Houston Community College
CHARACTER’S EVOLUTION IN “SWADDLING CLOTHES” BY YUKIO MISHIMA
ENGL 1302
06/21/2016
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Character’s Evolution in “Swaddling Clothes” by Yukio Mishima
“Swaddling Clothes” is a short story, written by Yukio Mishima in 1955.
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The short story
is focused on the life of a young woman Toshiko, the actor’s wife. The woman has just delivered
a child, and her husband employs a nurse. The nurse has a big belly, and everyone thinks that she
likes to eat. As it turns out, the woman is pregnant, and Toshiko becomes a witness of her
childbirth. A newborn is wrapped in the newspapers, and Toshiko, feeling embarrassed, wraps it
into flannels. The evolution of Toshiko’s character starts from this point on.
The short story represents the character’s evolution through two moral lessons. Toshiko
gets these moral lessons when she hears her husband tells his friends about the incident and when
she meets an adult man who sleeps on the bench being wrapped in the newspapers. These two
moments becomes the turning points in Toshiko’s life since they help her evolve from an
oversensitive young lady to a strong and independent adult woman who can sacrifice her beliefs
