Raise the Red Lantern

By
G.V.Prasanna Kumar CH11B071
V. Hemachandra CH11B072

Tong Zhonggui
His pen name is Su Tong
Started publishing novels in 1983(at the age of 20)
Known for controversial writing style, most acclaimed
novelist in China
Written 7 full length novels and over 200 short stories
Best known for his book Wives and Concubines (1990)
Influenced by writers J.D.Salinger and Gabriel Garcia
Marquez
Other novels:
Rice
My life as an Emperor
Binu and the Great Wall
The Boat to Redemption etc..

About the Novel

The novel is written in third person narrative
Story was set in 1930s China ,describes the story of a
college dropout girl LOTUS
Initially the title was wives and concubines
Made into a film in 1991 as Raise the red lantern
Received Academy Award Nomination in the Best Foreign
Film Category
Following the film success, the book was renamed to
increase sales
Full of emotional conflicts

Main Characters

Chen Zuoqian the master of household

Lotus the fourth mistress, 19 years old
Coral the third mistress, an opera singer
Cloud the second mistress
Joy - the first wife, as old as her husband
Swallow Lotuss young servant
Chen Feipu - the masters oldest son

Other Characters:
Gao - Chen zuoqians family doctor
Feilan - Son of Coral
Young Master Gu friend of Feipu and flute master
Mama Song - Lotuss old servant
`

Plot Summary
Lotus is attending college when her father's tea business
goes bankrupt and commits suicide.
In order to avoid work , she chooses to become a
concubine of Chen Zuoqian in the Chen rich household.
From the beginning, she does not fit into the household
with the three other wives.
At first , the first mistress Joy ignores her, the second
mistress Cloud befriends her, and the third mistress Coral
acts with outright hostility .
Coral interrupt her wedding night pretending she has
taken ill.

 Shortly after her arrival ,Chen's elder son Feipu, who is older
than Lotus, favours Lotuss company and she begins to fall
for him.
Meanwhile, one evening when they are playing mahjong,
Lotus notices that Coral is flirting with a doctor.
Swallow, Lotus's young servant, hates her and neglects her
duties whenever possible.
One day, Lotus accuses Swallow of stealing her flute and
searches Swallow's trunk.
Instead of finding the flute, she finds a doll with pins stuck in
its chest. The doll has "Lotus" written on it, and Lotus
demands to know who wrote the word for the illiterate
Swallow.
It is revealed that Cloud was the one who helped her.

 That night, Chen Zuoqian admits that he was the one who
stole and destroyed her flute because he was afraid it was a
lover's token.
The next morning, Cloud asks Lotus to cut her hair, and
Lotus cuts her ear.
Coral is impressed by Lotus's action and reveals that Cloud
attempted to poison her and cause a miscarriage when they
were both pregnant, nevertheless gives birth to Feilan.
When Chen Zuoqian celebrates his 50th birthday, more
domestic strife breaks out.
Feilan and Yirong (Cloud's child) knock over a vase and the
resulting fight gives Lotus a headache.

 She goes outside to help it go away and instead she ends

up next to an abandoned well in which three concubines of
previous husbands had died.
She has a hallucination in which a hand reaches out of the
well water and a voice tells her to come down.
After taking rest , she returns to the party. Chen Zuoqian is
extremely angry with her and he barely acknowledges her
gift.
Unfortunately, her gift is less expensive than the others.
She tries to make up for it by kissing Chen, but he gets
angry. She leaves the room weeping.
Feipu arrives with his flute teacher and friend, Young
Master Gu, as well as a replacement flute for Lotus.
Joy interrupts the flute lesson.

 Afterwards, Feipu tells Lotus she is different from other

women, who frighten him, and leaves on a business trip.
Chen Zuoqian finally decides to see Lotus. He forgives Lotus
for her behaviour at his birthday party, but Lotus is
unwilling to have sex
Chen eventually leaves her in disgust when she is unable to
stop weeping.
As a result of Lotus attitude and the manipulations of
Cloud, Lotus loses favour with Chen even more.
Later, Cloud claims that Coral hired a boy to beat up her
daughter Yirong.
Only Lotus and Coral know the truth behind the second
mistress facade, and they slowly become closer friends.

