Findings

It was really interesting to see the outcome of the frequency of verbs associated with female and male characters. Before I obtained those results, I expected male-associated verbs to show action and initiative, while female-associated verbs would show passiveness or show that they were on the receiving end.

In fact, when it comes to male-associated verbs, my expectation was almost right. Some of the male-associated verbs that easily stood out to me were:

Male-Associated Verbs: “to ask,” “to fight,” “to demand,” “to beat,” and “to produce.”

For female-associated verbs, I noticed a lot of effort made by female figures, such as Princess Bari, Danggeum-aegi, and the female characters in Munjeon-puri and Sim Cheong-jeon. Some issues were created beforehand, even by parents who abandoned the character, a male monk who made the character have his child, a blind father with no money, or a husband who was seduced by a woman he met although he had planned to support his family.

It was the female characters who tried to solve these issues, and they decided to go on journeys to accomplish certain tasks: to save their parents, to make their lives better and save their children after becoming pregnant by a monk, to help a father regain his sight, or to find a husband who did not come back.

Yet, they are often figures who provide some services to gain something. So, in the muga texts I read, they are not often portrayed as weak figures. Although they once were in vulnerable situations, they tried their best to improve their situations with a lot of effort. Some female-associated verbs that stood out to me were:

Female-Associated Verbs: “to save,” “to rescue,” “to obtain,” “to reach,” “to step forward,” “to wander,” “to give birth,” “to give,” “to bring,” and “to be sold.”

Although it was quite different from the other muga texts, the muga text Sonnim-gut showed that although a father treated the “visitor” and his dying son poorly, the grandmother treated her grandson and the “visitor” with a lot of effort and care, which brought good luck into her life.

So, in the muga texts, female characters do not remain helpless figures. Instead, they take initiative and do certain tasks that they decide to do voluntarily to improve their situations, and this is shown through the verbs. It ties to the social phenomenon, which I found discussed in the muga books I used as sources, of how mudangs who sang muga songs comforted women in the late Joseon Dynasty, and how these women showed agency and tried to bring fortune into their own lives.