An Ecological Translation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest

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IV

The Tempest places forward the rhythms of the dynamic Nature in the context of ever changing society and the inconsistent human mind, but also how they reflect both elevated and distorted symbolic association of humans and Nature: allusions to “pinch-spotted…. Than pard or cat o’ mountain”, “welkin’s cheek”, “rotten carcass of a butt”, “Jove’s lightnings”, “King’s son, Ferdinand/ With hair up-staring then like reeds, not hair, -”, “veins o’th’earth” and “bak’d with frost”. Caliban’s lethargy is associated with the movement of a tortoise. Charms and omens of Sycorax are associated with hateful creatures as “toads”, “beetles” and “bat”. In the lines “Temperance was a delicate wench”, weather and climatic condition of the island is compared to the temperament of a delicate female. Sebastian’s association of Gonzalo’s identity to that of an “old cock”, Gonzalo’s tears as “winter’s drops”. Its opening scene introduces us to the tempest tossing and playing like a toy with the ship, a human invention. The turbulent tumultuous interplay between the strong wind and the sea-waves prove the insignificance, and failure of a man-made commodity of pride and elegance in the hands of mighty nature. The royal and the noble personages, the intellectuals, the dynamic, bold warriors and the proficient crew manning the regal ship are helpless and paralyzed in front of the wild power of Nature. Their significance and might diminishes eventually. During crisis, the king, who is claimed as the messiah of a human society, despite his incredibly chivalric profile, becomes inefficient and entirely dependent upon the boatswain and his sailors (representing the commonplace and the proletarian) for saving his life. Wrath of Nature thus devastate the human ...

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...ld inevitably head them towards ruinous disjunction from Nature, causing their absolute demolition.

Works Cited

Cheryll Glotfelty, What is Ecocriticism? http://www.asle.org/site/resources /ecocritical-library/intro/defining/glotfelty/

2 Simon. C. Estok, “A report Card on Ecocriticism”. AUMLA: The Journal of Australian Universities Language and Literature Association 96. Nov. 2001: 220.

3 Estok 221.

4 Estok

5 Estok

6 Murali Sivaramakrishnan, Green Voices: Some Aspects of Ecological Criticism. http://www.countercurrents.org/murali310807.htm
7 “THE TEMPEST”, Complete Works of William Shakespeare, (New Delhi : Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., 1980) 1-26. ‘All textual quotations are from this edition.’

8 “Select Literary Criticism”, The Tempest, ed., J.R. Sutherland (The New Clarendon Shakespeare, Oxford University Press, 1978) 174.

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