Musings on Tae Ha and Un Nyun
Feb. 26th, 2010 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieAfter the latest episode of Chuno (and finally having a chance to watch ep 12 with subs), you know what I am interested in even more than how Tae Ha and Dae Gil are going to get out of the torture chamber?
It's how Tae Ha is going to deal with his new knowledge that his wife is a runaway slave herself.
I was struck, during his adorable marriage proposal in ep 12, by how grateful (and a little amazed) he was that a noble lady wanted to marry someone like him. But that is the thing - Tae Ha may have been falsely convicted/enslaved 2 years ago but he was born a nobleman and he's been a nobleman his entire life until then. And not just some nobleman but a very high-ranking one - an important General, the Crown Prince's best friend. He never viewed himself as a slave, just someone who submitted to a wrong for a higher cause - so he'd be alive to carry a last mission for the Crown Prince. And if the political faction in which he is one of the leaders succeeds, his noble status would be more than restored. As soon as he reaches the co-conspirators in ep 12, they give him his proper outfit, silks and peacock feathers and all.
But Un Nyun? She may masquerade as a noblewoman, but she was born a slave, child of slaves, and only achieved her status by fraud. She is the genuine article.
And I don't know how Tae Ha will cope with it - he is an honorable man and he loves her, but he is a man of his times and his upbringing. It's pretty significant that his revolution isn't some sort of a populist workers' paradise idea of a classless society - he would want a society where the government is just, which would mean, in part, that people cannot be enslaved unjustly or, when slaves, cannot be treated badly - but I doubt he is against slavery per se. I am sure when he was a General he had slaves in his household. Now, being Tae Ha, I am sure they were treated well - fed and housed adequately, and he never went around sleeping with slave girls (the way Dae Gil's repulsive father did). But I don't think it ever occurred to him to free them any more than it would have occurred to him to fly.
But now he is confronted with the fact that the person he loves most in this world is part of that system - she is no aristocrat wrongfully wrenched out of her place (the way he was). No, she is someone who would have still been a slave even if his just society came to pass. It's basically a symbol of the basic unjustness of the entire system of society and I wonder how he will take it.
But then this drama does seem to make sure to demonstrate how much of a farce all these restrictions are - I am struck with the scene of all these competent men - scholars and soldiers - grovelling on the ground before a 3-year-old boy who is playing with his socks, because of whose blood he has in him. It does not occur to any of them (not even Tae Ha), how absurd that all is. Every character in this society is a slave - even the evil Minister can die on the King's whim, and the King is subject to the control of the Qing envoy who is under control of the Qing emperor. No way out. And no genuine upward mobility either - not any that is not bought by fraud. Fun place to live, that.
It's how Tae Ha is going to deal with his new knowledge that his wife is a runaway slave herself.
I was struck, during his adorable marriage proposal in ep 12, by how grateful (and a little amazed) he was that a noble lady wanted to marry someone like him. But that is the thing - Tae Ha may have been falsely convicted/enslaved 2 years ago but he was born a nobleman and he's been a nobleman his entire life until then. And not just some nobleman but a very high-ranking one - an important General, the Crown Prince's best friend. He never viewed himself as a slave, just someone who submitted to a wrong for a higher cause - so he'd be alive to carry a last mission for the Crown Prince. And if the political faction in which he is one of the leaders succeeds, his noble status would be more than restored. As soon as he reaches the co-conspirators in ep 12, they give him his proper outfit, silks and peacock feathers and all.
But Un Nyun? She may masquerade as a noblewoman, but she was born a slave, child of slaves, and only achieved her status by fraud. She is the genuine article.
And I don't know how Tae Ha will cope with it - he is an honorable man and he loves her, but he is a man of his times and his upbringing. It's pretty significant that his revolution isn't some sort of a populist workers' paradise idea of a classless society - he would want a society where the government is just, which would mean, in part, that people cannot be enslaved unjustly or, when slaves, cannot be treated badly - but I doubt he is against slavery per se. I am sure when he was a General he had slaves in his household. Now, being Tae Ha, I am sure they were treated well - fed and housed adequately, and he never went around sleeping with slave girls (the way Dae Gil's repulsive father did). But I don't think it ever occurred to him to free them any more than it would have occurred to him to fly.
But now he is confronted with the fact that the person he loves most in this world is part of that system - she is no aristocrat wrongfully wrenched out of her place (the way he was). No, she is someone who would have still been a slave even if his just society came to pass. It's basically a symbol of the basic unjustness of the entire system of society and I wonder how he will take it.
But then this drama does seem to make sure to demonstrate how much of a farce all these restrictions are - I am struck with the scene of all these competent men - scholars and soldiers - grovelling on the ground before a 3-year-old boy who is playing with his socks, because of whose blood he has in him. It does not occur to any of them (not even Tae Ha), how absurd that all is. Every character in this society is a slave - even the evil Minister can die on the King's whim, and the King is subject to the control of the Qing envoy who is under control of the Qing emperor. No way out. And no genuine upward mobility either - not any that is not bought by fraud. Fun place to live, that.
