Changseongameuirok was one of the popular novels of the Joseon dynasty in the 17th century. The reason that people impressed the story was that it provided a moral influence to readers by showing triumph of virtue over vice. Above all, readers could be immersed in the text as the writer effectively manipulates the characters" emotions. For example, the writer repeatedly depicted good people"s struggle including Hawjin, the main character, so the reader realized good people"s emotional states such as sadness, sense of loss, and frustration, and identified with the good characters.
In this article, I discussed several studies that examine functions of tears and their effect on Changseongameuirok and a paradox of reconciliation with Haw"s family through the Hawjin"s sadness. The argument noted factors so that readers could enjoy the good characters" position, and evidence for them to forgive evil characters even though they hate their evil deeds as well as covering up the plot of the work.
Firstly, tears were chosen among complicated emotional expressions, considering their frequent occurrence, as were various ways of expression, and functions such as supplying of characters" probabilities and logical necessity in the story. Yet, tears express various emotional conditions according to characters" surroundings and relationships with others, so the paper discussed the function of tears, instead of the cause.
In section 2 of the paper, I reviewed that Changseongameuirok efficiently used the power of tears as rhetorical methods in the narratives. First of all, excessive crying showed the practice of reinforced ideologies like filial duty at that time. That is, the use of overemotional expressions was forbidden for classical scholars; hence emotional controls were a virtue that could be affirmed by colligating with ethical codes without any damages of masculine images. Next, the writer led to fellow-feeling for characters and social sympathy by the reader, by depicting other characters crying while virtuous people were crying. Other characters, who have sympathy for good people, would have become angry instead of them, like Hawjin, who never complained about his step-mother and brother, although he suffered cruel treatment and humiliation from them. On the other hand, readers had hostility toward Mrs. Sim and Hawchun. Finally, the writer proved true transformation by frequently exhibiting villains" tears and provided the reason why people forgive them. In other words, the story obtained logical grounds through hypocrite"s fake tears that changed into true crying. As a result, readers could enjoy the text on the virtuous characters while they had antipathy toward Mrs. Sim and Hawchun.
In the final section of the paper, I focused on the main character"s emotions particularly sadness which had been considered of matter-ofcourse for filial duty because that was able to reveal the real status of Hawjin"s families relationship and his families values. There was a paradox of reconciliation with Haw"s family.