The Tempest: The Importance Of Prospero's Books

Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Shakespeare, Vols. 1+2. New York and London. W.W. Norton, 2008. Print.
This book consisted of a variety of William Shakespeare’s plays. The Tempest was the main focus for the presentation. The play demonstrated a love story, some tragedy and magic consisting of many characters such as Prospero, Ariel, Miranda, Caliban, Ferdinand, Trinculo and Stephano. Prospero made a love match with his daughter Miranda and the Prince of Naples, Ferdinand, through his magical powers and the help of his spiritual servant Ariel. Prospero’s used his magical powers to create a shipwreck leading the men from Naples including the Prince stranded on a disserted island. As they embark the disserted island, Caliban who is Prospero’s

alienated, and disoriented slave tries to get revenge by guiding Trinculo and Stephano to Prospero’s head quarters where they can kill him off.

The Tempest. Dir. Derek Jarman. Perf. Heathcote Williams, Toyah Wilcox, Karl Johnson, Peter Bull and Richard Warwick. Boyd's Company, 1979. Amazon Prime.
The film directed by Derek Jarman translated William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest into an on screen version. The 1979 film included actors such as, Heathcote Williams played as Prospero, Toyah Wilcox as Miranda, Karl Johnson as Ariel, Peter Bull as Alonso, Richard Warick as Anotonio, David Meyer as Ferdinand and Jack Birkett as Caliban. The film was created to give the audience a visual take on The Tempest, taking the text and bringing it on screen.
The group that I was apart of was film history and after viewing various film versions of The Tempest in chronological order, I narrowed it down to one particular film to analyze and discuss a little deeper. As a group we agreed to watch all film versions we were going to talk about in class whether we as an individual presented the film or not. There were a total of five films we individually watched starting from earlier years working our way up to the 2010 Julie Taymor version. The different film versions that we watched and covered in our presentation were: Forbidden Planet (1956), The Tempest (1961), Prospero’s Books (1991), The Tempest (1979) and The Tempest (2010). All of the films interpreted the play in different ways. Forbidden Planet was a futuristic version that dealt with the diverse interaction of earth and space. Characters were foreign to specific surroundings, which is familiar in The Tempest. You see that feeling of being somewhere foreign in the first act of the play when there is a shipwreck and the men from Naples approach an island they are unfamiliar about. In Forbidden Planet you see men from earth landing on a planet in space, which is somewhere they are unfamiliar with. The play uses the power and magic and spirits and in Forbidden Planet the idea of technology vs. nature can also represent technology as a powerful source such as Prospero’s magic as a powerful source to man.
Prospero’s Books is more focused on the history behind the many books Prospero gained his knowledge and magic from.

In the end of the play Prospero throws the book away stating that he is done with all of the magic. In Prospero’s Books the book was burned in the end. As the book burned slowly the film captures the importance of what it means once the book it burned. It signifies that Prospero’s power of magic is gone forever and his life will change. The film had very little speaking throughout and instead used the form of the human body to express feelings and emotions through dance, which is something that was not seen in other Tempest films. Prospero’s Books references back to the importance of all elements of the earth, such as air, fire, wind and water. The film brought to life all of those elements that help mold Prospero’s

power.
The newest 2010 version of The Tempest had a different approach when it comes to Prospero and Miranda.

We as a group took an in depth look at the transformation of the director Julie Taymor turning Prospero into a female rather then the original gender of Prospero who is a male. It was a different approach when analyzing the 2010 version because changing the dominant character into a female made a significant change with the way Prospero was towards not only her daughter Miranda but her spirit as well. Prospera is more motherly and also is more emotional. The film shows how Prospero has genuine feelings for Ariel her servant and there are moments in the film when you can see the two of them very close to the point of questioning their intimacy. The male and female characters towards each other transition the way Prospera feels and expresses emotions. If it were to be a male Prospero the emotional connection would not be as strong and that is one thing that we focused

