A
really interesting excerpt from this reading section was Kaikeyi asking Dasaratha
to teach her the language of animals. I
found this section to be really interesting because it just seems so
unexpected. It literally feels like it
comes out of nowhere, but I have a guess as to why it is inserted into the Ramayana. Now, I could be totally wrong, but I believe that
this is put into the story to possibly show Kaikeyi as having a past of being
selfish. Kaikeyi has just used her two
boons to banish Rama and make her son Bharata king. This story follows up that event by showing
Kaikeyi asking Dasaratha to teach her to speak to animals in exchange for his
death. To be honest, how the Ramayana describes their relationship is
sickening. It is honestly like a teenage
romance. My reaction to this section is
just pure disgust. I’m not necessarily
getting worked up about it but I’m just over it.
Other
than that reaction, I thought Kaikeyi’s behavior was odd. I mean she wanted to know how to speak to
animals at the cost of her husband’s life.
Within the excerpt, she is described as sitting nonchalant waiting for
him to tell her then die. It’s
insane. At least within her exiling Rama
and demanding Bharata to be king, the reader may see that she is doing this in
order to protect herself. However, this
shows her as completely selfish. I kind
of hate it because it puts Kaikeyi in a worse light.
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Kaikeyi and Dasaratha. Source: Wikipedia
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI think your interpretation of Kaikeyi asking to learn the language of animals is spot on! It makes a lot of sense for the author to want to include some kind of foreshadowing for her selfishness. And I can appreciate that, because I'm not really a fan of characters becoming randomly evil - they need to have a background or something to build up to it.
I would also agree that her characteristics and mannerisms are odd. But I think that can be said for a lot of the characters in this story. That is true for both versions! It seems that a lot of the actions made by the characters are not really consistent with how they are described to be. That's frustrating to me!