Songlian’s Character in Raise the Red Lantern Literature Essay

Songlian’s Character in Raise the Red Lantern
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Songlian’s Character in Raise the Red Lantern
Songlian is the youngest concubine addition to Su Tong’s life as a rich and successful man. Being the fourth wife, Songlian has her husband’s favour due to her attractiveness and beautiful nature that her husband saw in her. Songlian competes with the other wives to gain the advantage over their husband and capture his attention. The film is thus mostly centred around the pursuit for the sexual favour of Su Tong especially between his third wife and Songlian.
In the beginning, Songlian has trouble getting the right husband with very few options available to her. Consequently, she decides to marry for money despite warnings from her stepmother that says, “marry a rich man, and you’ll only be his concubine.” Songlian does not heed to this advice and further goes on to marry Su Tong. She makes this decision fully aware of the consequences of being a concubine stating that it is a ‘woman’s fate.’ This decision marks the onset of her problems as a married woman with her husband having three other wives. Under such conditions, Songlian has to struggle to ensure that her role remains relevant due to the competition available. Therefore, she is pushed into those actions from the onset with the decision to become a concubine. Her actions thus show her understanding and perception of the situation in such a large house.
Songlian gains an advantage over the other wives because she is the youngest and newest to join the family. Therefore, she catches the attention of her husband the most as compared to the others. She thus spends most of the time with him, thus creating problems with the other wives. However, Songlian has a bad temper that she cannot properly control with her husband present. This temper causes huge issues with her husband, especially on her consistent lashing out regarding different matters in the household. Her hatred for the other wives, especially Meishan, causes a massive rift between that ultimately leads to her death. Songlian’s revelation of Meishan’s affair with their family doctor was made in an intoxicated state caused by her hatred at the time. However, this haunts her later because Meishan becomes executed in front of her leading her to grow i...