Buzz
1. Analyzing the artistic portrayal of the character Mã Giám Sinh, sample 1:
Much has been said about Nguyen Du's talent in character portrayal. In 'The Tale of Kieu,' whether protagonist or antagonist, the characters are vividly depicted. With just a few strokes, his characters come to life before the reader's eyes, both in appearance and inner thoughts. The excerpt where Mã Giám Sinh buys Kiều somewhat demonstrates Nguyen Du's skill in character description. The essence of the flesh-trading, human-selling merchant gradually unfolds in this short dramatic scene.
Mã Giám Sinh appears as a 'traveler from afar.' A 'traveler from afar' is someone who comes from a distant place. Right from the start, this traveler from afar raises some suspicion:
Asking his name, he says: 'Mã Giám Sinh.'
Asking about his hometown, he says: 'Lâm Thanh District is nearby as well.'
The timid and fumbling responses revealed this 'traveler from afar' to be rather impolite. Such responses are completely unfamiliar coming from someone educated, like he claims to be: a student from the National University. The fact that he only mentions his surname without his full name indicates he wants to conceal his identity. When asked about his hometown, he brushes it off casually. Mã Giám Sinh's true nature gradually emerges through Nguyen Du's description of his appearance:
Over forty, outwardly smooth
Clean-shaven, dressed sharp and sleek.
'Over forty' implies he's past his prime. Despite his age, he appears 'clean-shaven, dressed sharp and sleek.' The author deliberately highlights the contradiction between his age and his meticulously groomed appearance, his excessive grooming and sartorial style. Words like 'smooth' and 'sleek' not only convey Mã Giám Sinh's vanity but also subtly reveal Nguyen Du's mocking tone. His 'sleek' attire further suggests he's not the distinguished student from the National University as he claims. It seems he's trying to hide something through his excessive grooming and attire. But despite his efforts to conceal, his true nature still shines through:
Before the master, a servant bustling
The bank's matchmaker ushered into the elegant hall.
Seated aloft, impeccably groomed,
'Before the master, after the servant' may sound very proper and dignified, but why all the commotion? 'Bustling' implies noise, disorder. Neither the servant nor the master showed proper decorum upon entering Vương's house. As soon as Mã Giám Sinh arrived, he arrogantly took the 'upper seat' and sat 'aloft' in a 'well-groomed' manner. His mannerisms clearly reveal him as an uncouth and pretentious individual. A true student of the National University should at least be as refined as Kim Trọng, walking gracefully, speaking politely, and acting with decorum:
Only when far away does one's true face show
Guests arriving on horseback, displaying their own sentiments.
Mã Giám Sinh is the complete opposite: he speaks clumsily, dresses ostentatiously, walks loudly, pretentiously... All of this paints a clear picture of his character. Nguyen Du doesn't stop there; he continues to expose Mã Giám Sinh's true nature. Faced with Kiều's 'sad face like a chrysanthemum, figure thin as a branch,' he shows no sign of sympathy or remorse. Instead, he forces Kiều to write poetry, play the zither to 'weigh her beauty and talent.' Then he bargains. He sees Kiều merely as a commodity. Initially, he even feigned literacy:
Saying: 'Buying jade for Lam Kiều,
How much to teach all the scholar?'
Then he revealed his true colors as a cunning 'flesh trader':
Adding and subtracting, one less two,
Now the price falls outside four hundred.
From 'worth a thousand gold' he 'adds and subtracts' until it's only 'four hundred.' Meaning, it's not even half... This shows his cunning in trade. Mã Giám Sinh understood the Vương family's situation and negotiated to lower the price to the minimum. As the curtain falls, the mask is removed. Mã Giám Sinh no longer needs to disguise himself as a student of the National University. He has fulfilled his role:
Settling the wedding date, the dowry
Money in hand, everything's settled!
Nguyễn Du vividly portrays the deceitful, fraudulent, cunning, and pretentious nature of Mã Giám Sinh. This characterization is mainly conveyed through the description of the character's appearance, language, and actions. With carefully chosen words that evoke strong emotions, Nguyen Du exposes both the villainous nature of the flesh-trading Mã family and his own contemptuous disdain towards such deceitful, vulgar, and uncouth individuals. Through this short drama, we can somewhat understand the talent of the great poet Nguyen Du in character portrayal.
Above is the analysis of the artistic portrayal of the character Mã Giám Sinh. In addition, students should also explore other essay topics such as 'Writing Exercise: Listening, recounting the story: What foolishness to change,' along with 'Writing Exercise: The ecstatic song' to improve their Vietnamese language skills.
