The Analysis of the Ethical Dimension of Yumiko Kurahashi’s The Woman with the Flying Head

Abstract

Yumiko Kurahashi’s short story The Woman with the Flying Head draws on the account of the "People with the Fallen Head" from the book “In Search of the Supernatural”, depicting the tale of the protagonist Rei whose body engages in adultery with her foster father at night while her head flying off to date another married man, and her daughter “I” decisively chooses to relinquish the right to love in order to break the curse of incest and immoral relationships between father and daughter. The narrative utilizes concepts such as ethical structure, ethical taboos, free will, irrational will, and ethical choices to reveal the novel’s structure and ethical implications, elucidating that my choice falls under the ethical choices of ethical literary criticism. It also points out, through the existentialist female writer Yumiko Kurahashi’s portrayal of the “me”, that the choices made are also existentialist in nature. Ethical choices and free choices complement each other, giving the novel dual ethical implications and reflecting Yumiko Kurahashi’s call for moral perfection and free independent feminist stance.