The Tempest by William Shakespeare:

The Tempest by William Shakespeare: Introduction

William Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest, was first performed in 1611, although it was the opening play of his collected works of 1623. The play has long dazzled readers and audiences with its intricate blend of magic, music, humor, intrigue and tenderness.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

It charmed Jacobean audiences, played (in substantially altered form) to packed houses from the Restoration through the eighteenth century, emerged (in its original form) as a focal point in nineteenth- century European debates about the nature of humanity, and served disparate symbolic roles in twentieth-century writings on western imperialism and its demise.
The Tempest has been a play for all eras, all continents and many ideologies. Several centuries of readers, watchers and critics have found Shakespeare's last play as perhaps less the story of the shipwreck, island refuge, murderous cannibals and happy ending but more of ambiguous central characters: the detestable Prospero (who, some critics oppose, reflects the playwright himself), the bestial of noble Caliban, the loyal or resentful Ariel, and the demure or resilient Miranda. Even the play's narrative context is disputable. Controversy has marked The Tempest almost from the outset through centuries of changing interpretations by legions of scholars-whether from a Romantic, Christian, Darwinian, Freudian, allegorical, autobiographical, cultural materialist or post-colonial perspective. The Tempest has resonated with unusual power and variety.
The Tempest is neither a comedy nor a disintegrating tragedy, but a matured play of Shakespeare. As he grows matured, he moves beyond the tragedy and wrote some comedy plays along with romance. Since, it is the last play of Shakespeare, it depicts his long career in the field of theatres. Prospero’s supreme control over the island and over the spirits of the island symbolizes Shakespeare’s supreme mystery of the English theatre of his time. Here, the position of Prospero has been regarded as the position of Shakespeare himself. Prospero, who parallels Shakespeare, manages all the problems and shows resolution. He creates a tempest through the use of magic, which makes people forget and brings resolution. The creation of magic is not just ego gratification, but a genuine use. Giving up the power of magic by Prospero parallels the ending of the Shakespeare dramatic career.
The Tempest is full of supernatural elements and it seems clear that the playwright is not interested in producing lifelike events. The beautiful presentation of the characters, the moral theme of forgiveness and the issue of freedom bestowed to Ariel, and the delightful poetry are the charm of this play.

 

The Tempest by William Shakespeare: Summary

A ship is caught in the terrifying storm, tempest in the middle of the sea. There are include Alonso, the King of Naples; his son Ferdinand; his brother Sebastian; his kind old councilor Gonzalo; and Antonio, the false Duke of Milan. Prospero, who is the rightful duke of Milan is on the Island and now has become a great and powerful magician. He has a daughter named Miranda. Prospero has created the tempest to gather his all enemies in a same place.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Twelve years ago, Prospero was dethroned by his own brother Antonio making conspiracy with the help of Alonso and Sebastian. Prospero and his infant daughter Miranda were cast away in the sea, but fortunately they were brought to the island. Since then, they have been living in the island with two servants: Ariel the airy spirit and the monster, Caliban. Caliban was treated well at first, but when he tried to rape Miranda, he was treated sternly by Prospero.
Prospero, after causing the tempest, separated Alonso’s son, Prince Ferdinand, from the others. His father thinks Prince Ferdinand is dead in the storm. He is deeply saddened by this fact and his councilor Gonzalo comforts him. On the island, Antonio and Sebastian plot to kill the king and his councilor and take his kingdom. But at the right time, Ariel wakes the king and his councilor. The main purpose of this plot is to seize the kingship of Alonso by his brother Sebastian.
On the other side of the island, Ferdinand meets Miranda and they both fall in love. Ferdinand too thinks that he is the only survivor of the storm. Before he gets approval of his love from Prospero, he is assigned to a difficult toil to pile up a thousand logs before the sun sets. He succeeds in this task and becomes the lucky one to have Miranda in his life.
Stephano and Trinculo are the other survivors of the wreck. They meet Caliban, and poor Caliban takes them as God who would free him from the slavery of Prospero. These three people make a plot to kill Prospero. The three become drunk and because of the mischievous deed of Ariel, Trinculo and Caliban have a row before the implementation of their plot. Before they can set their scheme against Prospero in motion, Ariel leads them off with enchanted music, then goes to report the scheme to his master.
The king’s people look for Ferdinand on the island, but fail and being desperate stops to rest. Ariel and the other airy spirits prepare a great feast for the group, as they are ready to enjoy it, they turn into harpies and grab it away. All men are terrified, and Ariel tells them that they are being punished for the wrong deed they did to Prospero twelve years ago.
Meanwhile, as Ferdinand passes his test, Prospero tells him to be faithful to Miranda and remain chaste until the marriage. Then the good spirits entertain the couple with mosque and Juno blesses the couple with prosperous life.
Prospero, being decisive to forgive all his enemies, brings Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio before him, along with Gonzalo and the rest of the King's party and he reveals his identity. Alonso quickly asks his pardon, though Antonio and Sebastian never really repent. To Alonso's pleasure, Ferdinand returns not only alive, but engaged to the lovely Miranda as well. Ariel leads in the captain of the ship and the boatswain to the ship. They have already declared that the ship is totally ruined. But to their surprise, because of the magic of Ariel, the ship is in good condition. Prospero forgives Caliban, too. He's decided to give up his magic and return with the others as the rightful Duke of Milan. After commanding Ariel to speed their trip, Prospero promises the airy spirit the freedom he's wanted for so long.

