KJCKorea
Journal Central

This paper analyzes how ‘telling’ and ‘not telling’ affect trust in a couple’s relationship by comparing ‘The Bride Who Gave Birth on the First Night’ and ‘The Generous Husband’. To this end, Chapter 2 discusses the overcoming of marital crises and the development of trust in the two works, and Chapter 3 discusses the narrative differences between ‘telling’ and ‘not telling’ as a sign of trust. The narrative structure of both works is based on two embraces. In the first event, the wife’s infidelity (giving birth on the first night or adultery) occurs and the husband embraces it to preserve the relationship, but the relationship is one-sided. This imbalance is restored in the second event. In the second case, a past incident involving the wife’s infidelity is brought up again after the passage of time, proving that trust has been built up in the couple’s relationship during the intervening time. The comparison of the two works also reveals the usefulness of both ‘telling’ and ‘not telling’ strategies in a trusting relationship. <In “The Bride Who Gave Birth on the First Night,” the strategy of ‘telling’ appears, where ‘telling’ is a necessary process for establishing the son’s identity or deepening the husband’s understanding of his wife, and explaining past events is necessary in the present. On the other hand, the strategy of ‘not telling’ is emphasized in ‘The Generous Husband’. When the husband witnesses his wife sleeping with an executive, he covers it up, and when the executive later tries to mention the incident, the husband stops him. Here, “not telling” is a way of maintaining the stability of the couple’s relationship, and a strategy to block the negative impact that bringing up the past would have on the relationship. This is because the speaker is the cadre, and the cadre is revisiting the events that brought the couple to the brink of crisis in order to resolve his own emotional pending issues. The comparison of the two stories shows that both ‘telling’ and ‘not telling’ can be ways of preserving trust, depending on the context of the situation. In conclusion, the message of the comparison between the two stories is that building and maintaining trust in a relationship is not reducible to a single method, and that true trust is demonstrated through a process of building over time.

<The Bride Who Had a Child on Her First Night>, <The Husband Who Was Too Generous>, Telling, Not Telling, Trust between couples