the tempest colonization essay

Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ explores colonialism, resistance and liberation

Tomlinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies, McGill University

PhD Candidate, McGill University

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Last winter, at the Studio Theatre at Ryerson University in downtown Toronto, Canadian actor Antoine Yared played Caliban in The Tempest . He stood, centre stage, looking out over the audience as he reassured his companions that the magic music of the island should not frighten them. He said:

“The isle is full of noises … that give delight and hurt not.”

But his face told the audience a different story — the story of a man heartbroken for what had been taken from him.

We chose Shakespeare’s The Tempest as the centrepiece for our “Playing for Free” workshop because the play has been entangled with the history of slavery and freedom in the west for over 400 years.

The Tempest tells the story of the Duke of Milan, Prospero, who many years before had come to the island with his infant daughter. Upon arriving, Prospero enslaved two of its inhabitants, Caliban and the spirit Ariel. The play follows three interconnecting plotlines: Prospero’s revenge plan against his enemies; how his daughter, Miranda, falls in love with the son of his chief enemy; and how Caliban plans to destroy Prospero and take back the island.

Many consider the play an allegory of European colonization , and throughout the centuries, Caliban’s character has featured prominently in arguments that defend or resist against colonialist tyranny.

The Tempest has also been interpreted as an allegory of liberation. The 20th-century writer Roberto Fernández Retamar declared that the insurgent Caliban spoke for the colonized peoples of the Americas. In 1993, a production by Robert Lepage in Montréal portrayed Caliban as a working-class punk-rocker in open rebellion against the elite Prospero.

The Tempest and religious conversion

In our workshop, we wanted to blend theatre and scholarship to understand how The Tempest could have been used by both European colonialists and also by advocates of resistance. We also wanted to understand how the play might still be relevant.

The workshop brought together four Stratford Festival actors, three student actors from the Ryerson Performance Program and Renaissance scholars from an international initiative dedicated to understanding how Shakespeare’s work helped create the world we live in now.

The artists and scholars worked for a day and a half toward the performance. We talked about the history of slavery and freedom, primarily by thinking about how Christian conversion had served colonization. Indeed conversion has been an instrument of domination in the Americas from 1492 and onwards into recent times .

Forced conversion haunts the play. But there is another kind of conversion in the play where characters achieve the freedom to be true to themselves.

Caliban: Searching for the Other

Prospero attempts to strip away Caliban’s dignity. Prospero forces him to remain “stied” in a hard rock. In the Ryerson performance, Antoine Yared playing Caliban chose his first moments on stage carefully. Rather than obeying Prospero’s commands to “come,” he walked past Prospero, his back turned in a sign of his rebellion. For Caliban, even the act of walking around the Island, his home, was now charged with submission or defiance.

When Caliban encountered the shipwrecked servants he would recruit as co-conspirators against Prospero and when one of them fed him liquor, Caliban thought he had at last come face to face with God. He said to the drunken servant:

“Hath thou not dropped from heaven? … I prithee be my god.”

The drunk Caliban began singing and shouting:

“Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom!, high-day, freedom!”

But when the invisible Ariel began to make her magical music, the two servants quaked in terror. They knelt at Caliban’s feet. Caliban rose up — straight and fine like a young tree. He stood triumphantly over the two trembling servants. The music was something he knew well. It was nothing to be afraid of.

“Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked I cried to dream again.”

That was in rehearsal. But when Yared played Caliban in front of the audience, he changed the way he did the speech. His lines about the music of the island were no longer triumphant. They were something that could break your heart.

Yared’s Caliban was a man who had once been at one with the natural world, but who had been cast out and could only recapture some sense of the beauty of nature by dreaming. When he said, “I cried to dream again,” it was as if he were a man turning and turning, trying to find the beloved he had lost.

The workshop taught the actors, the scholars and the members of the audience how the play The Tempest , with its depiction of slavery, resistance and love might have challenged people of the past to see Caliban’s humanity and might also speak to audiences in the 21st century.

Yared’s Caliban left us with this urgent question. It was as if he were echoing Ariel and asking the audience:

“If you have eyes to see this suffering one, if you are human, your affections would become tender.”

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The Tempest

William shakespeare.

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During the time when The Tempest was written and first performed, both Shakespeare and his audiences would have been very interested in the efforts of English and other European settlers to colonize distant lands around the globe. The Tempest explores the complex and problematic relationship between the European colonizer and the native colonized peoples through the relationship between Prospero and Caliban. Prospero views Caliban as a lesser being than himself. As such, Prospero believes that Caliban should be grateful to him for educating Caliban and lifting him out of "savagery." It simply does not occur to Prospero that he has stolen rulership of the island from Caliban, because Prospero can't imagine Caliban as being fit to rule anything. In contrast, Caliban soon realizes that Prospero views him as a second-class citizen fit only to serve and that by giving up his rulership of the island in return for his education, he has allowed himself to be robbed. As a result, Caliban turns bitter and violent, which only reinforces Prospero's view of him as a "savage." Shakespeare uses Prospero and Caliban's relationship to show how the misunderstandings between the colonizer and the colonized lead to hatred and conflict, with each side thinking that the other is at fault.

In addition to the relationship between the colonizer and colonized, The Tempest also explores the fears and opportunities that colonization creates. Exposure to new and different peoples leads to racism and intolerance, as seen when Sebastian criticizes Alonso for allowing his daughter to marry an African. Exploration and colonization led directly to slavery and the conquering of native peoples. For instance, Stephano and Trinculo both consider capturing Caliban to sell as a curiosity back at home, while Stephano eventually begins to see himself as a potential king of the island. At the same time, the expanded territories established by colonization created new places in which to experiment with alternative societies. Shakespeare conveys this idea in Gonzalo's musings about the perfect civilization he would establish if he could acquire a territory of his own.

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Colonization in the Tempest

This essay will analyze themes of colonization and imperialism in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” It will discuss how the play reflects and critiques Elizabethan attitudes towards colonization, and the dynamics between the characters that represent colonial power and those that represent the colonized. Also at PapersOwl you can find more free essay examples related to Colonization.

How it works

Imperialism started significantly sooner with the revelation of America. It was a major issue during Shakespeare’s time. The opening up of new wildernesses and new land being found invigorated European data. Shakespeare’s creative mind has considered this. Investigation of new geological spaces and control of those terrains by the travelers is essentially what we know by imperialism.

Deciphered as a white man’s weight, colonization was a method for vanquishing new grounds and forcing the colonizer’s way of life from on the local individuals.

Prospero’s catch of Sycorax’s territory and his treatment of the locals of the island have incited numerous pundits to decipher the play as working out the dramatization of colonization. Caliban’s dissent against Prospero and his protection from pilgrim power utilizing the language instructed by the colonizer assists us with interpreting the play as a postcolonial text.

The Tempest has frequently been deciphered as a play about expansionism principally in light of the fact that Prospero goes to Sycorax’s island, quells her, manages the land, and forces his own way of life on individuals of the land. In this understanding, Prospero isn’t seen principally as a caring dad of Miranda and kind ruler rather usurping Caliban’s Island from him (Caliban). However, putting him under subjugation and sabotaging him as a beast, we can accept Prospero as a delegate of the Europeans who usurped the place where there are local Americans and oppressed them. He, as a feeling of prevalence, accepts Caliban as half man. Pushing the local aside, he puts himself in charge of issues. He uproots Caliban’s mom and treats her as a monster. He has full authority over everything on the island. He makes Caliban fill in as his work and considers him a thing of murkiness. Caliban is being dehumanized or treated as subhuman. Like Europeans fantasizes the others like a wild man, Prospero, in this play, depicts Caliban as disfigured, abhorrent grinning, deceptive, boozer, brutal, savage, and fallen angel revering and so forth As per Prospero, he isn’t even the human rather conceived villain.

This shows the colonizer’s mentality of peering down on the colonized individuals. Caliban is viewed as a terrible element. The whites peered down on individuals of another shading. Some are destined to rule while others are destined to be ruled. Caliban is treated as mediocre. The colonizer utilized words like light, information, and intelligence to allude to himself while he utilized terms like obscurity, obliviousness and essential to portray the colonized. This twofold resistance shows how Prospero as a colonizer makes substances about the colonized individuals. Prospero considers himself to be a ruler doing the undertaking of civilization mission. The manner in which light dissipates haziness and information disperses obliviousness Prospero as a colonizer teaches and cultivates Caliban yet absent a lot of accomplishment. The socializing mission is constantly joined by the legislative issues of mastery over the colonized. These components permit us to examine the play in the light of expansionism.

From a frontier viewpoint, we see the play through the eyes of colonizers. In any case, in the event that we see the play according to the post-frontier point of view, Caliban is arising against from the earliest starting point of control. The disdain towards the colonizer is exceptionally extraordinary and solid among the colonized. Prospero controls everyone and each activity in the play. Everyone on the island is controlled by Prospero the manner in which a manikin ace controls his manikins. Caliban as a colonized needs to strike back on the colonizer. Caliban is rebellious and makes issues for the colonizer. He endeavors to assault Miranda and it is a danger presented to the security of the colonizer. He discloses to Prospero that the land that Prospero rules was powerfully detracted from his mom. Like Caliban’s dissent, in world history, also fight has started with the introduction of imperialism itself. He essentially says, ”I wish it were finished”. Notwithstanding this, Caliban over and over claims that the land is to be acquired on him. It implies he is by all accounts defended in asserting that the island initially had a place with him.

At the point when Prospero attempts to show the language, Caliban consistently would not present. Caliban, in this manner, stays toward the end what he was toward the start. No change happens in Caliban’s temperament. Here, Prospero, similar to White men is in the dream that they are working for them (colonized). Yet, such an idea is fizzled in light of the fact that Caliban doesn’t become familiar with his (Prosper) language, even toward the finish of the play. The play shows the opposition of the predominance class. Whatever he has learned, he utilizes it in reviling Prospero. These endeavors by Caliban to dissent and oppose the colonizer can uphold our post-pioneer understanding of the play.

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The Tempest

by William Shakespeare

Does Shakespeare Critique European Colonialism in The Tempest?

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English and Social Studies at Northland Christian School.

Since the 1960s, several critics have found a critique of colonialism in their respective readings of Shakespeare's The Tempest . The most radical of these analyses takes Prospero to be a European invader of the magical but primitive land that he comes to rule, using his superior knowledge to enslave its original inhabitants, most notably Caliban, and forcing them to do his bidding. While the textual clues concerning the geographic location of Prospero's island are ambiguous and vague, there is a prominent reference to the "Bermoothes." We know that shortly before he wrote his final play, Shakespeare read a contemporary travel account of the Virginia Company's 1609 expedition to the New World and its experience after being run aground on the island of Bermuda. Enslavement does surface in Prospero's realm. The grand magician/scholar inflicts "pinches" and "cramps" upon Caliban to keep him in line and he manacles the young prince Ferdinand's neck and feet together. The servile state in which he keeps Caliban is plainly and understandably a cause of the "ridiculous monster's" deep resentment toward his overlord, and it is with some justification that the spawn of Sycorax invokes nature's wrath upon his tormentor, as in his curse, "all the infections that the sun sucks up/From bogs, fens, flats on Prospero fall ..." (II, ii., ll.1-2).

Caliban himself embodies many of the characteristics that civilized Europeans came to associate with the "primitive natives" of the New World. As in the Elizabethan stereotype, Caliban is without moral restraint, and, more specifically, he is lustful in the same way that Native Americans were viewed in the early seventeenth century as dangerous despoilers of innocent white women like Miranda. And, akin to the "drunken Indian," Caliban's introduction to wine causes his spirits to soar as he exclaims, "Freedom, high-day" (II, ii., l.186) after encountering his new masters and gods, the comic characters of Stephano and Trinculo. Just as Native-American tribes would come to distinguish between colonizers from different nations, e.g., favoring the French over the British or vice versa, Caliban becomes disenchanted with Trinculo as a master and proclaims that he will only serve Stephano. For his part, like some great father protecting his children from a European rival, Stephano rebukes Trinculo for his mistreatment of Caliban, saying that "the poor monster's my subject, and he shall not suffer indignity" (III, ii., ll.36-37). All of this closely resembles some aspects of European colonialist stereotypes of the New World's peoples and of their historical subjugation of Indians for their own good.

If Shakespeare's play does comment upon European exploration and colonization in the Western Hemisphere, however, The Tempest does not contain a critique of exploitation, but, instead, an apology for it. Caliban was initially treated as an ignorant child and only put under wraps after he attempted to force himself upon the completely innocent Miranda. The charge of "rape" is made more credible in having Miranda pass judgment upon Caliban whom she calls an "Abhorr'd slave" (I, ii., l.352). Unlike our current understanding of European colonialism, Prospero puts Caliban in chains because he has earned the status of slave. To highlight this point, the sprite Ariel's bondage to Prospero is a light yoke, akin to indentured servitude. In exchange for releasing him from his imprisonment in a tree stump, Ariel has agreed to serve his new, benevolent master Prospero. Indeed, in Act I, scene ii, Prospero and Ariel acknowledge that the latter's servitude is a deal between equals, and that Prospero has kept his word to reduce Ariel's term by a full year because the sprite has performed his assigned duties "without grudge or grumblings" (l.248). Prospero later promises Ariel that he will discharge him within two days time and does, in fact, make good on his word.

Shakespeare's attitude toward European colonization of the New World amounts to a gentle rebuke of the benign, but misguided stance of Gonzalo toward the state of nature in a primitive commonwealth. Gonzalo's "ideal commonwealth" speech (Act II, scene i., ll.143-164), closely resembles the depiction of primitive society contained in the French philosopher Montaigne's essay "On Cannibals" with which Shakespeare was certainly familiar. In that piece, Montaigne described Native-American society as being without "traffic" (i.e., commerce), without "letters" (i.e., literacy and knowledge) and without "toil" (i.e., vocational work). But when Gonzalo speaks in glowing terms of a society "without sovereignty" and, even more remarkable "without sweat or endeavor," Prospero's brother Antonio asserts that under such conditions, the citizens would soon become idle "whores and knaves" (l.167). In Caliban's case at least, Antonio appears to have a point. Although Ariel provides a sterling example of a good native, we realize that such good natives are subject to enslavement and abuse by the Island's evil-minded denizens, including Sycorax and her heir-apparent in Caliban, and therefore require the protection of a learned and moral sovereign like Prospero.