Allegorical Interpretations in The Tempest

William Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest, is rich in symbolism. It has been interpreted in several ways by critics and reader alike. There are fanciful interpretations attached to the characters of Prospero, Caliban, Ariel, Miranda and several others. It has been called a complex piece of dramatic art.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

One critic considers Prospero as a man of genius, a perfect artist lacking at first in a practical sense for worldly success. Subsequently, he attains the height of his supernatural powers. Miranda, for him, represents Art in its infancy. Caliban stands for the lower human passions and appetites whom Prospero subdues to his service and who he vainly tries to lift to a higher level. Caliban trying to rape Miranda signifies the lower passions of mankind attempting to violate the purity of Art. Ariel represents the imaginative genius of poetry liberated from long slavery to evil influences, in this case the wicked witch Sycorax. The marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda shows Shakespeare's view that success in art is possibly only through the hard labor amounting to toil.
Another critic opines that in writing this play Shakespeare was answering the great question of the day, namely, the justification of European usurpation of the backward and uncivilized areas of Earth. Shakespeare felt a warm interest in the English colonization. Caliban is interpreted as a mere anagram of cannibal, representing state of barbarism over which Prospero, the European colonizer, establishes his just sway in order to carry the torch of civilization to the remotest parts of this planet. Gonzalo's description of an ideal republic in Act II is a satire on the prevailing systems of governance.
The Tempest presents a picture of the glorious victory of the righteous human soul over all things around it. Prospero represents wise and virtuous manhood, while Caliban is the lowest and Ariel the highest extreme in the wonderful chain of earthly existence. Prospero represents the middle link - the wise and good man who is the ruling deity to whom the whole series is subject. Ferdinand stands for passionate chivalrous devotion of youth, while Miranda represents the yielding simplicity and sweetness of the unsophisticated girl. The young lovers are the hope of mankind representations of those natural instincts which, watched and guided by the paternal care of Prospero will bear their rightful harvest of happiness as well as pleasure.
Next interesting interpretation is that Shakespeare has sought to represent himself through the protagonist of the play, Prospero; he has given us a self-portrait in the character of Prospero and his farewell speech at the end of Act V as well as in The Epilogue conveys his desire for giving up his vocation of a dramatist and retiring to Stratford-upon-Avon after weaving all the dreams through his 37 plays. The Tempest being the last of his plays, William Shakespeare treats the speech of Prospero as his last will and testament. The voice of Prospero has been interpreted as being the voice of the playwright himself. Prospero's supreme control over the island and the spirits symbolizes Shakespeare's supreme mastery of the English stage during his time. When Prospero renounces his magic, it is Shakespeare during his time. When Prospero renounces his magic, it is Shakespeare himself bidding a kind of farewell to the dramatic career.
According to another interpretation, The Tempest deals with a subject which constantly occupied Shakespeare towards the close of his career, that of reconciliation, pardon and atonement of sins. In this case, Prospero forgives all his enemies after they have represented of the grievous wrong done to him twelve years ago in conspiring against him and banishing him from the dukedom of Milan. It is reconciliation time between Prospero and Alonso with their offspring uniting in holy wedlock at Naples with all the religious rites and rituals and their grandchildren becoming the joint rulers of Naples and Milan.
The Tempest represents the glorious victory of the righteous human soul over all things around it. It also represents an allegory about the pursuit of power and the consequences of that pursuit and that any perversion of the natural order of things in this world brings distress and doom. And that adherence and obedience to the natural order is essential for man's attainment of the highest good in life. The Tempest, therefore, yields a multiplicity of meanings and interpretations to generations of critics and readers; the list can never possibly be exhausted. It is the peak of Shakespeare's creation.

