In a grove

Literary Analysis of “ In a Grove” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa The story “ In a Grove” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa depicts an investigation of a crime scene wherein a dead body of a man wearing a bluish or lilac-colored silk kimono was found lying within the grove of bamboo and cedars. A high police commissioner needed to settle into a resolution of tracking down the real main culprit of the event from the rather conflicting stories shared by those who claim to have knowledge of the murdered man and the crime which ended his life the time either before or after the killing took place. In this process, since the accounts delivered by the woodcutter, the travelling Buddhist priest, the policeman, and the old woman all bear equivalent amount of semblances and contradictions with each other, then for the moment there emerges no single account that can be fully trusted until sufficient logic sheds light to draw reliable evidences from among the stories told.
Tajomaru, being the chief figure whom the old woman testified as responsible on committing murder against her son-in-law and possibly her lost daughter, initially confessed of his modesty at having considered not to kill Takehiko, partly taking pride that to him “ killing isn’t a matter of such great consequence”. He further reasoned that “ it would be good if I could capture a woman without killing her man” and at this point, it were as if Tajomaru would like to be understood in the light of justice whereby despite his capacity for robbery, he was not as greedy as to take someone else’s without a sensible cause so he can be relieved of brutal judgments. He, however, admitted into finally clashing 23 strokes of blade with the woman’s husband in a fair fight and struck him down when he yielded unto an overwhelming desire to take the woman for his wife especially as the latter affirmed of wanting to be a partner of whomever between the two men survived.
On the contrary, the wife made the preference of being held accountable for her husband’s demise for she wanted to spare Takejiro of witnessing her disgrace in the look that spoke of his heart in profound hatred. She could no longer stand the exchange of mixed strong unpleasant emotions of shame, grief, and anger between them particularly on account of enduring the contempt in the stare given by her husband. So she necessitated thrusting the small sword through his breast. Similarly, the murdered man took his own position in the story as revealed by another medium stating conformity to the woman’s betrayal as he witnessed the robber and his wife hand-in-hand where the woman ordered for Tajomaru to kill him. Such sight must have greatly humiliated the man in addition to the feeling of jealousy he was already consumed by exclaiming “ Have such cursed words ever struck a human ear, even once?” so he decided to take his life by the small sword though he in the course of doing so, he was not at all hurt.
The irony presented by Tajomaru is crucial as he stated “ You kill people with your power, with your money” from which comes out the idea of wronging someone even on a figurative level. Even as the other two main characters declared confessions of having murdered or committed suicide, death came upon them in the form of betrayal and anguish and how such forms of weakness have long overtaken them through another shape of death, more excruciating and intense than that which is physically encountered.
Work Cited
Akutagawa, Ryunosuke. “ In a Grove.” Translated by Takashi Kojima. 2012. Web. 7 May 2012. http://sayberklas. tripod. com/anthology_short_stories_in_english/id21. html.