Stephen Greenblatt’s essay “Learning to Curse” presents a New Historicist reading of William Shakespeare’s seminal play, The Tempest. In his essay, Professor Greenblatt demonstrates the beliefs and practices essential to New Historicism by analyzing The Tempest through the lens of imperial discourse. A discourse is composed of the language and opinions related to a field of intellectual study. Established in the 1980’s, New Historicism disputes the notion that historians can recreate a precise, comprehensive, and objective picture of an event. New Historicists analyze the way discourses communicate in the text and consider the socio-historical context and societies in which they were written. New Historicists seek to compile a counter-history that contains details a historian may have failed to notice that may question conventional accounts of the past. Lastly, for a New Historicist a poem exists with the reader, author, and society working together to uncover meaning.
In his essay, Professor Greenblatt, under the auspices of New Historicism, constructs his main argument that The Tempest undeniably reflects the advent of European Imperialism in the Americas. Moreover, Professor Greenblatt contends that the European’s felt their use of language provided them with the illusory right to dominate the natives, or a culture without language. He supports his claim by relying on extra-textual evidence drawn from historical accounts. Furthermore, he argues that Shakespeare noted this imperial discourse, and discusses the conflict of the natives and imperialists. He contends that Shakespeare explicitly comments on this conflict with the characters of Prospero, as the colonial entity, who is able to use language effectively, and Caliban, ...
... middle of paper ...
... while art represents chivalry and courtly life. Throughout the novel nature is portrayed as a device that jeopardizes Sir Gawain’s courtly life. As Professor Greenblatt notes, “the central theme in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is that the poem suggests that even individuals who would like to seek refuge in the civilized comforts of court life are subject to the primitive and brutal forces of nature.” This conflict is evident when Sir Gawain first must accept the Green Knight’s challenge. He is conflicted with an inner (courtly) desire to prove his honor but at the same time he is hesitant due to the mysterious nature of the Green Knight. Also the Green Knight is conflicted once more when he chooses not to disclose to the host that he has accepted the girdle, thus signifying Sir Gawain’s personal desire to save himself (nature) over a desire to appear courteous.
Of all the themes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the one which stood out the most to me was that of deception. With the Green Knight, the “evil” and Sir Gawain, the “good”, we see both forces partake in deceptive practices to achieve the desired outcome they sought. Throughout the poem, Sir Gawain’s moral compass was constantly being tested with deception being used to gage his level of loyalty, morality, and chivalry. The “game” that the Green Knight was hell bent on playing was not an honest one. He utilized a host of deceptions to gain the results that he sought after—there was little to no room for error with him. First, he presented a challenge in which he alone knew that he would not perish. When he asked for a volunteer to strike him with the ax, the Green Knight
When the Green Knight arrives at Camelot, he challenges Arthur’s court, mocking the knights for being afraid of mere words, and suggesting that words and appearances hold too much power with them. Although the Green Knight basically tricks Gawain, by not telling him about his supernatural capabilities before asking him to agree to his terms, Gawain refuses to withdraw of their agreement. He stands by his commitments, even though it means putting his own life in jeopardy. The poem habitually restates Sir Gawain’s deep fears and apprehensions, but Gawain desires to maintain his own individual integrity at all costs which allows him to master his fears in his quest to seek the Green Chapel. After Gawain arrives at Bertilak’s castle, it is quite obvious that h...
In the final scenes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain’s encounter with Sir Bertilak allows Gawain to perceive his own flaws, manifested in his acceptance of the Green Girdle. The court’s reaction to his personal guilt highlights the disconnect between him and the other knights of the Round Table. Gawain’s behavior throughout the poem has been most noteworthy; his understanding of his sin, one that many of us would dismiss since it was propelled by his love of life, enhances his stature as a paragon of chivalry.
Through jest of a game the Green knight enlightens Gawain the short sights of chivalry. He comes to realize within himself that the system which bore him values appearance over truth. Ultimately he understands that chivalry provides a valuable set of ideals toward which to strive, but a person must retain consciousness of his or her own mortality and weakness in order to live deeply. While it is chivalrous notions, which kept him, alive throughout the test of the Green Knight, only through acute awareness of the physical world surrounding him was he able to develop himself and understand the Knights message. From the onset of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the author relies intensely upon descriptive language to create ambiance and tonality, but it is only later in the work, upon Sir Gawain’s development, that like Gawain, the reader is able to derive meaning from the descriptive physicality and understand the symbiotic relationship of nature and society.
