Comparison of Shakespeare's Tempest and Forbidden Planet

Comparison of Shakespeare's Tempest and Forbidden Planet

On first glance, Forbidden Planet can easily be seen to parallel many other

works relating to technology, nature, or both. One of the most obvious

parallels is, of course, to Shakespeare's The Tempest, the story of a man

stranded on an island which he has single-handedly brought under his control

through the use of magic. Indeed, the characters, plot, and lesson of Forbidden

Planet mirror almost exactly those of The Tempest, with the exception that where

The Tempest employs magic, Forbidden Planet utilizes technology. At this point,

it is useful to recall one of Arthur C. Clarke's more famous ideas, which is

that any technology, when sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic.

Indeed, the technology presented in Forbidden Planet is not meant to be

understood by the audience, but rather is, for all intents and purposes, magic.

This is undoubtedly in part because the technology doesn't exist and therefore

cannot be explained to us. What is more important, however, is that how the

technology works is irrelevant for the purpose of the movie, which is to

entertain and to teach us a lesson about man's control over the elements and

over his own technological creations.

At this point a brief synopsis of the movie would seem to be in order,

with special attention as to how it relates to The Tempest.

In The Tempest, a man named Prospero and his daughter Miranda have been

exiled to a remote island which is completely uninhabited, save for an evil

monster and her son Caliban, and which is in a state of primal chaos. Using the

magical powers he has cultivated all his life, Prospero gradually brings the

forces of nature on the island under his control, and manages to somehow enslave

Caliban, whose mother has died in the interim. (Some of these details are fuzzy

because I am familiar with The Tempest only through Marx). A group of sailors

is shipwrecked on the island, one of whom falls in love with Miranda, the lovely

daughter of Prospero. Eventually, Caliban and other servants plot to overthrow

Prospero, but are thwarted and taken back into servitude, thankful to get off

that easily.

Having summarized The Tempest, it is easy to summarize Forbidden Planet.

A man named Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira are stranded on a distant

planet when a government ship lands there, whose commander falls in love with

the beautiful Altaira. The only significant difference in the two works, other

then setting, is the conclusion of each. Before we look at the differences