Importance of Setting in The Tempest
The island of magic and mystery that Shakespeare creates in The Tempest is an extraordinary symbol of both the political and social realities of his contemporary society, and of the potential for a reformed New World. Shakespeare’s island is a creation which allows the juxtaposition of real and idealised worlds, and shows his audience both what they and what they ought to be. The seventeenth century was a time of ideological upheaval in Europe, with Medieval ideas of a hierarchical and ordered society being challenged by Renaissance thinkers. For the dynastic powers, including England under Elizabeth I, colonialism was an important opportunity to realise territorial ambition and prove religious pre-eminence. To Shakespeare, colonialism was an opportunity for mankind to explore the extraordinary possibilities of the human mind, free from the conflict and prejudice of real life. Just two years before The Tempest was written, British colonists were shipwrecked on a Caribbean island, and their report of the paradise and magic they found there is one of many popular writings of the time that may have had an influence on The Tempest.
In The Tempest, Shakespeare adheres closely to the classical unities of time, place and action. The unity of place required that the scene should remain unchanged throughout the play. The entire action, with the exception of the first scene, is confined to the island. The storm of the first scene symbolizes a transition in the lives of the characters, and establishes their relationships with each other and with a world in a state of disorder. The initial reactions of the characters when arriving on the island are important metaphors for the ideologies they h...
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...neously on many aspects of an audience’s sensibilities. With elements of supernatural music, dance, sound effects and movement in every scene of the play, the audience would never forget that the island is set apart from reality.
As isolated as the island of The Tempest may be, its characters are representative of people in our own society. The social disorder in which they find themselves becomes an exploration of their aspirations – some have unique ideas about a perfect way of life, while others are merely products of a hegemony of political clambering in the imperfect society from which they come. Shakespeare’s last play, The Tempest is more than an artist’s farewell; it explores the endless possibility of our minds and our endeavours, as mankind enters a “brave new world”.
Works Cited:
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.
Wireless is a methodical account of the early development of wireless telegraphy and the inventors who made it possible. Sungook Hong examines several early significant inventions, including Hertzian waves and optics, the galvanometer, transatlantic signaling, Marconi's secret-box, Fleming's air-blast key and double transformation system, Lodge's syntonic transmitter and receiver, the Edison effect, the thermionic valve, and the audion and continuous wave. Wireless fills the gap created by Hugh Aitken, who described at length the early development of wireless communication, but who did not attempt "to probe the substance and context of scientific and engineering practice in the early years of wireless" (p. x). Sungook Hong seeks to fill this gap by offering an exhaustive analysis of the theoretical and experimental engineering and scientific practices of the early days of wireless; by examining the borderland between science and technology; depicting the transformation of scientific effects into technological artifacts; and showing how the race for scientific and engineering accomplishment fuels the politic of the corporate institution. While the author succeeds in fulfilling these goals, the thesis, it seems, is to affirm Guglielmo Marconi's place in history as the father of wireless telegraphy.
Radio waves were first discovered in 1887, but radio itself was initially invented by Italian Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 (1). His biggest mentioned success was in 1901, when he managed to broadcast the letter “S” across the Atlantic Ocean (1). However, he focused primarily on point-to-point transmissions, not large scale broadcasts from one point (F). As such, three American inventors - Lee De Forest, Edwin Howard Armstrong, and David Sarnoff - took credit for making radio as it is today a success (F). De Forest was born and raised in Alabama and he thought of everything in terms of patents and eventually held more than 300, but many claimed that he simply stole the inventions of others (2). In 1900, he patented a device to enhance weak signals and in 1902, he formed the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company (1). In the same year. Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian, invented the “electrolytic detector”, which later became the spade detector that brought De Forest so much fame (F). In 1904, John Fleming invented the oscillation valve, which later became De Forest’s audion, and De Forest won the gold medal at the St. Louis World’s Fair for his “spade detector” (F). De Forest gained quite a bit of fame by broadcasting music live from the Eiffel Tower and from the Metropolitan Opera; however, many believed that this was a scam and that he had actually had the device broadcasting the signal only a few blocks away (F). In 1906, he envisioned bringing music and voices to all American households, but as it turns out Canadian inventor Fessenden had already broadcasted a Christmas greeting and music to the crew of a ship off the coast of Canada on Christmas Eve a year earlier (F). In 1912, Armstrong became prominent by inventing regeneration, wh...
Richard Matzke, 58, was arrested in March 2002 as a suspect in more than 24 bank robberies in several states. He was convicted of seven Nebraska heists and was sentenced Friday in Omaha.
The 1920's brought many advancements in technology which allowed Americans to entertain themselves at home; the radio was one of them. The radio was actually developed before the 1920's; however, it was banned during World War I and allowed to reappear after the Prohibition ended in 1919 (Events 72). After the Prohibition ended, and radio broadcasting was being brought back to life, many people started up their first stations, like Frank Conrad (Events 72). Frank Conrad's first broadcast consisted of the Presidential Election results (Events 72). As Conrad was one of the first people to broadcast, KDKA was one of the first radio stations to appear in the Unite...
The Robin Hoods of the nineteen thirties were barely even heroic at all. First marked as rebellious people, they showed that even in loss there is still a spark of hope. Then things twisted for the worse, killing machines were made and all hope was lost.
