Bheeshma fighting Arjuna (n.d.).
Picture by Raja Ravi Varma.
- I can understand not questioning your wife if she has customs strange to your own, such as in methods of worship, but how can you expect your husband to not say anything after you throw your children into the water and drown them? Shantanu seems justified in asking her about this.
- Shantanu is an upstanding guy, but unusual circumstances lead him to act in an ultimately harmful manner.
- Has Gangeya and his mother been waiting for Shantanu to arrive so that he can redeem himself in some way? How was Gangeya raised? What was his early childhood like?
- Shantanu is rewarded, yet not fully. He deserved to have his son, even if his wife has to leave him.
- Shantanu was about to make another risky promise. Characters are often well-intentioned, but they don’t fully predict the consequences of their actions.
- Devavrata is clever and intelligent. He would probably make a good king, if he ever gets the chance.
- Devavrata gives up his position for the happiness of his father. Devotion to family and respect for elders is extremely important.
- Bheesma is a kind man in that he allows Amba to follow her heart, rather than any mandates.
- Amba seems pretty ungrateful. Why wouldn’t she get mad at her lord/betrothed rather than Bheeshma? Bheeshma was quite nice.
- The gods seem neutral at times concerning morality. They seem more concerned about how much you worship them than what you do to other people.
- Amba is incredibly bloodthirsty, considering the fact that she burned herself alive in order to defeat Bheeshma.
- Bheeshma is one of the few characters who feels incredible conflict between the two sides. In the Ramayana, the line between the good guys and the bad guys was pretty clear.
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