Discussion Questions for The Doctor's Wife by Ariyoshi Sawako

Does it re-create the Hanaoka women as legendary heroes, victims of oppression, or something else altogether?

What does the novel say about alliances among Japanese women?

The questions below focus your attention on details in the novel. You may find them useful to review before reading the novel or as prompts after reading it.  No doubt you will have many more questions and insights of your own.

Section One:  Kae and Otsugi's Early Relationship
1.  What is Otsugi's reputation when Kae first learns of her?  What is her story?

2.  How does Kae first happen to see Otsugi?  What is Kae's impression of her?

3.  How does Kae feel about joining the Hanaoka family?

4.  Otsugi is careful about her appearance.  What is Kae's reaction to this? Why does the author pay so much attention to this?

5.  How does Kae and Otsugi's relationship develop when they become in-laws?

6.  What motivates all the Hanaoka women to work so hard?

Section Two:  The Doctor Returns
1.  How does the relationship between Kae and Otsugi change once the doctor arrives back home?  How do they communicate their new feelings for each other?

2.  Why does Kae start to notice her fifty-year-old mother-in-law's aging skin?  What effect does this new look at her mother-in-law have on Kae?

3.  How does Kae react when her husband Umpei asks her to prepare certain flowers for his experiments?

4.  How does Kae and Umpei's sexual relationship develop, and how does Otsugi react to this?

Section Three: Kae's First Pregnancy
1.  What are the general economic conditions in the countryside at this point?  How does the Hanaoka family contribute to the welfare of the local people?

2.  Why does Kae begin to compare herself to the animals that Umpei is collecting? (pps. 86-88)

3.  What do Kae's parents think of Otsugi as a mother-in-law? What doesn't Kae tell them about her rivalry with Otsugi? (pps. 81-82)

4.  How does Otsugi react to Kae's newborn child? (p. 89)

Section Four: Prosperity and Experiments
1.  When Okatsu contracts cancer, how does the family react?  What do we learn about Umpei's ego? (pps. 96-99)

2.  Why do the Hanaoka women compete to try Umpei's experiment?  How does Umpei react? (pps. 105-107)

3.  Consider Otsugi's reactions to the experiment on pps. 111 & 114.

4.  How does Kae react to her mother-in-law's disheveled appearance, and to her husband's handling of his mother's body? (pps. 115-117)

5.  How does the experience of being an experimental subject enhance Otsugi's reputation? (p. 121) What happens to Umpei's ego? (p. 122)

6.  How does Umpei understand or misunderstand the motivations of the Hanaoka women's self-sacrifice? (p. 125-126)

7.  How does Otsugi react to Umpei's treatment of Kae during the experiment? (pps. 128-129)

8.  How does Otsugi react to the "fake" experiments? (p. 139 & p. 148)

Section Five: The Feud Draws to an End
1.  How do Kae and Otsugi react to Koben's death? How about Umpei's reaction? (pps. 142-148)

2.  What is Otsugi's reaction to the problem with Kae's eyes? (p. 148).  How does Kae achieve victory over Otsugi?

3.  Why is so little attention devoted to Otsugi's death?

4.  Kae finds happiness in her second pregnancy and in her relationship with Umpei. (p. 152-153)
    How has the Hanaoka legend changed?

5.  How has Umpei's attitude toward the forces of life and death changed? (p. 160)

6.  What does Koriku reveal to Kae about Kae's former rivalry with Otsugi? (pps. 161-164)
      How does this affect Kae's attitude toward her own part in the experiments? (p. 168)

7.  Why does Ariyoshi relate this discovery of anesthesia to western medical history?

8.  How did the legend of the Hanaoka women survive?  What is the symbolism evident in the tombstones? (pps. 173-174)