Genre
Tragicomedy drama
Language
The play is originally written in Hindi. There is an English Translation of the play.
Setting and Context
The setting of the drama varies as characters move from one kingdom to the other. The story begins in a hermitage in the wilderness and then changes to the palace in Magadha and lastly in the palace of the Vatsas.
Narrator and Point of View
The play has various narrators. These narrators are the characters in the novel. The narrators include Yaugandarayana, the jester and the maid. The narrators hold the view that the deception that Vasavadatta was dead was of a great benefit to the King Udayana.
Tone and Mood
The tone of the play is a sombre story as the King Udayana believes that his queen Vasavadatta was dead and his chief minister had also died. The mood of the story is a melancholy one as the reader sympathizes with the king. At the end of the story, the mood changes to an excited mood as the king reconciles with his wife and his chief minister.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists of the story are the King Udayana, Yaugandarayana and Vasavadatta. This is because their lives were in danger and Yaugandarayana had to hide the queen and claim that she had perished in a fire. The antagonist is Aruni who wages war against the Vatsas.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the play is the fake death of Vasavadatta and Yaugandarayana. These were the people that the king loved the most. The king has been deceived that Vasavadatta and Yaugandarayana had perished in a fire. This greatly sorrows the king.
Climax
The climax is realized when the king realizes that his wife Vasavadatta and his chief minister Yaugandarayana were alive.
Foreshadowing
Yaugandarayana foreshadowed in the first act that Padmavatti would be married to the King Udayana. This happens when Padmavatti and Udayana get married later in the play.
Understatement
Vasavadatta says to Padmavatti, ' It is not right for you to go and leave your husband unhappy.' To say that Udayana who was the husband of Padmavatti was an understatement. He was devastated over the loss of his wife and his chief minister.
Allusions
N/A
Imagery
The description of the war equipment of Udayana as, ' I shall see that Aruni, adept in dreadful deeds and in the battlefield, surging like a mighty ocean with huge elephants and horses with a lashing spray of arrows on the wing.' The imagery in the description has been built by thr use of a simile to describe the motion of the elephants.
Paradox
The jester said to Padmavatti regarding the state of the king, ' This is that, that is this.' This is a paradoxical statement.
Parallelism
The narrator draws a parallel between the joy of Padmavatti and the sorrow of Vasavadatta as Udayana was getting married to Padmavatti.
Personification
The chamberlain personified the sun when he said this regarding it, 'The sun had dropped a long way down, gathering his rays together he turns his chariot and slowly descends on the summit of the western mountain.
Use of Dramatic Devices
N/A
