I am currently trapped inside my castle with my army outside making one last stand against the cruel and powerful Rama. These will surely be my last words as it is only a matter of time before his army is standing upon me. I know that from the outside it looks like I brought this upon myself, and to an extent I did. But, I did not do it for my own self-gain. I did all of this for the woman I love. I want the world to know my story.
It started a long time ago when I was a young creature. My parents died when I was three years old, so I was free to do whatever I wanted. I spent a lot of my toddler days wandering around travelling from city to city. One sunny day I met the beautiful young Sita. We instantly became friends and it became a common occurrence for us to spend our summer days playing together outside the city where she lived. I would sleep in the forest near the city wall and she would bring me food in the morning when we met up. This was the best time of my life.
One day Sita’s father spotted us together and banned us from seeing each other again. She begged him to reconsider, but he wouldn’t budge. He pulled her away from me without even allowing a goodbye. What had I done wrong? I can only guess it is because I am a rakshasa, and we are not extremely popular with humans. I walked home that day with a knot in my stomach and a crushed heart. I swore that if I ever got a chance to see her again I would.
That brings us to just a few years ago when I heard that Rama and Sita were wandering the forest. I left my kingdom with Maricha in search of them. When I discovered them, I knew I had to get Sita alone so I could talk to her. So, I convinced Maricha to take the form of a beautiful deer. This drew Rama away from Lakshmana and Sita. Maricha then used his voice to imitate Rama's and draw Lakshmana away from Sita too. I used this opportunity to approach Sita.
"Sita?"
"Who's there?"
"It's Ravana"
"Oh my gosh, I don't believe it! What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you. When I heard that you were here I knew I couldn't miss an opportunity to see you. It's been way too long."
"Oh Ravana, not a day goes by that I do not think of you. I've missed you so much!"
"You have no idea how much I miss you. Are you happy with Rama?"
"Rama treats me very well and he is an amazing guy, but my heart lies with you. I love you Ravana. We need to leave before they come back."
"I love you too Sita. This is the way."
The rest of the story is history. Because history is told by the victors of wars, I will be labeled as the beast that took Sita against her will. The story of this battle and my defeat will go down in the history books. I hope that whoever finds this note will share the truth with the world.
-Ravana
In the original story Ravana is the villain and Rama is the protagonist. Ravana tricks the couple into separating and then proceeds to take Sita back to his kingdom against her will so that they can marry. Sita has never met Ravana before the kidnapping. Ravana is spotted taking her back and the word gets to Rama that they have gone to Lanka. He takes his army there and defeats Ravana after a long and grueling battle. Sita is very much in love with Rama and does not want to continue to live if they cannot be together. The story is told from a narrator’s point of view.
I made use of a note to tell the story from Ravana’s point of view. Point of view is everything and history is told by the victors of wars. Ravana may or may not have had good reasoning for what he did, but I thought someone should at least give him the benefit of the doubt.
I chose this picture because the distraction caused by the golden deer is what leads to the opportunity for Ravana to steal Sita. Without it Rama would have fought off Ravana and this story would be very different.
Bibliography: PDE Ramayana Parts C and D by Geraldine Hodgson (1903), Donald A. Mackenzie (1913), Sister Nivedita (1914), and Frederika Richardson Macdonald (1870).
Taler,
ReplyDeleteMy wow moment for your story is in the twist that you applied to the antagonist and protagonist of the original Ramayana. I did not think about creating a story that had Ravana be in love with Sita and that is the motive for “kidnapping her”. Also, I really enjoyed that you wrote your story as a letter. I feel that makes the story more personal and create more insight into Ravana by being first person. I wonder if you could have had Sita tell Rama that she actually loves Ravana instead of him. I feel this could have established Rama’s motives for attacking Ravana even more. This could have also developed Rama’s antagonist characteristics. I wonder what will happen in the fight the next day though. I am curious if Ravana or Rama will win since the roles of hero and villain have changed. I hope you finish this story another week so I can read it. Overall, I really enjoyed your story and can’t wait to read another story of yours.
Hi Taler,
ReplyDeleteRetelling the relationships between Sita and Rama as well as Sita and Ravana seems to be a popular theme, and it's interesting to see how each person does their story differently! There's enough discrepancies in Rama's divine status and some of his actions during the epic to leave room for such revisionist tales. I especially liked the part where you added that "history is told by the victors," which is a perfect explanation for why we hear Rama's story and Ravana is so villainized, when in your version Ravana is so much more sympathetic.
