The concrete and spiritual effects of jealousy upon a relationship, in
             both the writings of Lady Murasaki and Junichiro Tanizaki, stress that this
             emotion can be destructive to the sufferer and to the inflictor. However,
             Murasaki's "Tale of Genji" depicts jealousy as almost a mythic force of
             nature that propels the plot and the titular hero's life. Some Prefer
             Nettles shows jealousy's effects in a far more subtle way.
             In Tanizaki, the forces of jealousy, as depicted in the romantic case
             of the hero's father, can prove restrictive and smothering to a much
             younger but still old-fashioned mistress. However, an absence of jealousy
             as exists between the main, married, couple shows a lack of caring and the
             death of the relationship. For Tanizaki, jealousy has a dual force for
             good and for ill. In "Genji" the effects of jealousy are always for ill,
             In the "Tale of Genji," the hero of the tale is essentially born in a
             state of jealousy. He is the son of the emperor and the ruler's favorite
             concubine. But when a fortuneteller predicts that the baby Genji will
             surpass his legitimate brothers and sisters, his mother is persecuted and
             eventually dies. Later, during Genji's own romantic exploits, his own wife
             tries to leave her own body in spirit so that she can possess and
             physically kill her female rival. Genji's lovers are all haunted by Lady
             Rokujo, for the spirit of Rokujo is pining for love of the hero.
             In Some Prefer Nettles shows how jealousy can have potentially
             negative effects. Kaname's father is possessive of his young mistress, and
             insists on taking her to old forms of Japanese entertainment, such as the
             puppet theater, in an effort to bind her to the world of the old. However
             the lack of jealousy Kaname and his wife have in their open' and modern
             marriage evidences a lack of caring between the two protagonists.
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