The Vegetarian

by

Han Kang

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Vegetarian makes teaching easy.

The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband Character Analysis

Yeong-hye’s unnamed brother-in-law and In-hye’s husband, who provides the narrative perspective in the second section of the book. The brother-in-law is a video artist, while In-hye is both the primary breadwinner and the primary caretaker of their young son, Ji-woo. In-hye and her husband’s marriage is largely joyless, as the two are revealed to understand each other very little. When the brother-in-law learns from In-hye that Yeong-hye still has a Mongolian mark, he becomes obsessed with images of naked men and women having sex, their bodies covered in painted flowers. He asks Yeong-hye to model for him, then asks her to return to pose with a fellow artist named J. When he asks J and Yeong-hye to have sex for real, J storms out, refusing to do it. The brother-in-law then has flowers painted on himself and films himself and Yeong-hye having sex—even after she revokes her consent to do so. When In-hye finds the tape of the two of them having sex, she calls emergency services on the brother-in-law, assuming that he is not in his right mind. He then tries to throw himself off of a balcony railing, proving how overwhelming isolation and feelings of being misunderstood can often lead to madness. The brother-in-law is then forced to go into hiding and In-hye refuses to allow him to see Ji-woo, proving the harsh consequences that society provides for breaking its conventions.

The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband Quotes in The Vegetarian

The The Vegetarian quotes below are all either spoken by The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband or refer to The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Body, Agency, and Resistance Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1: The Vegetarian Quotes

Before my wife turned vegetarian, I'd always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way.

Related Characters: Mr. Cheong (speaker), Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2: Mongolian Mark Quotes

In precisely that moment he was struck by the image of a blue flower on a woman’s buttocks, its petals opening outward. In his mind, the fact that his sister-in-law still had a Mongolian mark on her buttocks became inexplicably bound up with the image of men and women having sex, their naked bodies completely covered with painted flowers. The causality linking these two things was so clear, so obvious, as to be somehow beyond comprehension, and thus it became etched into his mind.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:

When it was all over, she was crying. He couldn't tell what these tears meant—pain, pleasure, passion, disgust, or some inscrutable loneliness that she would have been no more able to explain than he would have been to understand. He didn't know.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband, Ji-woo
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:

Seeing how utterly baffled he was, she laughed quietly. A melancholic laugh. “Didn’t I say you wouldn’t understand?”

He couldn’t ask: in that case, why did you use to bare your breasts to the sunlight, like some kind of mutant animal that had evolved to be able to photosynthesize? Was that because of a dream too?

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 96
Explanation and Analysis:

She rubbed her neck against J’s like they were two birds caressing, almost as if she’d seen his sketches and knew exactly what he wanted her to do.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband, J
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:

He stood up, stepped close to her and pushed her still-fevered body up against the wall. But when he pressed his lips firmly against hers, probing with his tongue, she shoved him away again.
“Why shouldn't we? Because I'm your brother-in-law?”
“No, it’s nothing to do with that.”
“Then why not? Come on, you said you were all wet!” She was silent. “Did you fancy that kid?”
“It wasn’t him, it was the flowers . . .”

Related Characters: Yeong-hye (speaker), The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband (speaker), In-hye, J
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 111
Explanation and Analysis:

He held her at the waist and stroked the mark, wishing that he could share it with her, that it could be seared onto his skin like a brand. I want to swallow you, have you melt into me and flow through my veins.

“Will the dreams stop now?" she muttered, her voice barely audible.

“Dreams? Ah, the face…that's right, you said it was a face, no?” he said, feeling drowsiness slowly creep through his body. “What kind of face? Whose face?”

Related Characters: Yeong-hye (speaker), The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband (speaker)
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 119-120
Explanation and Analysis:

He had to rush out onto the veranda, now, and throw himself over the railing against which she was leaning. He would fall down three floors and smash his head to pieces.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband
Page Number: 119
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3: Flaming Trees Quotes

“I don't know you,” she muttered, tightening her grip on the receiver, which she’d hung back in the cradle but was still clutching. “So there's no need for us to forgive each other. Because I don't know you.”

Related Characters: In-hye (speaker), The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband, Ji-woo
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:

If her husband and Yeong-hye hadn't smashed through all the boundaries, if everything hadn't splintered apart, then perhaps she was the one who would have broken down, and if she'd let that happen, if she'd let go of the thread, she might never have found it again.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband, Ji-woo
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Vegetarian LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Vegetarian PDF

The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband Quotes in The Vegetarian

The The Vegetarian quotes below are all either spoken by The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband or refer to The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Body, Agency, and Resistance Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1: The Vegetarian Quotes

Before my wife turned vegetarian, I'd always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way.

Related Characters: Mr. Cheong (speaker), Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2: Mongolian Mark Quotes

In precisely that moment he was struck by the image of a blue flower on a woman’s buttocks, its petals opening outward. In his mind, the fact that his sister-in-law still had a Mongolian mark on her buttocks became inexplicably bound up with the image of men and women having sex, their naked bodies completely covered with painted flowers. The causality linking these two things was so clear, so obvious, as to be somehow beyond comprehension, and thus it became etched into his mind.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:

When it was all over, she was crying. He couldn't tell what these tears meant—pain, pleasure, passion, disgust, or some inscrutable loneliness that she would have been no more able to explain than he would have been to understand. He didn't know.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband, Ji-woo
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:

Seeing how utterly baffled he was, she laughed quietly. A melancholic laugh. “Didn’t I say you wouldn’t understand?”

He couldn’t ask: in that case, why did you use to bare your breasts to the sunlight, like some kind of mutant animal that had evolved to be able to photosynthesize? Was that because of a dream too?

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 96
Explanation and Analysis:

She rubbed her neck against J’s like they were two birds caressing, almost as if she’d seen his sketches and knew exactly what he wanted her to do.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband, J
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:

He stood up, stepped close to her and pushed her still-fevered body up against the wall. But when he pressed his lips firmly against hers, probing with his tongue, she shoved him away again.
“Why shouldn't we? Because I'm your brother-in-law?”
“No, it’s nothing to do with that.”
“Then why not? Come on, you said you were all wet!” She was silent. “Did you fancy that kid?”
“It wasn’t him, it was the flowers . . .”

Related Characters: Yeong-hye (speaker), The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband (speaker), In-hye, J
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 111
Explanation and Analysis:

He held her at the waist and stroked the mark, wishing that he could share it with her, that it could be seared onto his skin like a brand. I want to swallow you, have you melt into me and flow through my veins.

“Will the dreams stop now?" she muttered, her voice barely audible.

“Dreams? Ah, the face…that's right, you said it was a face, no?” he said, feeling drowsiness slowly creep through his body. “What kind of face? Whose face?”

Related Characters: Yeong-hye (speaker), The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband (speaker)
Related Symbols: Plants
Page Number: 119-120
Explanation and Analysis:

He had to rush out onto the veranda, now, and throw himself over the railing against which she was leaning. He would fall down three floors and smash his head to pieces.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband
Page Number: 119
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3: Flaming Trees Quotes

“I don't know you,” she muttered, tightening her grip on the receiver, which she’d hung back in the cradle but was still clutching. “So there's no need for us to forgive each other. Because I don't know you.”

Related Characters: In-hye (speaker), The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband, Ji-woo
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:

If her husband and Yeong-hye hadn't smashed through all the boundaries, if everything hadn't splintered apart, then perhaps she was the one who would have broken down, and if she'd let that happen, if she'd let go of the thread, she might never have found it again.

Related Characters: Yeong-hye, In-hye, The Brother-in-Law / In-hye’s Husband, Ji-woo
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis: