The Tempest Flashcards
Influence of colonialism
Written during the ‘age of exploration’(early 15th century to early 17th century), where European ships traveled around the world, discovering land that were unknown to them but already had inhabitants.
A Martinique writer called Aime Cesaire rewrote this play where Caliban was represented as a defiant subject under European rule, while Ariel represents the mixed races that are more docile and accepting of their limited oppression.
Caliban’s name is an anagram of cannibal may not only be down to Montaigne’s essay of ‘on cannibals’ but it may have been inspired by Theodor de Bry’s images of a native tribe that practiced cannibalism
Miranda as a representation of women
Miranda is the only female character in the play
that Shakespeare gives voice and character development to (the only other women being Claribel and Sycorax, who we never meet). Her presentation as a weak, submissive, virginal young girl embodies how women were seen and treated in Jacobean England.
Miranda is presented as a male possession- she is first Prospero’s, and then passed on to Ferdinand in marriage. Women were seen as property: objects or goods that could be traded for male benefit.
Since Renaissance women were denied a public or social role except as reflection of their husbands or father, they lacked a foundation of an identity and were automatically nothing.
Women’s spirits according to Jacobean society shifted between hysterical passion and stolid passivity. Reductionist to believe that women strived to be “chaste, silent and obedient” and Sycorax, a foreign woman is shown to be opposite to this Jacobean ideal. She is a witch and a ‘whore’ both identities that were ascribed to women according to critics to subdue them.
In Jacobean society rape was conceived first to be a deep offence to the honor of the male relatives of the woman and secondly only to the woman who was violated. This was because women were conceived to be the legal property of men.
Shakespeares metaphorical extention of ‘who t’advance and who/ To trash for overtopping’
When Prospero tells Miranda about his earlier life, Shakesper uses this metaphorical extension to express the notion of restraining people who are over-ambitious in court. The metaphor is from dog-handling whole hunting: to check a hound with a leash. It’s etymology is obscure, but it’s dramatic impact is not. It adds support to any characterisation of Prospero as a tough ruler.
Ariel and Caliban in 2010 movie The Tempest
Ariel and Caaliban are mostly unclothed in the 2010 version of The Tempest. The use of CGI shows Ariel as both human and at times as if he was made up of the elements ‘air, water, fire and earth’. Caliban also takes the form of a human but unlike Ariel that’s the only form that he takes, representing the element of earth. Caliban appears as if he was born out of rock itself, as his skin even has a bumpy texture.
Critical interpretation
The Tempest is a “coded autobiography” - (Mc Evoy 2014) as Prospero is a representation of Shakespeare.
The island as am allegory
Psychoanalytic interpretation of the island sees it as an allegorical representation of Prospero’s mind - the island is a blank canvas.