on.
I personally concentrated on the 1979 version of The Tempest, directed by Derek Jarman and chose to present the film in the class. After I had watched all the films we as a group decided to watch, I was drawn to this version. There are a couple reasons why I was drawn to this version, one being the interaction between Miranda and Caliban. In the beginning of Act 1 in the play we see how Miranda thinks Caliban is a villain and she wants nothing to do with him. “Tis a villain, sir, I do not love to look on” (1.2.311-12). Right in he beginning of the play it is clear that Miranda does not want to be around him let alone look at him. What I found interesting in the Derek Jarman version was the interaction Caliban and Miranda had, one incident in particular. In the film Miranda (Toyah Wilcox) was taking a bath by herself in her room and Caliban (Jack Birkett) comes storming in and starts to laugh at her. Miranda is topless so Caliban sees her naked and laughs and points at her. She then hurries to get up and kicks Caliban out of her room. Once Caliban is out of the room she walks back to her bath and starts to laugh at what had happen. Just the small scene of there interaction changed the interpretation the play reads in text. The interaction the both of them had came across as a strange brotherly, sisterly interaction. It was the simplicity of Miranda laughing as he left the room that showed she finds humor in Caliban in some slight way opposed to being a villain and alienated monster she does not want to look at. We get the idea that Caliban is alienated and on his own in a large island in the text, yet the 1979 version shows Caliban actually living in the same house as Prospero and Miranda, which is something I wouldn’t have expected after reading how alienated and unwanted his is in the text.
In addition, another reason why I was drawn to this film was because of the flash back that showed a little bit of Ariel’s history before he became Prospero’s servant. Prospero reminds Ariel in scene 1 how bad he had it when being Sycorax’s slave. Prospero reminds him how he was the one that took Ariel out of torment. “ It was mine art, / When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape/ The pine and let thee out” (1.2.293-95). Sycorax is described as a “foul witch” in the play and she was the one who confined and imprisoned Ariel because he refused to obey her commands. The film captures her bizarre character dealing with her son Caliban and her once upon a time slave, Ariel. That flashback takes place in an open spaced room. Sycorax (Claire Davenport) is sitting on a platform naked next to her naked son. As she sits there she starts to pull Ariel (Karl Johnson) closer to her by a chain that is wrapped around his neck. Ariel is resisting and Sycorax begins to bang on her knees because Ariel is not obeying her. The flashback that takes place in the film gives the audience a clearer picture of how monstrous, strange and evil Sycorax is.
Despite the strange interaction between many of the characters in the film it then transitions into a celebration. Towards the end of the film when Miranda and Ferdinand get married you can see the lighting and costume change dramatically. The ending becomes more theatrical that includes dancing sailors and a performance by Elisabeth Welch singing “Stormy Weather”. The lighting becomes more vibrant opposed to the lighting throughout the film that was mainly dim and dark with a lot of candlelight. The costumes become more elaborate consisting of gold and white, appealing to the eye. Derek Jarman’s ending in the film is playful and fun and some say that he was trying to bring Shakespeare back to the people in the streets.
Overall my individual contribution was in good standing. I feel as though I not only contributed my work in a timely matter, but I also suggested ideas to others in my group to help them out. Some members lacked communication but we still came together and completed what needed to be done in a timely matter. Our first rehearsal went well but when it came time to the actual presentation some members didn’t watch their time, which interrupted into the next persons presenting time. I was one of those individuals who were not able to complete my presentation the way that I would have liked but I feel I at least got my main points across. One thing that was a disappointment was that there was no computer charger connected as we were presenting. I don’t know why we didn’t have it connected. Although it was not my computer I should have doubled checked everything was good to go; yet I figured everything was ok. Lesson learned on not double-checking presentation supplies and technology back up. If the computer had not died it would have saved us time and we could have possibly been able to show the clips that were originally inserted in our power point to provide to the class. Being that we were film history, I think it was crucial in our presentation to provide various clips for the class to see. There are many versions out there and we covered a good amount and unfortunately we were not able to show all of our clips that were planned to show.