‘We don't become geisha because we want our lives to be
happy; we become geisha because we have no choice.’
This shows the lack of control women have over their lives in this novel and that they’re lives are decided for them by other people, in the case of a Geisha these people are the men as they decide whether a girl is to be a great geisha or whether her career is to fail. This shows that Sayuri is not in control of her life and is physically trapped, this is similar to Cathy in ‘Wuthering Heights’ as Cathy lives at Thrushcroft Grange is banned from leaving the grounds surrounding it,
‘Till she reached the age of thirteen she had not once
been beyond the range of the park by herself.’
This shows that Cathy does what her father tells her to and that she spends a long period of her life cut off from the rest of the world by the walls that surround the grounds of Thrushcroft Grange.
another similarities between Cathy and Sayuri is that they are both trapped by money. Sayuri is trapped by her building debt to mother and is not allowed to leave the okiya until she has fully paid it off, this is made difficult by Hatsumono’s interference; this is similar to Cathy having to stay with Heathcliff after marrying Linton. These not only show the entrapment of the women but also how the men have the power over the women in both the books.
In both the books the men play a big role in the women’s lives. This is because the women are dependant on the men’s money and support, but also because of love. In ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ Sayuri and the other Geisha are ‘dependent on the money’ they receive from them, without this they would be forced to do ‘proper work’. The book shows the ‘hold’ a man in Japan at that time had on a woman; this is shown in many ways throughout the book the first being at the start when Sayuri is at home with her mother and father. Her dad sells Sayuri and her sister to a man who in turn sells Sayuri to the Okiya and her sister to a ‘whore house’, ‘This one maybe, the other one no.’ this is said by a women in the book but it still shows dominance they have over Sayuri and her sister this could be because that’s the only people they do have authority over as men dominate them.
This shows that the men have the control over Sayuri during the start of this book, deciding where she goes and what she is to become.
Another way in which it is shown that men have the control in ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ is that all the Geisha are dependent on their customers, which are the men. This means they are the mercy of the men, also if a man was to give a geisha a bad reputation it could end her career, which again shows the power in which the men have over the women, this is shows when the baron forces Sayuri to undress for him and she is helpless to his power and strength.
This again shows the dependence of men in the world of a geisha.
This dependence is seen in a more indirect way in ‘Wuthering Heights’ but is shown in many ways. One of the ways this is shown by Catherine near the start of the book. In front of her dad Catherine isseen as a normally playful child that knows when to stop but when he’s not around she plays up all the time, and looks forward to being scolded by Nelly and Joseph,
‘But as soon as she saw him vexed again, she kissed his hand’
This shows the power her dad has over her and that she wishes to please him this is similar to ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ when Sayuri leaves with Mr.Tanaka under her dads orders ‘when my father threw, the fish back into the sea.’ this could describe how Her dad ‘threw’ her out of the house and sent her on her way into life, this could be seen as a lack of regard for he and shows the true power of man over women within the book as he just ‘sells’ her without protest from anyone including Sayuri and her sister.
Many critics have the view the character of Heathcliff is ‘female’
‘Gilbert and Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and The Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (1975): argues that Heathcliff is ‘female’ because he has no property, place or title. He is simply ‘Heathcliff’, never ‘master’, unlike Edgar Linton. Thus he has the female role in the society of the novel.’
This is shown at many points throughout the novel,
‘’But Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that wouldn’t make him less handsome, or me more so. I wish I had light hair and fair skin, and was dressed, and behaved as well, and had chance of being as rich as he will be!’’
Bronte here concentrates on the physical qualities of the two rivals for Catherine’s affection, showing the connection between physicality and material wealth. The irony here is that despite the effeminate appearance and physical weakness of Edgar, he has the ‘breeding’, status and wealth that Heathcliff does not have.
In ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ Sayuri life in the Okiya is all based round finding the ‘Chairman again. This again shows the influence men have on her in this novel "In that brief encounter with the Chairman, I had changed from a lost girl facing a lifetime of emptiness to a girl with purpose in her life." When she describes her pervious life before knowing the chairman as ‘a lifetime of emptiness of a girl’ it shows that she believes that it takes a man to make a ‘empty girl’ to one with ‘purpose’ on one hand this could be seen that women at the time only lived to please men and that is what made there life have meaning, but on the other hand it could be seen as life is not worth living without love in it. This theory about love making life worth living is also seen in ‘Wuthering Heights’ when Heathcliff falls to pieces after Catherine’s death ‘I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!’ Heathcliff describes Catherine as his ‘soul’ and keeping in mind the time period this book was set in, the soul is the most important part of a person, it was believed that without a soul a person was not human. This take on Heathcliff and Catherine against Sayuri and the Chairman show the opposites of each other. Sayuri and the Chairman show the dominance man has over women and the other showing the lack of it and how women have more power than it first appears they do.
In both Novels ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’ the writers use many techniques to shows the weak role of women in society and it is clear to see that although there is a big time difference between the books being written, and that they are set in very different societies the role of women is very similar and all concentrates on the pleasing of men within their lives, this is shown using many different techniques throughout but neither books are less effective in showing the oppression of the women’s role.
