The Tale of Kiều is an epic poem in Vietnamese written by Nguyễn Du (1765–1820), considered the most famous poem and a classic in Vietnamese literature. The original title in Vietnamese is Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh (A New Cry From a Broken Heart), but it is better known as Truyện Kiều (Tale of Kiều).
In 3,254 verses, written in lục bát ("six–eight") meter, the poem recounts the life, trials and tribulations of Thúy Kiều, a beautiful and talented young woman, who has to sacrifice herself to save her family. To save her father and younger brother from prison, she sells herself into marriage with a middle-aged man, not knowing that he is a pimp, and is forced into prostitution. While modern interpretations vary, some post-colonial writers have interpreted it as a critical, allegorical reflection on the rise of the Nguyễn dynasty.
Nguyễn Du made use of the plot of a seventeenth-century Chinese novel, Jīn Yún Qiào (Chinese: 金雲翹), known in Vietnamese pronunciation of Chinese characters as Kim Vân Kiều. The original, written by an otherwise unknown writer under the pseudonym Qīngxīn Cáirén (Chinese: 青心才人 "Pure-Hearted Man of Talent"), was a straightforward romance, but Nguyễn Du chose it to convey the social and political upheavals at the end of the 18th century in Vietnam.
The Tale of Kiều contains examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: Kim and Kiều are reunited and married, but Kiều is so traumatized by the experience that she can't bear to consummate her marriage and asked to be in a Sexless Marriage.
- Broken Bird: Kiều, after all the trauma she has gone through. There's a glimmer of hope in her reaction to Kim's final speech asserting that now that she has returned, she is whole once again, and he still loves her regardless of her life experiences.
- Den of Iniquity: The "green pavilions" (read: brothels) that Kiều gets sold to.
- Defiled Forever: Kiều believes herself to be this, but Kim argues against it. He still respects her wishes of entering a Sexless Marriage.
- Died Standing Up: Từ Hải's ultimate fate, with arrows stuck in him.
- Good Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Vương, by all accounts, love their children and behave kindly towards them. They don't blame Kiều for surreptitiously courting Kim, and grieve with her when she is forced to sell herself into slavery. They also tried to stop her, but she persuaded them that she was their only hope.
- Greek Chorus: The narrator occasionally gets in on the story, expressing sympathy or hatred for the characters, and railing at fate for dealing Kiều shoddy hands repeatedly.
- Happily Ever After: With a slight edge of Bittersweet Ending, but the narrator painted it as a happy ending regardless. Kiều is reunited with Kim in marriage, Kim's children with Vân grew up to be accomplished people, and their family prospers with blessings.
- Henpecked Husband: Thúc Sinh/Scholar Thúc. He is Forced to Watch as Kiều is Made a Slave right in front of him, and he does a lot of wailing about how It's All My Fault. In the end, Kiều took her fate in her own hands and ran away without any help from him.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Brutally deconstructed. Kiều is tricked into the profession by a pimp, and is raped repeatedly. Any attempts she made to escape from the brothel or preserve her "dignity" (i.e. virginity) is anticipated by her head madame Tú who concocts plans to crush her spirit, make Kiều thinks she is no longer worthy of love and has no "dignity" left, so that she would give in and serve clients. Even after she has escaped the brothel, she remains traumatized. In the end, she is reunited with her first love, but only enters a Sexless Marriage with him as she no longer thinks she is worthy.
- Hope Spot: Just as Kim and Kiều seems happy in their relationship, tragedy strikes: Kim has to leave to mourn his suddenly-dead uncle. In his absence Kiều's family is torn apart thanks to a wrongful accusation, Police Brutality, and scammers. He returns to find the Vương residence deserted and has to investigate to track down the now-fallen family, from whom he hears devastating news.
