The Mother

The Man

A deeply obsessive and controlling bond, where The Man exerts psychological dominance over The Mother, who is both victim and reluctant participant.

Child

A dependent and emotionally intense mother-child relationship, marked by the child's need for protection and the mother's conflicted care.

The Elder Son

A strained familial bond, with the elder son often acting as a rival for the mother's attention or as a disapproving figure.

Cousin

A close but complicated kinship, where the cousin serves as both confidante and occasional source of tension.

The Young Girl

A possessive and manipulative dynamic, with The Mother viewing the young girl as both a surrogate daughter and a rival.

Li The First

A past or lingering romantic attachment, filled with unresolved passion and mutual resentment.

Some Stranger

A brief and often intrusive encounter, with the stranger representing external judgment or temptation.

The Man

A deeply obsessive and controlling bond, where The Man exerts psychological dominance over The Mother, who is both victim and reluctant participant.

Child

A dependent and emotionally intense mother-child relationship, marked by the child's need for protection and the mother's conflicted care.

Li The First

A past or lingering romantic attachment, filled with unresolved passion and mutual resentment.

The Man

A deeply obsessive and controlling bond, where The Man exerts psychological dominance over The Mother, who is both victim and reluctant participant.

The Elder Son

A strained familial bond, with the elder son often acting as a rival for the mother's attention or as a disapproving figure.

I

The central figure, a passionate and hardworking woman who manages the household, cares for her children and the old mother, and quarrels with her husband over the demands of motherhood and labor.

II

Rises before dawn, tends to household chores, washes her daughter's eyes, cares for the old grandmother, and reflects on her contentment with the rhythms of life and labor.

III

Gives birth to her fourth child, a son, with the assistance of her cousin's wife. She experiences pain, anger at her children, and then tenderness.

The Man's Restlessness and the Quarrel

She works hard, loves her husband secretly, but is angered by his frivolity and lack of support for the family.

V

Lies about her husband's absence, works alone in the fields, reaps and threshes the rice, mends winter clothes, and clings to hope of his return at new year.

The Letter

Receives the letter, performs false joy, hides her true feelings, and later buries the silver.

Spring's Longing

Labors in the fields, teaches her children, assists in childbirth, and experiences a renewed longing for her husband.

VIII

Reflects on her lifelong passion for children and motherhood, envies her cousin's family life, and feels unfulfilled as her own children grow up.

IX

Struggles with loneliness and desire; feels shame after the agent's touch.

The Heat of Desire

Struggles with intense physical desire and fear, ultimately following the man to the shrine.

The Unyielding Seed

Pregnant from adultery, she lives in terror of discovery, publicly feigns grief for the old mother, lies about her husband's death, and is spurned by the townsman.

XII

The mother undertakes a pilgrimage to a distant temple to pray for her blind daughter's sight, burdened by guilt over her own sin. She later decides to take the girl to town, selling or discarding the trinkets from her past.

XIII

Now in her forty-third year, she remains lean and strong but feels the weight of age. She struggles with her daughter's blindness and her own guilt, and she openly favors her youngest son.

XIV

Feels diminished and displaced by her son's wife; shows favoritism toward the younger son, which leads to a confrontation with the elder son.

The Binding of the Blind Maid

Struggles with illness and weakness, eventually yields to pressure to marry off her blind daughter.

XVI

Grieves the blind maid's absence, works to ease her fears, grows idle, secretly treasures her younger son's silver, and confronts the family after her daughter's death.

Chapter XVII

Grief-stricken and guilt-ridden after her daughter's death; blames her elder son's wife and clings to her younger son for comfort; tormented by her past sins.

The Younger Son's Return

Finds comfort in her younger son's return, dotes on him, saves treats for him, and is oblivious to his faults.

XIX

Waits for her younger son, rejoices at the birth of her grandson, and later learns of her son's arrest.