One can question whether Shakespeare had any intention of weighing in on the subject of European colonization at all. The shipwreck at the start of the play is plainly not intended as a dramatization of an actual occurrence such as that of the Virginia Company. The stranding of the ships European passengers is simply a standard narrative device that the Bard employed in other of his plays, in Twelfth Night for example. Moreover, unlike the Spanish, French, and English in the Age of Discovery, it is not Prospero's intention to establish a new society on the Island or to retain his sway over its inhabitants. Rather, Prospero is pushed by circumstances into the role of the Island's sovereign power, and once his aim of exacting justice and repentance from those who have wronged him is met, he quickly relinquishes his monarchy over the Island. This, of course, does not accord with the actual, historical pattern of European conquest.

On the other hand, there is a political theme of sorts in The Tempest , that of the ideal king, for in the character of Prospero Shakespeare embeds the three characteristics of an ideal monarch: legitimacy, merit, and merciful justice. Prospero was (and remains) the legitimate Duke of Milan and Shakespeare underscores in Act II when the usurper of his realm, Antonio, schemes to overthrow King Alonso. In the end, however, both Antonio and Alonso are compelled by Prospero to recognize his status as the rightful ruler of Milan. Indeed, Prospero's legitimacy is bolstered by popular support: when Miranda asks why the conspirators did not simply kill her father and herself (rather than setting them adrift), Prospero tells her that they were deterred from such a heinous crime due to the love that the people of Milan had for him. The central criteria that Prospero uses in framing his policies on the Island is merit. Ariel earns his freedom; Caliban deserves his enslavement; Ferdinand wins the hand of Miranda through hard labor and self-sacrifice. Of greatest significance, once Prospero has extracted a confession from his transgressors, he imposes no punishment upon them. Prospero subordinates his personal desire for revenge to his appreciation of mercy and forgiveness, qualities that distinguish humanity from the beasts and that serve as hallmarks of the worthy sovereign.

Cite this page as follows:

Foster, Michael. "The Tempest - Does Shakespeare Critique European Colonialism in The Tempest?." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 19 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/tempest/critical-essays/essays#critical-essays-essays-does-shakespeare-critique-european-colonialism>

Prospero and Shakespeare

There can be no doubt that The Tempest contains numerous references to the theater, and while many of Shakespeare's plays make reference to the dramatic arts and their analogy to real life (e.g., "all the world's a stage"), it is in this, his last play, that the Bard most explicitly acknowledges that the audience is viewing a show. Thus, in the play's final scene (Act I, scene i., ll.148ff), Prospero tells his prospective son-in-law Ferdinand that the revels at hand are almost at an end, that the actors are about to retire, and that the "insubstantial pageant" of which he has been a part has reached its conclusion. It is, in fact, tempting to equate the character of Prospero with that of his creator, the playwright Shakespeare. When Prospero sheds his magician's robes in favor of his civilian attire as the Duke of Milan, with the benefit of hindsight that this is Shakespeare's last work and his crowning achievement, we are disposed to associate the learned sorcerer with the Bard of Avon. How far we are to take this identification, however, is moot.

Prospero of The Tempest , like Shakespeare in his late Romance period, is a mature man with a daughter (Shakespeare, in fact, had two daughters, his only son dying in childhood) at the height of his intellectual and creative powers. Prospero is a polymath, a scholar with a magic book from an entire library that so absorbed him that it was, "dukedom large enough" (I, ii., l.110). Prospero displays a tinge of regret for having neglected his worldly office as Duke of Milan in favor of the life of the mind. Similarly, as virtually all of Shakespeare's biographers have observed, the Elizabethan playwright's knowledge was exceedingly broad, leading many to speculate that he pursued a number of vocations before settling into a life in the theater, and we know from textual correspondences that Shakespeare was broadly read and that he continued to absorb knowledge from diverse publications until his death. We can also speculate that Shakespeare regretted remaining away from his home in Stratford, at least insofar as his career in London kept him away from his children. Lastly, following The Tempest , Shakespeare, like Prospero, retired to civilian life, there being a period of five or six years between his composition of that play and his untimely death at the age of fifty-two.

Beyond these surface biographical parallels, Prospero's role is less that of a character than that of the imaginative or creative force behind the play itself. After the pageant of the goddesses who bless the union of Miranda and Ferdinand, Prospero explains that the effigies which they have seen are "Spirits, which by mine art/I have from their confines call'd to enact/My present fancies" (IV, i., ll.120-121). Prospero underscores that what is taking place in the play is under his control and is, in fact, his creation. Thus, when Miranda worries about the fate of those exposed to the shipwreck at the start of the play, her father reassures her that despite the appearances of disaster, none of the boat's passengers or crew have been harmed in the least. Like the playwright/director/producer that Shakespeare was, Prospero remains in the background. Rather than confront the "three sinners" directly, he assigns the task of telling Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian why they have been brought to the island and of their need to repent to Ariel, the magician remaining hidden from their view.

We gain the sense that Prospero performs multiple functions in the theater of his own creation. Among these roles is that of critic. Prospero repeatedly assesses the performance of his actors. Thus¸ in Act III, scene iii, he says to Ariel, "Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou/Perform'd, my Ariel" (III, iii., ll.81-82). He also places Ferdinand in the role of a traitor/lackey and judges the young man's performance of that part as a means of determining his worthiness to wed Miranda. To his credit, Prospero also critiques his own direction, apologizing to Ferdinand for inflicting punishments upon him that may have seemed too austere (IV, i., ll.1-2). Like Shakespeare, then, Prospero's relation to the theater is multi-dimensional; he is an actor in the play, he is the creator of its most spectacular scenes and its over-arching dramatic lines, he is the director of others, and, lastly, he acts as critic of the performances turned in by his actors and his own part in the play.

Shakespeare's plays were performed on an outdoor stage without lighting. Starting in the early afternoon, they had to be completed before sundown and many of theme require temporal precision in the entrances and exits of cast members and the use of special effects, e.g., the moaning of the ghost in Hamlet. That being so, both the amount of time elapsed and the occurrence of narrative events was crucial to the success of the performance. In his capacity as stage manager, Prospero is continuously concerned with time. At the very start of the play, Prospero says to Miranda that "The hour is now come/The very minute bids thee ope ear" (I, ii., ll.37-38) to the story of how they were shipwrecked together on the island a dozen years or more beforehand. The reason that it is time for Miranda to learn of her background (and it is remarkable that she has not asked about it sooner) lies in dramatic circumstance: it is time for Miranda to be told who she is because the miscreants who wronged her and her father are now in lace to repent of their misdeeds. Prospero repeatedly alludes to the need to keep his plans on schedule, uses the word "now" more than forty times at salient instances coming at the start of Act V, when he proclaims to Ariel and his audience, "Now does my project gather to a head," (V, i., l.1). Like an Elizabethan stage manager, Prospero controls the pace and flow of events, making sure that the proceedings occur within the allotted time period, in proper order, and at the exact moment in the story's progression. Nevertheless, the identification between Prospero and Shakespeare is not exact. For one thing, Prospero on the Island and in Milan, is an aristocrat, a noble bound by solemn obligation to rule over his subjects. Shakespeare, on the other hand, while honored by royalty never rose above the upper ranks of the Elizabethan middle-class. By the same token, Prospero has no commercial life, no concern with money or material gain. The same cannot be said of his creator, Shakespeare having extensive financial interests in real estate, commodity trading, and, above all, the theater itself.

Foster, Michael. "The Tempest - Prospero and Shakespeare." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 19 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/tempest/critical-essays/essays#critical-essays-essays-prospero-shakespeare>

Ariel and Allegory in The Tempest

The temptation to regard The Tempest as an allegory has proved irresistible to critics, although opinions differ on what it might be an allegory of, and what the principal figures might represent. In this essay I wish to discuss the character of Ariel, who has received less attention than either Caliban or Prospero. If The Tempest is an allegory then each of its characters should fulfil some representative function. Prospero is generally associated with the playwright (or even, which amounts to much the same thing in some views, with God) as he controls the action on stage. Caliban is taken to represent the physical aspect of humanity, or the 'will', his uncivilised condition making him close to the beasts. In this view, Prospero represents intellect (in seventeenth-century terms 'wit', or 'reason'). The opposition of 'infected will' and 'perfected wit' is a common trope of Protestant discourse, as in Sir Philip Sidney's 'Defense of Poesie'. Ariel, then, ('an airy spirit' in the 'Names of the Actors') might represent a third part of the self, the soul or spirit, but at this point the allegory seems to break down, in that Ariel is clearly not Prospero's immortal soul, or the divine part in man, as he is under the control of Prospero as intellect, and in fact performs the action of the play just as Prospero directs it.

Frank Kermode, in his introduction to the Arden edition, criticises the tendency to allegorical interpretation, and seems to have imbibed something of the late Shakespeare's insistence on the importance of Chastity. 'It is not surprising that The Tempest has sent people whoring after strange gods of allegory' (p.lxxx) and most modern attitudes to the play are largely the product of romantic criticism with its dangerous and licentious enthusiasms.' (p. lxxxi). In his valuable discussion of Ariel (Appendix B, pp. 142-145), Kermode opines 'These traces are no doubt due to the element of popular demonology in the play, and it would be foolish to expect absolute lucidity and consistency in the treatment of these ideas. It is surely remarkable that, in all that concerns Ariel the underpinning of 'natural philosophy' should be as thorough as in fact it is' (p. 143). This suggests to me a certain reluctance on Kermode's behalf to acknowledge Shakespeare's expertise in 'popular demonology', perhaps considering such knowledge to be beneath the immortal bard. Why? Is not Shakespeare's possession of such knowledge rather to be assumed than taken as a matter for surprise? He shows the fairly expert knowledge of other now unfashionable disciplines such as astrology and the semi-magical Paracelsan medicine which would be natural for an inquisitive and informed member of his culture. In Cornelius Agrippa's Occult Philosophy (translated by 'J.F.' in 1651) Ariel is a 'daemon', 'the presiding spirit of the element of earth' (Kermode, p. 142), but the resemblance is more nominal than essential. Ariel moves comfortably in all elements, and also controls lesser spirits (with which Prospero has no direct contact) to accomplish Prospero's design.

Ariel it is who performs the action of the play, the motor that powers the plot, the animating force which accomplishes Prospero's design. To enumerate all Ariel does would take some time, but his chief actions are in creating and managing the storm which opens the play (although we are not told this until 1:2:195-206), in charming to sleep (often through the use of music), in changing shape to represent a Harpy, an electrical storm, a firebrand, a marsh-light, and possibly either Ceres or Juno (Kermode, p. 105, l. 167), in becoming invisible, in dressing up like a water-nymph (of which more later), in becoming invisible, in leading the enchanted from place to place, and in controlling and setting on lesser spirits. Ariel is reported as flying, flaming, entering the "veins o'th'earth", and going beneath the sea. In the negative, Ariel has told no lies, made no mistakings, and obeyed Prospero without grudge or grumble, and Prospero states that ariel is 'a spirit too delicate to act her [Sycorax's] earthy and abhorred commands' and was therefore imprisoned 'by help of her more potent ministers'.

Prospero's relationship with ariel is close and affectionate. Although at our introduction to Ariel (1:2) they are arguing, and Prospero threatens and bullies Ariel, saying 'thou liest, malignant thing', (Ariel later repeats 'thou liest' several times to Caliban), once the action of the play begins on the island their relationship is shown in a better light. Prospero calls Ariel 'my bird', 'my industrious servant', 'my chick', 'My tricksy spirit', 'my diligence', 'fine Ariel'. Ariel asks Prospero 'Do you love me, master, no?', and Prospero replies 'Dearly, my delicate Ariel' (4:1:48-49). Some of this is a sort of shared aesthetic appreciation: 'Bravely the figure of this Harpy hast thou performed, my Ariel: a grace it had devouring' (3:3:83-84), and some of Ariel's eagerness to please Prospero can be attributed to the promise of imminent release, but there seems to be a genuine affection between the two which adds resonance to a crucial moment in the play, when Ariel seems to convince Prospero of the need for forgiveness and reconciliation.

Ariel : if you now beheld them, your affections Would become tender. Pros.: Dost thou think so, spirit? Ariel : Mine would, sir, were I human. Pros .: And mine shall. Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling Of their afflictions, and shall not myself One of their kind, that relish all as sharply Passion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art? Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th'quick Yet with my nobler reason gainst my fury Do I take part: the rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance. (5:1:18-28)

This affection is only reinforced when Prospero expresses his regret at losing Ariel: 'Why that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee; But yet thou shalt have freedom, so, so, so.' (5:1:95-96).

For Nora Johnson, in her subtle analysis of The Tempest , which sees it as a commentary on theatrical representation, takes the closeness of Prospero and Ariel's relationship to imply something further. She describes Ariel as 'the delicate theatrical spirit', noting that 'it is Ariel who performs the real theater in the play, who stages tempests and provides musical interludes' (p.278). In connection with Ariel's being instructed to appear as a water-nymph (1:2:301-305) she remarks 'Prospero's possession of Ariel is itself an occasion for erotic display', since there is no apparent motive for this costume change: 'there is no reason – except pleasure – for an invisible nymph to dress up.' (p.283). This does seem gratuitous (although Kermode remarks that water-nymphs had previously appeared on the London stage, and were recognisable to the public), and I think Nora has a point. Ariel must have been played by a particularly attractive boy to warrant such an extravagant use of costumes. Whether Shakespeare 'intended' that Prospero should be seen to gain erotic pleasure from Ariel's display is uncertain: elsewhere Ariel is 'but air', and no suggestion of a mutual sexual relation is likely. It is perhaps the audience which is being titillated by this voyeurism.

As a spirit, Ariel is asexual, but nevertheless adopts female forms: the Harpy and either Ceres or Juno are female. At no point does Ariel impersonate a male figure. If Ariel had a sex, on this evidence it would be female. Nora Johnson perceives one more transformation; in the Epilogue, Prospero 'seems to be Ariel, longing to be freed.' (p.285).

