Dramaturgy of a Waiting Woman: On Madame de Sade

Abstract

Madame de Sade, as a perfect dialogic play, looks like the drama which accorded with Western legitimate dramaturgy. However, its essence is close to a Japanese traditional play, Noh, because an opposition of logos does not happen between the characters, who are all women. Five women ask the heroine, Rene, in sequence. “What is Sade for you?” She answers passionately, making full use of splendid rhetoric, which constitutes the structure of this drama. Her wish is so extraordinary that nobody can understand it, and it is impossible to realize it in this world. Finally, it turns out that even the very man whom she has been waiting for does not match her. Her image is based on those of heroines in Zeami's works such as ‘Hanjyo’ or ‘Kinuta,’ which show the great enthusiasm of a woman waiting for her man. In modern Japanese theater, before Misima Yukio, Kisida Kunio wrote this type of drama, ‘Saigetsu (Space of Time).’