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Theme of forgiveness and reconciliation in the tempest
Themes in the tempest
The theme of revenge in the Tempest
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The Tempest The Tempest by William Shakespeare, is full of symbolism, imagery, and point of view; throughout the play Shakespeare uses these literary devices to convey a message of betrayal, forgiveness, and lessons learned. In the first act, Prospero uses his magic to create a storm that shipwrecks the King of Naples on the island. Like the storm, Prospero's anger is apparent; yet he never wants to do any real harm to the crew. The crew is safely washed ashore on to what seems to be the ideal utopia. Prospero is not an evil guy, he may be controlling and bitter, but only because he lost his dukedom, to his own family. The purpose for his actions essentially lead to forgiveness and a lesson learned by Antonio and Alonso. In the end everyone seems to get what they deserve. In the first few acts we learn the truth behind what happened between Prospero, Alonso, and Antonio. Because of Prospero’s focus on his studies instead of focusing on being the Duke of Milan, Prospero’s brother, Antonio feels he would be a better ruler for Milan. With the help of the king of Naples, Antonio raises an army to go to Milan and overthrow Prospero. The numerous schemes that go on during the play are reflections of human nature to gain dominance over one another, even when the dominance is obtained through betrayal. Shakespeare uses symbolism by having Prospero create a storm that captures the way he feels about losing a battle over his rightful dukedom and being kidnapped and left to die at sea. In Act ll, scene i, while Alonso is asleep, Sebastian and Antonio conceive a plan to kill Alonso because they see an opportunity to gain authority of the rest of the crew. In Act lll, scene ii, Caliban encounters Trinculo and Stephano and convinces Stephano ... ... middle of paper ... ...gs? Or does he simply take back what was rightfully his, and rub it in his own brother’s face? The text shows that Prospero is no doubt happy to be back in Italy ruling his dukedom, but with the childish ways of his brother, he seems a little prideful and less forgiving. “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.” (5.1.10) Though it may have taken several years, justice was eventually served. In the end, you cannot pick your family, or choose their actions, how you deal with your surroundings and the events occurring around you is what will make or break you. Prospero did the best with what he had, Shakespeare proved that controversy in families has been going on for ages, and that history truly does repeat itself.
Prospero’s relationships with others prior to his personal epiphany were highly unpleasant to say the least. It was imperative that Shakespeare wrote these relationships this way to emphasize Prospero’s inner angst. Prospero’s angst stemmed from being betrayed by his brother.
“The Tempest” is a play written by William Shakespeare in early 1600s that has been previewed in different kinds of movies, such as the one made in 2010, directed by Julie Taymor. It is a play containing themes such as; revenge, allusion, retribution, forgiveness, power, love and hatred. When it is compared to the play, there are specific differences seen in the movie, such as; Prospero is reflected as a woman in the movie. The time differences between the play and the movie and how the spirit Ariel is shown as a white man in the movie. The play starts with the story of Prospero, the Duke of Milan. He gets banished from Italy and was cast to sea by his brother Antonio. He has perfected his skills during twelve years of exile on a lonely island. Prospero creates the tempest to make his enemies’ ship to wreck and lead them to the island. Meanwhile, Antonio takes Prospero’s place and starts to make everyone believe he is the duke and makes an agreement with the King of Naples, Alonso. Besides the drama happening in the island, Prospero forgives Alonso and the others.
William Shakespeare, one of the most inspirational authors, playwrights, and Englishman’s to ever walk the earth. During his time during the 1600's he wrote two great plays. “Shakespeare was prolific, with records of his first plays beginning to appear in 1594, from which time he produced roughly two a year until around 1611” (McDorment”) They share things that are similar but they also disagree with each other quite a bit. What we can really talk about is the two main characters from the two stories. These two stories are Macbeth and Tempest. The two main characters are Macbeth and Prospero. Three things can be compared with these two; they are both the protagonist, they have to do with betrayal, and the tragic loss of something.
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.
...ith humane care, and lodged their in mine own cell, till thou did’st seek to violate the honour of my child”(Act I, Scene II, 343-348). Prospero believed that Caliban had this coming to him, and should he had been a vengeful man could have killed him. From these examples we see that Prospero perceives his power over all since he had spared them from horrible existences and given then a taste of the civilized world. Lastly, Prospero believed so deeply that since he was the first noble to set foot on the island that it was his right to claim it as his own. For before him this isle was nothing till he brought his language, education, and culture to it.
