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Recommended: Elizabethian Era
“What’s past is Prologue” – William Shakespeare
Shakespeare lived and produced much of his famous works during the time when Queen Elizabeth ruled England and Ireland. This era was known as the Elizabethan Era. The world and its people were quickly evolving. It was the “golden age” of poetry, music and literature. It was in the midst of European exploration that Shakespeare wrote, The Tempest. It would be safe to suggest that many of the worldly events during this time, such as the shipwreck of Sea Venture, global colonization, and the works of Michel de Montaigne, had prodigious influences on Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest.
The Tempest starts aboard a ship in the middle of the sea caught in a violent hurricane. Members of the audience can hear Gonzola shout, “The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death” (Act 1, Scene1). It is believed by many scholars, Shakespeare’s source of this shipwreck is the famous shipwreck of the Sea Venture in 1609 on its voyage from England to Jamestown, VA. It was a total of nine ships traveling together until a fierce storm violently rocked and thrashed the boat and crew, separating them from the rest of the fleet. Eventually, the crew of Sea Venture found safety on a remote island in the Bermudas and were not reunited with the rest of the voyage members until one year later. Letters, sponsored by the Jamestown Company and written by William Strachey, describing the horrific events the crew members encountered during their tragedy, were later published and are believed to have been read by William Shakespeare. The aforementioned reasons being that there are many events described in the letters from the shipwreck that are similar to events in Shakespeare’s, The Tempest. One source sta...
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...ople were quickly evolving. It was a time known as the Elizabethan Era for when Queen Elizabeth ruled England.
REFERENCES
Crowther, John, ed. “No Fear The Tempest.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Frank, K. "Shakespeare on Globial Colonialism." from http://www2.cedarcrest.edu/academic/eng/lfletcher/tempest/papers/Kafrank.htm.
Kelly, P. (May 29, 2012). "The Inspiration for THE TEMPEST." from http://calshakes.org/blog/2012/05/the-inspiration-for-the-tempest/.
Mason, T. (February 8, 2013). "Shakespeare's Presentation of Colonialism and Colonisation / Colonization in ‘The Tempest' - Theme Analysis." Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://trish-m.hubpages.com/hub/Shakespeare-Presentation-Theme-Colonisation-The-Tempest.
William, S. (1985). "The Tempest." The complete works of William Shakespeare. Spring Books, London, New York, Sydney.
John Wilders' lecture on The Tempest given at Oxford University - Worcester College - August 4th, 1999.
The first difference between the play and the movie “The Tempest” is; the protagonist Prospero, the Duke of Milan, is played by a female character named Prospera in the movie filmed in 2010, directed by Julie Taymor. He is a complex character in the play however the personality that Shakespeare created was slightly changed in the movie. The key point of this gender difference is to highlight the role of women’s empowerment over the last two hundred years. Taymor’s movie is making a statement on how Prospera’s power is limited for the island, she is still able to empower throughout the text sexually,...
Gervinus, G.G. "The Tempest." The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc., Detroit. 1989: 304-307.
In this brief examination of the Tempest, it becomes obvious that the play is a mirror image of the progression of events in the Bible. This use of Christian elements in the play is not obvious upon first reading the play, but becomes undeniable as the action progresses. The motif of Christianity in other Shakespearean works is not as structured and in-depth as the motif found in the Tempest.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004.
Davidson, Frank. "The Tempest: An Interpretation." In The Tempest: A Casebook. Ed. D.J. Palmer. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1968. 225.
Allan Gilbert’s article summarizes about the multiple parallels that can be found in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. While some of these parallels are more obvious in The Tempest, some require a scholar to fully comprehend them.
Knox, Bernard. "The Tempest and the Ancient Comic Tradition". The Tempest. New York: Signet Classic. 1987.
Snider, Denton J. "A review of The Tempest." The Shakespearian Drama a Commentary: The Comedies. (1890). Rpt. Scott. 320-324.
Knight,G.Wilson. “The Shakespearean Superman: An essay on The Tempest.” The Crown of life: Essays in Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Final Plays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947. 203-255
Shakespeare was intending to represent several different groups of people in society through his plays and “The Tempest” was no exception to the rule. I aim to show how the “human” relationships in the play reflect real life relationships within Shakespeare’s own society (as well as his future audience), for which his plays were written and performed.
Frey, Charles. The Tempest and the New World. (1979): page 30-41. JSTOR. Web. 04 Feb 2011
Illusion and Reality in Shakespeare's The Tempest. This essay will discuss the part that illusion and reality play in developing and illuminating the theme of Shakespeare's The Tempest. This pair of opposites will be contrasted to show what they represent in the context of the play. Further, the characters associated with these terms, and how the association becomes meaningful in the play, will be discussed.
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.
Shakespeare, William, and Robert Woodrow Langbaum. The Tempest: With New and Updated Critical Essays and A Revised Bibliography. New York, NY, USA: Signet Classic, 1998. Print.