The Good Woman of Setzuan - Essay Example

Full The Good Woman of Setzuan The Chinese philosopher Confucius said, ‘True goodness springs from a man’s own heart. All men are born good.’ So why then are there so many bad people? We look around and we can not deny a man taking advantage of another, a woman disdaining her neighbor, a girl fights with someone her age or even younger or older, a boy steals to feed himself and his siblings. Wickedness is just so rampant, sometimes it even becomes unnoticed anymore. It becomes a normal thing, not criticized but often praised especially when great wealth comes along that wickedness. These are just some of the points we are going to discuss reflectively in this essay about The Good Woman of Setzuan. We will try to find out what makes a good person bad, though in a limited way as this paper would not be enough to show every side of goodness and wickedness and the limited understanding of this author would not be ample to be a source of knowledge that would so articulately be written. However, though short of paper and information it may be, it is my desire to discuss major and important things on this matter. What is the cause of evil in the good woman of Setzuan? If I base my argument on the statement of Confucius that all men are born good, then the woman in the story as well as all the other characters should be good. Nevertheless, the story accounts otherwise. The main character, Shen Te, in her first appearance is a prostitute (Lawall, 2215), which in any generation has been considered immoral. A profession which is not desirable at all even by the poorest of the poor, nor the man devoid of goodness. This evil, I believe has been caused by poverty which offered the woman no good education and eventually raised her up to be a woman in need of money to survive in a material world. Everything amounts to something. Even the most basic thing, available in abundance anywhere becomes a commodity like the water traded by Wong, the water seller who cheats his customers through a false bottom on his cup (Lawall, 2214). In a poor society like that of Setzuan, poverty made people like Shen Te do evil things they would not want to do have the circumstances in their lives have been different. Sociologist and criminal justice scholars in America are said to have seen a relationship between poverty and crime, though this would be debatable when considering other poor countries with low crime rates (Williams). This argument though, can not deny the facts in America where there have been an increase in crime rates as more people hit the poverty line, where even if people might not want to, they consider going against the law in order to survive (Williams). This is the case of our primary character where she has to cling to a dagger called prostitution, giving her a bad reputation, but to choose to survive. Shen Te, if she were a real character, might have thought that reputation does not make her live, money does and in order for her to have money, she has to engage in the only work she knows, prostitution. But there are menial jobs that can make her survive, you night say. However, I see the source of evil caused by the society she is in. When everyone would want a job and needs a job, chances are, Shen Te has only a percentage of a chance to get employed. Yes, the evil of prostitution is society’s cause and is strengthened by people who support the activity by indulging themselves, buying the prostitute’s body for a few at a certain time. When Shen Te had the chance to change her ways, being given the opportunity by the gods to start afresh, she resorted in disguising herself into another person who was tough and evil who comes in defense of the good but weak woman. This evil of lying was caused by people who were opportunists like the husband, wife, brother, sister-in-law, grandfather, nephew, niece and their son. Having been welcomed by Shen Te, they abused her good will by flocking in to the woman’s new shop which served as their place of shelter and a source for their daily needs as well. The presence of ungrateful and abusive people drove Shen Te to disguise herself to her alter ego. As she later mentioned to the gods, this has torn her in to two, wanting to take care of others but needing to take care of herself; wanting to help the lost but has to keep herself found (Lawall, 2265). The people around her molded her into becoming evil. In retrospect, had the people she had helped worked well with her for them to have a good relationship, the goodness in the woman would have been watered and blossomed. Had the family of eight helped her in her shop in exchange to the shelter and food she gave, lives would have changed but poverty might have made them tough and evil, too. The carpenter, collecting the payment of his shelves which were excessively priced made Shen Te be the Shui Ta who can be unmoved by the poor circumstances of other people. However, taking the woman’s situation at that time, had she been with extra money, she might have just given the money to the carpenter even in the knowledge that the price was too high. Thus, I can consider going back to our former discussions on poverty that the lack of money drove the woman to lying about her cousin. On the other hand, even if she had the money if she wanted to teach the carpenter some lesson, she would still have resorted to the mask she started putting on. So, I consider her will to protect herself from abusive people like the carpenter could also be a reason to her evil deeds. Well, as they say, you have to be tough to survive in a tough world. Another person who has made Shen Te evil would yet be another opportunistic and selfish character in the person of Yang Sun. Having no plans of marrying the woman, he took the opportunity of the woman being head over heels in love with him to get the money he needed to escape the impoverished town. Learning about this in Shen Te’s guise as her cousin Shui Ta, the woman again uses her alter ego to fight the man she loves not in a physical manner but by holding his dreams down, not giving him the money needed for his flight. Let’s not single out the lover though, but include his mother in this setting being like his son or the other way around, who connived to fraudulently get money from Shen Te. In the story, the two characters were portrayed as instruments that drove Shen Te in disguising herself to the strong willed Shui Ta in order to escape their deceitfulness. And I believe this defense mechanism of the woman would be understandable but not considered noble. But who would come to her rescue? Love and survival made her do the evil she had to, to protect herself and not let others step on her like mud. Lastly, when the woman learned that she was pregnant, she had to decide to protect herself, to protect her unborn child. This made her decide to play the part of Shui Ta from then on, making his business prosper as she continued to do her part as the ‘Angel of the slums’. Waking up to the realities of what life there could be for her unborn child in such circumstances and such an environment, she had to decide to be Shui Ta who can be deaf to other people’s cries, and be hard hearted to his employers. The thought of a child to be born and the want to protect him, to bring him up into someone who could fulfill his father’s dreams, made Shen Te the unloved Shui Ta. Becoming Shui Ta, Shen Te did not have to play the role of the pedestal where the neighborhood depends from, being abused and challenged to do more good even to the worst person. Shen Te, now Shui Ta, has become greedy for more money and power. Though the Shen Te in her made some of her neighbors employed, the Shui Ta balanced it by not making them dependent on her which, I believe is a good thing for all of them but at the expense of a person’s guilt who was hiding behind a mask. Even good has come out of this situation, it is still undeniable that wickedness is still present in the woman since she is living a lie, enacting the personality of a made up man. The circumstances in the life of the woman we discussed made a good woman become evil in order to live, to survive. We may debate about her situation. Make her look good because she was just a victim in a world full of wicked people. She may be a woman full of goodness in the eyes of another person, yes even in the eyes of another good person. But where are we basing our judgments on? Our knowledge of what is good or evil may fail us because we all have different views and definitions of the words. Not to mention, man can have a double standard in viewing such circumstances. If one has been good to me, I may consider his/her goodness to be a strong factor to value her in a situation where everything might be proving my assumptions wrong but because that person has been good to me once, he/she must be good. Thus, this makes our judgments fail. So, in discussing if there is such a thing as a good kind of greed, dishonesty, or selfishness, let us take a look at the universal perspectives of what good and bad are. We know that benevolence, honesty and selflessness are good while the opposite of which are bad: greed, dishonesty and selfishness. Thus we can never say there is a good kind of these. The motive in doing something might be good but if the means are not, then it is not good at all. It is just saying a checkered cloth of black and white, is not at all white. The man who steals $1 and another who steals $1,000,000 are both thieves regardless if they are caught or not. In addition, no one who is clean enough who considers what he drinks would drink a bottle of distilled water when he knows there was a drop of dirty water added to it. He would consider that as dirty despite the fact it is 99.9% distilled water and only 1% dirty water. Lawall, Sarah. The Norton Anthology of Word Literature (Second Edition). London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002. Print. New International Bible. Colorado: International Bible Society, 1984. Print. Williams, Joseph. Christian Association for Prison Aftercare. Poverty and Crime. 2007. Web. November 22, 2010. Read More

