William Shakespeare once said,“The rarer action is in virtue rather than in vengeance.” In his final play, The Tempest, he was able to express both virtue and vengeance. Virtue is the ability to forgive, where vengeance is punishing someone who has wronged. After reading The Tempest, I came to the realization that there is more value in virtue rather than in vengeance. When a person forgives, that person is able to remove the weight from their shoulders. When a person seeks revenge, they will never receive true victory or closure. For example, in The Tempest, Prospero chooses to forgive Antonio, Alonso, and Sebastian. He does this only after realizing that trying to get vengeance on the three of them for driving him out of Milan wasn’t going to reverse what they did, or let him leave the island. By forgiving them, Prospero was able to return to his dukedom in Milan. Prospero achieved this realization only after attempting to seek revenge, coming to the conclusion that it was getting him nowhere. Shakespeare shows the process of elimination that an average human conducts. Prospero starts by doing the easiest thing possible, seeking revenge, just like the average human. In the end, a person realizes that getting revenge didn’t make them feel …show more content…
But, getting revenge won’t get rid of the situation, it only makes it worse. When someone seeks revenge it doesn’t justify what happened, it only makes a person stoop down to the wrong-doer’s level. For example, when Prospero made Alonso believe his son was dead because Prospero’s daughter could have died when he was driven out of Milan, he only stooped down to Alonso’s level. This shows because if Prospero believes that Alonso wronged him by putting his innocent daughter in danger, he contradicts this belief by doing exactly what Alonso did, by putting Alonso’s innocent son in
... lack of need for it as his negative qualities seal his fate and the old sage shows the benefit of having faith and forgiving those who have betrayed them. Rather than focusing on getting revenge, one should strive to move forward with their life. All that revenge does is slow down the personal growth of an individual; the consequences far outweigh the benefits.
Many people percieve revenge to be something that falls under justice, as they are driven by emotions, while others consider getting the police involved as serving justice. Moreover, some people find revenge to be pleasing and satisfying, but to argue the point that just because something is more satisfying does not mean it is
There are many elements in Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, which one cannot reconcile with the real world. The main theme in The Tempest is illusion, and the main focus is the experiment by Prospero.
Whether you hate your King, your Christian rival or a neighboring foe, if you're in a Shakespeare play then you will be punished. In the first act of each play Shakespeare shows a conflict between two groups of people, one is vengeful the other virtuous. After the conflict is introduced, the malignant characters have important parts of their lives taken away and in the end the ultimate penalties of each are inflicted. All of the antagonists are left desolate in the end of the plays by either lost fortunes or their lives. Shakespeare takes good care to give the protagonists of the plays much reward for being on the right side of the spectrum. As the characters hate increases throughout the play they begin to loose what is precious to them, first in small amounts, but in the end, they are stripped of all they love and value.
The person at whom the revenge is directed may have harmed the person carrying out an act of revenge indirectly or not at all, but on some level there is a perceived personal grievance. An unaffected third party, on the other hand, can carry out Justice. In most developed countries it is considered vital that the judiciary be independent from the government, partly for this reason, which is justice also doesn't necessarily involve any act of retribution. For example, the “acquittal” of an innocent person can be considered an act of justice, but it certainly isn't reveng... ... middle of paper ... ...
We know from the very opening scene of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet's love will end in
With the reveal of the sighting of Hamlet’s late father, this scene begins the journey of vengeance, the central plot of the play. Apathetic and lacking meaning in life, Hamlet decides to find and interact with the ghostly apparition resembling his father, risk potential danger and even death. In a private conversation, the ghost reveals to him that Claudius was the cause of his father’s death, not a poisonous slug, and commands him to seek revenge. Without Horatio telling him that he saw the ghost, Hamlet would have continued in his grieving process until time numbed his feelings, after which he would have likely developed a good relationship with Claudius, unknowing that it was him who had killed his father. Horatio, knowing Hamlet well,
Hatred, in Shakespeare’s Othello, destroyed the lives of so many innocent people, creating an atmosphere of fear and mayhem. Jealousy turned into a deep hatred, and liberated the "beast in man" (Bloom's major dramatists).This mayhem caused a substantial amount of destruction and led to the demise of many.
The play, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare is a very cleverly thought out piece of work. Shakespeare very deliberately inter-relates several different forms of power during the course of the play. There is political power, shown through the plethora of political characters and their schemes, while at the same time parodied by the comic characters. The power of magic and love, and its ability to reunite and absolve also plays a major role in the play. Throughout the play, Prospero, the main character, takes great advantage of his power and authority, both properly and improperly. The epiphany of this however, is realized at the end of the play.
This is good forgiveness in some characters is often countered in many positions such as Antonio's power seeking betrayal, and his arrogance and inability to acknowledge Prospero and his generosity in forgiving him. This is shown where Prospero says to Antonio in Act 5, Scene 1 “For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother would even infect my mouth, I do forgive thy rankest fault; all of them; and require my dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know, thou must restore,”(5.1.130-135) thus showing great mercy to his brother after all Antonio had done to him.
The nucleus of the plot in Shakespeare's The Tempest revolves around Prospero enacting his revenge on various characters who have wronged him in different ways. Interestingly enough, he uses the spirit of Ariel to deliver the punishments while Prospero delegates the action. Prospero is such a character that can concoct methods of revenge but hesitates to have direct involvement with disillusioning his foes. In essence, Prospero sends Ariel to do his dirty work while hiding his involvement in shipwrecking his brother, Antonio, from his daughter, Miranda.
Morality and ethics are a construct of one’s own self, whether they are good is completely up to that society’s idea of normality of the time period you lived. But there is hope. Plato believed that art is a poor replica of nature, and that if art does not teach some sort of moral or ethical lesson to its audience that it was damaging. William Shakespeare, master author as it were, wrote in such depth that one could analyze his works under every lens known to man and come up with the different yet correct conclusion. Because of that I think the best and most efficient way to analyze Shakespeare, this is definitely the case for The Tempest, is through the lens of the moral school of criticism.
Justice in The Tempest and Merchant of Venice & nbsp; In both Merchant of Venice and The Tempest, Shakespeare proposes ideas of justice and mercy that hold true in both plays. In order to see if the actions taken were just and/or merciful, definitions of these words must be set up. If we were to assume that Shakespeare's definition of mercy was what Portia espoused in Act Four, Scene One, specifically lines 205 - 206, the definition of mercy must be viewed in a biblical sense. Thus, in order to judge if something is merciful, one must look to see if it fulfills the qualifications of mercy in the New Testament. However, the idea of justice is quite different, for my definition of justice, I will turn to Charles Mill's definition, for, in the plays it applies the most.
The Tempest has many themes including reconciliation and forgiveness However, while it is clear that the theme of forgiveness is the main theme of the play, what is up for debate is to what extent the author realizes this forgiveness. After reading the attitudes and actions of the major characters in the play, specifically Prospero, little, if any, true forgiveness and reconciliation is shown in The Tempest.
The illusions of justice and freedom, and what they truly are, has been a reoccurring theme throughout the works. The definitions of justice and freedom have become so construed throughout the times. In William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero tries to enthrall his audience in his narrative of social justice. The idea of justice the play portrays represents one individual who controls the fate of all others. Their freedom is controlled by the interference of those around them. Although he spends most of the play righting the wrongs done to him, he is misdirecting so to hide his true motive. Prospero misconstrues the definitions of justice and freedom by enslaving Ariel and Caliban, using magic for his own good, and creating a false happy