Research summary
(1) Meeting Idea-Changes in the Well, Discovery of the Pits
The characteristic of "Killing Commendatore" is that the characters are deeply related to time. It returns to the present, recalling from the present to the past over time, s ...
Research summary
(1) Meeting Idea-Changes in the Well, Discovery of the Pits
The characteristic of "Killing Commendatore" is that the characters are deeply related to time. It returns to the present, recalling from the present to the past over time, such as ‘a man without a face’ in the prologue, the story of Masahiko Amada in Odawara's house for nine months after divorce with his wife, the story of living as the father of Muro.
The pit in “Killing Commendatore” can be said to be a different variation of the well described in other works and represents darkness or disturbing evil in the main character's mind.
‘I’, the protagonist who was in a slump at the time meet Mensiki while being requested a large portrait. Menshiki's portrait, which is being completed, shows a kind of violence, and to soothe it, ‘I’ think ‘such as an idea that integrates passion’ is necessary.
In fact, Idea, who appeared in front of the main character, is 60 centimeters tall and wears the knight's clothes, and is said to be different from soul, and if he is constrained and inevitable, he can take any shape.
In "Killing Commendatore", the ‘space’ where the characters cross, that is, pits, hospital rooms in nursing homes, and Tomohiko's studio, are in contact with Idea. By killing Idea in the form of a commendatore, Tomohiko, who painted "Killing Commendatore" seems to eliminate the ‘evil’ expressed as a Nazi who killed his lover, who had longed in his heart. The death of ‘idea’ is for regeneration and only one of the numerous ideas has disappeared. The death of the commendatore is an opportunity for the protagonist himself to escape from the sense of loss of his sister who weighed him down and the emptiness he tried to fill his wife with, and it is the starting point for him to meet a new me.
(2) The world of metaphor.
Haruki says that the use and description of metaphor is one of the characteristics of his novel style.
The protagonist talks about the inevitability of the world of metaphor, realizing that in order to want the definite reality he wants, he must pass through the world of metaphor.
The world of metaphor leads to a deep underground world. A long-faced man who introduced himself as a lower-level metaphor guides the entrance. The protagonist finds out that it is ‘a world driven by relevance’ and ‘that everyone here is nothing more than an idea or metaphor’. Donna Anna, who he met in the underground world, said, "The best metaphor will soon become the best poem," and he thinks Tomohiko Amada's "Killing Commendatore" may have been a scene.
In the world of metaphor, the protagonist feels a sense of change as he is filled little by little. But the process is by no means easy. He came out of the world of metaphor and fell into the pit. In other words, it has returned to the starting point. The protagonist, who has returned to reality in the world of metaphor, thinks about the changes that have occurred to him when entering and after entering the world of metaphor. The formation of a new relationship with his wife, Yuzu, is the biggest turning point for his life to change in the future, and it was a valuable result of experience in the world of metaphor.
(3) The boundary between passage and "nonexistence" and "existence".
The protagonist lives a pure life of ‘nothing’ in Odawara, and another person with ‘nothing’ is Tomohiko Amada, who is at the border between life and death. He is a painter of ‘Killing Commendatore’. The protagonist is required to change a state of 'nonexistence' by his choice and by others. So he starts his trip to the world of 'existence'.
The process of entering the world of metaphor, and entering the world of metaphor and coming out into the real world is described in great detail. The process returns to reality as the narrow passage, which seemed unlikely to widen as if a newborn were coming out of his mother's womb toward the world, gradually widens to suit his body. 'I' realize that everything in the process is a metaphor and relative. The passageway is beyond the boundary from ‘nonexistence’ to ‘existence’.
(4) The birth of a new life, a latent metaphor.
The main character, ‘I’ receive help from Donna Anna, Gomi or women who are thought to be Marie's mother in the process of returning to reality through a narrow passage in the world of metaphor.
Haruki expresses that everything has long been an invisible big wave to our eyes and flows somewhere in our daily lives, and when the time comes, for example when I want to reset my fate, it appears. Haruki said ‘possibility’ through the commendatore, and explained the distortion of one's memory and the confusion between reality and non-reality through ‘metaphor’.
‘I’ think himself is a potential father of the child Yuzu will give birth to.
‘A man without a face’ who ‘I’ met in the underground world still sometimes appears in dreams and tells ‘I’ to draw him. It is a deal that is likely to appear as long as the life of the ‘I’ continues. Because 'nonexistence' cannot be drawn.
The painting of ‘The Man in the White Subaru Forester’, which awakened the disturbing energy hidden inside the protagonist himself, is still in the protagonist's heart, reminding him of the existence of darkness, although it dissappeared by fire of Odawara's house. This is because ‘I’ know that the disturbing darkness will one day come in the form of new ideas and new metaphors for the rest of his time.