Critical Analysis of "The Ramayana"
Critical Analysis of "The Ramayana"
Ramayana is a story that weaves a web of adventure, mysticism, love, family, and Hindu philosophy. Although written thousands of years ago, much of its teachings are still relevant today, in our ever-changing lives. These moral elements are presented through the many difficult choices that challenge the story’s characters. These choices, or dilemmas if you will, put into question a character’s virtues by, to put it simply, giving that character two options. One option being the correct choice while the other is not. It is the choices made that are fundamental in developing the story as well as its characters. This paper shall analyze the crucial scene of the “Golden Deer”. This scene is the crisis point of the story. It is during this event that several, very influential decisions are made by main characters. It is these judgments that effectively shape the remainder of the myth. In order to better examine this pivotal moment, three characters (Rama, Lakshmana, Sita) and their choices shall be carefully scrutinized. This shall be accomplished through evaluating their actions, decisions, and repercussions in a contextual manner, as well as how it applies to our everyday lives. It shall become quite apparent that if the right actions had been taken at three specific moments, then Sita would never have been captured.
The scene begins with Mareecha posing as a Golden Deer in front of Rama’s cottage, in order to draw Sita out. It is said that his brilliance was so marvelous that other deer surrounded him, thus drawing even more attention and concretely grabbing Sita’s gaze. The following excerpt is what she has to say to Rama about the deer: “There is an animal at our gate with a body of shining gold, and its legs are set with precious stones. It’s a dazzling creature. Please catch it for me” (The Ramayana, p96-7). It does not dawn on her, that such a glorious creature should be left in the wild so that other people, even other animals, as it was with the authentic deer, could enjoy its beauty. Instead she chooses a selfish response, and thus begins her demise.
Rama makes the next choice. He has the option of either pleasing his wife and capturing the deer or seeing...