Significance of Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest Caliban embodies three ideas, first, the supernatural as he is born of the union of a witch and the devil. Hence, he is deformed. In the first and supernatural character, Caliban serves as a foil to the heavenly spirit, Ariel. Ariel is primarily "but air", whereas Caliban, at the very outset, is addressed by Prospero a 'thou earth'? Caliban represents not only the earth, but also the other of two heavier elements, i.e. water, for he is half fish. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) The physical appearance of Caliban is vague; all attempts to sketch this strange being have proved futile. He is able to dig pig-nuts, pluck berries and snare the nimble monkeys, yet Prospero calls him a tortoise. Again, in one of her speeches, Miranda ranks him with a man when she tells Ferdinand that she has in her life seen but two men - her old father Prospero and the deformed Caliban. In another, she excludes him from the category of human beings. Shakespeare must have derived some of the material used for portraying Caliban from contemporary books of travel narrating strange account of island natives in various parts of the world. Caliban symbolizes an extraordinary kind of monstrosity and lack of scruples when he tries to rape Miranda, for which he is banished from Prospero's cell and confined to a rock, and when he conspires against his master Prospero along with the drunken butler Stephano and the jester Trinculo. What gives him supernatural qualities is Caliban's heredity and his bodily deformity as well as the curses he constantly heaps upon Prospero in spite of knowing that he will be severely punished for this. He is an ungrateful and incorrigible wretch. Caliban in The Tempest is also an embodiment of slavery on the island that Prospero has usurped. Caliban rightly resents this fact because the island should have rightfully been his after the death of his mother, the wicked witch Sycorax. Instead, he is yoked to slavery. As Prospero says, "We'll visit Caliban, my slave - he does make our fire, fetch in our wood and services in offices that profit us." Again, "He is that Caliban, whom now I keep in service." As a slave, Caliban hates Prospero, the hard taskmaster; in fact, he hates "all service". He, therefore, represents slavery and the revolt against slavery in all its forms. Prospero at one time might have 'petted' Caliban and treated him with great affection, but in the final analysis, Caliban is his slave and Prospero himself makes no bones about calling him his slave without feeling embarrassed. Speaking to Stephano, Caliban says that Prospero is a tyrant who inflicts all kinds of punishment upon him. The relationship between Caliban and Prospero is that of a slave and a slave-owner. Caliban's reluctance to carry out Prospera's commands shows a slave rebelling against the authority. Slavery has existed in various forms in several countries from times immemorial. It has since assumed serious dimensions and created several historic and geographic problems. Negroes are still treated as second-class citizens in America. Caliban, therefore, represents the oppressed and the downtrodden class of slaves in an unequal world. The Tempest, being a play about colonialism, deals with the relation between the colonizer and the colonized. If Prospero represents the colonizer from the civilized world, Caliban is seen as a savage beast thus in need of being civilized. He is a victim of colonial rule and exploitation. At the same time he also represents the force for striking back on the colonizer. Prospero came to the island where Caliban and his mother Sycorax were dwelling and forcefully took it from them. It is a typical colonial practice. He represents the world of civilization. The civilizing mission has it that the colonizers were not there to dominative the natives, but to uplift them by civilizing. It was an attempt to justify colonization. In the eyes of the colonizer the native inhabitants were always barbarians. This stereotype works in the case of Caliban too. He is treated as a beast by Prospero and he learns how to use language. He is a colonized whose existence is the 'other' so much needed to define the 'self of the colonizer. Prospero feels it his duty to teach and civilize the savage. Caliban is pure nature, not corrupted from the influence of civilization, After Caliban is taught to use language he is being molded according to the image of the colonizer but the colonized can never be the equal of the colonizer. He is the darkness that contrasts sharply with Prospero, who represents light of civilization. On the other hand, Caliban also stands for the force that strikes back on the colonizer. After he learns how to use language he says that the advantage of it is that he knows how to curse the colonizer. He uses the weapon given by Prospero to rebuke and curse him for what he has done to him and his mother. His attempt to rape Miranda can also be understood along the same line of interpretation. Thus Caliban represents the colonized who at the same time counters the colonizer with what he has given to the colonized. The monster, the slave, the colonized - are the three parts played by the deformed Caliban in The Tempest.  He is the embodiment of the supernatural, the social and the political ideas of the day.

