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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Defining—and Finding—the Ideal Woman
Prince Genji’s romantic adventures are the main narrative focus of the novel’s first seventeen chapters, during which he seeks a woman who will satisfy his desires and embody his ideals (though he doesn’t seem entirely sure what his desires and ideals are). This theme is the subject of the second chapter, when Genji and a group of male friends consider numerous types of women—timid or bold, pliant or stubborn, reserved or passionate, violent or passive—then share personal anecdotes to demonstrate why each kind of woman is inadequate.
Genji’s romantic adventures show him sleeping with many of the women discussed in the conversation, as if he is working out in practice what the group of men considered in theory. In the remote memory of his mother, Kiri-Tsubo, Genji does identify a kind of ideal. Her style of beauty provides a model for the two subsequent women he finds most attractive—the Princess Wistaria and Violet. These women are the closest approximation to a female ideal in the novel.
The Power of Art
Art is crucial to the world Murasaki Shikibu creates, conveying the refinement and ease of the imperial court. Poetry, music, dance and painting are all central to the novel’s action and meaning because members of the court are expected to be accomplished in these forms of expression and communication. Because the forms are very structured—think of the dance steps of the “Blue Main Waves” or the regulated progression of waka poetry—courtiers are judged on their mastery and skilled performance within the rules. This is a different way of understanding what personal expression means, certainly when compared to twenty-first century ideas. But in Murasaki’s world, a superior performance emerged from the innovative and nuanced use of an established artistic model. Genji excels at each form of art discussed in The Tale of Genji.
Poems are scattered throughout The Tale of Genji, and the verses courtiers write are a key form of communication, as well as a way to capture and share personal longing or sadness. Because the era’s poems were quite short, they could focus on a single feeling or experience. At the imperial court, both women and men were expected to be accomplished in the art of poetry. In “Saffron Flower,” for example, Genji’s interest in the princess diminishes because her poems are mediocre. At the same time, one of Shikibu-no-Jō’s complaints about the learned woman in “The Broom-Like Tree” turns on her use of language. Poetry is not just for romance, however. Genji sends his son a poem when he leaves for exile, and he and Tō-no-Chujō share verses when the latter visits him in Suma.
Music and painting are equally important to the novel. Characters play several different musical instruments (the biwa or koto), and there are various episodes where song spills from secluded spaces, attracting characters’ attention. The seventeenth chapter turns to painting. Here readers learn that there are professional painters at court, so the picture competition includes not just how well people paint but also their ability to identify and collect excellent pictures.
Status and the Means of Achieving It
A strict hierarchy is imposed in the imperial world of The Tale of Genji, and family connections can have life or death implications. The Lady Kiri-Tsubo is tormented by jealous people at court because she does not have a family to defend her. For the same reason, the Emperor is unwilling to recognize her as a wife, a step he will later take with the better-connected Princess Wistaria. For women and men alike, marriage is a key means of enhancing one’s status and even those at the top of the social hierarchy cannot ignore its consequences. The court is the center of political power yet there is little sense across these seventeen chapters how it functioned or worked. People are often referred to by their titles but, with the notable exceptions of carrying messages or planning parties, it is impossible to know what the titles are meant to communicate. As a reward for their exceptional dance at the Maple Fête, for example, Genji and Tō-no-Chūjō are promoted. Their status has been enhanced, but it is not clear if this elevation is accompanied with responsibilities or duties. These careful gradations of status depicted in The Tale of Genji pertain primarily to elites. Although there are servants in the novel, it includes no peasants or foot soldiers or merchants. During Genji’s exile at Suma, he converses with fishermen, a notable departure from the novel’s norm and an exchange that marks how far he is from the imperial court, where status is paramount.
Lady Koki-den’s extraordinary influence, once her son becomes Emperor, further complicates the relationship between status and power in the novel. Although she is a woman, she is able to make important decisions, including exiling Genji. Her son eventually gains control back from her, but her family connections—her father is the Minister of the Right—and her intelligence make her a formidable opponent at court.
