Abstract
"Gurŏngdŏngdŏng Sinsŏnbi" or "Snake Husband" is widely known throughout the world as the folktale "Search for a lost husband", Aarne-Thomson Type 425. It is interesting to read or hear the story, but it is hard to understand what the tale means, for there are so many symbolic expressions.
We can notice that there are three nods in this tale. 'A grandmother gave birth to a snake son. The snake son married to the third daughter of a rich neighbor. She was reunited with her separated husband.' So we can say that it is a tale about the marriage of the snake son and the daughter, their separation and reunion. And the importance of it is the reunion. Unlike most of the folk-tales, this story deals with the married life after wedding.
"Gurŏngdŏngdŏng Sinsŏnbi" is consisted of two parts; the first part is about the snake husband sloughing its skin as he married the lady, and the second part is about the wife who has undergone various ordeals to meet again her husband. We can interpret the snake and its skin as masculinity based on the animality stemmed from Mother Earth. He was not sophisticated. He could cast is skin after he met the other sex. He, however, does not want to throw away or forget the skin, a kind of his identity.
Committing the snake skin to the flames, the wife brought about the bad result, disregarding the masculinity of her husband. He was to go away from home. Only the feminine demands on security and cleanliness could not keep her house. The wife was to undergo necessary trials; cleaning maggots, washing amounts of clothes, a year rice farming. She have learned daily toil and attitude denying the dichotomy of life. Ability to accept reality and mental jump enabled her turned over a new leaf and reunite the missing husband.
"Gurŏngdŏngdŏng Sinsŏnbi" highlighted the second part. We can understand this story as the female way to mental growth. But the readers are also apt to reject the male way of thinking by which men want to domesticate women at the same time. The stories like "Lady without Hands" could be regarded as a counter argument against this problem.
We can notice that there are three nods in this tale. 'A grandmother gave birth to a snake son. The snake son married to the third daughter of a rich neighbor. She was reunited with her separated husband.' So we can say that it is a tale about the marriage of the snake son and the daughter, their separation and reunion. And the importance of it is the reunion. Unlike most of the folk-tales, this story deals with the married life after wedding.
"Gurŏngdŏngdŏng Sinsŏnbi" is consisted of two parts; the first part is about the snake husband sloughing its skin as he married the lady, and the second part is about the wife who has undergone various ordeals to meet again her husband. We can interpret the snake and its skin as masculinity based on the animality stemmed from Mother Earth. He was not sophisticated. He could cast is skin after he met the other sex. He, however, does not want to throw away or forget the skin, a kind of his identity.
Committing the snake skin to the flames, the wife brought about the bad result, disregarding the masculinity of her husband. He was to go away from home. Only the feminine demands on security and cleanliness could not keep her house. The wife was to undergo necessary trials; cleaning maggots, washing amounts of clothes, a year rice farming. She have learned daily toil and attitude denying the dichotomy of life. Ability to accept reality and mental jump enabled her turned over a new leaf and reunite the missing husband.
"Gurŏngdŏngdŏng Sinsŏnbi" highlighted the second part. We can understand this story as the female way to mental growth. But the readers are also apt to reject the male way of thinking by which men want to domesticate women at the same time. The stories like "Lady without Hands" could be regarded as a counter argument against this problem.
| Translated title of the contribution | Symbols and Meaning of Marriage in the Tale of "Gurŏngdŏngdŏng Sinsŏnbi(Snake Husband)" |
|---|---|
| Original language | Korean |
| Pages (from-to) | 121-150 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| Journal | 한국고전여성문학연구 |
| Issue number | 25 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2012 |