Colonialism and Post-Colonialism in The Tempest

Colonialism began much earlier with the discovery of America. It was a big issue during Shakespeare's time. The opening up of new frontiers and new land being discovered stimulated European information. Shakespeare's imagination has taken this into account. Exploration of new geographical spaces and control of those lands by the explorers is basically what we know by colonialism.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Interpreted as white man's burden, colonization was a means of conquering new lands and imposing the colonizer's culture from on the native people. Prospero's capture of Sycorax's land and his treatment of the natives of the island have prompted many critics to interpret the play as working out the drama of colonization. Caliban's protest against Prospero and his resistance to colonial power using the language taught by the colonizer helps us interpret the play as a postcolonial text.
The Tempest has often been interpreted as a play about colonialism primarily because Prospero comes to Sycorax's island, subdues her, rules the land and imposes his own culture on the people of the land. In this interpretation, Prospero is not seen primarily as a kind father of Miranda and kind ruler instead usurping Caliban's Island from him (Caliban). But putting him under slavery and undermining him as a monster, we can take Prospero as a representative of the Europeans who usurped the land of native Americans and enslaved them. He, as a sense of superiority, takes Caliban as half man.  Pushing the native to the side, he places himself at the helm of affairs. He displaces Caliban's mother and treats her as a beast. He has full control over everything on the island. He makes Caliban work as his servant and calls him a thing of darkness. Caliban is being dehumanized or treated as subhuman. Like European fantasizes the other people as a wild man, Prospero, in this play, describes Caliban as deformed, evil smiling, treacherous, drunkard, violent, savage, and devil worshipping etc. According to Prospero, he is not even human rather born devil.
Prospero; ''This thing of darkness, I call my own''
 This shows the colonizer's attitude of looking down on the colonized people. Caliban is seen as a despicable entity. The whites looked down on the people of another color. Some are born to dominate while others are born to be dominated. Caliban is treated as inferior. The colonizer used words like light, knowledge and wisdom to refer himself while he used terms like darkness, ignorance and elemental to describe the colonized. This binary opposition shows how Prospero as a colonizer creates essences about the colonized people. Prospero sees himself as a ruler carrying out the project of civilization mission. The way light dispels darkness and knowledge dispels ignorance Prospero as a colonizer educates and civilizes Caliban but without much success. The civilizing mission is always accompanied by the politics of domination over the colonized. These elements allow us to study the play in the light of colonialism.
In colonial perspective, we see the play through the eyes of colonizers. But if we see the play from post-colonial perspective, Caliban is emerging against from the very beginning of domination. The hatred towards the colonizer is very great and strong among the colonized. Prospero manipulates everybody and every action in the play. Everybody on the island is manipulated by Prospero the way a puppet master controls his puppets. Caliban as a colonized wants to strike back on the colonizer. Caliban is disobedient and creates problems for the colonizer. He attempts to rape Miranda and it is a threat posed to the safety of the colonizer. He tells Prospero that the land that Prospero rules was forcefully taken away from his mother. Like Caliban's protest, in world history, too protest has begun with the birth of colonialism itself. He simply says, ''I wish it were done''. Despite this, Caliban again and again claims that the land is to be inherited on him. It means he seems to be justified in claiming that the island originally belonged to him.
Caliban: ''I must eat my dinner. This Island is mine, by Sycorax, my mother.''
When Prospero tries to teach the language Caliban always refused to recite. Caliban, therefore, remains at the end what he was at the beginning. No change occurs in Caliban's nature. Here, Prospero, like White men is in the illusion that they are working for them (calonized). But such notion is failed because Caliban does not learn his (Prosper) language, even at the end of the play. The play shows the resistance of dominance class.  Whatever he has learnt, he uses it in cursing Prospero. These attempts by Caliban to protest and resist the colonizer can support our post-colonial interpretation of the play.

