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Namgyal Karmartsang
Ways of Knowing
11/9/15
A Death of Circumstance and Value
The story of Reiko and Shinji initially represents a rather alarming
tale, stating from the beginning the nature of their mutual suicide. This is
done to show how the reader how their suicides looked from the outside.
After the suicide, people would take out this photograph and examine it,
and sadly reflect that too often there was a curse on these seemingly
flawless unions. (Mishima 726) This acts as a starting point for the reader,
reflecting how they view suicide, before delving into the nature of their
relationship. It shows how they saw death, and what it meant for them. As
the text continues, it creates a full understanding of the characters,
allowing to reader to understand why it had to happen. It seeks to show
their deaths as not the result of a cursed union, but as being their essential
end.
To Reiko and the lieutenant, their deaths are the bond that brings
them together. When faced with death, they see their bond, which only
strengthens the connection between the two. On looking into each other's
eyes and discovering there an honorable death, they had felt themselves
safe once more behind steel walls which none could destroy, encased in an
impenetrable armor of Beauty and Truth. (Mishima731) This passage
shows that they view their death as a protection of sorts. When they look

into each others eyes and see their deaths, it creates an unbreakable bond.
They feel their resolution to die gives them strength that nothing can take
away. Their strong connection here is the foundation of their relationship,
because through their death they no longer can be damaged.
Their death also signifies the end of the pact made when they were
first married. With happiness welling almost too abundantly in their hearts,
they could not help smiling at each other. Reiko felt as if she had returned
to her wedding night. Before her eyes was neither pain nor death. She
seemed to see only a free and limitless expanse opening out into vast
distances. (Mishima 730) Reiko returns to their wedding night because she
feels the connection they first had. With her own death that would follow
the lieutenants, she would complete her promise that she had made, the
promise that had built their relationship. She knew from the beginning that
the end could appear at any time and she had not only promised to accept
her husbands death, but to make it her own as well. By reaching this end, it
proves to them that they had been truly together from the very start.
Without this end, the resolve Reiko had shown would have been
meaningless.
The fact that they were to die together was a tremendous gift to both
of them in their own way. It proved their love and devotion to each other
and allowed them to know they had done well in life to be granted such a
perfect death. Looking at the slender white figure of his wife the lieutenant

experienced a bizarre excitement. What he was about to perform was an act

in his public capacity as a soldier, something he had never previously shown
his wife. It called for a resolution equal to the courage to enter battle; it was
a death of no less degree and quality than death in the front line. (Mishima
736) It was vital for the lieutenant, whatever else might happen, that there
should be no irregularity in his death. For that reason there had to be a
witness. The fact that he had chosen his wife for this was the first mark of
his trust. (Mishima 730) By dying with his wife as a witness, the lieutenant
was granted an honorable death. Her death is what gives his meaning.
Reikos presence was a gift to him, giving him the opportunity to show his
courage to her. For Reiko it was a sign of trust. The lieutenant was granting
her control over his death by having her as a witness. She rejoices at this
because by dying first, he was putting his absolute trust in her. It proves to
her his love and to him her courage. They see this as a declaration of
devotion to each other.
When it comes time for Reiko to die, she does it because she wants to
become one with her husband. The experience they faced together would
only strengthen their mutual understanding of each other. When she
thought how the pain which had previously opened such a gulf between
herself and her dying husband was now to become a part of her own
experience, she saw before her only the joy of herself entering a realm her
husband had already made his own. (Mishima 740) But Reiko felt no pain
at all. Her grief was not pain. As she thought about this, Reiko began to feel

as if someone had raised a cruel wall of glass high between herself and her
husband. (Mishima 738) After her husbands death, her only thought was
that they were now no longer bound together as they were in life. The pain
he felt before death became a bridge that she must cross before being truly
joined to him. Before they were brought together through the
acknowledgement of their death, but once he had died, she was no longer
connected in the same way. In order to reach him, she must experience
death as he had, just as she had experienced life through him.
Throughout the text, Reiko is shown to be living the lieutenants life.
From the very start, she showed the same courage as the lieutenant. For
him it was the courage to enter battle, free from the fear of a death that
could occur at any time. For her it was the courage to enter her marriage,
knowing that her life would be tied to his, equal in the respect that it could
happen at any time. This is established as Reiko looks back on their day of
marriage and as the lieutenant dies in front of her. Ever since her marriage
her husband's existence had been her own existence, and every breath of
his had been a breath drawn by herself. (Mishima 738) When she feels the
barrier erected by his pain, she realizes the meaning of their connection.
Without it, she is nothing, knowing that the life they once shared is no
longer there. When she says that every breath of his was drawn by her, she
means that she gave his life purpose, that they were part of a greater whole.
This knowledge of how Reiko views her own life as a part of the

lieutenants, shows that to her, her death was really the final stage in the
ending of his life.
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Even then, for Reiko and the lieutenant, death represented

unbridled freedom from the world. It was an obstacle for them to overcome
in order to show their love. it was certain that never before had the
lieutenant tasted such total freedom. (Mishima 732) his anguish and
distress, was leading her -just as surely as the power in his flesh- to a
welcome death. She felt as if her body could melt away with ease and be
transformed to the merest fraction of her husband's thought. (Mishima
729) Throughout the story, Reiko and the lieutenant are comforted by the
thought of death. They see death as the ultimate liberation, setting them
free from the limitations of life. For the lieutenant, it was freedom from the
orders he knew he could not follow, but for Reiko it was the release of the
worlds limit. In death, they would be eternal, and Reiko would become one
with her husband, no longer needing the experience of sex or death to truly
feel each other.
Through the parallels drawn between their intimacies of sex and
death, the text creates an association that shows that they view sex and
death as having the same level of intimacy. The agony before Reiko's eyes
burned as strong as the summer sun, utterly remote from the grief which
seemed to be tearing herself apart within. The pain grew steadily in stature,
stretching upward. (Mishima 738) The bristly hairs rubbed painfully

against her breast, the prominent nose was cold as it dug into her flesh, and
his breath was hot. Relaxing her embrace, she gazed down at her husband's
masculine face. The severe brows, the dosed eyes, the splendid bridge of
the nose, the shapely lips drawn firmly together ... (Mishima 734) The
language used while describing their death is very similar to that used to
describe when they have sex. It draws on vivid descriptions of the feeling of
each other, mirroring the descriptions of pain. Their pain is shown to be as
vibrant and sensual as any physical intimacy they shared. To them, they two
acts are equal in intimacy, only to be shared with each other, showing their
strength and devotion to each other. It reveals their passion for each other,
with the feelings of pain and pleasure becoming one. By describing in great
detail the sensations felt, it allows the reader to empathize with their
experience. It shows how they view their deaths, not as simply honorable,
but as an extension of the sex that had preceded it.
By creating this empathy with the reader, the text shows that their
deaths are meant to have meaning. While the text seems to glorify suicide
this way, it really is to further the understanding of the characters. Prior to
the act itself, the text is used to expand the knowledge of their relationship.
Without such an introduction to their death, it would have been seen as
senseless and without meaning. Giving such a detailed account of how they
see death and how they used it as a foundation for their relationship,
provides the reader with context for their actions. In this respect, the text
serves as a justification for their suicide. It wants the reader to really

understand the circumstance that led them to their unfortunate end, to

show that even though on the surface it seems meaningless, their deaths
had essential meaning to the characters.

Citations:
Mishima, Yukio. Patriotism. Print.
Creative Piece:
Gazing at what lay before them
mesmerized by their Strength
Heroic resolve with no grief
to stain his Death Face
the pain before her
the Death beneath her
certainty of a Heroic sight