Emotion,
and generally the emotion of love, is the motive in the "Sakoontala" of
Kalidasa, and different phases of feeling, rather than the struggles of
energetic action, lead on to the _denouement_ of the play. The
introduction of supernatural agencies controlling the life of the
personages, leaves very little room for the development and description
of human character. As the fate of the hero is dependent altogether upon
the caprice of superhuman powers, the moral elements of a drama are but
faintly discernible. Thus the central action of Sakoontala hinges on the
fact that the heroine, absorbed in thoughts of love, neglects to welcome
with due respect the great saint Durvasas--certainly a trifling and
venial fault--but he is represented as blighting her with a curse which
results in all the unhappiness of the drama, and which is only ended at
last by the intervention of a more powerful being. By this principle of
construction the characters are reduced to mere shadow creations:
beautiful as arabesques, delicate as a piece of ivory carving, tinted
like the flat profiles of an Oriental fan or the pattern of a porcelain
vase, but deficient in robustness and vigorous coloring.
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