The Epilogue has been much discussed, with some critics interpreting it as evidence for The Tempest being Shakespeare's 'farewell to theatre'. Others disagree. Grant White, cited in Furness' New Varorium edition (n.1, p.267) is forceful and entertaining in his dismissal of the Epistle as not being Shakespeare's at all: 'Will any one familiar with his works believe, that after writing such a play, he would write an Epilogue in which the feeble, trite ideas are confined within stiff couplets, or else carried into the middle of a third line, and left there in helpless consternation, like an awkward booby, who suddenly finds himself alone in the centre of a ballroom?' Frank Kermode, in his recent Shakespeare's Language (1999) is clearly such a one. 'The Epistle – one of ten of shakespeare's that survive – is a conventional appeal for applause. There is no good reason to suppose that this example of the genre is dedicated to personal allegory.' (p.300). From their different perspectives on the likely authorship of the Epilogue, both agree that it does not form part of a farewell to theatre on Shakespeare's behalf.

To return to Ariel, the star performer, shape-changer and musician, Prospero and Ariel share an excitement in performance which, after their initial contractual wranglings, binds them close together in a common purpose and mutual pleasure. Although Ariel is 'but air' there are signs of sympathy with human suffering. Humanity seems to leach across the barrier. If The Tempest is an allegory, then Nora Johnson is probably closest in describing Ariel as 'a delicate theatrical spirit' a figure representing the essence of theatre. If performing Ariel must have presented great technical challenges on the Jacobean stage, the problem for a modern production is to encourage the suspension of disbelief in the audience whilst avoiding comparison with the fairies and principal boys of Pantomime.

1. Sometimes called 'Apology for Poetry'.

2. Nora Johnson, 'Body and Spirit, Stage and Sexuality in The Tempest ' (in) Political Shakespeare, (eds) Stephen Orgel and Sean Keilen, Volume 9 of Shakespeare, the Critical Complex , Garland Publishing, New York and London, (1999), pp. 271-290.

3. Horace Howard Furness (ed.), The Tempest , A New Varorium Edition, J.P. Lippincott, Philadelphia, (1895).

Foster, Michael. "The Tempest - Ariel and Allegory in The Tempest." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 19 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/tempest/critical-essays/essays#critical-essays-essays-ariel-allegory-tempest>

Caliban: A Character Study

Caliban is the only authentic native of what is often called 'Prospero's Island'. However, he is not an indigenous islander, his mother Sycorax was from Argier, and his father Setebos seems to have been a Patagonian deity. Sycorax was exiled from Argier for witchcraft, much like Prospero himself, and Caliban was born on the island. Caliban's own understanding of his position is made eloquently plain when we first meet him:

I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam'st first, Thou strok'st me, and made much of me, would'st give me Water with berries in't, and teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night. And then I loved thee, And showed thee all the qualities o'th'isle, The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile. Cursed be I that did so! All the charms Of Sycorax – toads, beetles, bats light on you!< For I am all the subjects that you have, Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest o'th'island. (1.2.330-344)

We can clearly sense Caliban's resentment of what he sees as a colonial occupation of his island. The story of his upbringing is not so simple, however. It seems that when Prospero and his infant daughter arrived on the island twelve years before, Caliban was an orphan, his mother having died. This is not entirely clear: in conversation with Ariel (formerly Sycorax's spirit) Prospero recalls the 'blue eyed hag', 'The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy, Was grown into a hoop' (1.2.258-259), but it is not clear whether he ever met her.

What we do know, as is agreed by Miranda, Prospero and Caliban himself, is that Prospero brought up Miranda and Caliban together, and that they had a close relationship, although perhaps not as close as Caliban might have wished. Prospero and Miranda were both involved in Caliban's education, and the three lived as a family until Caliban overstepped a boundary clear to the two Milanese.

Prospero : Thou most lying slave, Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used thee, Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate The honour of my child. Caliban : O ho, O ho! Would't that it had been done! Thou didst prevent me. I had peopled else This isle with Calibans. Miranda : Abhorred slave, Which any print of goodness will not take, Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage, Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes With words that made them known. (1.2.344-358)

Miranda is frankly snobbish here, but is excused by the fact that Caliban has attempted to rape her. Caliban is not at all ashamed of the incident. For Miranda, this justifies his current treatment, proving his natural inferiority:

But thy vile race, Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures Could not abide to be with. Therefore wast thou Deservedly confined into this rock, who hadst Deserved more than a prison. (1.2.358-362)

Miranda's mention of 'race' (although Caliban is almost certainly unique) introduces the question of whether it is Caliban's parentage (his genetic inheritance) which has caused him to act disgracefully, or whether his action was merely natural and understandable, except to the civilised invaders. Prospero and Miranda clearly adhere to a theory of genetic determinism, as Prospero will later reconfirm:

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost; And as with age his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers. (4.1.188-192)

The nature/nurture dichotomy remains a central figure in discussions of genetic inheritance versus education as influences on behaviour. There is some suspicion that Prospero's view of Caliban is coloured by his disappointment as a teacher, and also that Prospero is rather impatient in this role (as might be inferred from his conversation with Miranda in 1.2.).

Caliban's response to this abuse is understandable:

You taught me language, and my profit on't Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language!

Caliban rejects his education, although he cannot escape the need to express his rejection in the form he rejects. What he can do is turn his education to his own purposes; he can curse those who criticise him. This is not truly all that Caliban can do with language, however, as we shall see.

Caliban's account of his interaction with Prospero and Miranda indicates a resentment occasioned by what seems to him a betrayal (1.2.332-337, above). This is a mistake which Caliban repeats all too readily when he meets Stephano and Trinculo, two shipwrecked court functionaries (Butler and Jester), who ply him with alcohol (a typical means of enslaving the 'natives'). They describe Caliban as a 'fish', a 'mooncalf', a 'shallow', 'weak' and 'most poor credulous monster' (2.2). Caliban, drunk, declares 'I'll show thee every fertile inch o'th'island, and I will kiss thy foot. I prithee be my god' (2.2.144-145).

Caliban persuades Stephano and Trinculo to overthrow Prospero and gain control of the island. That he imagines they would be capable of it shows his credulity. When Ariel provokes an argument between the three, and then plays a tune, Caliban comforts his allies with his finest speech:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices That, if I had then waked after long sleep, Will make me dream again; and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked I cried to dream again. (3.2.136-144)

But Ariel leads them through thorns and dirty pools, and the two Neapolitans are distracted by the simple device of hanging out fancy cloths, which they gather, despite Caliban's protests.

I will have none on't. We shall lose our time, And all be turned to barnacles, or to apes With foreheads villainous low. (4.1.247-249)

The three are then hunted by spirit-dogs set on by Prospero and Ariel. When they are released from the charm, Caliban is impressed by Prospero's appearance, as he is now dressed for court. Prospero describes Caliban as a 'demi-devil' (5.1.272) and declares 'This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine' (5.1.275-276). Caliban is chastened, and seeks Prospero's pardon.

I'll be wise hereafter, And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass Was I to take this drunkard for a god, And worship this dull fool! (5.1.295-298)

In Caliban, Shakespeare combines something of the traditional Elizabethan figure of the 'savage' or wild man with reports of the native peoples of the New World. From Prospero and Miranda's perspective, Caliban is genetically inferior, irredeemably savage and uneducable. They feel their care and kindness have been betrayed. Caliban also feels betrayed: he has lost his island to the foreigners, who have taken advantage of him, and now treat him as a slave, held in check by cramps and pinches. Both cases are understandable. For Prospero, Caliban seems to represent a personal failure and disappointment; the persistence of evil in the face of humane treatment. In this, he is like Antonio, who had betrayed Prospero in Milan.

Caliban is certainly naïve; his reaction to Stephano and Trinculo demonstrates this. The question remains open as to whether at the end of the play he has learned from his mistakes. When Stephano and Trinculo are deflected from their plot by Prospero's trick, Caliban is angry, calling the booty 'luggage', but he is nevertheless impressed by Prospero's change of costume, so his credulity may not have been entirely overcome. While he does say that he will 'seek for grace hereafter', which would indicate a religious impulse for self-improvement, Prospero's judgement remains negative; he is a 'thing of darkness' still. Prospero, however, has reacted excessively to Caliban's actions throughout the play; Caliban's rebellion never posed any real threat, but causes Prospero to abandon the Masque he has arranged for Ferdinand and Miranda's betrothal in some confusion.

Caliban remains the focus of much critical interest, he is an intriguing figure with many resonances in a post-colonial age, and one whom Shakespeare treats with typical balance, allowing expression to both sides of the question, and leaving much to the interpretation.

Foster, Michael. "The Tempest - Caliban: A Character Study." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 19 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/tempest/critical-essays/essays#critical-essays-essays-caliban-character-study>

Themes in The Tempest

The Tempest is generally considered to be Shakespeare's last sole-authored play. As early as 1875 it was identified as one of a group of late Shakespearean 'Romances' with Pericles , The Winter's Tale , and Cymbeline . The Tempest differs markedly from these others, however, in containing the action within the 'classical unities' of time and place (meaning that the duration of the performance is equal to that of the events depicted, and that the action is confined to one geographical area, requirements which the other romances entirely disregard.) The Tempest is a very beautiful play, beautifully constructed and beautifully written. Such is its atmosphere that many commentators have considered it to be a religious, or at least 'spiritual' play.

There is no single source for the play, as far as anyone can prove, but it issued from and into a culture newly excited by reports from Virginia and the Bermudas, and seems to have drawn on these contemporary accounts, on Ovid's Metamorphoses , (both in the original Latin and in Golding's translation), on Virgil's Aeneid , on the genre of 'Romance', and perhaps on the Bible. A further source seems to be Michael de Montaigne's 'Of Cannibals', a work which equates the state of nature to an Edenic innocence, and civilisation with the Fall. The Tempest has generally been read with two interlinked interpretive strategies: it has been seen as a personal allegory, and as a highly Christian work.

The play draws a number of oppositions, some of which it dramatises, and some of which it only implies. Prospero, a figure exhibiting many resemblances to the Elizabethan idea of the 'Mage', (of whom the best known is probably Dr. John Dee), is opposed to both his corrupt brother, usurper of his role as Duke of Milan, and to Sycorax, an evil witch and mother of the 'deformed slave' Caliban. Sycorax does not enter the action of the play, having died before it opens, but enough is made of her evil disposition and behaviour to show Prospero as a model of human virtue in comparison. This despite Prospero's own use of magic to accomplish his will, and his bullying of the spirit Ariel and his threats to and punishments of Caliban. Prospero's role is central to the play, he is in control of the action throughout, through the exercise of his 'Art'. A further contrast is drawn between Miranda, Prospero's daughter, and Caliban. Both were brought up together by Prospero since his arrival on Caliban's Island, but Caliban has not responded suitably to Prospero's civilising education. Miranda, however, in line with the tenor of Shakespeare's late plays in particular, is a model of chastity and virtue. Caliban's 'ingratitude' would seem to result from what we would call his genetic inheritance. Miranda calls him:

Abhorred slave Which any print of goodness will not take (1:2:353-354) [FN4]

And Prospero

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost. (4:1:188-190)

The opposition of nature and nurture is made explicitly here, a distinction which has had its cultural importance restated in new terms since Darwin and the revolution in genetic biology. The Tempest is involved in a discussion of 'nobility', seen here as a matter of inheritance, but in the opposition of Prospero and his brother Antonio we see that inheritance has two sides. Antonio betrayed Prospero and stole his inheritance (materially; his Dukedom), so virtue, 'nobility', is not entirely a matter of having noble parentage.

A further denotation of nobility, in line with fashionable Neo-Platonism is that the beautiful are good, and the ugly, wicked. This is explicit in Miranda's case, both in herself and in the attitudes she expresses:

There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill spirit have so fair a house Good things will strive to dwell with't. (1:2:460-462)

Caliban, on the other hand, is 'deformed', and described as a 'fish' and a 'monster'

As with age his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers. (4:1:191-192)

It is not so simple, however. At this very point Prospero has sunk to a level not much above Caliban's:

I will plague them all Even to roaring (4:1:192-193)

And Caliban himself is capable of making one of the finest speeches of the play, and of saying, when Prospero has thought better of punishing, and renounced his supernatural power:

I'll be wise hereafter And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass Was I, to take this drunkard for a god, And worship this dull fool. (5:1:294-297)

As Frank Kermode wisely notes in his introduction to the Arden Edition (1961): Nature is not, in The Tempest , defined with the single-minded clarity of a philosophical proposition. Shakespeare's treatment of the theme has what all his mature poetry has, a richly analytical approach to ideas, which never reaches after a naked opinion of true or false.

Nature contra Nurture is only one theme among many in The Tempest , and many critics have concentrated on the resolution of the play, which is seen as a Christian affirmation of the power of forgiveness and reconciliation. Prospero seems to be persuaded by Ariel that forgiveness rather than punishment is the better course.

Ari . If you now beheld them your affections Would become tender. Pros . Dost thou think so, spirit ? Ari . Mine would, sir, were I human. Pros . And mine shall. (5:1:18-20)

No discussion of themes or of structural oppositions between characters can give a picture of the extraordinary atmosphere of The Tempest , which might certainly be considered either magical or religious. The Masque element in The Tempest (which has provoked a considerable amount of discussion) might be seen as a parody of the increasingly fashionable and elaborate masques of the Jacobean court in which Shakespeare's rival and friend Ben Jonson specialised. These Neo-Platonist concoctions of comedy, high-sounding philosophy, songs, complicated stage machinery, mythological drama, sumptuous costume and all-night dancing became almost a religion at Charles' court.

Prospero interrupts his masque, performed by spirits in mythological guise, on the recollection of the conspiracy of Caliban, Stephano and Trincuro, who are, however, stuck in a filthy pond, and clearly offer no present threat, if any at all. They are like the comedic villains of the anti-masque, and here Shakespeare plays with the emerging conventions of the masque just as he composes a perfectly-formed classical drama. In The Tempest the villains reverse this effect by interrupting the divine masque, cancelling its magic, but only for the 'real' Prospero, the 'real' magician to defeat evil and bring all to a reconciliation.

