Tragedy

By Sam Zhang
The Dream of Red Chamber and the Little Chinese Seamstress are two totally different stories that have caused a tremendous influence on Chinese literature. Before we can have a better understanding on these novels, it is important to take a glance at both of them. In this paper, I will briefly demonstrate the similarity and difference of the two novels.

            Generally speaking, the Dream of Red Chamber is far more famous and influential than the Little Chinese Seamstress in China, however, that doesn’t mean one is superior to another. The two novels are in different background and have different view of the world. The Dream of Red Chamber, which was written by Cao Xueqin, was a totally tragedy. The main character is Baoyu and Daiyu. Daiyu moved to Baoyu’s family and suffered a lot of hardship from her aunts. Since she can’t disobey or contradict your elder family member, Daiyu had a really tough time with her aunts. She fell in love with Baoyu, but they did not end up being together because Baoyu was engaged. Two of them both died because of the family forced marriage. It’s kind of like the Romeo and Juliet in China. The Chinese families were extremely conservative, the daughters and sons must listen to what their parents said, even include the marriage. The lack of freedom is the cause of the tragedy. The ending also emphasized Daiyu’s love is strong and inevitable. Nothing can stop her from being together with her lover.

            In the other hand, the Little Seamstress was everyone’s favorite girl in the village. Everybody treats her extremely well because of her well-respected grandfather, the old tailor, and her beauty. Unlike Daiyu, she broke all the rules, such as getting an abortion, having sex, and reading forbidden books. She didn’t suffer any hardships from other people. She also broke up with her lover and went to the city for pursuit of better life. The Little Seamstress can be able to sacrifice her love for a better life. She believes that woman’s beauty is not as important as education. The love inside her is not as strong as Daiyu’s.

            The novels also have similar features, such as they are both romantic stories. They both lived in an extremely hard and conservative culture. They were both restricted to not falling in love or marry each other. The outcomes of both stories are like the climax. The two female characters all made their choice and caused a tremendous impact on the readers.

             They are both great novels to discuss about. There are many complex relationship within the other characters as well. Reading these novels is very exciting and shocking sometime. The authors really did a good job on plotting the novels.