Three things I found Interesting:
The importance of female character parallels. The overuse of a classic light versus dark scenario is expressed perfectly throughout the entire epic. It keeps the timeless tale concise and connected in such a strategic and almost subtle way; yet shows an exaggerated expression of the important influence the female character has on the story of The Rāmā.
The vast and complicated cosmos that has been so
elaborately developed, is so beautifully displayed in the text. Whether it is the
“fascinating geography” that we see on page. 4 or the distinctions between the
inhabitants in The Enchanted Forest, The Southern Lands and The Kingdom.
The comparison and correlation between the forest creatures and the ideal principle characters.
Even though this literary phenomenon has been used for ages, the parallels that
we can see from the monkeys acting out the underlying wills and impulses of the
principle characters is astonishing to me.
Two Questions:
On page 14 it states that if Rāmā did not act as a human hero even though he is Visnu, the story would lose its dramatic tension, its pathos and its strategy. Why couldn't Rāmā act as a completely divine hero? Already knowing who he is and what he must do for humanity. I still feel that Rāmā would look and play the ideal character and act as a model for humans and a “paragon of virtue.”
At the beginning of the introduction it is mentioned that this has been used as a bedtime story for countless generations of Indian children. However, were the strange inhabitants of the forest added into those bedtime stories? For example, birds that speak, flying monkeys and headless torsos that walk around??