Short Fiction · Chapter
The Handkerchief explained
Professor Hasegawa, a law professor at the Imperial University, reads Strindberg's Dramaturgy on his veranda, reflecting on Japanese civilization and Bushidō.
What happens
Professor Hasegawa, a law professor at the Imperial University, reads Strindberg's Dramaturgy on his veranda, reflecting on Japanese civilization and Bushidō. He receives a visit from a mother, Nishiyama Atsuko, who recounts her son's death with a composed smile, but the professor notices her trembling hands and the handkerchief she nearly tears. He later praises her as an example of Bushidō, but after reading Strindberg's critique of theatrical gestures, he questions the sincerity of such mannerisms.
Themes in this chapter
East-West Cultural Clash
The professor contrasts Western emotional expression with Japanese stoicism, reflecting on Bushidō as a bridge between cultures.
Illusion vs. Reality
The mother's composed smile hides her true grief, and the professor's initial admiration is challenged by Strindberg's critique of theatricality.
Social Hypocrisy
The professor's praise of the mother's behavior as Bushidō is undercut by the realization that it may be a mannerism, not genuine virtue.
Characters to notice
- Prof. Hasegawa
A law professor who reads Strindberg and reflects on Bushidō, later observing the mother's hidden grief.
- Akiko
The mother who visits the professor, recounting her son's death with a smile while her hands tremble.
- Strindberg
The author whose Dramaturgy the professor reads, providing a critique of theatrical mannerisms.
- Baiko
An actor mentioned in a student's story, unknown to the professor.
- Nishiyama- kun
The deceased son of the visiting mother, whose death is recounted.
Key passages
“When an actor discovers a suitable expression for a most common sentiment and gains some popularity for himself by means of this expression, because, on the one hand, it is easy and, on the other, because he has succeeded with it, he is apt, without regard for its suitability or unsuitability, to incline toward this means. And this is a mannerism.”
An actor who finds a popular expression for a common feeling tends to overuse it, regardless of fit, leading to a mannerism.
This quote from Strindberg later prompts the professor to question the mother's behavior.
“The lady smiled with her face, indeed, but the truth was that she had been weeping with her whole body from the first.”
Although the lady smiled outwardly, her entire body was weeping from the start.
The professor discovers the mother's hidden grief through her trembling hands and handkerchief.