Sacrifice

Sacrifice is the most powerful of Rabindranath’s dramas of the first period when on the Shakespearean model he wrote plays of action and character. There is wealth of detail as well as economy of expression.In 1917 when the First World War was at its height Tagore dedicated the English version of ‘Sacrifice’ ‘to those heroes who bravely stood for peace when human sacrifice was claimed for the Goddess of War’. Tagore however was also aware of the limitations of nationalism which deifies one’s own country and could lead to naked violence unless illuminated by peace and tolerance. A theme which finds symbolic representation in the play ‘Sacrifice’.