[MISS HOẠN’S TRAGEDIES]

Regarding Hoạn Thư in Nguyễn Du’s literary work The Tale of Kiều, there is a lot of criticism about this woman. Is she pitiful or culpable, and is she an antagonist or a protagonist? Let us disclose the details of Hoạn Thư’s tragedies - the tragedies of love.
Hoạn Thư, also known as Miss Hoạn, came from an aristocratic family and was a minister’s daughter, who was the head of the royal court. From infancy to maturity, she lived in the lap of luxury and was educated according to Confucianism's noble customs and ethics: 

“She came from the famous Hoạn clan.

 A daughter of a minister”.

Having the charisma of a noble family member, intelligence, and being well-educated, the older she gets, the sharper and more attractive she becomes.

"By the happy winds of destiny, she and Thúc met each other 

They have been married for quite some time. “ 

Due to a rare predestination, Thúc Sinh was married to Hoạn Thư. Despite coming from a family of intellectuals, Thúc Sinh's father was a merchant, making it fundamentally inferior to a race of mandarins like Hoạn Thư. Mr. Thúc was not attracted by Hoạn’s haughty beauty and sharp intelligence but came to her because of her family’s glory and fortune. This marriage did not originate from love, nor was it compatible. However, Miss Hoạn still lived and fulfilled her responsibilities as a wife, always trying to keep the family close-knit, not acting superior as well as scorning and dominating her husband. Such a perfect woman perhaps was rare in the past.

Yet a peaceful family life was never enough for Thuc Sinh. He was a man driven by lust, prone to womanizing, and thus became entangled in an illicit affair with Thuy Kieu. Upon learning that her husband had taken a concubine, Hoan Thu was deeply aggrieved, yet she forced herself to suppress her resentment within:

“From hearing that the garden had gained a new flower

People’s mouths are full of rumors, yet none can truly be trusted.”

She was deeply hurt by the gossip and chose to shoulder all her pain and resentment in silence. On one hand, she arranged a banquet and treated her husband warmly so that he would believe she knew nothing of the affair; on the other, she secretly hired thugs to beat Thuy Kieu as a warning and then forced her to return to the household as a servant. When Thuc Sinh learned of this, he believed Kieu to be dead and was overwhelmed with grief—though, in time, his sorrow gradually faded. When the moment was right, Hoan Thu summoned Kieu to serve her and to play the lute while husband and wife sat together in intimacy. “Making it impossible for them to look at one another, Making humiliation so heavy they could not lift their heads.” Thuc Sinh and Thuy Kieu found themselves face to face, yet their hearts were shattered; they could neither speak nor weep together, appearing like two strangers who had never known each other. Hoan Thu’s method of jealousy was not loud or violent, yet it was devastatingly effective: she did not attack Kieu’s body, but her psyche—inflicting shame and anguish so severe that Kieu was compelled to leave of her own accord. Viewed through the lens of her time, Hoan Thu came to be portrayed as a cruel, ruthless, and blindly jealous woman—an enduring archetype of terrifying jealousy in love. This portrayal aligns with the rigid Confucian worldview, which demanded that individuals live according to predetermined norms: one’s body belonged to one’s parents, one’s fate was decreed by Heaven, personal autonomy was denied, and any action that deviated from social conventions was condemned. 

However, to Nguyễn Du, the figuration of Hoạn Thư is a representation of Taoism - an ideology that was scarcely mentioned in medieval literature at the time. Taoism emphasizes freedom, love, equality and supports fighting for human rights. Nguyễn Du had successfully conveyed a message of striving for dreams and equality through his character development of Hoạn Thư, hinting at the possibility that one day society would change. Beautiful and talented women would be able to live out their dreams, freed from the constraints of society to find true love or reclaim what is rightfully theirs.

Hoạn Thư is condemned by many for being intimidating, cruel, and ruthless. Others query whether the feminine urge to seek for love is always wrong. “Blind to blame Hoạn Thư, yet unaware of Thúc Sinh’s promiscuity”. He is the one who disdainfully rejected family happiness, who abandoned his significant other who had been by his side from the beginning. Emotions they immersed themselves in together are now rejected by him, and burned into the void. I do not align with the belief that without lashings from Hoạn Thư’s jealousy, Thúc Sinh would only had an affair with Thúy Kiều. Philandering has gotten into his head, and it is not just a moment of letting his guard down. Disappointingly, as misogynistic as feudal society was, it drained all the rights from women. With prejudices and societal pressures hanging tightly around women, what could Hoạn Thư have done differently? Having fulfilled her role as a woman yet her life is still full of struggles, her marriage was already unstable and fragile, now worsened with her husband’s frigidity. Even if she attempts to find a common ground with him, their relationship is forever changed. 

Perhaps, each of us need to have a more objective outlook on human’s fates in literature, whether it is a “placid and easy” life of Vân, or a “burdensome and onerous” life of Kiều, and even Hoạn’s “cruel” one. Kiều, Vân or Hoạn are all victims of a brutal patriarchal society, with harsh standards and stereotypes, women’s rights - obviously and intentionally - was taken away without any sensible reason. Nonetheless, it is good to know that our “little” society is “growing up”, with ties being gradually unknotted, people’s intellectual standards also rapidly increase, as people acknowledge that women are human as well, women are stronger than ever and they are willing to fight for their rights. 

After all, we of modern day can thoroughly understand Nguyễn Du’s concerns and receive his message through Hoạn Thư. At the same time, people are knowledgeable enough to identify what is backward and old-fashioned, hence leaving out the outmoded ones and preserving priceless and beautiful traditional values, sharpening them to suit modern society so that human’s core principles never get old.

Authors: Bui Le Minh Hang, Dao Thi Minh Hong