Red Oleanders - Notes

Theme and Title of the play Red Oleanders
The play Red Oleanders was begun during a visit to Shillong, Assam and
inspired by the image of a red oleander plant crushed by pieces of discarded iron that
Tagore had come across while walking. A short time later, an oleander branch with a
single red flower protruded through the debris, as if, he noted, created from the blood of
its cruelly pierced breast. It has been suggested that the plays title might appropriately
be translated as Blood-Red Oleanders to indicate the beautiful but toxic nature of the
flower and its association with beauty and death in the play.
Tagores playRed Oleanders (Raktakaravi) was written towards the end of 1923.
The title, then, was not Raktakaravi but Yakshapuri or The City of Yaksha (the demon
king). Tagore further revived the manuscript and retitled it as Nandhini after the name
of the female protagonist of the story. In the final version published in Pravasi in 1924
the title was further revised to Rakatakaravi, the Red Oleander. The shift in emphasis, it
can be noticed, is from the city (Yakshapuri) through a character (Nandhini) to a flower
(Raktakaravi) and makes Raktakaravi essentially a symbolic drama.
Red Oleanders is a power and poignant play where commercial exploitation,

oppression, power, love and obsession operate on different levels and manifest
themselves in different shapes.
The play is built around the theme of unscrupulous capitalism, environmental

exploitation and the importance of human relationships. The play Red Oleanders,
according to Tagore, is an expression of that truth to which we are accustomed that we
have forgotten all about it. It is a play about evil and good working side by side, about
greed and human sympathy, about that which separate fellow beings and that which keeps
us together.
The play is based upon the principle that each must legitimately fight against the
other, the oppressor and the oppressed. It is the story of Nandhini, a beautiful woman
who appears at a time of the oppression of humanity by greed and power. The antagonist
in the story is the king, who represents enormous authority but barricades himself behind
an iron curtain. He transforms a town into a fort and the human into digging machines
who grope in the dark searching for gold.
The people of the country of Kuvera are engaged in digging out with all their
might precious gold, tearing out from the underground world. Driven by the covetous
urge for cruel hoarding, the people have banished all the sweetness of life from the place.
There man, enslaving himself within his own complexities, has severed himself from the
rest of the universe. They have forgotten that the value of joy is greater than the value of
gold; that there is no fulfillment in might but only in love. Into this soulless town where
people were unaware of the beauty of nature, the green meadows, the dazzling sunshine,
the tenderness and love between humans, Nandhini arrives to salvage humanity trapped
behind mechanized tyranny. She eventually frees the oppressed souls who are toiling
underground, but at a great sacrifice. The story ends in an unexpected climax after Tagore
knits an intricate network of sequences that ultimately becomes a parable.
Red Oleanders is rather confused in its action and obscure in its dialogue, but
there is no ambiguity either about the role of Nandhini or about the indictment delivered
by the play or about the significance of the title.
From the delightful warm exchanges between Nandhini and the Professor and
later from the transporting soliloquy of Bishu in the opening sequence of the play, it is
evident that the import behind the symbol of the blossoming Red Oleander in its
association with freedom and death, the bracelet of which is finally to roll in dust as
with freedom itself. The Professor tells Nandhini, Perhaps your destiny knows. In this
blood-red luster (Red Oleander) lays a fearful mystery, not merely beauty, and the
moment to the tragic suffering in the play, evoking all the poignancy of King Lears
famous prison speech.
Character of Nandhini
Red Oleanders is a play in one-act. It is a symbolic play based on certain essential

