Theme and Title of the play Red Oleanders The play Red Oleanders was begun during a visit

to Shillong, Assam and inspired by the image of a red oleander plant crushed by pieces of discarded iron that Tagore had come across while walking A short time later, an oleander branch with a single red flower protruded through the debris, as if, he noted, !created from the blood of its cruelly pierced breast" #t has been suggested that the plays title might appropriately be translated as $lood%Red Oleanders to indicate the beautiful but to&ic nature of the flower and its association with beauty and death in the play Tagores playRed Oleanders 'Raktakaravi( was written towards the end of )*+, The title, then, was not Raktakaravi but Yakshapuri or The -ity of Yaksha 'the demon king( Tagore further revived the manuscript and retitled it as .andhini after the name of the female protagonist of the story #n the final version published in Pravasi in )*+/ the title was further revised to Rakatakaravi, the Red Oleander The shift in emphasis, it can be noticed, is from the city ' Yakshapuri) through a character '.andhini( to a flower 'Raktakaravi( and makes Raktakaravi essentially a symbolic drama Red Oleanders is a power and poignant play where commercial e&ploitation, oppression, power, love and obsession operate on different levels and manifest themselves in different shapes The play is built around the theme of unscrupulous capitalism, environmental e&ploitation and the importance of human relationships The play Red Oleanders, according to Tagore, !is an e&pression of that truth to which we are accustomed that we have forgotten all about it" #t is a play about evil and good working side by side, about greed and human sympathy, about that which separate fellow beings and that which keeps us together

The play is based upon the principle that each must legitimately fight against the other, the oppressor and the oppressed #t is the story of .andhini, a beautiful woman who appears at a time of the oppression of humanity by greed and power The antagonist in the story is the king, who represents enormous authority but barricades himself behind an iron curtain 0e transforms a town into a fort and the human into digging machines who grope in the dark searching for gold The people of the country of 1uvera are engaged in digging out with all their might precious gold, tearing out from the underground world 2riven by the covetous urge for cruel hoarding, the people have banished all the sweetness of life from the place There man, enslaving himself within his own comple&ities, has severed himself from the rest of the universe They have forgotten that the value of 3oy is greater than the value of gold4 that there is no fulfillment in might but only in love #nto this soulless town where people were unaware of the beauty of nature, the green meadows, the da55ling sunshine, the tenderness and love between humans, .andhini arrives to salvage humanity trapped behind mechani5ed tyranny She eventually frees the oppressed souls who are toiling underground, but at a great sacrifice The story ends in an une&pected clima& after Tagore knits an intricate network of se6uences that ultimately becomes a parable Red Oleanders is rather confused in its action and obscure in its dialogue, but there is no ambiguity either about the role of .andhini or about the indictment delivered by the play or about the significance of the title 7rom the delightful warm e&changes between .andhini and the 8rofessor and later from the transporting solilo6uy of $ishu in the opening se6uence of the play, it is evident that the import behind the symbol of the blossoming Red Oleander in its association with freedom and death, the bracelet of which is finally to roll in dust as with freedom itself The 8rofessor tells .andhini, !8erhaps your destiny knows" #n this blood%red luster 'Red Oleander( lays a fearful mystery, not merely beauty, and the moment to the tragic suffering in the play, evoking all the poignancy of !1ing 9ears" famous prison speech

Character of Nandhini Red Oleanders is a play in one%act #t is a symbolic play based on certain essential truth of life Tagores plays at all times have a woman at the centre, which manifests the spirit of defiance against the dictate of the powerful man #n this play, Red Oleanders, it is 3ust a frail girl, the daughter of this earth symbolically suggested through the ripe corn% ears colours of her dress, who refutes to comply with the dictates of the :aksha town There is a hint towards the end that this refusal of .andhini will finally snowball into a revolution that will shatter the walls of this demonic palace .andhini represents the negation of all the values that the :aksha kingdom stands for .andhini is the soul of the play 0er distinctive feature is the red oleander she wears in her hair, round her neck and on her wrist which become the symbol of the all% powerful treasure ; freedom 0er beauty mesmeri5es men regardless of their position or rank She e&udes fearless love, care and belief in freedom She challenges the king whose passion for her unlocks some humanity in him as she confesses that despite all he has, he is empty and envies her and the man she loves, Ran3an The king dares not let her into his barbed realm as he fears her beauty and power may weaken his hold 'she is after all the voice of love, beauty and allurement to freedom( $ut finally, his desire to know her con6uers his desire for power She, in turn, fears his desire to know her .andhinis presence in the :aksha town creates consternation among some of the slave miners and their masters She begs them to return home, but her pleading falls on deaf ears ; the man are addicted to gold and even if they were to return home they would eventually return to the mines Tagore describes .andhini as the treasure house in womans heart from whose pervading influence restores the human to the desolated world of man She symboli5es freedom She is the challenge of beauty and love to a world dominated by mere money and power values, and she is able to make man out of slaves and unnerve brute authority

#n Red Oleanders, .andhini, the lone woman who fighting against the king of the dark chamber, is presented as the embodiment of the benevolent of .ature Tagore remarks< !the entire play is an elaborate portrait of .andhini, a woman She represents the 3oy of life, the simple beauty and pristine purity of .ature" .andhini represents the innocence and opulence of nature The harvest song in Red Oleanders may be regarded as the theme song of the play which refers .andhini to the cosmic harmony of nature The song of nature is a song of selfless love #n the course of the play, Tagore repeatedly tells us that .andhini is the embodiment of nature She epitomi5es the beauty and splendor of the earth #n midst of materialistic din, she is always serene, !a finely tuned musical instrument" Sometimes her simple presence becomes a menace to materialism only because of the moral force that she carries about with her .andhini knows that she is a woman but the fact that she is a woman should not be underestimated She is fully conscious of her full potential strength She is like a lightening that contains the potential thunder, !# have brought the thunder, # shall strike the golden citadel", she says $y the end of Red Oleanders, we find that the kings desire to posses .andhini becomes futile and .andhini succeeds in eluding him 0is death heralds the dawn of life, love and freedom in the air The harvest song heard at a distance signifies the renewal of life

