In the Name of Love? Character motivation for love suicide in Sonezaki Shinjū and Shinjū Ten no Amijima

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/136293

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Asian Studies (60 EC) (MA)

Groot, Kirsten (2020)

In the Name of Love? Character motivation for love suicide in Sonezaki Shinjū and Shinjū Ten no Amijima

Master thesis | Asian Studies (60 EC) (MA)

This thesis explores the motivations of the protagonists of two love suicide puppet plays written by Japanese playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon: Sonezaki Shinjū and Shinjū Ten no Amijima. Using sociological and (socio)psychological theories - primarily the socioemotional theory of suicide by Seth Abrutyn and Anna Mueller - it seeks to expand on the psychological level of interpretation that traditionally tends to use the giri/ninjō dichotomy. The thesis concludes that the protagonists are motivated by love and suicide suggestion to die together, although the suicide itself is rather the result of a perceived lack of control, the failure of social performance and the influence of negative social emotions.