truth of life. Tagores plays at all times have a woman at the centre, which manifests the
spirit of defiance against the dictate of the powerful man. In this play, Red Oleanders, it is
just a frail girl, the daughter of this earth symbolically suggested through the ripe corn-
ears colours of her dress, who refutes to comply with the dictates of the Yaksha town.
There is a hint towards the end that this refusal of Nandhini will finally snowball into a
revolution that will shatter the walls of this demonic palace. Nandhini represents the
negation of all the values that the Yaksha kingdom stands for.
Nandhini is the soul of the play. Her distinctive feature is the red oleander she
wears in her hair, round her neck and on her wrist which become the symbol of the all-
powerful treasure freedom. Her beauty mesmerizes men regardless of their position or
rank. She exudes fearless love, care and belief in freedom. She challenges the king whose
passion for her unlocks some humanity in him as she confesses that despite all he has, he
is empty and envies her and the man she loves, Ranjan. The king dares not let her into his
barbed realm as he fears her beauty and power may weaken his hold (she is after all the
voice of love, beauty and allurement to freedom). But finally, his desire to know her
conquers his desire for power. She, in turn, fears his desire to know her.
Nandhinis presence in the Yaksha town creates consternation among some of the
slave miners and their masters. She begs them to return home, but her pleading falls on
deaf ears the man are addicted to gold and even if they were to return home they would
eventually return to the mines.
Tagore describes Nandhini as the treasure house in womans heart from whose
pervading influence restores the human to the desolated world of man. She symbolizes
freedom.(Especially with the garland of red oleanders around her neck, and talks about
Ranjan and freedom emphasize the symbolism ) She is the challenge of beauty and love
to a world dominated by mere money and power values, and she is able to make man out
of slaves and unnerve brute authority.
In Red Oleanders, Nandhini, the lone woman who fighting against the king of the dark
chamber, is presented as the embodiment of the benevolent of Nature. Tagore remarks:
the entire play is an elaborate portrait of Nandhini, a woman. She

represents the joy of life, the simple beauty and pristine purity of Nature.
Nandhini represents the innocence and opulence of nature. The harvest song in
Red Oleanders may be regarded as the theme song of the play which refers Nandhini to
the cosmic harmony of nature. The song of nature is a song of selfless love. In the course
of the play, Tagore repeatedly tells us that Nandhini is the embodiment of nature. She
epitomizes the beauty and splendor of the earth. In midst of materialistic din, she is
always serene, a finely tuned musical instrument. Sometimes her simple presence
becomes a menace to materialism only because of the moral force that she carries about
with her. Nandhini knows that she is a woman but the fact that she is a woman should not
be underestimated. She is fully conscious of her full potential strength. She is like a
lightening that contains the potential thunder, I have brought the thunder, I shall strike
the golden citadel, she says.
This play has in it a total picture of the crisis in civilization of the

contemporary world. It deals with the frightful dilemma of the
modern man in the grip of an acquisitive society.
The controlling vision of Red Oleanders is a comprehensive view of twentieth
century civilization, rugged individualism and its philosophy to shape and sharpen i.e.
moulding individuals to suit the existing system of Yaksha Town.
Yaksha Town groping in darkness is certainly much more sensitive than that of the
Indian creative writers could offer by virtue of the significant details intensifying
Tagores deep perception of the historical milieu. It comes very 156 close to some of the
earliest recorded experience of the phenomenon, as well as some of the latest modern
experiences in imaginative literature. This is more or less infernal machinery enveloped
in darkness and charged with madness to exploit riches. It not only foresees ecological
imbalance but also points out some aspects of urban industrial environment. The
complete absence of the green of the woods and golden sunshine is usurpation of
nature but they reduce the whole industrial base of progress and civilization to their very
oppositessavagery and barbarism. This is a continuous experience in literature from
Blake to Eliot and even after Eliot in terms of London and Unreal City, as well as to the
growth of modern metropolis. Work here assumes a peculiarly dehumanizing severity.
This is the world which is a kind of hell, a vision of the crowded, confused and
disconnected fragment of mans existence threatened by his own work which reduces him
into a machine, a hand or a stomach, a place stunting human nature and perverting it. If at
all there is any relationship, it is the relation of progress to achievement, education to
ignorance and refinement to inhumanity. Here the mines are run by human labours,
tragically found to be numbered like commodities.
of the professor who gives an analogy comparing Nandini to the light
coming through a cracked wall which is sharp, refined and powerful as
opposed to the sunlights impact through a forest which is Scattered and
less powerful (Pg.4).

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What is the theme of the play?

What is the role of the character Nandhini in the play?

Theme and Title of the play Red Oleanders

Red Oleanders is a power and poignant play where commercial exploitation,

The play is built around the theme of unscrupulous capitalism, environmental

Red Oleanders is a play in one-act. It is a symbolic play based on certain essential

the entire play is an elaborate portrait of Nandhini, a woman. She

This play has in it a total picture of the crisis in civilization of the

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