Literature has always been a source of exploring the world and the history of mankind. In Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, both authors use the concept of slavery, race and class. In Defoe’s story, the relationship between Crusoe and his slave, Friday, is one of mutual respect and trust. In the second selection by Shakespeare, the master-slave relationship is one that is characterized by force, violence and power. These two works share the common theme of servantship and slavery, which were largely based on differences in class and race. In both stories, differences in character, race and class have an influence on the servants and in their relationship with their master.
In the work by Defoe, Crusoe comes from a middle class family wanting to explore the world. His father wants him to pursue law but Crusoe goes against his father’s wishes and goes out to sea. Crusoe later colonizes an island, where he is destined to meet a man who would become his faithful servant and slave named Friday. When Friday first encounters Crusoe, Crusoe saves him from being eaten by other cannibals: “[…] and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every Ten or Twelve steps in token of acknowledgement for my saving his Life.” (Defoe, 223) Although they have a master-servant relationship, their bond is unique. Friday seems to be very grateful to Crusoe for saving his life and willingly becomes a servant to Crusoe. This will also affect their relationship later in the story. Crusoe stated that Friday “kneeled down to me, seeming to pray me to assist him, […] and he became my servant.” (Defoe, 218) Crusoe’s attitude towards Friday is warm and inviting “I smiled at him and looked pleasantly, a...
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...island. In contrast, the relationships between the characters in the two stories are different. Prospero’s servants seem to be very reluctant to continue serving him, while Crusoe’s slave is very submissive and never questions his position. The conclusion can be drawn that the radical changes that took place during the century of the colonizing experience and the living conditions has affected the concept of attitudes toward the classes and the tension between the masters and their servants.
Works Cited
Defoe, Daniel. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. S.O. Beeton, 1862. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Nelson Thornes, 1988. Print.
Jericho, Jeremy. William Shakespeare's “The Tempest.” Barron's Educational Series, 1986. Print.
Moore, John Robert. The Tempest and Robinson Crusoe. The Review of English Studies January 1945, 21(81): 52-56. Print.
The Tempest by William Shakespeare is one of the most relevant and studied plays of the Elizabethan period among scholars, from both, ancient and actual times. One of the many readings that have prevailed suggests that the play’s protagonist, Prospero, and his two su-pernatural servants, Ariel and Caliban, can work as a single psychological unit is constantly discussed by the academics. This reading is not new; it has been considered for longer than the idea of The Tempest as an autobiographical allegory, being first proposed by Thomas Campbell in 1838 (Yachnin).
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004.
The issue of Slavery in the South was an unresolved issue in the United States during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. During these years, the south kept having slavery, even though most states had slavery abolished. Due to the fact that slaves were treated as inferior, they did not have the same rights and their chances of becoming an educated person were almost impossible. However, some information about slavery, from the slaves’ point of view, has been saved. In this essay, we are comparing two different books that show us what being a slave actually was. This will be seen with the help of two different characters: Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the life of Frederick
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Greenblatt, Stephen. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1997.
Prospero is the protagonist in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Plain and simple. However, he inhabits roles outside those of a traditional protagonist. The former duke of Milan and father of Miranda, Prospero, initiates the play by seeking vengeance on his enemies who have taken his dukedom from him. The play follows his journey as he avenges himself through his use of magic and returns to his former status after having forgiven his enemies. Protagonists often give the audience the story from their point of view, but Prospero does more; he controls the story. From engineering the love between his daughter Miranda and a prince to controlling his slaves, Prospero directly involves himself in all aspects of the play.
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest reveals how ideologies of racial ‘otherness’ served to legitimize European patriarchal hegemony in Elizabethan England. In the Elizabethan/ Jacobean times of England there were many relevant ideologies relevant to this play. In examining the values and ideologies this text endorses and challenges, the society of the time (Elizabethan England), and a knowledge of how it operated serves a great purpose in analyzing these relationships. As in many texts of this time, Shakespeare is endorsing many ideologies of his time, and, although many have labelled him ahead of his time in many respects in his writing, he is, essentially writing from the Elizabethan or Jacobean point of view and time. The Tempest endorses the inequitable relationships between races based upon the belief of European superiority. The representation of race and ethnicity in The Tempest reveals a text that is awash with imperialist European ideologies.
Solomon, Andrew. “A Reading of the Tempest.” In Shakespeare’s Late Plays. Ed. Richard C. Tobias and Paul G. Zolbrod. Athens: Ohio UP, 1974. 232.
Shakespeare’s enchanted island in The Tempest is a restorative pastoral setting, a place where ‘no man was his own’ and a place that offers endless possibilities to the people that arrive on it’s shores. Although the actual location of the island is not known, the worlds of Seneca aptly describe it’s significance to the play – it represents the ‘bounds of things, the remotest shores of the world’. On the boundary of reality, the island partakes of both the natural and supernatural both the imaginative and the real. It allows the exploration of both man’s potential and his limitations, his capacity for reform through art and his affinity for political and social realities. It is constructing this opposition between art and reality and in giving Shakespeare’s romance the freedom to explore mankind free from the concerns of everyday life that the setting of The Tempest is crucial to it’s overall dramatic design.
Slavery occurs on a widespread basis in The Tempest. Occurrence of slavery to many of the characters, all in different ways, helps to provide the atmosphere for the play. The obvious slaves are not the only slaves, as Prospero has basically got everybody entranced when he wants, to do whatever he wants with them. He can also control the way that they think.
Deborah Willis, 'Shakespeare's Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism', Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 29, no.2, (1989)
The relationship between master and slave is embraced by Shakespeare in his play The Tempest. Conflicts and complexities of authority are portrayed by the characters Prospero and Caliban. As one gains power, the other loses it. In the play, Prospero rises to power, while Caliban loses it. The legitimacy of Prospero’s authority over Caliban is, however, questionable. What gives Prospero the power over Caliban? What are the reasons that Caliban should obey his masters’ orders? These questions can be answered through investigating the possession of the island, the justice of punishing Caliban, and Prospero’s right to use or abuse his power.
Crusoe accepts the challenge to survive, but not only does he survive, but he also expands and discovers new qualities about himself. In the beginning of his time on the island, Crusoe feels exceedingly secluded. He fears savages and wild beasts on the island, and he stays high up in a tree. Lacking a "weapon to hunt and kill creatures for his sustenance" (Defoe, 47), he is susceptible. Defoe believed that "the nature of man resides in the capacity for improvement in the context of a material world" (Seidel, 59), and this becomes apparent in his novel. The tools that Crusoe possesses from the ship carry out this notion, improving his life on the island dramatically. He progresses quickly, and no longer feels as isolated as he did before on the island. Crusoe uses his tools to build a protective fence and a room inside a cave. He then builds a farm where he raises goats and grows a corn crop. Later, his ambitions take him to the other side of the island where he builds a country home. Also, with the weapons that Crusoe creates, he saves Friday from cannibals, and makes him his servant. Because of his tools, his supply becomes more than sufficient for survival. He comes to learn that if he works with his surroundings instead of wallowing in the fact that he has no longer got what he thinks he needs, he able to find and use everything he needs in order to carry out life.
This interpretation can be found within the consistent arguments between Prospero and Caliban. Prospero feels the island is his; he rightfully won it fro...