Eleanor Almaraz

English 3301

Epistolary Adulteress Femme Fatales

When reading Tanizaki’s The Key side by side with Louise Erdrich’s Shadow Tag the

similarities between the two literary works are hard to ignore, especially from a psychological

standpoint. Both works display an array of complicated subject matter that is not often touched

on from the vantage point of the epistolary framework. “The park light cast blurred shadows on

the snow. Irene said that this would be the perfect place to play shadow tag, a game she had

played as a child, under summer street lamps. So they began playing tag by touching shadows.

Irene and Gil ran and whirled, stepping in and out of each other’s darkness” (Erdrich 143). These

lines are not just a metaphor for Gil and Irene’s relationship, but they also mirror the way in

which both Shadow Tag and The Key are written: A complicated tit-for-tat husband and wife

relationship whose contempt and animosity are exposed line for line in the words of their

respected diaries.

Shadows play a strong metaphorical role in both of these works. The shadow of oneself,

the dark half of ones’ psyche that everyone carries inside them is such a universal theme in

modern literature. As the practice of psychology has given rise to personal philosophical insight

for everyman, people have begun to recognize the meaning in one’s shadow self. “I was trying to

lure him into the shadow of death” (Tanizaki 182). Life is the sun, and death is the shadow.

These are two very strong symbols in both Japanese and Native American cultures it is of no

surprise that someone of Erdrich’s background would be inspired by eastern literature. The birth

of their son Stoney was symbolic of the death of their marriage. The coincidence of 9/11

happening on the day she gave birth to him painted a picture in the readers head that not only

was this couples relationship falling apart inside their small hospital room, but so was the world

outside. Both life and death, light and dark are contrasting symbols conveniently lined up in a

1
Eleanor Almaraz
English 3301

row for the reader to dissever. However, it is not just the typical components of light and dark

that these two stories have in common, but the element of water plays a pivotal twin role in these

two works. When both main female protagonists submerge themselves in a tub of hot water, it is

as if they have reached the rock bottom of their terrible marriages. They are symbolically

swimming in the belly of the whale: Irene after her rape and Ikuko after drinking herself into

oblivion. They hate what their marriages have become and who they are as a result of having

spent most of their adult lives playing a role that is a total and utter farce. The image of Ikuko

lying passed out drunk in the bathtub was captured brilliantly in Kon Ichikawa’s 1959 film

adaptation of The Key entitled Odd Obsession. This visual representation of a woman who

jadedly drinks glass after glass of Courvoisier then stoically escorts herself into a tub of hot

water hammers away the subtlety of this woman’s silent pain. Everything about Ikuko is slow

burning, like her pain her cruelty is soft and unobtrusive unlike Irene who is loud, tacky and

spiteful in her malice. Irene would never drink Courvoisier and wouldn’t think twice about

shaming her parents. She is an unsympathetic character, whereas Ikuko’s role of the dutiful wife

seems believable.

Both women are objectified through their bodies by means of an artistic expression.

Ikuko through the photographic lens and Irene through Gil’s paintings, both have their bodies

scrutinized and exposed to other men like trophies on a wall. This vulgar similarity of being

fetishized by their husbands is one of the blatant similarities between The Key and Shadow Tag

that the reader finds truly disturbing. “The woman-image, replacing the actual woman proves

more powerful than any man. In the end, the creator has no choice but to submit to his creation,

to bow down passively before her (or it). But then this is exactly what they wanted from the start.

Tanizaki’s fetishists are at heart masochists” (LaMarre 306).

2
Eleanor Almaraz
English 3301

These literary examples of the complexity that goes on in the minds and hearts of two

people when the love has run out and is replaced with something too sinister for words is a

perfect way to manipulate the use of the diary. “The diary novel calls attention to the diarist’s

infinite power of interpretation. Kagi’s use of parallel diaries heightens this effect. The professor

and Ikuko record things differently even when they have participated in the same event. A case

in point is when the professor first examined his unconscious wife and found himself

transformed into “a man powerful enough to subdue her lustfulness.” In her account of the

encounter, Ikuko is hardly the vanquished sexual combatant. She records how she enjoyed the

satisfaction all her own. (Ito 229) This example is exactly how the diaries not only expose the

passive aggressive way in which the couple communicates, but also how differently they see

what is happening in their own life. It reminds the reader of the story “Rashoman” in which the

same story is told from three very different perspectives. Maybe we as people only see what we

want to see and believe what we want to believe. Selective hearing and selective writing for a

couple who’s culture is so deeply rooted in suggestion that the only way they can express

themselves is through this elaborate ruse. Erdrich mirrors this ruse in much the same way in her

use of diaries and notebooks. Gil and Irene have no trust for each other or boundaries left to

cross. Irene’s diary is more a tool to inflict even more pain onto her husband. It is not just the

similar way in which Erdrich uses the epistolary novel that invokes Tanizaki’s style, but how

they reveal to the audience how little is really known to each of the couples about their spouses.

These women have their husband’s unrelenting and insane jealousy in common, and they both

know how to manipulate it in a way which suits them.

Being an epistolary adulteress femme fatale isn’t exactly something to write home about,

but we can’t all be perfect. Neither Ikuko nor Irene had a happy ending, but to a certain extent,

3
Eleanor Almaraz
English 3301

they both got what they wished for: “The Key, written in the form of two diaries, ends with

Ikuko, one of two diarists, elated over the death of her husband” (Boscaro 139). “If only he

would die, she thought, as he rapped lightly on the door” (Erdrich 222). Albeit morbid despite

the fact that Ikuko lived to hide the tale of her unhappy marriage, she will undoubtedly enter into

an equally calamitous love affair with her daughter’s husband Kimura. The torch of misery and

familial dysfunction is passed down in both families, so again these two stories also have that in

common. Erdrich has transformed the universal personal connections of most modern

relationships that are preset in The Key and applied them to Shadow Tag in a way that is equally

as raw and groundbreaking for today’s audiences.

Works Cited

Boscaro, Adriana. A Tanizaki Feast. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press,

1998. Print.

Erdrich Louise. Shadow Tag. New York: Harper Collins Publishers,

2010. Print.

Ito, Ken. Visions of Desire Tanizaki’s Fictional Worlds. Ann Arbor, Michigan:

The University of Michigan Press, 2005. Print.

LaMarre, Thomas. Shadows on the Screen. Ann Arbor, Michigan:

The University of Michigan Press, 2005. Print.

Odd Obsession. Dir. Kon Ichikawa. Perf. Machiko Kyô,

Daiei Motion Pictures, 1959.VHS.

Tanizaki, Junichiro. The Key. New York:First Vintage International,

1991. Print.

4
Eleanor Almaraz
English 3301

Appedix of Similarities:

Both men are exhausted by their wives and neither can seem to pleasure them sexually.

Both women clearly live in complete and utter disdain for their husbands

Both men are cuckolds

Both husbands end up dead at the end of the book

Both women like to take long hot baths - this imagery paints an exotic picture in the

readers mind…objectifying the women even more.

The element of water – drowning/drinking then submerging oneself in water are symbolic

similarities that may go unnoticed but resonate at a primal level.

Colors and Shadows are important to both writers (Blue, Red…)

Irene drifts into Alcoholism / Ikuko also drinks

Both books deal with a very complicated husband and wife relationship

The Daughters – Reil & Toshiko both seem to have a hatred for their fathers

Both couples drank together

The diaries in each book act as a form of communication to each other’s spouse to reveal

their grievances/desires in a way normal face to face communication could not.

Word Count - 1,200