Kālidāsa’s Shakuntala and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale: The Child as Redeemer

Kālidāsa’s Shakuntala and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale: The Child as Redeemer

Mohan R. Limaye

Professor Emeritus

Boise State University

This paper attempts to demonstrate that, though the three-member family (father, mother and child) is celebrated in Shakuntala and The Winter’s Tale, the child is thematically the most important of the three members and that the child serves as an archetype of “savior” or “redeemer” in both these plays. The child occupies a central place as far as the two plays’ narrative and thematic architectures are concerned. The quest of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, the hero and the heroine, is on a deeper level for a child. The king needs an heir to the throne, and so do his subjects for a stable order. Similarly, in The Winter’s Tale, the stability of Leontes’ kingdom rests on Perdita, his daughter, after Prince Mamillius dies. In Shakuntala, the birth of a son with regal insignia on the palm of his hand not only leads to the reunion of the separated couple, Dushyanta and Shakuntala, but also confers social approval on their match, restores his mother’s reputation, and concludes the play with subdued happiness. Notably, both Perdita and Bharata are discovered and recognized first; and then their respective mothers are “resurrected.” As his name “All-Tamer (Sarva-damana)” indicates, he symbolizes the maturation of his parents’ irrepressible passion into deep and steady conjugal love. The son, born to a king but raised in a hermitage, also resolves another thematic conflict in the play – country versus court. In The Winter’s Tale, Perdita also brings together the court and the country in a similar fashion: born to royal parents but raised by a shepherd, she too harmonizes this opposition between town and country. This is how the child serves as a redeemer in both these plays.