Crime and Punishment: The Subjectivity of the Modern Morality and Its Manifestation in the Meiji Man

Abstract

This Analysis explores the themes morality and subjectivity in the novels of Natsume Soseki and Dazai Osamu. Using Kokoro and No Longer Human, it explores the individual definition of what is morally sound and what social constructs define this. The main characters of the novels, Yozo and Sensei and "I," are the manifestation of the search for the self in an isolation that overwhelms their sense of morality. They struggle against a shifting society and the battle to determine who they are and will become.