When Shen Te had the chance to change her ways, being given the opportunity by the gods to start afresh, she resorted in disguising herself into another person who was tough and evil who comes in defense of the good but weak woman. This evil of lying was caused by people who were opportunists like the husband, wife, brother, sister-in-law, grandfather, nephew, niece and their son. Having been welcomed by Shen Te, they abused her good will by flocking in to the woman’s new shop which served as their place of shelter and a source for their daily needs as well.

The presence of ungrateful and abusive people drove Shen Te to disguise herself to her alter ego. As she later mentioned to the gods, this has torn her in to two, wanting to take care of others but needing to take care of herself; wanting to help the lost but has to keep herself found (Lawall, 2265). The people around her molded her into becoming evil. In retrospect, had the people she had helped worked well with her for them to have a good relationship, the goodness in the woman would have been watered and blossomed.

Had the family of eight helped her in her shop in exchange to the shelter and food she gave, lives would have changed but poverty might have made them tough and evil, too. The carpenter, collecting the payment of his shelves which were excessively priced made Shen Te be the Shui Ta who can be unmoved by the poor circumstances of other people. However, taking the woman’s situation at that time, had she been with extra money, she might have just given the money to the carpenter even in the knowledge that the price was too high.

Thus, I can consider going back to our former discussions on poverty that the lack of money drove the woman to lying about her cousin. On the other hand, even if she had the money if she wanted to teach the carpenter some lesson, she would still have resorted to the mask she started putting on. So, I consider her will to protect herself from abusive people like the carpenter could also be a reason to her evil deeds. Well, as they say, you have to be tough to survive in a tough world. Another person who has made Shen Te evil would yet be another opportunistic and selfish character in the person of Yang Sun.

Having no plans of marrying the woman, he took the opportunity of the woman being head over heels in love with him to get the money he needed to escape the impoverished town. Learning about this in Shen Te’s guise as her cousin Shui Ta, the woman again uses her alter ego to fight the man she loves not in a physical manner but by holding his dreams down, not giving him the money needed for his flight. Let’s not single out the lover though, but include his mother in this setting being like his son or the other way around, who connived to fraudulently get money from Shen Te.

In the story, the two characters were portrayed as instruments that drove Shen Te in disguising herself to the strong willed Shui Ta in order to escape their deceitfulness. And I believe this defense mechanism of the woman would be understandable but not considered noble. But who would come to her rescue? Love and survival made her do the evil she had to, to protect herself and not let others step on her like mud. Lastly, when the woman learned that she was pregnant, she had to decide to protect herself, to protect her unborn child.

This made her decide to play the part of Shui Ta from then on, making his business prosper as she continued to do her part as the ‘Angel of the slums’. Waking up to the realities of what life there could be for her unborn child in such circumstances and such an environment, she had to decide to be Shui Ta who can be deaf to other people’s cries, and be hard hearted to his employers. The thought of a child to be born and the want to protect him, to bring him up into someone who could fulfill his father’s dreams, made Shen Te the unloved Shui Ta.

Becoming Shui Ta, Shen Te did not have to play the role of the pedestal where the neighborhood depends from, being abused and challenged to do more good even to the worst person.

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