Regarding Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0 in Nguy\u1ec5n Du\u2019s literary work The Tale of Ki\u1ec1u, 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 Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0\u2019s tragedies - the tragedies of love.
Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0, also known as Miss Ho\u1ea1n, came from an aristocratic family and was a minister\u2019s 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: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe came from the famous Ho\u1ea1n clan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A daughter of a minister\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having the charisma of a noble family member, intelligence, and being well-educated, the older she gets, the sharper and more attractive she becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"By the happy winds of destiny, she and Th\u00fac met each other <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have been married for quite some time. \u201c <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Due to a rare predestination, Th\u00fac Sinh was married to Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0. Despite coming from a family of intellectuals, Th\u00fac Sinh's father was a merchant, making it fundamentally inferior to a race of mandarins like Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0. Mr. Th\u00fac was not attracted by Ho\u1ea1n\u2019s haughty beauty and sharp intelligence but came to her because of her family\u2019s glory and fortune. This marriage did not originate from love, nor was it compatible. However, Miss Ho\u1ea1n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet a peaceful family life was never enough for Thuc Sinh.\nHe 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom hearing that the garden had gained a new flower<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People\u2019s mouths are full of rumors, yet none can truly be trusted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was deeply hurt by the gossip and chose to shoulder all her pain and resentment in silence.\nOn 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\u2014though, in time, his sorrow gradually faded.\n\nWhen the moment was right, Hoan Thu summoned Kieu to serve her and to play the lute while husband and wife sat together in intimacy.\n\u201cMaking it impossible for them to look at one another,\nMaking humiliation so heavy they could not lift their heads.\u201d\nThuc 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\u2019s method of jealousy was not loud or violent, yet it was devastatingly effective: she did not attack Kieu\u2019s body, but her psyche\u2014inflicting shame and anguish so severe that Kieu was compelled to leave of her own accord.\n\nViewed through the lens of her time, Hoan Thu came to be portrayed as a cruel, ruthless, and blindly jealous woman\u2014an 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\u2019s body belonged to one\u2019s parents, one\u2019s fate was decreed by Heaven, personal autonomy was denied, and any action that deviated from social conventions was condemned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, to Nguy\u1ec5n Du, the figuration of Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0 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. Nguy\u1ec5n Du had successfully conveyed a message of striving for dreams and equality through his character development of Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0 is condemned by many for being intimidating, cruel, and ruthless. Others query whether the feminine urge to seek for love is always wrong. \u201cBlind to blame Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0, yet unaware of Th\u00fac Sinh\u2019s promiscuity\u201d. 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 Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0\u2019s jealousy, Th\u00fac Sinh would only had an affair with Th\u00fay Ki\u1ec1u. 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 Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0 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\u2019s frigidity. Even if she attempts to find a common ground with him, their relationship is forever changed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps, each of us need to have a more objective outlook on human\u2019s fates in literature, whether it is a \u201cplacid and easy\u201d life of V\u00e2n, or a \u201cburdensome and onerous\u201d life of Ki\u1ec1u, and even Ho\u1ea1n\u2019s \u201ccruel\u201d one. Ki\u1ec1u, V\u00e2n or Ho\u1ea1n are all victims of a brutal patriarchal society, with harsh standards and stereotypes, women\u2019s rights - obviously and intentionally - was taken away without any sensible reason. Nonetheless, it is good to know that our \u201clittle\u201d society is \u201cgrowing up\u201d, with ties being gradually unknotted, people\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all, we of modern day can thoroughly understand Nguy\u1ec5n Du\u2019s concerns and receive his message through Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0. 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\u2019s core principles never get old.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authors: Bui Le Minh Hang, Dao Thi Minh Hong<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u0110\u1ed1i tho\u1ea1i v\u1edbi nh\u00e2n v\u1eadt Ho\u1ea1n Th\u01b0 trong t\u00e1c ph\u1ea9m Truy\u1ec7n Ki\u1ec1u c\u1ee7a Nguy\u1ec5n Du, c\u00f3 nhi\u1ec1u quan \u0111i\u1ec3m ph\u00ea b\u00ecnh v\u1ec1 ng\u01b0\u1eddi ph\u1ee5 n\u1eef n\u00e0y. C\u00f4 g\u00e1i \u1ea5y \u0111\u00e1ng th\u01b0\u01a1ng hay \u0111\u00e1ng tr\u00e1ch, l\u00e0 nh\u00e2n v\u1eadt ph\u1ea3n di\u1ec7n hay nh\u00e2n v\u1eadt ch\u00ednh di\u1ec7n? H\u00e3y c\u00f9ng ch\u00fang m\u00ecnh v\u00e9n l\u1edbp m\u00e0n ng\u00f4n t\u1eeb \u0111\u1ec3 kh\u00e1m […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-women-literature-vfsa-vi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3238"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4605,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238\/revisions\/4605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}