독립운동가 현정건과의 사랑을 꽃피우며 ‘기생 출신 혁명가’로 입신한 현계옥 스토리의 뒤안길에는 버림받은 아내 윤덕경의 소외된 삶과 슬픈 최후가 있었다. 그 점에 주목하여 윤덕경의 삶의 행로와 그 끝자락의 자살 경위를 가능한 한 복원해내고 그 맥락과 의미도 탐색하며 고구해보려는 것이 이 글의 목적이다. 생애사적 고찰의 결과, 1920년대에 윤덕경은 교육과 직업활동을 통해 신여성이 되어갔고 삶의 태도와 방식은 1930년대에 대두할 ‘현대여성’의 예고편 같았음을 알 수 있다. 현계옥의 절친이었고 여성운동의 맹장인 정칠성은 우연찮게 윤덕경과 대면교류하게 되면서 신여성적 활동의 장으로 그녀를 인도해간 것으로 추론된다. 어렵게 재결합한 남편의 돌연사 직후에 윤덕경이 결행한 자살은 시숙 현진건이 내세우고 싶어 한 보수적 시각이나 당대 주류사회의 논평처럼 ‘순종’이었던 것이 아니라 본부인 됨의 지위를 완전히 회복해 확정지으려는 의도의 인정투쟁이었다. 아울러, 정상가정 형성의 소망이 좌절되어버림에 대한 절망적 항의라는 의미도 내포했다. 그렇게 윤덕경은 그 나름의 지향점과 경로 속에서 나타난 ‘또다른 신여성’이었으며 ‘현대여성’ 상도 얼마간 선취해보이고는 세상을 떴다. 일견 소박·평범해 보이면서도 윤덕경의 삶과 죽음은 현계옥 스토리와 잇대질 때 그 의미가 더 살아나며, 식민지시기 여성사의 큰 맥락에서도 놓칠 수 없는 함의를 띤 것이었다.

Behind the story of Hyun Gye-ock who was a Korean ex-kisaeng revolutionary against the Japanese imperialism and was simultaneously a fighter for women’s liberation along with Hyun Jeong-gun, the same revolutionary and her ardent lover, there was an alienated life and sad end of Yoon Deok-gyeong(hereafter ‘Yoon’), the abandoned wife of the latter Hyun. In this regard, the purpose of this article is set as to restore the particulars of Yoon’s life path and ending suicide, and to explore and examine their contexts and meanings. Through that investigation, it is found that Yoon transferred into the rank of New Woman during the 1920s through educational and vocational careers. Moreover, her attitude and life style afterwards were likely a trailer of the Modernized Woman which would come to the fore in 1930s. It is assumed that she was meanwhile led to the field of New Women’s activities by intricate encounters with Jeong Chil-sung who had been the best friend of Hyun Gye-ock and was thereabout a dauntless fighter for women’s liberation. Nonetheless for all that, Yoon committed suicide in 1933 shortly after the death from a sudden illness of the husband Hyun who had been reunited with her before six months as an ex-prisoner. It cannot be seen as a self-sacrificing death(‘殉終’) from the sentiments of love and fidelity just as the evaluative commentaries by the mainstream society of the day including the conservative eyes of her brother-in-law Hyun Jin-gun. Rather, it should be seen as a kind of recognition struggle intended to recover fully and firm up her own status of lawful wife, also as a desperate protest against the frustration of a newly cherished dream of constructing a modern style of normal family. Thus Yoon left the world after having become a somewhat peculiar New Woman in her own manners followed by taking in advance a rising portrait of the Modernized Woman. Though seeming to be plain and ordinary at first sight, Yoon’s life and death would emit abundant meanings when connected to and piled up with the story of Hyun Gye-ock, futhermore implying some meanings which could not be missed in a broad context of the Korean women's history during the colonial period.