What drives the plot of the Ramayana

Ramayana is such a dense story filled with Gods, demigods and everything in-between. Your question might be similar to asking what drives the plot of the Bible or other holy texts. Any answer I give will hardly suffice. On the surface the main plot of the Ramayana involves the life of Prince Rama and his attempts to retrieve his kidnapped wife. Rama is the favored son of a king, but is the victim of an evil plot by one of the king’s wives and is forced to go into exile for fourteen years. That's sort of a standard prompt for the text but, like I said, there is much more to it.