In order to complete the cycle, it is necessary for the individual to understand their path of self-destruction and learn from the mistakes they went through to successfully complete the cycle. The Tempest portrays this last step of resilience through Prospero’s forgiveness and happiness at the end of the play. Prospero displays a character of wisdom and intelligence, however, he is blinded with resentment that he uses his accumulated knowledge to take revenge, which leads to a lot of chaos in the play. However, he displays the subtopic of resilience at the end, when he grants forgiveness to many of the characters that has wronged him. He realizes that his wish of ruling the island has a parallel pattern when compared to Antonio’s aspirations as well. This act of forgiveness connects to the overall theme of destruction because it proves that Prospero has recovered from negative damage and he regained himself from destructive thoughts that caused the story to go through
He frees Ariel, pardons Caliban, and plans to return to Milan where Miranda and Ferdinand will be married. Prospero gets everything he wants—his dukedom, a powerful son-in-law, and a return to society. Works Cited and Consulted Corfield, Cosmo. "Why Does Prospero Abjure His 'Rough Magic,'" Shakespeare Quarterly. 36 (1985): 31-4 8.
In summary, Shakespeare’s The Tempest play explores the theme of opposition to the colonial-style authority of Prospero based on various characters’ covert and overt reactions to the master’s antics. For instance, Ariel opposes Prospero’s continuous detention of the former regardless of an earlier agreement to the contrary. Moreover, Caliban expresses his dissatisfaction with the forced labor that her does for Prospero. To prove his opposition to Prospero’s authority, Caliban plans the master’s death. Miranda also makes a statement that indicates her displeasure with the way Prospero executes his authority especially with regard to Ferdinand. The imprisoned Ferdinand also indicates his opposition to Prospero’s power through a disproving statement made before Miranda.
The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1611) is a play about the manipulation of people who have a lack of knowledge of the current situation. Throughout the play Shakespeare uses Prospero a wizard as a master manipulator. The manipulation by Prospero, Ariel and Stephano are used to show that if you keep knowledge from others it is easy to take advantage of them. This was the case during the colonization of the New World by the English, Spanish and French. When first coming to the New World people from the old world uses manipulation and the lack of knowledge of the native people in order to overtake the land. By using manipulation Prospero is able to put into affect his plan to regain his dukedom.
The play opens with a fearful tempest threatening to destroy the king's ship and all of its passengers. This situation along with the terrified emotions of the characters appears to the reader to be very real. However, in the second scene, the reader meets Prospero and his daughter Miranda. Through their conversation we learn of Prospero's magical powers, his brother's unjust claim as the Duke of Milan, and the exile of the two to this mysterious island. Next unveiled is Prospero's plot of revenge to regain his rightful title, the first step being to shipwreck the royal party on his island with the creation of the magical tempest. The reality of the situation is that there never was any danger from the storm at all.
This time however, Prospero used his daughter as bait in order to draw Ferdinand closer in the hopes of getting them married. He wants to regain his title as the Duke of Milan. Prospero presents himself as a victim of injustice, however his belief of justice and injustice is somewhat contradicting. He takes advantage of this authority over other people and situations he encounters while using his integrity and compassion to mask his dangerous plans and to retain love and respect. The Tempest in the end suggests that love and compassion are more effective political tools than violence, hatred or even abusive magic.
Conflict between the two brothers, Prospero and Antonio, for the powerful position of Duke is resolved when Prospero is crowned; this is presented as 'natural' through the idea of the 'divine right of kings'. In Jacobean society, the religious belief was that the King (James I at the time of this play) was divinely willed to have this position, and that there was a connection between God and the King. Shakespeare mimics this idea by often relating Prospero to God throughout The Tempest, with stage directions such as
Prospero, the "rightful" duke of Milan, primarily seeks revenge against two people, Antonio and Caliban. But, Prospero allows his anger toward them to trickle to the other castaways on the island. He encourages Ariel to separate Sebastian, Duke Alonso's brother, from his son Ferdinand during the raging sea storm, causing Sebastian to assume his son has drowned. (1.2.213-224) The other "drunkards" on the island also feel the brunt of Prospero's revenge against Caliban when Ariel tempts them with a banquet stocked with alcohol and then disillusions them into thinking the banquet was a figment of their imagination. (2.1)
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
... teaching him. However later realize his intentions are good and that he did want Caliban to be taught. Having said the power of his love over his daughter helps him develop as a better father and allow his daughter freedom in marriage that she deserves. Ending of Prospero retiring from his magical powers represents his development in becoming the ideal ruler. In order for him to do this, he must give up his rights to magic and allow his power to come the loyalty of his people. The power over Caliban teaches him to be less self-indulgent and him not wanting to help Caliban after his actions says that he is not completely vain. When Prospero drops his stick that is like Shakespeare dropping his pen when he was done with this play. He knew that The Tempest would be his last one before he retired and Prospero knew he was done being controlling and forgave his enemies.