It is at this moment (4:1) that Prospero, so much in control of events on the island (if only through a quite neurotic vigilance) seems closest to the harassed and not altogether likeable Duke in Measure for Measure , another play in which a Duke controls the action from the stage. With all his power, which is expressed most fully oratorically, both at this point (4:1:148-158) and in his abjuration of magic (5:1:33), Prospero seems sometimes in danger of becoming despotic. As Caliban says when we first meet him:

For I am all the subjects that you have, Which first was mine own King: and here you sty me In this hard rock. (1:2:343-345)

That there is some justice in Caliban's attitude to his 'master' has been the focus of some recent critical attention. Shakespeare, who seems always to have had a keen interest in questions which we would now call 'political' introduces the question of power in the first Act.

What cares these roarers for the name of King ? (1:1:16-17) If you can command these elements to silence use your authority. (1:1:21-23)

It is only Prospero who does have the authority to still the storm, which was raised at his command, and this (perhaps) gives him the authority to be Duke of Milan again; at least it gives him the opportunity, in that he is able to shipwreck his treacherous brother on his island. Yet we are shown him threatening both Caliban and Ariel in order to maintain his control. His continual insistence on Miranda and Ferdinand's chastity seems somewhat neurotic, although critics have excused this as normal parental concern, or as one of the necessary conditions for white magic. It is Prospero's eventual relinquishing of power which entitles him to regain it. In my opinion, Shakespeare is associating true authority with renunciation, not with the exercise of tyrannical power.

NOTES 1. Edward Dowden, Shakspere, His Mind and Art , (1875).

2. The most extreme and recent example being The Tempest as Mystery Play: Uncovering Religious Sources of Shakespeare's Most Spiritual Work , Grace R.W. Hall, McFarland & Company, Jefferson: North Carolina, (1999).

3. From John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essayes , (1603).

4. All citations and references are to Frank Kermode's Arden Edition, to the excellent introduction of which I am indebted throughout.

5. In the Masque , the anti-masque is a comedic prelude in which the villainous characters (of lower-class origin) plot against virtue and established power-relations. In the Masque proper divine beings (frequently played by courtiers) would step in and defeat the evil plot, whereupon the cast would leave the stage and dance with the audience.

6. Paul Brown, 'This Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge Mine' (in) Political Shakespeare , (eds) J. Dollimore & A. Sinfield, Manchester University Press, Manchester, (1996), pp. 48-71.

Foster, Michael. "The Tempest - Themes in The Tempest." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 19 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/tempest/critical-essays/essays#critical-essays-essays-themes-tempest>

Father-Daughter Relationships in Shakespeare's Pericles, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest

"This form, this face, this life Living to live in a world of time beyond me; ... My daughter.” - T.S. Eliot, "Marina".

The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the ways in which father-daughter relationships define both structure and theme in Shakespeare's Pericles , The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest . While avoiding the issue of the exact nature of Shakespeare's crisis of c. 1607-1609, we shall nevertheless agree with Dover Wilson that a conversion of some kind took place as a result of that crisis, allowing the frame of mind which was to produce the transition from the tragedies to the romance plays. Perhaps, as Wilson asserts, "by the help of a woman (...perhaps by his daughter), the spiritual convalescent recovered his lost self and his love of the countryside...” Indeed, it is not unreasonable to assume that Shakespeare's return to Stratford at this period, and his renewed contact with his daughters, Susanna in particular, provided the environment in which the concerns of family, continuity and reconciliation became pressing. The birth of a granddaughter, Elizabeth, in 1608, and the death of his mother in the same year can only have added to his preoccupation with family matters and with women.

Shakespeare had given his audience notable daughters before, in Ophelia and Cordelia among others, but it is not until Pericles that his point of view becomes that of a father recognizing redemption and even immortality in the person of his living daughter. Thus, daughters become important not only thematically but formally, in the interplay and structure of lost and found, dead and alive, impure and pure, estranged and reconcilled.

Even E.M.W. Tillyard, who disagrees with E.K. Chambers’ extreme statement of the reasons for the change in dramatic direction from the tragedies to the romances admits that "Shakespeare at the time of Pericles was being impelled along some new way of expression." Whether that play is a result of a collaboration or a reworking by Shakespeare of an earlier manuscript, we shall assume, with most critics, that Acts III to V are substantially his. While the play as a whole is structurally weak, with Acts I and II almost unrelated to III, IV and V, the last three Acts in themselves form a unified whole. Although, as in The Winter’s Tale, Pericles has lost both daughter and wife, in Pericles the action centers on what becomes of Marina. Thus, the reunion of the father and poor child who feels "This world to me is like a lasting storm,/Whirring me from my friends" (IV, i, 20-21) is the end toward which the action moves. The ultimate discovery that Thaisa is alive and her reunion with Pericles is almost an afterthought to the emotional mutually discovery of daughter and father.

Indeed, this weakest of the three plays under discussion contains the strongest statement of the significance for the father of rediscovering his daughter. It is as if she redeems him from all of the misfortunes of his life; "I am wild in my beholding./ O Heavens bless my girl? But, hark, what music?/...The music of the spheres! List, my Marina" (V, ii, 224-31). In Pericles , too, we come to identify the daughter with the uncontrollable force of the sea and of storms. Marina, by her birth at sea during a raging tempest, comes to symbolize not only the reconciliation of life and death but the uncontrollable effect of children upon their parents. Marina grows to maturity without benefit of her father's direct intervention, and she is yet "able to freeze the god Priapus, and undo a whole generation" she is so pure. In finding her, Pericles is born again, and the family unit through which he sees his immortality, is restored.

The relative failure of Pericles as a play which can sustain our continuing interest hinges on elements other than the father-daughter theme. It has been noted that the play provides "proof that the parent-child, particularly the father-daughter, relationship was assuming increased importance in Shakespeare's mind toward the end of his life." The Winter’s Tale portrays the loss of a daughter and wife, but with the circumstances radically altered. Leontes does not lose his daughter, but rather casts her out to die; he does not lose his wife, but kills her because of his irrational jealous rage. Perdita is not born in a storm, but is cast out to die in the midst of one. Yet structurally, Perdita is the thread which connects the finally repentant Leontes with the instruments of his redemption. The action of the play, up to the point at which Perdita is left to the elements, centers upon Leontes’ insane outburst against his wife and against his friends. The death of Mamillius shocks him out of his madness, but leaves him with a seemingly impossible situation. With his wife dead and his daughter cast out, even the hint of the Oracle that she might be found seems unlikely to be fulfilled: Paulina, "...therefore betake thee/To nothing but despair. A thousand knees,/Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,/Upon a barren mountain, and still winter In storm perpetual, could not move the gods/To look that way thou wert" (III, ii, 207- 12). Yet in III, iii, which is primarily concerned with Perdita, the raging storm of the first two acts is calmed, and the pastoral romance which is to mark the rest of the play begins. From this point on it is the action of Perdita and those around her which moves the play towards its conclusion.

Yet, unlike Pericles , The Winter’s Tale does not have as its climax the recognition of father and daughter. That scene is narrated, while the restoration of Hermoine to Leontes becomes the dramatic focus of the conclusion. If Perdita is structurally so important, then why does Shakespeare seem to drop her at what might be the most emotionally satisfying moment in the play? G. Wilson Knight argues that although Perdita's recognition is central to the play, it is a restoration and not a resurrection, as in the case of Hermoine. Thus the father-daughter relationship takes second place to the miracle of the statue coming to life, yet "creation is satisfied by the return of Perdita, who is needed for Hermoine's full release." Indeed, Perdita also serves to provide Leontes with a substitute for the dead Mamillius in Florizel, the son of his childhood friend. So in The Winter’s Tale we might see the daughter as primarily a structural element necessary for the resolution of all of the father's sorrows rather than serving as a symbol of new life in herself. Other elements of structure which turn on Perdita have been noted: "Perdita's two ocean voyages" and her relationship with Florizel as contrasted with the relationship between her father and mother. We might see, then, in Shakespeare's decision to sacrifice a recognition scene with Perdita to one with Hermoine an acknowledgement that in this play the lost daughter was a means of bringing about reconciliation, but not the embodiment of Leontes' immortality. Indeed, in the resurrected Hermoine's only speech Perdita is the only topic, and it is her role in bringing about the ultimate miracle with which Hermoine is concerned:

You gods look down, And from your sacred vials pour your graces Upon my daughter's head! Tell me, mine own, Where hast thou been preserved? Where lived? How found Thy father's court? (V, iii, 122-25)

Frank Kermode points to another element with which Shakespeare identifies daughters: time. Not only does the daughter form a link to life beyond the father's natural life, but she forms a link between his youth and old age. This she does in many ways, not the least of which is in serving as a reminder of her mother, an element which we will discuss shortly. Kermode notes that "At one masterly moment Perdita herself stands like a statue beside the supposed statue of her mother, to remind us that created things work their own perfection and continuance in time, as well as suffer under it. Perdita brings with her the element of ill, giving her father a second chance, a chance to undo the evil which he has done to his wife. Likewise in Pericles , Marina has brought her father back in time to a point where the death of his wife can be relived, and undone: "Oh, come, be buried/A second time within these arms." A final argument for the identification of Perdita with the element of time in The Winter’s Tale is the fact that Shakespeare's primary source for the play was Robert Greene's book Pandosto, The Triumph of Time , "Wherein is discouered by a pleasant Historie, that although by the meanes of sinister fortune, Truth may be concealed, yet by Time in spiqht of fortune it is most manifestly reuealed." (1588)

Shakespeare's identification of daughters with the element of time (and of course timelessness) appears in The Tempest in the first bit of dialogue between Prospero and Miranda. Prospero asks her "What seest thou else/In the dark backward and abysm of time?” and reminds her that "Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since,/Thy father was the Duke of Milan and/A prince of power” (I, ii, 48-54). Yet in The Tempest , as in no other romance and perhaps no other Shakespeare play, do we feel that time stands still. The strangeness of the setting, the uncertain categorization of Ariel and Caliban--spirits, animals, men?--and the workings of Prospero's magic, make us feel that we have arrived at a place much like Eliot’s intersection of "time with the timeless." Thus Miranda must have dimensions in addition to her function as a link to the past and to the future for her father. We would argue that Miranda functions primarily as a symbol of Prospero's enlightenment, an exposition of the philosophy that "child is father to the man", rather than a necessity of structure in this play. Although she is in many ways less interesting than Perdita, and has a less obvious impact upon her father than Marina, she is nevertheless the embodiment of all of Shakespeare's positive identifications with daughters. Her innocence, her acceptance of the new and unknown, and her basic belief in the goodness of whatever she encounters stands in contrast to Prospero's cynicism: "O, wonder!/ How many goodly creatures are there here!/How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world/That has such people in't!" (V, i, 182-85). Prospero's response? “’Tis new to thee." Yet Prospero does give up his magic and consent to a reconciliation with his brother under Miranda's influence.

It is interesting to note that the motif of loss which runs throughout both Pericles and The Winter’s Tale appears in The Tempest in reverse. Here, father and daughter have been cast out together. Prospero has raised and educated Miranda without other human help, and they have developed an affectionate respect for each other. Towards the end of the play, after Prospero has given his blessing to the match of Miranda and Ferdinand, he says "... for I/Have lost my daughter.” Alonso asks when, and Prospero answers truthfully "In this last tempest." Ferdinand adds to the reversal of loss through the sea and storm when he says, "Though the seas threaten, they are merciful./I have cursed them without cause" (V, i).

The Tempest , despite critical commentary to the contrary, may be seen as a most personal commentary by Shakespeare on a number of things: his craft, good and evil, growing old, children, poetry. It seems absurd not to identify Prospero in some ways with Shakespeare, and we would agree with Dover Wilson's assertion that " The Tempest is a play ... for fathers! We see Miranda and Ferdinand through a father's eyes. They are Prospero’s eyes, of course ... but inasmuch as we also see Perdita and Marina in the same light, the eyes must be Shakespeare's too." We recall that both Marina and Perdita are treated, once recognized by their fathers, with total indulgence. Prospero as a father is more real. He is jealous of Ferdinand, and treats him quite badly, as if to flaunt his magical powers over this young man who would take his daughter away. His warnings for the necessity of chastity before marriage are almost crude, and he speaks of Miranda as "a gift” which he will give to Ferdinand only if he proves worthy. Yet, as any real father knows, the "giving" of a daughter to another man is necessary in the natural order of things, and will ultimately provide a continuity of life through grandchildren. We must keep in mind that the prime premise of this play is that Prospero has decided upon exposing himself and Miranda to the larger world before the opening of the play, and that the storm with which the action starts is a product of Prospero’s art. Unlike Pericles and Marina or Leontes and Perdita, Prospero and Miranda are not hapless victims of the storm. The Tempest is seen as a necessary part of a return to a mortal life--one in which Prospero admits "Every third thought shall be my grave."

There is another interesting difference in Shakespearefs treatment of the father-daughter theme in this play, to return to an issue which we briefly mentioned above. Both Marina and Perdita were said to resemble their mothers, both physically and in their strength, goodness and innocence. Pericles says:

My dearest wife was like this maid, and such a one My daughter might have been; my Queen's square brows Her stature to an inch, as wandlike straight, As silver-voiced, her eyes as jewel like And cased as richly, in pace another Juno ... (V, i, 108-112)

Leontes too sees in his newly found daughter the image of his dead Queen:

the majesty of the creature, in resemblance of the mother;the affection of nobleness, which nature shows above her breeding and many other evidences--proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the King's daughter. Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter, as if that joy were now become a loss, cries, "Oh, thy mother, thy mother.”

Of Miranda's mother, however, we know little other than that she was "a piece of virtue" and that Miranda was her only child. It is clear that since being cast out of his home with his young daughter, Prospero has depended upon her as a source of not only family continuity but spiritual inspiration: "O, a cherubin/Thou wast that did preserve me!" It is as if his knowledge of Miranda's powers to "preserve" him allows him to invite the evil visitors to his kingdom. He must be secure in his trust in Miranda's ability to resist evil. Indeed, as a social creature she has been untested: "I do not know/One of my sex; no woman's face remember,/Save, from my glass, mine own. Nor have I seen/ More that I may call ment than you, good friend,/And my dear father" (III, i, 47-52). In a sense, then, we may see Miranda as symbolizing for Prospero women in general--mother, wife, daughter.

