Honor And Ethics In Ramayana

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Honor and Ethics
In the Ramayana, honor is expressed and is shown through the many characters of the story. Indian culture has had a great appreciation for being honorable and knowing ones place in society. This can be define as ones dharma. Everyone has a role to play and from childhood, people are taught what is expected from them. From the beginning of the Ramayana, one can observe how family is essential and how loyal they are to one another. Rama and his brother Lakshmana are almost inseparable throughout the myth. It is not until they become separated when things start going extremely wrong. When Rama has to destroy the titan, Maricha, Lakshmana went to Vishwamitra with him. However, there as some characters in the story whose ethics …show more content…

When the king Dasaratha claimed Rama his favorite son to be his heir, Queen Kaikeyi’s servant Manthata said that the queen’s son Bharata should be the next king. Dasaratha owes the queen his life so she only sees it fitting to have her son as the next king. From a Kantian moral ethics point of view, Manthata does not have a good moral worth. She is make her decisions based on a negative motivation, which is desire. Her actions are not morally motivated. This could also symbolize how forces in life can put pressure on the way people make their decisions. The queen had no problem with Rama becoming king until her servant had something to say about it. Rama is a character that has known his dharma and what kind of person he is throughout the myth. It seems that nothing changes the way he makes his decisions. When he was basically exiled to the forest for fourteen years, he went without a fight. “ Rama was not a bit perturbed and replied that he was only too happy to carry out his father’s promises to her”(246). Rama’s wife, Sita, and his brother are very loyal characters who also appear to know what their role is in society. They go with Rama to live out in the forest willingly because they feel it is their duty, especially for Sita

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