Magic in Shakespeare's The Tempest

Magic was a matter of importance in the sixteenth century involving life and death to practitioners and victims. The burning of witches and the publication of many books on the subject, including one even by James I, bears witness to its place in public thought. Consequently the very full use of it in The Tempest would have a much greater effect on the audience than can be felt today.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

There were two different types of it, a maleficent one represented by witches and wizards, who sold their souls to the devil in popular belief and who were governed by him to work evil on victims. The other was beneficent, derived from studies in the occult and used generally for discovery of new forces and investigation the occult and used generally for discovery of new forces and investigation into the laws of physics and other scientific research. Examples of both types are in the play, where they form a contrast, that of the witch Sycorax, very sketchily developed, and that of Prospero, very fully developed. Sycorax was allied with the devil, who gave her power over the air with its invisibility and swiftness of motion, but her evil work resulted in her banishment and death. Prospero invoked only his own mental intelligence to win greater powers. Before he was sufficiently learned his lack of wisdom indirectly led to banishment, but afterwards he had full control over the air and greater prowess. He used them only for good, his own restoration to the throne, the welfare of his daughter, the repentance of Alonso, and punishment for the disobedient.
The attributes of magic used by Prospero are the robe, the wand, and his books on the subject. He never appears invisible himself, but he repeatedly puts on or off his magic robe, according to whether he has work to do as a magician or an ordinary man. Little mention is made of his wand; he disarms Ferdinand in Act I, Sc. II, and will bury it "fathoms deep" when he adjures magic at the close of the play. His books are his chief power, and these he buries deeper "than did over plummet sound". His robe represents his dominion over mortals, his wand the instrument of power, and the books of his supernatural knowledge.
The spirits summoned by Ariel may be classified as those of fire, air, earth, and water. Fire is evoked in lightning and the forms taken by Ariel in flames on the poles and rigging of the ship, and the will-o-the-wisps used to torment Caliban. Water spirits appear in the Naiads and elves of the brooks and streams who are in attendance in the masque of Act IV to "bestow upon the eyes of this young couple some vanity of mine art", said by Prospero to Ariel, Act IV, Sc. I, 23. The spirits of the air are of the highest type and include Ariel and the divinities he summons, Ceres, Iris, Juno, and the nymphs. They thunder, Music, Noises, sounds, and sweet airs with which the island abounds, says Caliban. The spirits of earth are the goblins, the dogs and hounds used to plague Caliban and his associates.
Another type of the magic used by Prospero, either by himself or with the aid of Ariel, is in materialistic performances, more spectacular than most of the others, such as the production and disappearance of the banquet, the line of glittering garments, the arrival and dance of the Reapers, and the magic circle in which the courtiers were held charmed.