I thought the formatting of your story was highly effective in its simplicity. It made me wonder exactly who Ravana is intending to read his missive, but also did a great job setting up the scene at his time of writing.
Unlike with a lot of the blog posts I've been reading through today, I didn't notice obvious typos and grammatical errors in your writing. :)
Taler,
ReplyDeleteI’m back again this week! I thought your story last week was an interesting read so I wanted to see what this week had in store. It did not disappoint! I think you took a great approach to the story with Ravana narrating and telling his backstory with Sita to convey his good intentions. I thought the “wow” part of the story was at the end where Sita admits to her heart lying with him instead of Rama. In the stories we are reading (history told by victors) they do not portray Sita as having feeling for Ravana and almost despising him. I wonder if Sita took back Ravana how the story would play out with Ravana being the victor in this case. Would Rama be the villain? Overall, I thought the story was laid out perfectly with an interesting and different point of view than the original. Thanks for the great read Taler!
Taler, I truly enjoyed this story especially because I was reminded about Snape and Lily's relationship from the Harry Potter movies. I agree that point of view is important in a story, so personally, I consider ways to tell stories from other character's perspectives. You really built the story in a way that made me root for Ravana and Sita, whereas I wasn't able to see any positive elements in his character in the version of the Ramayana that I have read. I also like that you kept the story brief because it is in the form of a letter. You did an excellent job in giving Ravana a chance to tell his side of the story.
ReplyDeleteTaler,
ReplyDeleteI chose this story because of the blurb you wrote, what a great idea for storytelling. Beginning with your authors note, I agree that every purported villain has reasoning that is often not explored in the original stories. I thought you made an interesting twist in your story. I like how it explained Ravana's actions, without fully excusing them. What Ravana did was wrong, but that doesn't mean he wan't motivated by something that wasn't inherently evil. Sita being truly in love with Ravana also explains some of the coldness in her relationship with Rama when they are reunited, that part of the original ending always bothered me. I'm glad that your version of the story explains why that may be.
Thanks so much for sharing what you have done so far . I look forward to reading more of your work this semester, good luck with the remainder of your writing.
Andrew
I really enjoyed this story. I like how you are telling the story through the eyes of Ravana rather than the common form. This is the first story that I read that tells the story through the eyes of the enemy. As I read the story I honestly did not expect the ending to be that way. The picture you used really gives the reader the ability to see the moment at which Rama was distracted. I would suggest somehow leading your story up into the image. I feel like you tell the story and the picture is randomly placed. I also enjoyed that from this story I can actually see Rama being the evil one! I also feel really sorry for him when I read about his childhood. I also like how you actually made Sita belong to Ravana at the beginning. Overall I really enjoyed your story and the way you turned it around.
ReplyDeleteTaler, wow. I hate being a fan girl but just WOW! You did an amazing job with this story and telling if from a completely different angle! Portraying Ravana and Sita as long lost star crossed lovers was so beautiful and original. I would not have been able to think of that angle after read the original story where Rama was the hero. The way the story was laid out as a last words note before Ravana's demise made me feel connected and willing to listen to his story. I also love how you included dialogue in the note so that there was a type of proof that Sita did share romantic feelings for Ravana. Having the old saying that 'history is told by the victors of war' in both the story and the author's notes was a good way to keep that idea consistent since it is so key to the story overall. WELL DONE
ReplyDeleteHello Taler, reading your story now reminds me why I enjoyed the Ramayana so much more thoroughly than the Mahabharata. I think that the themes of love and war are much more powerful and interesting in the Ramayana even though the Mahabharata may include a more intricate storyline involving more characters. I think that your story is significant in allowing the reader to see Ravana as more of a human-like character which may add more layers to his role as the antagonist of the narrative. I wonder if you considered depicting Rama as more of an evil character in your story. The idea of re-creating characters' motives is definitely something that I have tried to do with the portrayal of characters in my own storytelling posts.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you will follow this idea with future stories. Re-imagining characters allows the reader to reconsider their motives and personality in the original text and even maybe question their virtue.