surprises in the way of story. Instead, the playwright sought simply to portray average people trying to find love together in the face of the class obstacles of that time and place.
The Love Suicides at Sonezaki involves a young man, Tokubei, whose marriage to a young woman of his own merchant class has been arranged according to tradition and custom. However, Tokubei is in love with a courtesan, or prostitute, and has no desire to wed the woman to whom he has been promised by his family. He shows some fortitude in refusing to go through with the planned marriage, and he shows some ingenuity in re-acquiring the dowry from his mother in order to return it to his uncle. However, he shows himself to be gullible if not downright weak in turning the dowry over the patently villainous Kuheiji. Distraught at this turn
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