The Tempest

Transgression and redemption, loss and retrieval, exile and reunion

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, written between 1610–11. It is thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. The sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan and his daughter Miranda are stranded on an island with the deformed Caliban. A second shipwreck brings ashore the man of Miranda's dreams. Prospero plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place. He uses illusion and skilful manipulation to conjure up a storm, the eponymous tempest. He does this to lure his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island. There, his scheming brings about the revelation of Antonio's lowly nature. It also redeems the King, and the brings about the marriage of Miranda to Alonso's son, Ferdinand.

The story draws on the tradition of the romance. This is a fictitious narrative set far away from ordinary life. Romances use themes such as the supernatural, wandering, exploration and discovery. They were often set in coastal regions, and featured exotic, fantastical locations. The also use themes of transgression and redemption, loss and retrieval, exile and reunion.

These are a few more themes I noticed when I watched and read the play.

The Illusion of Justice
The Tempest tells a straightforward story involving an unjust act. This is the usurpation of Prospero's throne by his brother and his quest to restore himself to power. But, the idea of justice that the play works toward seems subjective. This idea represents the view of one character who controls the fate of all the other characters. Prospero's idea of justice and injustice is somewhat hypocritical—though he is angry with his brother for taking his power, he has no qualms about enslaving Ariel and Caliban to achieve his ends. Because the play offers no notion of higher order or justice to supersede Prospero's interpretation of events, the play is morally ambiguous.

By using magic and tricks that echo the special effects and spectacles of the theatre, Prospero persuades the other characters and the audience of the rightness of his case. As he does so, the ambiguities surrounding his methods resolve themselves. Prospero forgives his enemies, releases his slaves, and relinquishes his magic power, so that, at the end of the play, he is only an old man whose work has been responsible for all the audience's pleasure. The establishment of Prospero's idea of justice becomes less a commentary on justice in life than on the nature of morality in art.

Humanity
Miranda and Prospero both have opposing views of Caliban's humanity. They think that their education of him has lifted him from his brutish status. But they seem to see him as inherently brutish. His base nature can never be overcome by nurture. The play leaves the matter ambiguous. Caliban balances all his eloquent speeches, with degrading drunken, servile behaviour.

Colonialism
The uninhabited island presents the sense of possibility to almost everyone who lands there. Prospero has found it, in its isolation, an ideal place to school his daughter. Sycorax, Caliban's mother, worked her magic. All these characters envision the island as a space of freedom and unrealized potential. Yet, while there are many representatives of the colonial impulse in the play, the colonized have only one representative: Caliban. We might develop sympathy for him at first, when Prospero seeks him out to abuse him. But this sympathy is made more difficult by his willingness to abase himself. Even as Caliban plots to kill one colonial master (Prospero) he sets up another (Stefano). The urge to rule and the urge to be ruled seem intertwined.

As for the book itself, at this price you can't go wrong, its a bargain. Supplement your reading by watching the play itself, then it'll all make much more sense.