Wireless communication across the country was something no one ever imagined. The creating of the commercial radio in 1920, created a feeling of belonging to many citizens of the United States. Starting off as a hobby for amateurs, radio quickly expanded. With the creation of NBC, and emerging radio stars like Ernie Hare and Billy Jones radio, families tuned in on a daily basis. Music was brought to lower income families who couldn’t afford to buy a piano. As well as streaming music, radio provided advertising outlets. Promotions regarding cigarettes, automobiles, and soap
The article that appeared in Fortune entitled “Radio’s Stern Challenge” by John Helyar discusses Sirius’ marketing strategy to not only take market share from the entrenched and free terrestrial radio industry but also to beat its only competitor, XM. The Fortune article presents how a fat and lazy radio industry has failed to react to an eroding listening base and an increasing number of competing technologies. Issues like lack of attention to programming, no on-air talent, and an increase of 166% in the time devoted to commercials have driven listeners away from radio. Teens aged 12-17 spend 11% less time listening to radio compared to five years ago and adults 18-24 spend 13% less time compared to five years ago (Helyar, 2004). The article further discusses that terrestrial radio has much to fear from competing technologies like satellite radio, streaming digital radio on the Internet, and Apple’s iPod. What terrestrial radio does have in its favor is that it’s free compared to any of the current competing technologies like satellite radio.
John Wilders' lecture on The Tempest given at Oxford University - Worcester College - August 4th, 1999.
After the First World War, many people were looking forward to good times. The 1920’s presented people with this time of fast-paced fun and adventure. Entertainment was the foremost part of everyday life during the 1920’s. Radio introduced a whole new practice of entertainment to people’s everyday lives. Likewise, through the utilization of the radio, people were able to experience a new medium to entertain themselves. Furthermore, the radio changed the face of society’s culture through its widespread use. In addition, radios provided people with a new, effective and efficient means of communication. Radio was a fundamental aspect in people’s lives during the 1920’s as it provided many people with news and entertainment in their day-to-day lives.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Second Revised Ed. United States of America: First Signet Classics Print, 1998. 1-87. Print.
The second step in the process is the assembly of the R.C.A. It is essential that the area for assembly be clean and devoid of clutter. All of the instructions should be read and committed to memory. Next the individual should lay out all of the parts according to the orders of assembly. The last step in this second process is correctly assemble the R.C.A.
Every invention ever known to man had pioneers or people who contributed to the creation of the product. Radio had many pioneers that allowed for its creation and their names are Heinrich Hertz, Nikola Tesla, Ernst Alexander, Edwin Armstrong, Guglielmo Marconi, Lee DeForest, Frank Conrad, Reginald Fessenden, and Edward Armstrong. It all started with a German physicist named Heinrich Hertz who in 1884 proved that you could transmit and receive electric waves wirelessly. Hertz thought that the work he had done had no use whatsoever but little did he know that what he done is considered the fundamental building block of radio, and that is the reason why every frequency measurement is named after him (Short). In that same year a Serbian-American inventor named Nikola Tesla came to the U.S and sold patents to his inventions to a man named George Westinghouse. After that Tesla established his own lab which is where he built the tesla coil , an induction coil that is still used in radio today (Short). The next progression of radio focused on more than just the transmission of waves, the new focus was transmission of speech. The first to begin to add speech into the radio mix was Ernst Alexander, a Sweden born inventor who developed the first alternator to make speech transmission possible (Short). This was so new to the s...
During the increase in popularity of radio, Arthur Edwin Kennelly said (1926) "through radio I look forward to a United States of the World. Radio is standardizing the peoples of the Earth, English will become the universal language because it is predominantly the language of the ether. The most important aspect of radio is its sociological influence." Kennelly was foreseeing the potential power and impact that radio would soon come to have. By the late twenties, we would see radio become quite the sensation in the household, and this sensation would continue to prosper even through the Great Depression with aid of soap operas and popular programs such as the Lone Ranger. Radio would see a decrease in popularity during the rise of the television. Eventually, radio would find itself a niche in the media market, allowing it to continue to prosper. This would be due to the help of Frequency Modulation radio broadcasting and localization. Radio stations were now able to offer more local content than radio, touching on local news, weather, and advertisements for local businesses all at a higher sound quality. That joined with a symbiotic relationship with the recording industry and the start of formatted radio programs, the two industries were set to last for almost another fifty years (Adams, n.d.).
Radio broadcasting was introduced to the public in the early 1920s (Potter 226). There was only one type of broadcast protocol in the 1920’s and 30’s being AM radio(The Early Years). In 1921 there were only five AM radio stations, and only about 1% of all households in this country had a receiver (Potter 226). A receiver was basically another name for a radio because at this time radios were very expensive and there were not enough radio stations to make the system work. However, in 1923 there were over 500 stations to pop up which in turn led to increased sales of receivers to the general public (Potter 226). With the popping up of more radio stations the more receivers were being bought which meant that many people in the public were tuning into these various radio stations for information and entertainment. Radio was on the rise and it seemed that there was nothing slowing it down.
Impact of the Radio The invention of the radio had an immense impact, revolutionizing the unity of society. “I live in a strictly rural community, and people here speak of ‘The Radio’ in the large sense, with an over-meaning,” said E.B. White in 1933. “When they say ‘The Radio’ they don’t mean a cabinet, an electrical phenomenon, or a man in a studio, they refer to a pervading and somewhat godlike presence which has come into their lives and homes” (Lewis). The radio became a mighty weapon whose power involved spreading ideas to millions of listeners, who may otherwise never have heard those inspirational messages. Religious fanatics used to stand at the back of churches shouting radical nonsense, while others would ignore it.