The drama Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection is telling a story about the love between Sakuntala and the King Dusyanta. These two main characters have an unintended meeting at the beginning, then they fall in love, and the story expands with their love relationships. As many of my classmates' blogs write, this story is to praise for the sincere love between Sakuntala and Dusyanta. Sakuntala is naive, brave, and beautiful. She is a symbol of the drama of all virtues. This story also praise for the King Dusyanta, but I think he is a more complex image, and I want to talk about my understanding of Dusyanta's personal qualities through his love to Sakuntala.
Dusyanta is a wise king who is a valiant fighter and a responsible man in this story. He has the courage to pursue his love and to bear his own mistakes. But as a king, he likes to have fun, and outrageous debauchery. At the beginning, Dusyanta pursues the beauty of Sakuntala to meet his own personal desires. From the first part of the play, we can see the unfaithful quality of Dusyanta from conversation with BUFFOON, "You are like the man who loses his taste for dates and prefers sour tamarind! How can you abandon the gorgeous gems of your palace?" "So she is the reason you reject other beauties!"(P1285) These conversations show the king Dusyanta is divided in mind. In addition, another purpose of Dusyanta to fall in love with Sakuntala is to give birth to a holy son to pass his thrown. Therefore, the love of Sakuntala and Dusyanta is superficial at this time.
At the same time, even though Dusyanta loves Sakuntala strongly, it is limited. He is the king who has power, but he did not challenge the caste system. So, he is so happy that Sakuntala has the same caste as him, and he will not pay any additional cost to get Sakuntala's love.
After I read this play, my understanding of Sakuntala and Dusyanta's love is that the love Dusyanta shows to Sakuntala is limited, and the love is not totally pure and true. The love of Dusyanta is mixed with the personal interests and secular norms.
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