- I Just Write the Thing: While Kiều is a Pragmatic Adaptation of Jin Yun Qiao, and Nguyễn Du did his own censoring and streamlining to create a more emotionally affecting and concise narrative (cutting down on the original's Department of Redundancy Department, sidebars, and Lemony Narrator rambling tendencies), he still worked off a basic plot and cast list he didn't create. As a result, the omniscient narrator often interrupts the text to sympathize with the protagonist and complain about Fate dealing good people bad hands.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Kiều's rationale in convincing Vân to marry Kim, the Vươngs' rationale in convincing Kim to marry Vân, and finally Vân's rationale in convincing Kiều to marry Kim.
- Karma Houdini: Of all Kiều's tormentors, Lady Hoạn gets off scot-free after making an impassioned speech convincing Kiều that she was in the right as a first wife who felt slighted. In a minor example, the silk seller who wrongfully accused Mr. Vương of cheating him on money never got any comeuppance, and presumably got the remainder of Kiều's dowry to Mã Giám sinh (after paying off the bailiffs).
- Made a Slave: Kiều, repeatedly. It's the most overt when she is actually renamed Hoa nô (Slave Flower).
- Meaningful Rename: Kiều undergoes this twice, resulting in I Have Many Names (lampshaded by her at the trial). She is Hoa nô (Slave Flower) at the Hoạn residence and Trạc Tuyền (Pure Springwater) at the shrine to Guanyin.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Kiều gets a Heroic BSoD after she found out her advice to surrender got Từ Hải killed.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kiều persuades Từ Hải to surrender from being a rebel, at the top of his career. He listens to her, and gets himself executed for his trouble.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: If the Bạcs hadn't sold Kiều to a brothel, she wouldn't have met Từ Hải, become his queen, and have all her tormentors (but one) executed.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis: Characters' names have entered the Vietnamese language: Sở Khanh is The Casanova, Tú Bà is a synonym for "brothel madam", Hoạn Thư is the Clingy Jealous Girl, etc.
- Police Brutality: Bailiffs tortured Mr. Vương and Vương Quan until the family turned over the money a silk-seller wrongfully accused them of cheating him out of.
- Settle for Sibling: Kim and Kiều falls in love, but before she is sold into slavery Kiều begs her younger sister Vân to marry him in her stead to fulfil their vows. Kim is initially reluctant but was convinced by the Vương family. He ends up in a loving Sexless Marriage with Kiều in the end, anyway.
- Sexual Karma:
- During her marriage to Từ Hải, Kiều engages in this with him. In a Gender Flip, the narration likens him to a phoenix, with her sitting astride him like a dragon. Dragons and phoenixes are, respectively, metaphors for kings and queens, men and women. After being used as a Sex Slave and an object bought and sold for so long, Kiều finally has agency and calls the shot in their loving, mutually affectionate relationship.
- Played with in the ending: Kiều believes herself to be Defiled Forever. Therefore, she is no longer "good" and cannot engage in "good sex" with Kim.
- The sex(ual assault) Kiều endures at the green pavilions are nothing but miserable experiences for her, no matter how she acts during it.
- Title Drop: Timothy Allen's translation, The Song of Kieu, pulls this.Hu Zongxian knows the brilliance of Từ Hảiand knows that he listens to a single voice:the song of Kiều.
- Trauma Conga Line: Kiều's entire life story.
- Sold into marriage to a brothel to cover her father's debts from a wrongful accusation, having to part from her first love.
- Tricked into escaping with The Casanova, then beaten as punishment until she is emotionally and physically broken into agreeing to sex work.
- Rescued from the brothel, only to be abducted by her new husband's domineering Alpha Bitch wife and forced into slavery.
- Chased out of her husband's house into a Buddhist temple, then accidentally sold to a brothel again.
- Married a kind rebel leader, took revenge and rewarded her helpers, only to unknowingly get him killed and herself married to a local chieftain.
- Drowned herself in the Tiền Đường river. Upon being rescued and reunited with her family, she believed she is Defiled Forever and entered a Sexless Marriage with Kim Trọng.