2. Analyzing the artistic portrayal of the character Mã Giám Sinh, sample 2:
The excerpt where Mã Giám Sinh buys Kiều, spanning 34 sentences from sentence 619 to 652, is a skillful combination of sentimentality and autobiography, narration and description, with narration being predominant, using realistic, satirical, mocking, and severely critical writing techniques. Many artistic portraits have been constructed through Nguyen Du's magical pen strokes. The portraits, the personalities of the characters, are revealed through each word, and among them, the portrait of Mã Giám Sinh can be considered the most outstanding, the most unique.
The excerpt where Mã Giám Sinh purchases Kiều is found in the second part of 'The Tale of Kieu' (Transformation and Exile). After her family is falsely accused, Kiều decides to sell herself to save her father and family from disaster. This passage describes Mã Giám Sinh's arrival to purchase Kiều.
The first four lines of the excerpt serve as a narrative lead-in to introduce the main character in the human trafficking scene, namely Mã Giám Sinh:
Asking his name: 'Mã Giám Sinh'
Asking his hometown: 'Lâm Thanh District is also nearby.'
At the beginning of the poem, Mã Giám Sinh is introduced as a traveler - a guest from afar with a solemn, dignified purpose. It is to 'inquire about the name,' announce his name, and ask the age of the girl he intends to marry. However, his response upon stepping onto the threshold seems rather clumsy, awkward, and uncomfortable. Giám Sinh is not a name, just a vague reference to the Mã family, the National University student. He also doesn't bother to introduce his real name, instead choosing to boast implicitly about his title.
Then in grooming, attire, and mannerisms, he truly displayed his uncouth, brash, ostentatious, and ignorant nature, disregarding others:
Over forty, outwardly smooth
Clean-shaven, dressed sharp and sleek
Before the master, after the servant bustling
The bank's matchmaker ushered into the elegant hall
Seated aloft, impeccably groomed,
In ancient times, men often married very young. Yet this Mã character is over forty and just now seeking a wife. How peculiar. His attire is meticulously groomed, ostentatious, flaunting wealth. Contrary to his smooth shave, indicating frivolity, there's an underlying ridiculousness, amusement, as if he's playing dress-up. However, if someone, inclined to interpret every detail literally, were to argue: Mã Giám Sinh shaved his beard, mustache, and eyebrows bare, that would be extreme! Perhaps it should be understood that Mã doesn't let facial hair grow, his chin clean-shaven, and maybe his eyebrows thin, faint? But more importantly, given his age, at that time, men usually kept long beards and mustaches, showing they've reached middle age or beyond. Mã, however, seems to want to play young, hence the ridicule.
Next, to describe Mã's appearance, Nguyễn Du used the phrase 'after the servant bustling' to depict his shoddy, disreputable appearance. Mã trades in worthless goods, not learning etiquette or literature! While the matchmaker shows utmost respect, Mã Giám Sinh has a bizarre, peculiar action: leaping onto the seat. Just the word 'aloft' fully conveys his essence. Nguyễn Du is truly skillful with his wordplay. Leaping onto the seat in such a rude, unrefined manner, utterly ignorant of basic etiquette, especially for someone seeking a wife, and being over forty, this action is completely repulsive. In contrast to the dignified 'ushered into' the hall, 'aloft' is both surprising for its rude, jittery action of someone seemingly educated from the National University.
And when it came to actual work, Mã continued to reveal his true nature as a trader. He worked meticulously, methodically. First, he contemplated, weighed, assessed, and evaluated silently in his mind, then he pressured Kiều to play the zither, compose poetry on the fan. Eventually, when everything was entirely to his liking, when he was completely satisfied, he showed his cunning, eloquent speech with extremely sophisticated language:
Saying: 'Buying jade to Lam Kiều,
How much do you ask to teach the wall?'
Then as soon as he heard the matchmaker's offer, he started bargaining, haggling over the price, bargaining back and forth:
Adding and subtracting, one less two,
Now the price falls outside four hundred.
At this point, he fully revealed himself as a cunning, professional 'human flesh trader.' The term 'haggling' may be the most aptly used in this excerpt as Tố Như intends to catch the essence of Mã Giám Sinh's trading nature. Haggling, miserliness, pettiness, despicableness, lasciviousness are indeed the essence of people like Mã Giám Sinh.
After bargaining was settled, from a thousand gold down to only four hundred taels, Mã Giám Sinh reverted to a sophisticated, hypocritical tone, mannerism, and speech. He understood the dire situation, the difficulties faced by the Vương family, so he seized the opportunity to push the price down. Because the Kiều family was in desperate need of money, they agreed only then. At this point, Mã Giám Sinh fulfilled his role as a genuine, hypocritical, fraudulent human trafficker.
With a short poem, Nguyễn Du vividly described the portrait of Mã Giám Sinh fully from appearance, speech, to actions. With exceptional artistic talent, the portrait of the Mã family gradually emerged through each word. Nguyễn Du truly was a genius in the use of language. The carefully chosen, precious words he used accurately portrayed the true nature of Mã Giám Sinh's human trafficking gang.
