Labyrinths of Power - A Comparative Study of Eugene O’ Neill’s Emperor Jones and Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq

Abstract

The human history and the literary history provide an interesting and illuminating study of power and its corrupting influence on man. The life of man from ancient kings to the present leaders, from old demons to today’s under world dons is a history of rule or ambition to rule. A persistent preoccupation of epic poets, tragic dramatists and philosophers has always been to explore and understand man’s relation to those forces or powers in the world which shape and control man’s destiny; in their epics and tragedies they look for answers to certain cosmic problems much as religion does. My paper attempts to examine and compare two modern classic plays viz Emperor Jones, an innovative American drama by Eugene O’ Neill, and Tughlaq, a brilliant and powerful Indian English Drama by Girish Karnad which I believe render a most interesting, psychological picture of the power that corrupts and its various facets.