Contrast between Rani and Padmini in Girish Karnad’s Female Characters

Abstract

Girish Karnad has the persona of giving his characters an air of freedom. The characters of his plays are mostly liberated from the pro-social norms or at-least tried their best to get that air. In every play we can find that kind of character very easily, especially in the female characters. This is the most distinct feature of Karnad, of giving the female characters, the lead in his plots. But still there is an exceptional case in this scenario too. The main focus of this paper is to picture the two contrasting female characters of Karnad i.e. Rani’s character from Naga-Mandala and Padmini’s characters from Hayavadana. It also interrogates the actions of both character in the similar situation and its outcome.