Harold Goddard has said of The Tempest that "In Othello and King Lear we thought we caught glimpses into a region on the Other Side of the Storm. Nearly all of this play takes place there." Yet enchanted as this island may be, what happens here between Prospero and Miranda has more of the ring of reality to it than the two previous father-daughter pairs.

We have attempted to sketch some of the ways in which the father-daughter relationship figures in three late plays, but have as yet not addressed what is perhaps the most obvious of questions. Why fathers and daughters rather than fathers and sons? One critic asserts that "It is not too far-fetched to suggest that these plays owed their existence partly to the fact that the King's Men had a boy actor who was a considerable success in such parts as Marina, Perdita, Imogen, and Miranda." We would note that when Shakespeare's son Hamnet died in 1596 and left him with two daughters, Shakespeare himself must have had to rethink his future in female terms. Indeed, the fact that Hamnet's twin Judith was overshadowed by daughter Susanna indicates the anger Shakespeare felt at the loss of his son. Susanna, the prime inheritor with her husband and daughter of Shakespeare's estate, may indeed have inspired the poet's late interest in father-daughter relationships when it became obvious that she was to provide his link with the future.

Yet another critical question arises when one considers Shakespeare's general disgust with women and specific revulsion with sex in the 14 plays after 1600. While Timon of Athens is the most extreme example of these feelings, there are clearly lines in Pericles and certainly in The Winter’s Tale which reveal a low opinion of women. Leontes’ nasty little speech in I, ii extends his jealous loathing of Hermoine's supposed infidelity to all women: "And many a man there is, even at this present,/Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,/ That little thinks she has been sluiced in 's absence,/And his pond fished by his next neighbor, by/Sir Smile ...” Even Prospero, as we mentioned above, has unpleasant words for the sexual union of his daughter should it occur before marriage: "... but barren hate,/Sour-eyed disdain, and discord shall bestrew/The union of your bed with weeds so loathly/That you shall hate it both" (IV, i, 19-22). It would seem that married or unmarried, a woman is not to be trusted: "... Should all despair/That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind/Would hang themselves" (WT, I, ii, 200-202). How then reconcile Shakespeare's predominantly gentle and loving treatment of daughters in the romances with his lapses into rage at the vileness of women as sexual beings? We can only quess at some answers suggested by the little we know of Shakespeare's life, and by the texts of the plays.

Shakespeare shows himself to be ambivalent, in these last plays, towards women. They may be loyal or disloyal wives, whores, outspoken friends (Paulina) or daughters. Of woman in her various forms he was most concerned at this point in his life with his daughter, who had just provided him with a grandchild. He had clearly been disillusioned by marriage, and by mistresses. Yet he needed to reaffirm his own longings for immortality--how ironic that he could not see it in his plays--through his children and their children. His remaining children were daughters. In Lear we find a father who manipulates his daughters: "Tell me, my daughters,/...Which of you shall we say doth love us most?" (I, i, 49). In Pericles ("Come, queen of the feast,/For, daughter so you are"), in The Winter’s Tale ("A man, who hath a daughter of most rare note...”), and in The Tempest ("I have done nothing but in care of thee,/Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter") we find fathers who worship their daughters. As Goddard has stated "One of the certainties about the later Shakespeare is his conviction of the reciprocal necessity of childhood to age and of age to childhood." For Shakespeare the man and Shakespeare the poet and Shakespeare the father, daughters were the "stuff/As dreams are made on."

NOTES 1. J. Dover Wilson, The Essential Shakespeare , p. 135.

2. Anthony Burgess, Shakespeare , p. 239.

3. E.M.W. Tillyard, Shakespeare's Last Plays , p.24.

4. Harold Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare , Vol.2, p. 243.

5. G. Wilson Knight, "'Great Creating Nature’: An Essay on The Winter’s Tale "in Shakespeare; Modern Essays in Criticism , Leonard Dean, ed., pp.443-445.

6. Knight, p. 452.

7. Hieatt, Charles W., "The Function of Structure in The Winter’s Tale " in Yearbook of English Studies , Vol. 8, 1978, p. 238.

8. Frank Kermode, "Introduction" to Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale , p. xxxv.

9. Kermode, "The Source of The Winter’s Tale " in Shakespeare, op. cit., p. 155.

10. G. Wilson Knight, "On Shakespeare's Tragi-comic Romances" in Siegel, His Infinite Variety , p. 401.

11. Goddard, p. 277.

12. G.B. Harrison, "Introduction" to Shakespeare, The Complete Works , p.1351.

13. Ivor Brown, The Women in Shakespeare's Life , p. 48 and passim.

14. Wilson, p. 119.

15. Burgess, passim and Brown, passim.

16. Goddard, p. 287.

Brown, Ivor, The Women in Shakespeare's Life , New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1969.

Burgess, Anthony, Shakespeare , New York: Knopf, 1970.

Eggers, Walter F., Jr., "'Bring Forth a Wonder’: Presentation in Shakespeare’s Romances" in Texas Studies in Literature and Language , Vol. 21, No. 4, Winter 1979, pp. 455-477.

Frey, Charles, "Interpreting The Winter’s Tale " in Studies in English Literature , Vol. "18, No. 2, Spring 1978, pp. 307-329.

Goddard, Harold C., The Meaning of Shakespeare , Volume 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.

Hieatt, Charles W., "The Function of Structure in The Winter’s Tale " in The Yearbook of English Studies , Vol. 8, 1978, pp. 238-248.

Kermode, Frank, ed., William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale , New York: Signet, 1963.

Knight, G. Wilson, "'Great Creating Nature’: An Essay on The Winter’s Tale " in Shakespeare; Modern Essays in Criticism , Leonard F. Dean, ed, New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Langbaum, Robert, ed. William Shakespeare, The Tempest, New York: Signet, 1964.

Shakespeare, William, The Complete Works , G.B. Harrison, ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952.

Siegel, Paul N., ed., His Infinite Variety; Major Shakespearean Criticism Since Johnson , New York: Lippincott, 1964.

Spencer, Theodore, "Shakespeare and the Nature of Man: The Tempest " in Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism , Leonard F. Dean, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Tillyard, E.M.W., The Elizabethan World Picture , New York: Vintage, n.d.

__________, Shakespeare’s Last Plays , London: Chatto and Windus, 1962.

Traversi, D.A., "The Last Plays of Shakespeare" in The Age of Shakespeare , Boris Ford, ed. Great Britain: Penguin, 1975.

Wilson, J. Dover, The Essential Shakespeare , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964.

Foster, Michael. "The Tempest - Father-Daughter Relationships in Shakespeare's Pericles, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 19 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/tempest/critical-essays/essays#critical-essays-essays-father-daughter-relationships-shakespeares-per>

The Tempest: Illusion and Reality

This essay will discuss the part that illusion and reality plays in developing and illuminating the theme of Shakespeare's The Tempest . This pair of opposites will be contrasted to show what they represent in the context of the play. Further, the characters associated with these terms, and how the association becomes meaningful in the play, will be discussed. Quotes used in this essay are taken from the Folger Library edition of The Tempest , edited by Louis B. Weight and Virginia A. LaMar, published by Pocket Books, New York, 1961. Quotations will be formated according to Act, scene and line.

A good starting point to discuss the use of illusion and reality in The Tempest is to focus on the setting in Act I, scene ii. Here, the reader (or viewer) realizes that it takes place entirely in Prospero's cell which is a small room where he practices his magic arts. Miranda here asks her father, Prospero, to make sure that the people on the ship will be safe even though he has created a storm which threatens to capsize their boat and drown them all. Prospero reassures her. He says that he has no intention of allowing the people to die. To reassure her further, he continues by explaining his motives in creating the storm. Here the reader learns that Prospero and Antonio are brothers, and that Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan but that his brother usurped his kingdom and exiled Prospero and his daughter Miranda. Fortune saved the two from their rotting ship which had been set to drift, and brought them to the island where Prospero has been granted supernatural powers by the enemies of Antonio.

From the above description it is clear that the play embraces both the natural and the supernatural world. Twelve years before the action takes place, we are told that Prospero was a prince who had a different type of power than he has now.

Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, Thy father was the Duke of Milan and A prince of power (I, ii, 65-68).

Previous to this declaration it is clear that Prospero now has power, but it is power associated with the supernatural. His power is not granted to him by mortals, but it has been given to him by those above human status. His power is symbolized by and vested in his cloak. It is something which can be physically removed.

I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand And pluck my magic garment from me. So, [takes off his magic robe.] Lie there, my art (I, ii, 28-31).

Within this, there are elements which may be associated with illusion and reality. Miranda knows that she is Prospero's daughter and she is used to life on the island. But she can also recall a time when she was not there in the world of magic—a time when her father was Duke and had only powers that natural men possess. The irony is that Miranda recalls the natural world as if it were an illusion and believes her present day existence to be reality.

Pros . Canst thou remember A time before we camst unto this cell? I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not Out three years old. Mir . Certainly sir, I can ... 'Tis far off, And rather like a dream than an assurance That my remembrance warrants. Had I not Four or five women once that tended me?

We see from the passage above that Miranda is not sure whether her life before the island was a dream or whether it was reality. She is a character who is associated with the distinction between the two, because she lives on the island with her father who can conjure up an image of reality—such as the storm at sea—and yet her experience of the natural world against which such experiences might be compared seems to her to be a dream.

Prospero is the main character who embodies the concepts of illusion and reality. He and his servant, Ariel, create the illusion of a storm and a wreck, a banquet and a masque. But the real world is apparent to the audience from the beginning of the play even though it is not intrusive throughout. Thus there are levels on which reality seems most operative, and levels on which illusion seems to come to the fore. Neither has exclusive hold on the play.

On many levels, Prospero serves as a symbolic figure. He and Ariel represent intellect which is pure and in some ways not contaminated by the workaday world of mortal men. When Prospero had the throne, he felt that the world of books was enough for him. Prospero is so interested in the world of ideas that he does not concern himself at times with the attainment of power and wealth.

Propero's brother, Antonio, may be associated with illusion and reality as well, but his association stems from his own illusions and perceptions of reality. Antonio, for instance, is power-hungry. He so wants to be granted the throne that he is willing to wrong his own brother in order to get what he wants. But one may formulate the question about the nature of real power. Even though Antonio achieves his bid for the throne, is he really more powerful than his brother who has been exiled to the island? What is power? Who is really in control? The obvious answer is that it is Prospero who ultimately can control Antonio. Prospero causes the illusionary storm. He makes the ruler fear for his life—and thus one can see that even though Antonio may have control over the people on land, once he is pitted against the natural elements he has no more control than any other mortal man. Antonio is thus suffering from illusions. He is not accepting of his own limitations and morality, and thus he does not have a firm grip on what reality is, and why he lives in an illusory world.

A word should be said here about the use of supernatural elements in the play. Even though there is a supernatural structure, one may not assume that the supernatural is equivalent to illusion and that the natural is equivalent to reality. As pointed out in the paragraph above, Antonio's world may be set in reality, but Antonio's mind conjures up an illusory existence. Prospero, on the other hand, may have magical powers, but he does have a firm grasp on reality. Further, Prospero’s magic is good magic, not bad. He is a truly good character even though he has supernatural power.

Just as the topic of illusion and reality may be discussed from the point of view of any one particular character, it may also be discussed from the point of view of audience perception. Hence, three characters must be mentioned in light of this special reference.

The relationship among Prospero, Ariel and Caliban is one of the key relationships in this play. Most members of an audience recognize the fact that each of these three characters has a meaning which is beyond the literal. They are each more than a regular human being, even though by virtue of their physical appearance, they may appear to be nothing more—such as in the instances of Caliban and Prospero. Ariel, on the other hand, is different.

Ariel gives the appearance of lacking in physical substance. He forces the audience to suspend disbelief in the supernatural. They must accept that, among other qualities, Ariel has the ability to travel instantaneously. He can go through Earth, Water, Air and Fire. He is at once a regular human being and something outside of that. Viewers of The Tempest must learn to accept that illusion is as much a part of the play as is reality.

In other words, the viewers must suspend disbelief. They must know that characters are able to operate outside of common reality while at the same time they are part of that reality.

In reference to characters of the other extreme, one recalls Prospero's brother, Antonio, who has betrayed Prospero. Miranda suggests that someone who is really of one's own flesh and blood would not really betray his own brother. Prospero replies that this is really an illusion of blood relationships. He says that what may appear to be reality is not absolute reality. He therefore forces the audience to consider what they know about illusion and reality, about the natural and the unnatural.

Pros . Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me If this might be a brother. Mir . I should sin To think nobly of my grandmother. Good wombs have borne bad sons. (I, ii, 139-144).

Prospero is really the key character about which the nature of illusion and reality centers. He is the one who appears to have been stripped of all his power, and yet he is truly the most powerful; he lives in a world where he can conjure up an illusion of a storm; he lives between a course of regular human action and magic; and he is perceptive about philosophies on the topic of illusion and reality.

In The Tempest , illusion and reality are opposites which may be considered on many different levels throughout the entire length of the play.

Foster, Michael. "The Tempest - The Tempest: Illusion and Reality." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 19 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/tempest/critical-essays/essays#critical-essays-essays-tempest-illusion-reality>

The Tempest: An Overview

The Tempest was originally performed in late 1611, and was published in its current form in the First Folio of 1623. It is the one play by Shakespeare not derived from one or more of the many sources commonly utilized by all playwrights of the Elizabethan era, although a contemporary German play possesses an analogous exile theme. The story of the shipwreck was probably taken from Sir George Somers' narrative of a Bermuda shipwreck of 1609.

The play itself is a masque-like comedy; it far surpasses the majority of those traditional pieces with similar themes which were continuously being updated by other writers of Shakespeare's day. It is a tale of magic and wonderworking, of retribution and forgiveness, of shipwreck and enchanted isles. The Tempest is also the last of Shakespeare's completed plays.

