Raise the Red Lantern - Characters & Cast

Her initial motivation is simply to survive in a hostile environment. This evolves into a desire for power and recognition as a defense mechanism against her dehumanization. She craves the status and privileges that come with the Master's favor as the only available measure of self-worth.

Songlian begins as an educated and proud young woman, forced by circumstance into a life she resists. Initially, she tries to remain aloof from the household's petty politics. However, the oppressive system and the constant psychological warfare gradually corrupt her. She learns to play the game, becoming manipulative and cruel, culminating in her faking a pregnancy to gain power. After her actions indirectly lead to the deaths of two other women, the immense guilt and the horror of the system's brutality drive her into madness, leaving her a broken shell of her former self.

Her primary motivation is to maintain and improve her standing with the Master by any means necessary. She seeks to eliminate any rival who threatens her position, particularly those who are younger and more attractive. Her kindness is a weapon she uses to disarm her opponents before she strikes.

Zhuoyun presents herself as a kind, welcoming ally to Songlian, a "Buddha's face with a scorpion's heart." Her arc is one of revelation; she is slowly exposed as the most duplicitous and manipulative of the wives. She operates with hidden malice, orchestrating curses and betrayals while maintaining a facade of friendship. She remains in her position at the end, having successfully eliminated her rivals, demonstrating that quiet ruthlessness is a successful survival strategy in the compound.

Meishan is motivated by a desperate desire for genuine emotion and freedom in a stifling world. Having known a life of performance and adoration, she cannot tolerate her diminished status and seeks solace in a forbidden romance. Her provocations and outbursts are a way of asserting her individuality against the crushing conformity of the household.

A former opera singer, Meishan is openly rebellious and temperamental, having once been the Master's favorite. She initially acts as Songlian's direct antagonist but later forms a fragile alliance with her based on their shared misery. Her arc is one of tragic defiance. She seeks freedom and passion through a secret affair with the family doctor. When her affair is revealed, she is brutally murdered by the system, serving as a grim warning to others about the price of transgression.

His motivation is the maintenance of his power and the continuation of his family's traditions. He operates not out of passion but out of a sense of entitlement and a desire to enforce the rigid order from which he benefits. The wives are instruments for his pleasure and the continuation of his lineage.

The Master is not a character with a developmental arc but rather a symbolic presence. His face is almost never shown clearly, and his personality is largely absent. He functions as the impersonal, omnipotent force of the patriarchy. He is the invisible hand that sets the rules and moves the pieces, an embodiment of the feudal system itself rather than an individual man. His presence is constant and oppressive, even when he is physically absent.