Clifford Geertz compared his role vis-à-vis Arjuna to that of Prince Hal with his father in Shakespeare's Henry IV, and his role as critic of the play's worldview and antidote to pride as similar to Falstaff.
Semar | Semar Gugat |
The example of this process is the adoptions of large numbers of sanskrit loanwords into old Javanese, and the Javanization of Indian Hindu epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata into Javanese version, and incorporating local deities such as Semar and Punakawan into their Wayang Purwa stories.
One of the many major changes is the inclusion of the all-powerful Javanese indigenous deity dhayana Guardian God of Java Semar (in Balinese literature known as Twalen) and his misshapen sons, Gareng, Petruk, and Bagong who make up the numerically significant four Punokawan or "clown servants".
In Nano Riantiarno's Semar Gugat (1995), for instance, Petruk appears as a son of Semar who abandons him after the latter loses his powers.
In an unusual incident in Purwakarta in West Java in September 2011, for example, four wayang statues (of Gatotkaca, Semar, Bima, and Nakula-Sadewa) were destroyed.
It follows the traditional wayang character Semar as he attempts— and fails— to take revenge against Arjuna and Srikandi for humiliating him by cutting off a lock of his hair while they are under the influence of the demon queen Durga.