Prospero, Duke of Milan, a studious man who had delegated to his ambitious brother Antonio many of the affairs of government, was 'extirpated’ by him and sent to sea, with his infant daughter. Providence brought him safely to an island used as a place of exile by the witch Sycorax, where he lived for many years, studying the art of sorcery. When the play opens, he has long ruled the island, commanding the spirits of the air, and enslaving the brutish, misshapen Caliban, progeny of the witch. Through his spells he causes to be swept ashore by a tempest, a ship bearing the ally of Antonio, the King of Naples, and his son Ferdinand, and Antonio himself. As Prospero tells Miranda, his daughter:

This King of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit, Which was, that he, in lieu of the premises Of homage, and I know not how much tribute, Should presently extirpate me and mine Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan, With all the honours, on my brother: Whereon, A treacherous army levied, one midnight Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open The gates of Milan, and, in the dead of darkness, The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me, and thy crying self. (I, ii)

To suit his purposes, which include revenge, Prospero separates and bewitches the various groups of his prisoners. He works upon them through the instrumentality of his servant, the spirit Ariel. First, he secures the young Ferdinand as husband for Miranda, making certain that a happy match exists for the pair. Then he reveals himself, regains his dukedom, pardoning the penitent wrongdoers. This consummated, he restores the mariners to their ship and all prepare to embark on the voyage to Naples. The Tempest is definitely a court play, with some of the conventional aspects of such dramatic pieces. It is, on the whole, superbly wrought, full of grace and enriched with many of the poet's finest lines. Consider, as a sample, this brief exerpt, spoken by Ferdinand of Miranda, at the beginning of Act III, Scene i:

There be some sports are painful, and their labour Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness Are nobly undergone; and most poor matters Point to rich ends. This my mean task Would be as heavy to me as odious, but The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead, And makes my labours pleasures... my sweet mistress Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such baseness Had never like executor. I forget: But these sweet thoughts do refresh my labours, Most busy lest, when I do it.

The Tempest , though far from lacking dramatic or human interest, has something in its literary spirit of the nature of a clear and solemn vision. For instance, Prospero, the great enchanter, is altogether the opposite of the vulgar magician who populates other of Shakespeare's plays, as well as works of many of his contemporaries. With command over the elemental powers, which study has brought him, Prospero possesses a moral grandeur and a command over himself, in spite of his occasional fits of intellectual impatience and involuntary abstraction. He looks 'down' on life, and sees 'through' it, though he will not refuse to take his part in it. Here, the supernatural powers of the world attend to and obey their ruler, mankind, (or at least initiated representatives of it, such as Prospero). The persons in this play, while remaining real and living, are conceived in a more abstract manner, more as 'archetypes' than in any other of Shakespeare's works. Prospero, for instance, is the highest wisdom and moral attainment; Gonzalo is a humorous incarnation of common-sense; all that is meanest and most despicable appears in the characters of the wretched conspirators, (Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, etc). Miranda, whose name seems to suggest wonder, is an almost elemental being, framed in the purest and simplest type of womanhood, yet made substantial by contrast with Ariel, who is an unbodied joy, too much a creature of light and air to know either human affection or sorrow. Caliban, (a name formed from the word 'cannibal'), stands at the other extreme, with all the elements in him--appetites, intellect, imagination--out of which mankind emerges into early civilization, albeit with a moral nature which remains malignant and gross. Over all presides Prospero like a providence; and the spirit of reconciliation, of forgiveness, harmonizing the contentions of men, appears in The Tempest in a noble, expansive manner. To this extent, The Tempest resembles and surpasses other Shakespearean works such as Cymbeline and The Winter's Tale , as a seriocomic exposition on the ability of the majesty and mystery of the world's primordial forces to overcome the similarly primordial passions of humanity. Majesty and mystery, Shakespeare seems to be saying, lay at the core of the passions of man as much as do fear and loathing; if the former can be recognized and controlled the bard goes on, then so can the latter.

The Tempest is not, however, merely an allegory; it is definitely not a religious drama, although elements of the supernatural are included. If it were either, Prospero's great 'revels' speech, (Act IV, Scene 1, 146-163, exerpted below), would say, not merely that all earthly things will vanish, but that an eternal world will take their place. He does not:

Our revels are now ended ... our actors were all spirits, and Are melted into ... thin air, And like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-clapp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind: we are stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

In a specifically religious context, Prospero's renunciation of magic would represent the resigning of his will to divine will, one that can command the elements to silence and work for peace in the present. In Christianity, the higher level of nature is God's original creation, from which man 'escaped’ with the fall of Adam and Eve, in Eden. Yet it is the witch Sycorax who controls the moon, (the symbol of the music of the spheres, or the higher level of nature, in Shakespeare's era), in The Tempest . This sinister power is not associated with prospero, however, whose magic and music belong to the sublunary plane of existence.

Prospero takes the 'society’ of Alonso's ship, (albeit a very limited one, composed more of archetypes than real people), immerses it in magic, and then sends it back to the world. Its original ranks are restored, but its members are provided with a new wisdom in the light of which, for instance, Antonio's behavior can be seen as 'unnatural,’ (or atypical of his self-motivated behavior before encountering his brother Prospero once again). In the Epilogue, (p. 78), Prospero hands over to the audience what his art has 'created,’ a vision of society permeated by values of tolerance and forgiveness. At this closing juncture, he says in part:

Now my charms are all o'erthrown, And what strength I have's mine own, Which is most faint: now, 'tis true, I must be here confin'd by you, Or sent to Naples... Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant, And my ending is despair, Unless I be reliev'd by prayer, Which pierces so, that it assaults Mercy itself, and frees all faults. (V, I)

Prospero, through his control of both elemental forces and himself in his quest for vengence, (or at least righting the wrongs done him), is the prime mover of The Tempest . He exists in a higher level of 'nature' than do the other characters because he has educated himself in obedience to primordial laws and exercised the habit of virtue. To this extent, the entire society formulated on the island by Prospero's ministrations is a natural society. Prospero's daughter, Miranda, occupies the highest level of this society, because of her chastity and innocence, which place her in harmony with higher nature. The discipline required to exist in this higher nature is imposed on the other characters by Prospero's magic. Throughout The Tempest the emphasis is on moral and spiritual rebirth; this suggests rituals of initiation and festivity in a way which represents the culmination of achievement in Shakespeare's dramatic art.

Foster, Michael. "The Tempest - The Tempest: An Overview." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 19 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/tempest/critical-essays/essays#critical-essays-essays-tempest-an-overview>

The Tempest and Colonialism Revisited

There is much in the topical dressing of The Tempest which relates it to the colonial adventure of the plantation of Virginia and with the exotic Bermudas. Critical opinion has varied as to whether The Tempest is closely related to colonialism as undertaken in the Jacobean period; E.E. Stoll wrote in 1927 that 'There is not a word in The Tempest about America … Nothing but the Bermudas, once barely mentioned as faraway places.' On Stoll's side we can say that the action takes place somewhere between Tunis and Naples, presumably therefore in the Mediterranean, and that the characters who are shipwrecked are returning from Tunis after a wedding, not in the least intending to set foot upon, let alone settle or conquer, uncivilised lands.

Against this, we must say that The Tempest participates in a contemporary cultural excitement about the voyages to the Americas and the exotic riches of remote places. There are traces in The Tempest of a number of colonial and Bermuda voyage narratives, such as Sylvester Jourdan's 'Discovery of the Bermudas' (1610), The Council of Virginia's 'True Declaration of the state of the Colonie in Virginia' (1610), a letter by William Strachey which circulated under the title 'True Reportory of the Wrack', but was not published until 1625, and stories collected by Samuel Purchas in Purchas his Pilgrimage (1613). Caliban's god Setebos is reported from Magellan's voyage as being a Patagonian deity.

There is little doubt that the extraordinary shipwreck of some would-be Virginian colonists on the Bermudas flavours Shakespeare's The Tempest . Shakespeare's patrons the Earls of Southampton and Pembroke were investors in the Virginia Company. The Essex group at court supported a Protestant-expansionist foreign policy which did not suit King James, who was anxious not to antagonise Spain. Relations with Spain were one of the main reasons that James executed the Elizabethan imperial hero Sir Walter Raleigh, who championed the settlement of Guiana. If the general romance of the sea voyage enters into The Tempest , as it does in Pericles, this alone does not permit a view of the play as 'about' colonialism. The chief focus of a post-colonial investigation of The Tempest is through the character of Caliban, seen not as the 'deformed slave' of the dramatis personae but as a native of the island over whom Prospero has imposed a form of colonial domination.

Caliban's second speech states this case as clearly as could be wished. On being summoned from his 'sty' by Prospero he responds with curses and proceeds to give his view of their interaction:

I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam'st first Thou strok'st me, and made much of me; would'st give me Water with berries in't; and teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night: and then I lov'd thee And show'd thee all the qualities o' th'isle, The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place and feretile: Curs'd be I that did so! All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! For I am all the subjects that you have, Which first was mine own King: and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest o'th'island. (1:2:332-346)

We have already seen Prospero bullying his other servant, the spirit Ariel, into compliance with his wishes (1:2:240-300). Prospero's dominance seems here on the edge of collapse, held in place by threats and the exercise of continual vigilance. He seems a man set uneasily at the apex of mutinous and unstable forces. As the Boatswain has already made clear (although he does not know that Prospero has created the storm) the bases of authority are under question in The Tempest :

What cares these roarers for the name of King? (1:1:16-17)

Caliban's narrative of Prospero's conquest of the Island seems self-sufficient, and if Shakespeare were a cultural relativist this might stand as the position of Caliban within the play, but there is a crucial incident which seems to have turned the relationship between Prospero and Caliban sour, and this Caliban does not mention. Prospero regards Caliban as genetically (rather than culturally) 'inferior', inherently incapable of civilised behaviour:

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick; (4:1:188-189)

This condemnation is mingled with the frustration of the teacher who has failed with a difficult pupil:

On whom my pains, Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost, (4:1:189-190)

We have already seen throughout 1:2 that Prospero is fussy and disciplinarian in his tutelage.

Miranda shares her father's dislike of Caliban for the same reason: Caliban has attempted her rape, an event which he at least recollects with some satisfaction:

Pr : Thou didst seek to violate The honour of my child. Cal : Oho, Oho! would'st had been done! Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else This isle with Calibans. (1:2:349-352)

Prospero keeps Caliban in order with 'pinchings' 'old cramps' 'aches' and so-on. Caliban is clearly afraid of him, and seeks to rebel. Caliban's plot with Stephano and Trinculo is futile, as he comes to realise; he has fallen in with fools, who, in common with many Europeans have used alcohol to gain influence over the natives.

Caliban's plot forces the abandonment of Prospero's magical/ritual masque, the moral authority of which is directed towards Miranda and Ferdinand's chastity, a point which Prospero repeatedly stresses. His fear for Miranda's chastity demonstrates his anxiety to impose 'civilised' behaviour on the island, and his fear that it may not hold; it is part of his power complex.

Paul Brown's thoughtful article 'This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine' seeks to 'repunctuate' The Tempest in order to examine its relationship to colonialist discourse. He discusses the liminal figure of Caliban, who combines the discourses of 'masterlessness' and 'savagism' (as well as the 'salvage' or wild man), 'masterlessness' having been a continual fear of authority, as expressed in the parish poor laws, and 'savgism' relating directly to the 'uncivil' who inhabit the areas at the edges of the dominant culture.

Brown states that 'Prospero's island is ambiguously placed between American and European discourse' (p.57). The discourse of the Americas is of course colonialist, but Prospero's island is located in the Mediterranean. Caliban is seen as the victim of the language he has been taught: 'Whatever Caliban does with this gift announces his capture by it.' (p.61). Nevertheless, Caliban has the ability to represent his powerlessness and express his resentment.

You taught me language; and my profit on't Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language. (1:2:365-367)

He can use this language for his own ends, however, as his arguments with Prospero show. When Stephano and Trinculo discover him Caliban repeats the attitudes and behaviours he regretted in his relationship with Prospero.

I'll show thee every fertile inch o'th'island; and I will kiss thy foot: I prithee, be my god. (2:2:148-149)

While Brown reads The Tempest as a colonialist text, he cannot claim it as an unequivocal praise of or encouragement to the colonial enterprise. In a good discussion of the significance of the disruption of the masque scene, he states that Prospero 'has insisted that his narrative be taken as real and powerful--now it is collapsed, along with everything else, into the 'stuff' of dreams. The forging of colonialist narrative is, momentarily, revealed as a forgery.' (p.67). Though he claims Prospero's narrative as 'colonialist', I would relate it to more general questions of authority.

Prospero himself will return to Milan to contemplate death: the Island has not been the scene of a colonial settlement, but the arena in which Prospero addresses the wrongs of his European past in order to establish a European future. As with other late plays by Shakespeare it is for the new generation to enact a reconciliation which was unavailable to Romeo and Juliet, for example. Miranda, Prospero's daughter, and Ferdinand, the King of Naples' son are to be married, and their optimism balances Prospero's more jaundiced view.

Mir . How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't! Pros . 'Tis new to thee. (5:1:183-184)

Although Prospero succeeds in promoting this marriage, in punishing his betrayers, his brother Antonio, and Alonso, King of Naples, and bringing most of them to repentance, he confesses

Sir I am vexed Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled. (4:1:158-159)

At the end of the masque, and once the larger, island-wide performance has been enacted, he renounces his magical power and prepares to return home, no longer the divine controller of the island's drama, but a mortal like other mortals. The Tempest has been insistently been read as shakespeare's farewell to the theatre, and the island functions well as an analogue for the stage (especially in view of Shakespeare's adherence to the classical unities of time and place in this play), just as Prospero can stand for the writer/director. Neither the discourse of colonialism nor an autobiographical interpretation can contain and exhaust the latencies of this subtle and beautifully constructed text. The Tempest remains a wonderfully written, highly atmospheric and fairly mysterious text. Shakespeare's greatest strength is his ability to bring into his texts a complex nexus of views and debates which continue to resonate, and to defy resolution, for generations of play-goers and scholars. Despite Brown's commitment to reading The Tempest as an 'intervention' in the colonialist debate, he concludes that it is 'a site of radical ambivalence.' (p.68).

Notes 1. Facsimile reprint ed. J.Q. Adams, New York, (1940).

