Enslavement and the Possibility of Freedom: A Rethinking about the Human Condition through Tagore’s Red Oleanders

ABSTRACT The present study takes as its objective the enunciation of the human condition as presented in Rabindranath Tagore’s 1925 play Red Oleanders. The play is set in the fictional backdrop of Yaksha Town, a place where every person is a slave of the system. Through a detailed analysis of the situation of Yaksha Town, the article first brings to light how a totalitarian society deprives every character of liberty and joy and then examines how all the characters are personally accountable for their confinement in the system. As Tagore intends to present the situation of the real world through that of the town, the story of the enslavement of the characters in the play is also that of humanity in general. For Tagore, the malady of the modern world is rooted in its preoccupation with worldly privileges that detaches a person from the ebullience of nature. So, this article also strives to elaborate from the playwright that it is not the propinquity of a materialistic system but that of nature that can liberate humanity from all social and personal confinement. The whole discussion is put forth in light of the theories of Existentialism and Marxism.