Process of Dehumanization in Twilight of a Crane by Yu Zuwa Junji Kinoshita

 
This post discusses the question “in the drama ‘Twilight of a Crane’ the playwright shows how humanity and values as human beings are dehumanized due to materialistic thigs including money.” and the two real answers given by two of our bright students Dinithi and Priyanga. Hope their answers would be helpful for you to enhance your knowledge in writing answers.

Answer of Dinithi Anuththara

The play written by Junji Kinoshita was based on a folk tale. The drama ‘Twilight of a Crane’ symbolically juxtaposes that the humanity and values as human beings are dehumanized due to a series of conflicts.

At the beginning of the drama, the audience is presented with a scene of a humble villager called Yohyo and children around. They call Yohyo and he plays with them. This implies that the children love to be around the house. Children love to spend their time where they can gain love and attention that they need most. They also ask for Tsu and clearly love her. These facts conclude that Yohyo and Tsu understand each other and care each other and lived as a lovely and happily as a satisfied couple in their home.

The two main characters use endearing terms like ‘sweetheart’, ‘dear’, ‘darling’ to refer to each other. This is a sign of being devoted or even doting one another. It is safe to say that they love each other very much. The use of such terms reveals the intimacy they share and the trust they place on one another. Their lives have become valuable to each other. If there is any resentment or bitterness towards the partner, using such words is not possible. Therefore, one can argue that there is no conflict whatsoever between them, and that they are transparent with each other.

“Oh dear, I almost forgot! Cold soup is no good for my sweet heart.”

Like their actions, their sentiments align with each other.  Youhyo is portrayed in the play as someone who is not the brightest nor the most skilled individual. However, despite these, he is very keen in ensuring that the soup is warmed up for Tsu. He shows how considerate he is, as he says that cold soup would do no good – he is genuinely concerned about Tsu’s wellbeing and nourishment. This is an evidence that Yohyo was fully devoted to Tsu and loved her and valued her and valued her as an important person in his life.

However, Unzu and Sodo influence Yohyo in a negative way. These two characters from the village represent capitalist ideas- they are more concerned about profit and money than human lives. The fact that Tsu becomes extremely weak while she makes the cloth is rather an obvious symbol of the exploitation which is a feature of capitalism. These two characters persuade Yohyo into getting his wife Tsu to weave Senba Ori to sell and gain profits at the town Kyoto.

With the danger and gruesomeness of Sodo and Unzu, Yohyo began to change gradually. Gradually means little by little, this adverb is important as it shows that it is a slow process.

“Yohyo, my dear – what’s happened to you? You are gradually changing. I can’t understand why”

Tsu persuades Yohyo as a different person now because the loving and caring person is not there anymore. Yohyo has become only a money-minded character not a loving one. Even though, he valued Tsu more than anything in his world, but now, he only wants Tsu’s valuable Senba Ori and make profit at Kyoto.This was the ultimate desire of the weak characters Sodo and Unzu. They show no humanity and dehumanized Yohyo to become a money minded person. As the play comes to an end, Tsu leaves Yohyo and he holds on tightly to the cloth Senba Ori that was the gift given by Tsu to Yohyo.

This play gives us a great moral about the repercussions of insatiable greed. While Sodo and Unzu represent black world, Tsu represents the world of innocence. Jungi Kinoshta has shown how humanity and the values of human beings being degraded dehumanization due to various reasons including money mindedness.

 

Answer of Priyanga Dilshan

The play ‘Twilight of a Crane’ which comes under the category tragedy is written by the Japanese playwright, Yu Zuwa Junji Kinoshita. This play was banned in Japan by the politicians thinking that it would be a hindrance to them. Tsy, Yohyo, Sodo, Unzu and Children are the main characters that can be seen in this play. Tsu is a bewitched crane who has taken the form of a woman. Yohyo is a humble simple naïve villager while Sodo and Unzu are the two villains.

At the outset of the drama Yohyo is a very humble simple man. His words are coated with love and care:

“Oh dear, I almost forgot! Cold soup is no good for my sweet heart.”

The loving, caring type of attitude of Yohyo towards his wife, Tsu is brought to focus in the above lines. He tries to make the soup hot thinking that cold soup is no good for his wife. Not only Yohyo but also Tsu is a responsible person who concerns much about her responsibilities towards the family. When Yohyo asked Tsu to play with them, she refuses it saying that she has to prepare the supper. Both of them are so concerned of each other’s welfare. It is clear that Yohyo is an innocent, humble, simple man characterized by foolishness.

However, Yohyo is a man who is rather greedy for money. This very desire of Yohyo has become an advantage for Unzu and Sodo to exploit him.

“If you’d turn out that cloth, you could make as much easy money as you want”

Unzu tries to cheat Youhyo in order to make quick easy money. Without being sensitive Yohyo and Tsu, they try to exploit his desire to collect money. Then Sodo who is the shrewdest out of the two tries to exploit Yohyo’s love for Tsu to provoke him. They are cunning, deceitful and shrewd. When people become commercialized and money minded, they would yearn and make money even through anti-social activities. When Unzu asked Yohyou to get his wife weave more pieces of the cloth, Yohyo stands against it which hints that his is a loving, caring type of an adoring husband. However, finally when Sodo says he can make three or four times as before, Yohyo got surprized and became a little bit greedy for money. Then they spoke high of Kyoto in order to lure to visit Yohyou who now been driven by the ideas injected by Sodo and Unzu, two villains.  During the process he slips his tongue:

“So I pulled its arrow out of its back and saved its life.”

Here, Yohyo exposes every personal fact to these two malicious people without being intelligent about the safety of his family life. However, he is an innocent humble simple man who is not yet corrupted with materialistic things. He is a sympathetic, kind hearted, helpful character. Here Sodo and Unzu are not sensitive about the story of the injured as they have dehumanized and crave for materialistic thing called money. However, Yohyo has been changed a lot after associating Unzu and Sodo. Then he addresses and calls his wife as a ‘cross woman.’ This clearly highlights how human qualities become deteriorated in their effort to make money.

When we carefully analyzing the above factors and quotations, it is clear that in the drama ‘Twilight of a Crane’ the playwright shows how humanity and values as human beings are dehumanized due to materialistic things including money.

 

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