2. A good review of the increasing tendency to see The Tempest as colonialist, and Caliban as a Native American is Alden T. Vaughan 'Shakespeare's Indian: The Americanization of Caliban' in Political Shakespeare , (eds) Stephen Orgel and Sean Keilen, Garland Publishing, New York and London, (1999), Volume 9 of Shakespeare: The Critical Complex .

3. In Political Shakespeare , (eds) J. Dollimore & A. Sinfield, Manchester University Press, Manchester, (1996), pp. 48-71.

Foster, Michael. "The Tempest - The Tempest and Colonialism Revisited." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 19 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/tempest/critical-essays/essays#critical-essays-essays-tempest-colonialism-revisited>

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Exploratory Shakespeare

English 15 summer 2015.

Otherization in The Tempest

In her article “Shakespeare’s Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism”, Deborah Willis seeks to criticize the current state of discourse regarding the depiction of colonialism in The Tempest . Specifically, she seeks to criticize the arguments made by Paul Brown in a recent essay.  

Willis first sets out to explain the arguments Brown creates in his work.   Brown believes that Shakespeare’s Tempest is a confirmation of British colonialism. By emphasizing the otherness of Caliban, and then having Prospero assume control over him, Brown claims that Shakespeare is furthering the argument for colonization. He sees the play as making the savage Caliban seem inhuman and naturally subservient, representing potential groups to be colonized, and the rule of Prospero to represent the benevolent British colonizers.   Brown also believes that Shakespeare ultimately fails in his quest to promote colonization because the “other” ultimately serves as a place of potential societal disruption, that is, some aspects of the “other” still have appeal to civilized man, such as illicit sexuality and masterlessness.   Willis concludes this section with her own conclusion: that one of the most problematic aspects of Brown’s work is that he seems to conflate the character of Prospero with Shakespeare.

Willis disagrees wholeheartedly with that last idea. She points out that though Prospero has control in this play nearly unmatched in Shakespeare’s work, he is still a character with flaws, criticisms of whom are made clear. Special emphasis is paced on the way Caliban views Prospero. Most obviously, Prospero can be seen through Caliban’s eyes as a usurper with no more right to the island than Antonio has to the dukedom of Milan.

The author also makes the case that Caliban isn’t so “othered” after all. In addition to the sympathy his rightful claim to the island might garner, his childlike demeanor can also be said to grant him an air of harmlessness. Willis addresses the attempted rape of Miranda by Caliban as certainly being problematic for this characterization, but notes that Caliban repents for what he has done. He has some sense of morality. The author notes other relatable characteristics as well, such as Caliban’s appreciation for art and ability to learn.   For these reasons, Willis believes Caliban to be a far too relatable and sympathetic character to be depicted as the “other” in colonialist discourse. Finally, Willis ends by disputing Caliban as a source of potential disruption because of his conversion. She believes he has assimilated adequately.

In Caliban’s stead, Willis states that Antonio is far more “othered” than Caliban. She suggests that his conspiring with Sebastian to kill Alonso is a symptom of a “pathological addiction to treason and fratricide” (281).   Willis points to Prospero referring to Antonio as unnatural because of his evil, noting his complete lack of fraternal affection. Unlike Caliban’s repentance for nearly raping Miranda, Willis notes no obvious signs of repentance from Antonio at the end of the play. He is shown to be rather heartless. Because of these depictions of Antonio, Willis finds that he is set up as an unnatural “other” far more than Caliban.

While I agree with Willis assessment to a certain extent, there are a few problems with her argument. I don’t dispute her claim that Antonio is far more “otherized” than Caliban, but I think that she nonetheless downplays Caliban’s role as the other. Most obvious are the real life parallels between Caliban’s situation and that of a colonized group. Prospero has come to Caliban’s island from his homeland and assumed control over him. There isn’t a lot of metaphor there. That describes the process of colonization too closely to ignore. Furthermore, she completely disregards Caliban’s attempted coup against Prospero. Despite the comedy and its unsuccessful nature, this is still a direct conflict against Prospero, the metaphorical colonizer, further “othering” Caliban. Finally, Willis neglects to properly address the issue of racism in the play against Caliban. Racism by default works by “otherizing”, and to ignore this is to ignore a large part of Caliban’s characterization.

WORKS CITED

Willis, Deborah. “Shakespeare’s Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 29.2 (2006): 277-89. Rice University. Web. 19 Aug. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/450475>.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Tempest — Shakespeare’s Criticism Of Colonialism In Acts 1 And 2 Of The Tempest

Shakespeare’s Criticism of Colonialism in Acts 1 and 2 of The Tempest

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Published: Dec 16, 2021

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Works Cited

• Barroll, L. (1997). Politics, Colonialism, and the Tempest. Shakespeare Quarterly, 48(4), 383-412. doi:10.2307/2871366.
• Bhabha, H. K. (1985). Signs taken for wonders: Questions of ambivalence and authority under a tree outside Delhi, May 1817. Critical Inquiry, 12(1), 144-165. doi:10.1086/448370.
• Césaire, A. (2002). A Tempest. (R. Miller, Trans.). University of California Press.
• Greenblatt, S. (1988). The improvisation of power. In Shakespearean Negotiations (pp. 1-32). University of California Press.
• Hulme, P. (1989). Prospero and Caliban. Critical Quarterly, 31(3), 54-64. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8705.1989.tb00534.x.
• JanMohamed, A. R. (1985). The economy of Manichean allegory: The function of racial difference in colonialist literature. Critical Inquiry, 12(1), 59-87. doi:10.1086/448365.
• Loomba, A. (2002). Shakespeare, race, and colonialism. Oxford University Press.
• Said, E. (1979). Orientalism. Vintage Books.
• Vaughan, V. M. (1993). Representing Caliban. Shakespeare Quarterly, 44(1), 1-31. doi:10.2307/2871308.
• Yachnin, P. (1992). The politics of Prospero. Shakespeare Quarterly, 43(1), 1-32. doi:10.2307/2871148.

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Colonialism and Shakespeare: A Critical Overview Of "The Tempest".

2018, Vidyasagar University

Colonialism and Shakespeare: A Critical Study of "The Tempest"

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arzu rahman

In this theses paper I tried to explore the postcolonial features in the play ‘The Tempest’ of William Shakespeare. This is my personal intention to prove that The Tempest by William Shakespeare plays an important role in the development of post-colonial literature and criticism. It was created in a moment when the colonial system was just beginning to come into being and that is now falling apart from us. I tried to investigate what the post-colonial writers and critics found in The Tempest evidence of a history of colonial context. Because my argument depends on the contention that The Tempest was created in a world where colonialism was coming into being. I explored the historical context surrounding the moment of the play’s creation , in spite of the contention of many historians and some literary critics to the contrary. After verifying and illustrating the historical roots of several popular themes in The Tempest that post-colonial writers have discussed , I turn to the work of writers and critics from the Third World to show how The Tempest plays a significant role in postcolonial studies. It is a matter of analyzing the issues such as subjugation, dominance and language in relation to power. It also discusses the complex relationship that exists between the master and slave. This text “Tempest” have dealt with each issue in its own way. Frantz Fanon‘s Black Skin White Mask , Edward Said‘s Orientalism, Peter Barry’s Beginning theory, Key Concepts Of Post-Colonial Studies and some more texts that I have studied in perspective of Post-Colonial view. I have been used these texts from Post-colonial perspective just for making my point of view a practical one. Except from these texts as primary sources I also took help from many journals, articles and other online resources that i have been used as secondary sources.

Farhana haque

Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' represented the emblem of colonialism, racism, and social hierarchy. Prospero's superlative attitudes have created the prevalent touch of suppression over the native people in the play The Tempest. He was the man to supress the inhabitants in the strange land which he has been occupied illegally. Most of the characters in this play remained in a civilized way, although perfectly all of them were not civilized. Several times Prospero was referred as a tyrannical figure who was responsible about the concept of colonialism, racism and illustrated the ideas of social hierarchy. In the Renaissance world this social hierarchy has paved the way of rigidity, extreme political attitudes, God of higher class society. Prospero showed him as the true representator of Elizabethan social higher class. Hence the suppressive conquest has arrived over the lives of African, Asian and North American regions during the 16 th century which was known as Shakespearean era. Later on, this process came to be known as colonialism, racism and the phase of social hierarchy. As a whole the effort of this paper is to unfold the character of Prospero to present the British colonization over the inferior peoples in a strange native land.

This paper intents to explore the postcolonial features in the play The Tempest of William Shakespeare. It is possible to read the play in a postcolonial context and the relationship between Prospero and Ariel or Caliban as one of master and slave. The relationship between Caliban and Prospero is especially relevant for a discussion of colonial exploitation and resistance as Caliban tries to betray and murder Prospero for his imprisonment. Prospero can even be viewed as a kind of colonialist who arrives on the island and "civilizes" the natives like Robinson Crusoe. Prospero is a sympathetic protagonist, but he treats Caliban and Ariel cruelly. Caliban's actions can also be read in the context of his relationship to his mother, the witch Sycorax. Prospero, under a misguided kind of benevolent despotism, creates an ongoing living environment throughout the play. Thus an in-depth discussion into the morality of colonialism is offered by Shakespeare in this play.

Paulus Sarwoto

Jen Chichester

Throughout Aimé Césaire’s A Tempest, Caliban utilizes a mixture of French (a colonial language), Yoruba, Creole, and Swahili to establish agency and identity. By employing this combination of traditionally hegemonically privileged versus disempowered (via European colonizers) languages, Caliban exerts authority in how he hails himself, although he cannot control how he is hailed by others, especially Prospero. Césaire illustrates, as he states in an interview added to the end of the book Discourse on Colonialism, the “struggle against alienation” which “gave birth to Negritude” (89). As Antilleans experienced shame over being identified as Negros and employed less negatively-connoted euphemisms, Césaire and others “adopted the word négre, as a term of defiance.” Similarly, in the play, Caliban utilizes defiant language in order to construct his identity and establish agency. A new language is not essentially formed, but a new attitude toward freedom is born through the intertwining of both already-present linguistic aspects of Caliban’s identity. Simultaneously, Prospero’s sense of identity and agency wavers, exposing inherent instability in the colonizer’s socio-linguistically constructed perception. Prospero’s limited colonial language only allows him to identify in binary terms of privilege versus disempowerment, and his cognitive dissonance cracks under the pressure of Caliban’s introduction of mixed language as empowerment. This essay will examine the language mixture Caliban exercises in his quest for identity and agency in the midst of a rapidly-deteriorating colonial power (Prospero) that has long relied on unsteady, self-deconstructing rhetoric in the form of the colonial language to dictate Caliban’s identity and strip him of his self-authority. Emphasis will be placed on the ways in which these mixed-language terms evoke a sense of rebellious insubordination as a marker for a major shift in power in the colonized Caribbean, as well as in Africa. In addition to Césaire’s two texts and supporting articles which discuss Caliban as a speaking subject striving toward emancipation, I will also utilize Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks as a way of illustrating the intricate link between “language and the community” and how, historically, the language of the colonizer (e.g., French) has been the one that “the black man wants to speak” – a history from which Césaire and Caliban are not exempt but must attempt to navigate (21). I will, as Brenda McNary does, draw from Judith Butler’s theory on performativity of language and how Caliban shapes and is shaped by the mixed language he speaks. The essay will start with a brief historical and cultural analysis of language and decolonization, then will move into a specific, contextualized, deconstructive inquiry into Césaire’s A Tempest.

International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies [IJCLTS]

Ramayana Lira

Taking on assumptions about oppression, identity and representation as they are developed in contemporary postcolonial theory, this study proposes the analysis of the 1993 theatrical production of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest by The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). It aims to discuss the role of Caliban’s monstrosity in the production and how it pertains to issues such as power relations and spectacle. The main benefit of doing an analysis of a performance of a Shakespearean text seems to be the possibility of seeing the play’s meaning as contingent, as a result of a series of elements (actor’s body, visual clues, the theatrical institution, spectatorship) that release it from the burden of being considered as the work of a single, universal, non- contradictory mind that contemporary criticism has pointed out as the ‘Shakespeare Myth’. I conclude that the 1993 RSC production presents a Tempest that, in many ways, reinforces traditional positions about the legitimacy of Prospero’s dominion over the island.

José Antonio Giménez Micó

Working from the perspective of decolonial feminism, this essay critiques works that view Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611) as a symbol of resistance to eurocentrism, as represented in the character of Prospero. I focus on the literary figure Sycorax, the racialized, sexualized and witched mother of Caliban, because the celebration of Caliban as a symbol of subaltern resistance in Latin American/Latino studies has led to her discursive erasure or marginalization. I critically trace appropriations of Caliban, as well as Miranda (Prospero’s daughter), that silence Sycorax. Fundamentally urging the construction of a “literacy of Sycorax,” this essay explores the eurocentric reluctance of writers and critics to seriously address issues of spirituality–particularly “feminine” and racialized spirituality–that are negatively coded as magic or superstition within the western modern-colonial imagination. I challenge Latin American/Latino, American, Women’s, and Literary studies to consider what it means to position oneself alongside Sycorax–or the racialized, sexualized, spiritually powerful woman of color other that she represents–in order to learn from her occluded tongue. As I argue, the literacy of Sycorax speaks to a third space beyond the oppositional cursing tongues of Caliban and Prospero. Here lies the prospect of healing internalized fear and loathing about “feminine” and racialized spirituality within ourselves and others. Published in Journal of International Women’s Studies. v. 9, n. 1 (November 2007): 80-98.

Raad Abd-Aun , QAISR AL-DORRAH

Aimé Césaire’s A Tempest is one of the earliest adaptations of a Western canonical work. It is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Césaire’s play conveys his anti-colonist ideas, exploring the relationship between Prospero, the colonizer, and his colonial subjects, Caliban and Ariel, from the perspective of the colonized. Comparing the characterization and the colonizer/colonized relationship in the two plays, this paper attempts to illustrate how Césaire uses Shakespeare's text to address the ills of colonialism and turn the tables on the colonizer using one of the masterpieces of the western canon. It also attempts to show how Césaire uses the mechanics of adaptation and appropriation to achieve his goals.

