A Study on Ms. Seonyeong You’s Will: Focusing on the Meanings of Self-Statement Shown in Virtuous Women’s Wills

Abstract

As a writing of leaving one’s own feelings and requests after a woman decides to put herself to death, a virtuous woman’s will does not originally describe her lifetime. However, this thesis paid attention to the aspect in which such virtuous women’s wills unintentionally reveal the life traces and relationship of the will writer. Thus, this thesis takes a perspective in which a will has meanings as language and self-lifetime record in the traces of her own existence and lifetime. Especially, it aimed to examine that such ‘self-descriptive elements’ were significantly revealed in virtuous women’s wills. For this, this thesis intensively examined the characteristics of a will by Ms. Seonyeong You Family(1807~1831) who was a virtuous woman of the 19th century that has never been solely examined, as the text describing her own life. For this, this study comparatively reviewed the self-descriptive elements shown in other virtuous women’a wills that were passed down, and then pointed out that the ‘delivery of parents’ lifetime for her daughter’ and ‘emphasis of relationship with husband’s family and consciousness of secret assistance toward her daughter’ were highlighted in Seonyeong You’s will, unlike them. This thesis aimed to point out that virtuous women’s wills are not just writings that express their remorse and leave their feelings and requests when facing death. The virtuous women’s wills would need to re-examined as the meaningful text as lifetime record and language for the important verification of existence, which enables us to recompose individual humanity and lifetime fragments of will writers.