In this blog post, we will examine the background, structure, the protagonist’s psychology, and various interpretations of Natsume Sōseki’s novel ‘Heart’.
Overview and Structure
“Heart” is a full-length novel that followed “The Wayfarer” and was serialized in the Asahi Shimbun, published in Tokyo and Osaka, from April to August 1914. At the time, the work was highly regarded for its thorough depiction of the exploration and critique of egoism. Before beginning the serialization, Natsume Sōseki had selected several stories to publish under the title ‘Heart’, but since the first serialized piece, “The Teacher’s Will,” turned out to be unexpectedly long, he ultimately published only this single work under the title ‘Heart’ on September 20, 1914, through Iwanami Shoten. When it was later republished as a standalone book, the entire work was divided into three parts, each given the subtitles “The Teacher and I,” “My Parents and I,” and “The Teacher and the Will.”
A unique aspect of this work is that it features two protagonists named “I.” The psychological depictions unfolding through the protagonist’s voice are extremely detailed and candid. The “I” in “My Teacher and I” and “My Parents and I” is a pure-hearted and easygoing college student, a young man with the innocent eyes of someone who has not yet fully entered society. As such, even in the face of his father’s deathbed, he does not succumb to deep pessimism and tends to view the surrounding scenery and characters with relative optimism; here, we can fully enjoy Natsume Sōseki’s wit and satire.
In contrast, the “I” at the center of “My Teacher and My Will” displays the traits of a Meiji-era intellectual who is overly pure and incapable of compromise. In this section, the narrative focuses on regret and anguish over his own stubbornness, and the scene where he confesses the life he has lived just before his death is heavy and dramatic. Although there is a temporal and spatial distance from 1910s Japan, it evokes a universal sentiment: that anyone, in their final moments, might reflect on the good and evil within the memories that have filled their life and make a confession. It is a deeply human confession, revealing inner thoughts that could never be spoken aloud with unparalleled honesty.
The Protagonist, the Ending, and Various Interpretations
Through ‘Heart’, we encounter a deeply personal story—one stripped of all pretense—that we might never hear in our entire lives. The only regret, however, is that the protagonist, “I,” a recent college graduate, fails to stay by his father’s bedside until the very end, boarding a train to Tokyo and never reappearing in the novel thereafter. It is left to the reader to imagine what the protagonist must have felt after meeting the teacher he had longed to see again and learning about the teacher’s past.
Another perspective suggests that we should note how the narrator becomes a decisive actor from the moment the suicide note is delivered. Faced with a choice between his critically ill father and the teacher, the narrator chooses the teacher without hesitation. This proves that the teacher trusted and chose the protagonist enough to write a will addressed to him, while simultaneously implying that a new phase has begun in the relationship between the father, the family, and the protagonist by abandoning the father in a critical situation. However, after the scene on the train heading to meet the teacher, the narrator “I” does not reappear in the novel, and this structure makes the novel’s ending quite unsettling.
There is also a notable perspective that interprets this work as queer literature. Japanese psychiatrist Takeo Doi pointed out the scene where the young student narrator is drawn to the teacher met on Kamakura Beach, and there is also an argument that the narrator’s gaze toward the Western man accompanying the teacher can be read as an obsession with the man’s body. The narrator’s daily waiting at the tea house the teacher frequents, picking up and returning the teacher’s dropped glasses while following him, and swimming out into the sea can all be interpreted as a series of steps to approach the object of his interest. Above all, the relationship between the teacher and K creates a sense of unease for many readers, leading to strong arguments that the novel is homosexual in nature.
However, the translator believes it is more appropriate to understand the characters in this work not merely through the binary of same-sex and opposite-sex attraction, but rather as an attraction between “human” and “human,” and to interpret it through the structure of their psychology and conflict. By focusing on the subtleties of emotion and the conflicts that arise between people rather than on gender distinctions, one can approach the core message this work seeks to convey.
To add another personal observation from my translation experience, unlike when translating ‘Young Master’, ‘Heart’ was not an easy text to read and translate; it required following the story deep within the protagonist’s inner world, just as the title suggests. Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, because it is a human confession that may seem unusual yet is ultimately something everyone harbors, if you read the sentences slowly and savor them, this will be a special work that leaves a lasting impression on anyone.