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• Prospero’s Rulership in “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare Words: 1206
• “The Tempest” a Play by William Shakespeare Words: 560
• The Tempest: Prospero’s Character Analysis Words: 859
• Performances of W. Shakespeare’s The Tempest Play Words: 642
• Gender Roles in The Tempest Words: 1350
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• The Tempest by Shakespeare: A Play Review Words: 836
• Utopia in “The Tempest” by Shakespeare Words: 4176
• Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Image Exploration Words: 556
• “The Tempest” Play by St. Louis Shakespeare Theater Words: 598
• The Tempest by William Shakespeare: Viewing and Reflection Words: 659
• Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” – Viewing and Reflection Words: 632
• Shakespeare’s The Tempest Directed by Gregory Doran Words: 817
• The Tempest and the Contemporary Arts Words: 531
• Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” by Savage Rose Theatre Words: 612
• “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare Words: 563
• “The Tempest” Play at St. Louis Shakespeare Festival Words: 645
• “The Tempest” Performance by St. Louis Shakespeare Words: 627
• Analysis of “The Tempest” Play During the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival Words: 572
• “Henry V” Play by William Shakespeare Words: 893
• The Work of William Shakespeare Words: 1576
• The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Tempest: Being “Civilized” or “Uncivilized” Words: 914

The Play “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare

I intend to focus on the master-slave relationship in the history of drama and colonialism in The Tempest . The reason for selecting this area is that it is extensive and explanatory because, unlike other genres, it was written to be understood and appreciated without the opportunity to re-read it. My idea is if drama is regarded as a language, the postcolonial drama in the enslaver and the enslaved people should be discussed by individuals. This drama arose in nations previously colonized by Western imperial powers, with a strong desire to recover native histories and traditions. The voices I will be in dialogue with are Caliban and Prospero’s and their reflection on people in authority and society in the current world.

The Tempest can easily be seen as a text complicit with colonial power. The play portrays the idea of imperialism and drama in the postcolonial age through the portrayal of the enslaver and enslaved person roles, which is how I will articulate the thesis. This thesis improves society’s understanding of advances in science and technology by developing new ideas about how to represent man and his position in the world. The essay is interesting as, through dramatic vocabulary, it demonstrates to society how the relationship between colonialists and conquered appears to be equally helpful. It is worth the reader’s interest since Caliban and Prospero’s voices explain how this slave-master relationship evolved into animosity and disloyalty. It is analyzed to study the colonized people’s psychology.

I plan to make this argument by analyzing Prospero as an emblem of European colonization and Caliban as the most potent symbol of post colonialism. The articles; “Postcolonial Perspective in The Tempest”, “The master-slave dialectic”, “Caliban by Postcolonial Critics: A Postcolonial Scrutiny” and The Tempest play are the materials to focus on while writing this paper. The anticipated pitfalls include a lack of proper lines such as a dispute statement, a lack of appropriate research, incorrectly indicating the sources, poor paper formation, and plagiarism checking.

How Dramatic Language Demonstrates Relationship Between Colonialists and the Conquered

Hashemipour, Saman. “Postcolonial Perspective in “The Tempest”: Shakespeare’s Relevance in Today’s Very Different World”. 2019, Web.

This article presents the dramatic vocabulary in the postcolonial era that demonstrates the aesthetic of a literary genre when it is concise, concrete, and oral. Furthermore, it is vast and explanatory because, unlike other art forms, it was written to be understood and accepted without the possibility of re-reading it. It is a shallow art form, lasting only the length of an achievement, though it has been created to remain solid. It is composed to be read aloud. If drama is regarded as a language, the language of postcolonial drama deserves to be discussed. Postcolonial drama poses challenges that distinguish it. The play depicts the notion of imperialism and drama in the postcolonial era by portraying the enslaver and enslaved person characters.

Many analysts assert that drama was the longest surviving literary genre when civilization began telling stories. This paper will demonstrate that The Tempest can be interpreted as a play about colonial rule and subjugation by addressing the recurring motif of the master-servant relationship. Following an in-depth discussion of the theme, it will go over the characteristics of The Tempest’s main characters, which alludes to the individuals of the colonial times.

Colonialism, the discovery of new regions and spaces, the influence of those lands by explorers, and the opening establishment of new frontiers and new land started earlier with the European exploration. Postcolonial drama is a brief artistic expression, lasting only the span of an achievement, though it has been created to sustain and is composed to be read aloud. In The Tempest , Prospero’s confiscation of Sycorax’s land, suppressing her, treatment of the island’s natives and enacting his way of life on the land’s inhabitants are interpreted as colonial drama. Prospero is viewed as a ruler who, like the Europeans who overthrown Native American land and enslaved them, is usurping Caliban’s Island, enslaving him, and subverting him like a monster.

From a postcolonial perspective, in which literature serves as a different voice for traditionally marginalized groups, drama represents the best form of cultural heritage recovery. The conveyance of figurative areas on the scene is always symbolic of gaining social representation. Postcolonial literature, an idealized elaboration of life during the twentieth century, changed dramatically. Decades of educational training and societal conditioning in colonial discourse have imbued us with mental models that allow us to easily comprehend gender identity, male dominance, whiteness, and Western address. Today, emphasis has shifted to emphasize dialectal, philosophical, and verbal issues and areas of categorization in the literature where cultures could be absent in the chosen language. Postcolonial prose is a muddled term that encompasses a variety of cultures that produce it. Colonialism literature’s shared purpose is the search for bettering local histories and customs. Furthermore, imperialism controversy tends to break down barriers to become extensive to the viewing public in their sense of individuality.

This article will help examine The Tempest, a piece written from a cultural perspective, using a variety of literary theories. Among them is a colonial and postcolonial interpretation of the play, mainly when the emphasis is on Caliban’s character. The need to communicate for humans is a critical component of social development. As a result, language is the first element passed down from the colonizer to the colonized. Prospero and Miranda teach Caliban English in The Tempest , and he begins to speak it fluently. On the other hand, Caliban recognized the value of education, citing Prospero’s books as the origin of all his magical power. Caliban mocks those who fail to see the relevance of the publications and are more engaged in the pretty clothes they find.

“The Tempest (Shakespeare): The Master-Slave Dialectic”. 2019, Web.

This article explains several master-servant connections in The Tempest that show a relation between a figure with authority and a character subject to that control, either explicitly or indirectly. The enslaver-servant dynamic is studied utmost harshly in cases where the association’s harmony is confronted or disrupted, like by a servant’s rebellion or a ruler’s ineptitude. For example, at the beginning of the story, the servant is skeptical and angry with his masters, whose incompetence jeopardizes guiding him to a shipwreck in the hurricane. The play examines the psychosocial complexities of authority affairs from various views, comprising Prospero’s generally positive relationship with Ariel, Prospero’s usual negative association with Caliban, and the deviousness of Alonso’s rapport with his peers.

The phrase “enslaved person” appears numerous times in the text to ascribe to Caliban, elaborating on European mentalities toward the people they subjugated via imperialism. Similarly, Prospero refers to Caliban as a beast, the devil, and other offensive words to describe his brutality and uncivilized behavior. Although Prospero asserts to have punished Caliban for betraying his daughter’s honor, one must wonder whether Caliban truly deserves all of the punishments he met. Though it may appear strange, these enslaved people occasionally have a goal or anticipation that they wish to see fulfilled. Although its participants are rarely aware of it, the Master-Slave relationship is a combination of presumption and fear on the part of the slaves toward the master and a perceived sense of power the instructor has over the slaves.

When there is a master-slave relationship, there are many conflicts of authority. This writing depicts an enslaver/slave connection between Prospero and Caliban in which responsibility and influence are fought over. These stances are not by chance but rather as a consequence of force. Prospero kidnaps Caliban’s island and asserts it as his own. He then takes away his liberty and pushes him to continue serving him. His justification is that Caliban tries to assault his daughter sexually and must pay repentance for it; moreover, his conviction is not credible because it is motivated by selfishness rather than justice. In addition, Prospero’s supernatural powers, which he abuses, are the only reason he has any authority over Caliban.

The enslaver and enslaved person in The Tempest are essential to the English language and people’s thoughts and actions. The master and the slave is an intriguing area because the identities of Prospero and Caliban shape society in a variety of ways. These characters are frequently re-read in colonial contexts to reframe the colonial and colonized perspectives. Postcolonial dramas provide the common problems of the old colonies through depictions of rituals and festivals, body governance such as gender and ethnicity, and various types of Neo-Imperialisms. Many postcolonial scholars and literary critics have focused on Caliban, who has become synonymous with the West’s picture of the native: peculiar in looks, objectified, and dehumanized. This article will help understand and analyze the motif of the enslaver and the enslaved person.

Chand, Prof Piar, and Shivani Chaudhary. “Critical Discourse Analysis of the Character of Caliban by Postcolonial Critics: A Postcolonial Scrutiny”. Web.

This article analyses the role of Caliban as a slave in The Tempest . Caliban represents all natives who choose not to be colonial prisoners. Caliban chastises himself for believing Prospero and disclosing all of the land’s secrets to him. Prospero frees Caliban and mistreats him after enslaving him with the knowledge he gained while in the company of Caliban. Thus, by depicting the utilization of the conquered by the colonizer, the play seeks to highlight and criticize the existing colonial ideologies. Caliban represents the supernatural, as he results from the alliance of a wizard and the deity. The first and spiritual world character, Caliban, exists to serve as a foil to Ariel, the heavenly spirit. Ariel is primarily made of air, whereas Prospero addresses Caliban as thou earth from the start.

Caliban’s physical appearance is hazy; all efforts to outline this peculiar being have failed. Despite his ability to grind pignuts, pluck berries, and trap the nimble monkeys, Prospero refers to him as a tortoise. Caliban represents a particular type of atrocity and lack of doubts when he attempts to assault Miranda sexually. Caliban is expelled from Prospero’s cell and constrained to a rock, and when he conspires against his instructor Prospero with the drugged-up butler Stephano and the trickster Trinculo. Caliban’s heredity and physical deformity and the imprecations he continuously heaps on Prospero despite recognizing that he will be heavily punished for this endow him with supernatural qualities. This journal will help understand how post colonialism and slavery are depicted in today’s world.

Conner, Marc C. “Prospero and Caliban in ‘The Tempest’”. 2020, Web.

This article studies Prospero and Caliban association as seen in Shakespeare’s The Tempest . Caliban symbolizes oppression on the island that Prospero has taken over. Caliban is correct to be angry about this because the island ought to be his after the death of Sycorax, his mother. Instead, he is chained to an enslaved person. Caliban, as a slave, despises Prospero, the harsh tactician; in fact, he hates all service. As a result, he symbolizes slavery and the rebellion against enslavement in all of its manifestations. Prospero may have petted Caliban and handled him with deep fondness at one time. Still, in the end, Caliban is his slave, and Prospero himself refuses to apologize for declaring him his slave without fear of ridicule. Caliban tells Stephano that Prospero is a dictator who inflicts all manner of punishment on him. Caliban and Prospero have a relationship of a slave and a servitude. Caliban’s reluctance to obey Prospero’s commands demonstrates a slave fighting back against authority.

Prospero is the expropriating invader, concerned about the validity of his rule. His language lessons are interpreted as an effort to exterminate or bring his own culture under imperialist control. Slavery has taken many forms in many countries since the beginning of time. It has since taken on severe proportions, causing several historical and geographical issues. In America, black people are still regarded as second-class citizens. Caliban thus signifies the oppressed and oppressed category of enslaved people in an unjust society.

Caliban is simple, untainted by civilization’s influence. Caliban is shaped after being trained to use language in the picture of the colonizer, but the invaded and conquered cannot be the equivalent of the colonizer. He represents the darkness in marked contradiction to Prospero, who reflects the illumination of civilization. On the other side, Caliban represents the force that opposes the colonizer. After learning how to use language, he claims that the benefit is that he now knows how to insult the colonizer. He rebukes and curses him with the weapon given to him by Prospero for whatever he has done towards him and his mother.

On the other hand, Caliban is innocent and childlike in some ways—almost to somebody who does not understand any better. He does not know how to talk since he is the island’s only initial inhabitant until Prospero and Miranda show up. He is solely motivated by his physical and emotional needs, and he is oblivious to the individuals around him or the activities happening. Caliban does not fully contemplate the repercussions of his actions, possibly due to his absence of ability. Caliban is commonly denoted as a monster by other characters. Individuals’ reaction to him as an audience is less definitive. His monstrous look and rash choices may induce us to empathize with the other protagonists. After all, Caliban creates some bad choices. For example, he trusts Stephano while fooling himself with alcohol. He is quite ruthless in his plot to assassinate Prospero.

Prospero and Caliban’s relationship appears to be ironic in the play. Controlled by the brutal and wicked witch Sycorax, Caliban was freed from Sycorax’s spell by Prospero. Prospero later assumes presiding control of the island, enslaving Caliban and forcing him to carry wood. This case depicts indigenous natives who were unable to flee the cruel viciousness of their colonial rulers. As a play about imperialism, The Tempest addresses the relationship between the colonizers and colonized. If Prospero symbolizes the civilized world’s colonizer, Caliban is viewed as a savage beast needing civilization. He has been subjected to colonial rule and enslavement. At the same time, he represents the power for retaliation against the colonizer. Prospero landed on the island where Caliban and his mom Sycorax lived and took it from them. He is the embodiment of the world’s civilization. According to the civilizing mission, the colonists were not there to dominate the natives but to elevate them through enlightenment.

As seen in this article, The Tempest contracts with ideas of dominance and influence within Prospero and Caliban’s master-slave relationship. Caliban persists in serving a variety of masters, from Sycorax, the genuine colonial empire, to Stephano, whom he embraces as his own master to challenge Prospero. A multitude of characters in the play compete for colonization of the island, and each has precise colonial aspirations for the island. Despite the fact that Prospero is able to dominate the mainland amidst all conspiracy theories, his policy and how he deals with Caliban, the island’s legitimate owner, raises issues of fairness, morality, and human rights. As a result, the play demonstrates all of the requisite conflicts, ambiguity, and master-slave connections that describe western imperialism, and Prospero as well as Caliban deliver as analogies for the broader imperial world order. This article will help compare the different individuals through their character.

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StudyCorgi . 2024. "The Play “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare." September 19, 2024. https://studycorgi.com/the-play-the-tempest-by-william-shakespeare/.

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