The Separation and Interaction of Murasaki’s Public and Private Identities

In The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Murasaki Shikibu, through criticism of court life and analysis of her own well being as well as the behavior of others, Murasaki displays keen awareness that she is miserable and unfit where she is but is incapable of escaping it. Though she is "vexed at the pettiness of court life" (Diary 35) and analyzes others with a superior outlook, she admits to her own insignificance and submission to the social system that she despises. Murasaki is obliged to the power and system that she does not respect but inevitably follows and promotes. Though she expresses her distaste for life and claims "everything conspires to make [her] unhappy" (Diary 59), she ultimately "[retains] a deep sense of attachment to this world."(Diary 59) The social system in court thus succeeds in containing public order by suppressing individual expression; the Diary at its root is a critique of the relationship between social expectations and private emotion in the court system, explored through the complex,