Regarding divorces and you will like circumstances ones well-known women intellectuals, the general public stumbled on understand this unexpected outcome of ladies’ education

Referring to Pak while the “Korea’s Nora Which Leftover new Doll’s Household,” the latest mass media doomed her “self-centered and irresponsible” choice to finish their unique matrimony and additionally their own justification having leaving. Right here this new invocation of figure out of Nora off Henrik Ibsen’s A beneficial Doll’s Home are high. Since an interpretation of your own gamble had basic starred in Maeil sinbo within the 1921, Footnote 147 the type of Nora got inquisitive and driven the fresh this new family of educated both women and men inside the Korea exactly as they had elsewhere. Footnote 148 One literary critic said that Nora was not just a symbol of “brand new romance” (sin yonae) otherwise “individualism” (kaeinjuui) but a symbol of “self-awakening” (cha’gak). Footnote 149 Indeed, in her 1921 track lyric, “A Doll’s Home” (Inhyong ui ka), authored 9 age before her own breakup, Na Hyesok shown their particular desire never to alive since an effective toy having their own dad and you will partner however, to reside just like the a human being which have full notice-commitment. Footnote 150 The newest self-focus on such women because the anyone and their wish to pursue the “freedom to complete exactly what one believes is great” try a continuous supply of great stress and you will public grievance. Footnote 151

An increasing anxiety about the new overview of your family took place, for the social suspecting educated “brand new women” out-of causing damage of your own family regarding the label of its own liberty and you can worry about-conclusion. ” Footnote 152 Within framework, new idealized “smart mommy, an excellent spouse” is actually considered to be the brand new antithesis of your own liberal womanhood of West, which was knew to make self-centered, irresponsible, and you may extravagant women. (more…)