity of Mizoguchi\u27s internal growth as it fails to convince the reader of the inevitability that Mizoguchi will reduce the six hundred year old temple to ashes. So far there has not been a detailed study of the character development of Mizoguchi - which this article proposes to analyze. There are two contradictory tracks of character development in Mizoguchi: one is a desire to embrace life and the other to seek revenge on it. Life force is represented by a series of women who attract and threaten Mizoguchi; while his father and the temple, his father\u27s surrogate, signify a force away from his idea of beauty, but suggests, on another level, that he gradually switches his approach to life to one which punishes life. Mizoguchi\u27s conflicting desire to embrace life while unleaning his vengeance on it becomes clear as he increasingly gains proximity to women (who are more and more degraded). There is a contradiction in the famous last sentence of the work that intimates the protagonist\u27s intent of wanting "to live as would a man who, after finishing a job, settles down for a smoke." Yet, no one makes such life or death decisions in the situation described. The contradiction inherent in the last line is emblematic of the internal conflict which Mizoguchi develops during the course of the narrative and which Mishima failed to resolve as he himself had such an ambivalence toward life