In literature as in life, characters are multi-dimensional beings. They possess a wide variety of character traits that make them who they are. In the Tempest written by William Shakespeare, Prospero traits resemble those of the Europeans that came during the exploration of the Americas. Thus, Prospero’s treatment of Caliban is similar to the way Europeans treated the Native Americans.
In the anonymous poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the character of Sir Gawain is portrayed as the imperfect hero. His flaws create interest and intrigue. Such qualities of imperfection cannot be found in the symbol of the pentangle, which he displays on his shield. This contrast between character and symbol is exposed a number of times throughout the poem allowing human qualities to emerge from Gawain’s knightly portrayal. The expectations the pentangle presents proves too much for Gawain as he falls victim to black magic, strays from God, is seduced by an adulterous woman, and ultimately breaks the chivalric code by lying to the Green Knight.
The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolves around the knights and their chivalry as well as their romance through courtly love. The era in which this story takes place is male-dominated, where the men are supposed to be brave and honorable. On the other hand, the knight is also to court a lady and to follow her commands. Sir Gawain comes to conflict when he finds himself needing to balance the two by being honorable to chivalry as well as respectful to courtly love.
The author Shakespeare analyses the overcoming process of male ruling desire for the femininity in The Tempest. In the early modern period, colonization was the significant issues, especially in England and other imperialistic nations. They have been watching over the new world, in order to govern and control it as under their supervision. During the process of colonization, a colony and colonized people, especially women consider to be less important. The colonizers have no fear to feminine subversive power; even desire to maintain their male dominance over them. As the result, Colonialists civilizes the natives by taking advantage of a colony under the misrepresentation of enlightening.
Through The Tempest play, William Shakespeare weaves together a tale that is characterized by anti-colonialist sentiments. Prospero - the deposed Milan Duke - adopts a colonialist mentality by treating his colleagues as slaves who have no rights. Characters who suffer mistreatment under Prospero include: Ariel - the spirit creature; Ferdinand - the Naples Prince; and Caliban - Sycorax’s son. Prospero possesses much magical power which he uses to oppress his compatriots. Consequently, Prospero is portrayed as a colonial tyrant who abuses his immense power. Anti-colonialism feelings are especially evident through the actions, utterances and disposition and of Caliban, Miranda, Ferdinand and Ariel. To illustrate, Caliban berates Prospero for the former’s forced labor. Likewise, Ariel protests Prospero’s reluctance to release the former as earlier agreed. Miranda also expresses her dissatisfaction with Prospero’s unfair imprisonment of Ferdinand. Similarly, Ferdinand appears to challenge Prospero’s authority by briefly stopping dragging timber so as to flirt and chat with Miranda. The foregoing four characters exhibit conduct that highlights their displeasure with Prospero’s colonial-style authority over them. From the preceding expose, it can thus be concluded that Shakespeare’s The Tempest play is about anti-colonialism based on its depiction of Caliban, Miranda, Ferdinand and Ariel’s opposition to Prospero’s oppressive authority.
After reading through the piece of literature Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one will realize there are many elements present throughout that could be analyzed such as humility, chastity, and courage. It could be interpreted that the author meant for the main theme of the writing to be a theme of chastity. Although the element of chastity is present in that Sir Gawain is tested by many sexual temptations, the element of humility is one that is prominent and changing throughout the piece. Humility is apparent throughout the story in the way Sir Gawain displays false humility at the beginning, the way he keeps his humility during his stay at the castle, and the way he is truly learns humility after his challenges with the Green Knight are over.
The Shakespearean play, The Tempest, is one of the most controversial in terms of relationships in the play. The play was written in 1611 soon after the English arrived in America in 1607, launching the colonial period. This was the beginning of colonization to America, which lead to the evolution of indentured servants into slaves. Many critics have stated that the relationship between Prospero and Caliban was that of a slave and master and a representation of how the English colonized foreign lands that belonged to the indigenous Americans. Each situation could be argued and validated according to the portion of the play being analyzed. Both roles are applicable and I will provide evidence of both to prove that they are synonymous in a sense.
To pin these works against the idea of colonization, Cesaire and Hwang must greatly alter the content. They do so, but they also mimic the styles of the original versions. A Tempest is written in modern English, and Shakespeare's songs are substituted with slave tunes. Hwang dr...
Skura, Meredith A. Discourse and the Individual: The Case of Colonialism in the Tempest. (1989): page 42-69. JSTOR. Web. 06 Feb 2011
colonising discourse and expanding territory. The Tempest thus incorporates concerns of the Jacobean 17th century context, used to naturalise the resolution.
The Tempest. Arden Shakespeare, 1997. Print. Third Series Smith, Hallet Darius. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Tempest; A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969.