Character of The King The archetypal study of characters will throw light on the hidden aspects of the characters involved #n many of Tagores plays the character of the 1ing, who is sometimes invisible, plays a ma3or role in bringing forth the apocalypse 9ike the 1ing in !The 1ing of The 2ark -hamber", who is not seen by anyone even his 6ueen makes a futile re6uest to make him visible, the Red Oleanders too has an invisible 1ing This invisible demeanor is the hidden humanity and represents the people of :akshapuri who are buried in their work of digging and hoarding The 1ings tearing asunder the screen reveals the liberation of the mask from their collective selfhood This is the greatest potential of the royal metaphor The plays central character of a Raja or 1ing cruelly e&ploits nature as well as all possible human resources, of mind, of science, in order to develop a highly centrali5ed bureaucracy and add to his wealth 0e sits fascinated as he watches how his entire retinue continued mechanically to guard his fortress and his ever growing wealth The 1ing symboli5es the growing power of the state which is run as a diabolically efficient machine by a =overnor or 8olice -hief armed with absolute powers The :aksha 1ing is the antagonist in the play Red Oleanders :akshapuri is ruled by this inhuman and brutal 1ing who remains unseen for the most part of the play This anonymous demon 1ing remains inaccessible behind the hard metal walls of his :akshapuri for his lust for gold $ut he e&ercises complete control over his people, ruthlessly e&ploits them for more and more of gold, and grossly outrages nature in the process The 1ing treats people as mere machines for the productions of gold The workers in the gold mines are nothing but more than numbered automations Their greedy urge for cruel hoarding has made them banish all lifes sweetness from the place As a result, the society is vitiated by pervasive greed, mistrust and fear, and the harmony of life which

was originally agriculture oriented and therefore, responsive to the rhythms of nature, also gets disrupted #n the preface to the play, Tagore calls our attention by presenting Ravanas resemblance with the 1ing 0e says, Ravana in The Ramayana with enormous powers and ambition and greed captured many =ods and =oddess and make them work for his pleasure $ut in midst, suddenly appeared a woman and the epic ended with the triumph of virtue 9ike Ravana, the 1ing in Red Oleanders is an epitome of lateral power and prosperity and evinces the evils of materialism .andhini, like Sita represents the benevolent of nature She shows a remarkable spirit of defiance against the 1ing 7or Tagore, it implies the triumph of agricultural society over the industrial system through a lone womans integrity and moral protest Thus Tagore magnificently portraits the 1ing as an epitome of consumerism, muscle power and mans insatiable greed Though the state of the 1ing in the play is left apparently unconcluded, it is presumed that his greed gets punished and the life is restored in the :aksha town

Minor Characters The play Red Oleanders is set in a wasteland of the factious city of :akshapuri, with an #ndian or $engali flavor where gold miners are being e&ploited by a tyrannical king Tagores plays never show the scarcity of characters 0e always introduces an array of minor characters who plays their roles poignantly along with the main protagonists -haracters ranging from multiple sections of society pay their debts to the construction of the plot The ruling community is represented by the =overnor 0e mindlessly accepts the domination of the strong and the oppression of the weak #t is the =overnor who rules the omni competent state in the name of the king 0e is superficially soft%spoken but privately ruthless in action 0e controls the leviathan ; state machinery which suppresses the people and forbids them to en3oy the taste of natures benevolence At the end, the prison he controls is broken up and the cry is heard everywhere, >ictory to Ran3an, >ictory to .andhini, % >ictory to 9ove #t is permissible to hope for the victory of man over the tyranny of the machine The professor is the ne&t interesting character in the play 0e is the learned, scholarly personality who fre6uently utters some philosophical statements during his e&change with the protagonist .andhini 0e himself feels proud of his scholastic nature 0e says, !# too live behind a network of scholarship # am an unmitigated scholar" 0is dialogues are packed with similes and metaphors They provide amusement not merely to the characters in the play but also to the reader The way the 8rofessor is integrated with the se6uence of actions in the play shows the dramatic skill of Tagore The 8rofessor, like any other character, is too curious in knowing the meaning and significance of Red Oleander flower which .andhini wears in her neck The reader needs not to be astounded by the fact that he woes .andhini because like others he is also a human who gets naturally attracted by the beauty of her ?hen he sees her, his heart flies away swish like

a bird 0is attention, like the tidal wave, tears away from its anchorage of books Thus, he is 6uite redeeming portrayed in the play as a man who is imprisoned in his own learnedness $ishu, also known in the mines as @*%A, deliberates on the meaning of e&istence 0e is an educated cynic, a thinker and above all, a man desperately in love with .andhini 0e is called as mad $ishu by 8agulal for his ine&haustible offerings of songs which due to the fact that he has been possessed by .andhini 0e is known for his songs, especially the $oat%man song in which he associates himself with the boat%man and e&presses his adornment towards the central figure of the play $ishu, is originally employed as a spy but he gives up his 3ob for the sake of .andhini and for this he is punished 0e stands for sorrow4 the sorrow which purifies the heart -handra, 8hagulals wife, represents the pragmatic woman who cannot tolerate the effect .andhini has on the local men She begs to return home but her pleading falls on deaf%ears ; the men are addicted to gold and even if to the mines 0er looks and demeanor superbly represents the image of the village $engali woman