 Lotus finds a drawing of her on a piece of soiled toilet

paper and confronts Swallow with it.
Swallow is afraid at being caught and does not want to be
sent away. In a moment of anger, Lotus tells her to eat the
toilet paper or be forced out of the Chen household.
Swallow catches typhoid and Chen is infuriated with Lotus.
Now, lotus realizes that her twentieth birthday has gone by
and determines to celebrate . She asks mama song to bring
some wine.
When the new servant returns with wine, she announces
Swallow has died. Lotus is regretful but says that Dying is
better than living
Feipu arrives and a tipsy Lotus reveals how she feels about
him.

 Feipu confesses that he likes her but he is too afraid of

women to do anything.
After he leaves in shame, Lotus gets very drunk and has a
hallucination in which Swallow kills her.
The next morning, Lotus wakes up to see Coral leaving for
town.
When she comes back, she is escorted by several male
servants; Cloud has caught her and the doctor in bed. Coral
is locked in her room.
That night, Lotus sits up expecting Swallow to return.
Instead, she watches the household servants taking Coral
from her room and throwing her into the haunted well.
Witnessing the murder drives Lotus to insanity.

Character Analysis
Lotus

Main protagonist of the story

Quite complex to analyse her character
Like every woman in the story, she is highly possessive.
Always likes to evaluate peoples character on meeting
them.
Kind hearted
You shouldnt be too cruel to her; shes really quite pitiful; she has
no other family, and shes afraid that you dont care about her, so she
has developed a bad temper

Highly intelligent

 Not a broadminded thinker ,may be because of her age.

She was hurt when Feipus arrival arrangements are great
when compared to her.
Develops hallucinations as a result of solitude, as the story
progress she becomes silent and uncommunicative
Fell in love with Feipu, the only one who likes her
Most of the times when she thinks of Feipu, she imagines
coral and doctor relationship.

Chen zuoqian
He believed in customs followed by ancestors
Just like his generation ,he believes men are superior to
women
Dont be ridiculous! Women can never be more
important than men.
Never cared for womens feelings.
Highly inefficient
Marries another girl at the end

Cloud
Coral describes her as Cloud has the face of a saint and the
heart of scorpion; she dreams up more schemes in that
narrow little mind of hers than anybody
With her cruel and evil mind ,she tried to abort corals
pregnancy
Cloud became friendly with Lotus when she entered the
house.
Framed Coral that she bet her child
She even helped Swallow to curse Lotus

Coral
She worked as a female lead in a traveling peking opera
troupe.
In love or hate she would be violently unrestrained
she sings when she is happy ,and when shes unhappy, she cries.

Maintains secret affair with doctor Gao.

Never had respect towards master

Feipu
When lotus tried to tell her feelings, he says
I cant change; Heaven is punishing me; generations of Chen men
have always lusted after women; but when it came to me, I just couldnt
do it . Ever since I was little ,I thought women were frightening; Im
afraid of women. Im especially afraid of the women in our family.
Youre the only one Im not afraid of, but I still cant do anything. Now
do you understand?

Wants to save household from losses

The old master is a little muddleheaded now; if I dont
take charge of things, who will?
Cares more about Lotus
He and Lotus had secret understanding between them.

Swallow
Chen Zuoqian had secret affair with her
She thought that she will be fourth mistress
When Chen Zuoqian brought Lotus, Swallow was made as
her servant.
Spied on Lotus and tried to kill her

Further Observations
The novel is mostly a drama genre
Everyone has something in their mind but behaves the
other way
No one knows about everyone completely
So, being a third person narrative
The author explains each character through
someones eyes
Given most of the characters equal importance
Girls given less importance
Corals character was intelligently portrayed to confuse
readers

Character arc:
Lotus: An educated college girl to an insane person
Cloud: Friendly, Co-operative to vicious, Jealous

Philosophy Statements:
When you are alive you suffer; when you die its
all over. Dying is better than living
Whenever I get tired of living, I will just stop
living

Comparing things
My heart is like a plate of sand; its very hard to concentrate
in one place
Lotus fingers travelled up and down his body like flowing
water
She stared at a wine cup just as though she was looking at a
tiny baby of twenty years ago being held to the breast of
mother she never knew

Comparing with his own novels

Mostly historical backdrop novels

Describes particular category ,their social lives and
problems, movements most prominent stylist with his range
of subjects
Basically character depth will be very high

Comparing with Other novels

Concept of Alienation when compared to The Yellow
wallpaper
Lotus seemed to see that abandoned well bounding over from under
the wisteria vine to come to rest right under her window; she saw the
pale luminosity of that hand reaching through her window, dripping wet
and beckoning to her

Reference
Wikipedia
http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-688-12217-1

Thank You