Love and Marriage in Abhijnanashakuntalam and The Tempest: A Social Affair.
Keywords:
Experience AccordingAbstract
Much ink has been spilt on the dramatic geniuses of both Shakespeare and Kalidas who best represent in their plays literature, art and culture of the Occident and the Orient respectively. Of course, their plays deal with the various aspects of human life i.e. court life, country life, family life, love, beauty, romance etc. However, the dominant emotion pervading the texts of the abovesaid writers is ‘Love’. It would seem that the treatment of love in the hands of these dramatic masters is not merely idealistic or fantastic; Rather it is deeply rooted in the heart and soul of love-lorn lovers doing and dying for each other. Moreover, ‘Love’ experienced here is life-transforming. It contributes greatly towards enrichment and sublimation of family life. The present paper is a modest attempt to explicate how these two greatest playwrights in their very plays elucidate the dominant emotion of love for laying and strengthening the foundation stone of family life. By analysing critically the role of ‘love’ in the two representative plays of their times and its essential contribution thereon towards family and social bonding this paper may prove rewarding for the researchers in the field of sociology and literature who wish to study love and marriage themes.
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