Project 3 – Reflection

For all three of our major projects I have decided to go an untraditional route. This last one I am the most proud of however. I decided to rewrite the ending of the play The Love Suicides at Amijima because if followed the “Romeo and Juliette” storyline to a fault. I really enjoyed the entire play until I got to the end and saw that they went through with the love suicide. I decided to rewrite the ending to show that not all stories end with death and that there are other ways out of undesirbale situations.

The thing about the play that I latched onto the most was that Koharu was feeling and was literally trapped and she saw Jihei as a way out. I wanted to write my ending around the fact that Koharu does get out of her terrible life without Jihei and realizes she can save herself. I also felt very cheated that in the end it seemed like Jihei got what he wanted which was out of his life of responsibilities and a way to blame someone else for his wrong doings. He was so awful to everyone in the play that I felt it only right to give some justice. I decided to have Jihei’s brother kill him in the end to show how honor is restored in the family. He died knowing he was disgrace and that the woman he “loved” didn’t love him back and was happier without him.

The last finishing touch I put in was the note from Koharu. I purposefully left what was said in the letter out as a way to have the people reading be able to make up what they think she said. if they want their lasting memory of her to be that she was full of sorrow for leaving him or maybe she was angry and empowered. I wanted that to be left up to the reader. I really enjoyed how this projects came out and I hope everyone else has as much fun with it as I did.