1.2 Content summary
CONTENT SUMMARY
The play starts with two characters apparently secondary like a Ship-master and a Boteswaine. Shakespeare puts the spectators on the atmosphere of a ship that is passing through a tempest and sinks.
Image of The tempest
The next characters are the components of the sub-plot (Alonso, Sebastian, Anthonio, Ferdinando and Gonzalo), the play show us little by little the important characters until the scene 1.2 where Prospero and Miranda appear (the essential figures in the representation).
The dramatist perfectly uses a chain of events to develop at the same type different plots and to make them coincide again at the end of the play to provide the general structure that characterizes it.
Prospero tells his story to Miranda. He has been threatened by his own brother who has usurped the dukedom of Milan and in a conspiracy Prospero was expelled from his land with Miranda (she was still a baby then).
With all the Honors, on my brother: Whereon
A treacherous Armie leuied, one mid-night
Fated to th’ purpose, did Anthonio open
The gates of Millaine, and ith’ dead of darkenesse
The ministers for th’ purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying selfe.
©(http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/Tmp/F1/scene/1.2)
However, Prospero arrived to an island and with the help of some books he can develop his powers of magician. He is now the most powerful person in this land and acts as a master.
The role of father in Prospero is present in every moment, he is the unique familiar figure for Miranda. She has to base her model in her father and be educated following his will. Nevertheless, one important aspect is that Miranda is not a baby now and she has acquired a consciousness that lets her express own feelings and ideas (this contrast between her thoughts and his father personality will produce some emblematic scenes and moments of splendour).
The first lines of the play show us a constant in the representation, Prospero is talking to Miranda and as a father figure is informing her of something, not only these spoken data are important for Miranda but also constitute the context that the spectator needs to understand the play. In the dialogue Prospero is creating an identity for her daughter so that she can have a past and consequently a present.
The howr’s now come
The very minute byds thee ope thine eare,
Obey, and be attentiue. Canst thou remember
A time before we came vnto this Cell?
I doe not thinke thou canst, for then thou was’t not
Out three yeeres old.
©(http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/Tmp/F1/scene/1.2)
Image of Prospero and Miranda speaking
In the same scene (1.2) enters Caliban, a class of monster. His mother is the evil witch Sycorax but there are not references to his father. This information is very valuable because without a figure to follow Caliban has been captured by the evil forces of her mother and has inherited her darkness. Nevertheless, another aspect can be extracted from this situation: in Elizabethan times a subject is extremely dependent of the father’s figure until the point that his/her own identity and social rank are inherited from him. This theory comes from ancient times, it is in part a symbol of the old world and we should not forget that Shakespeare moves himself between the old traditions and the new possibilities that the Renaissance brought (individualism).
Caliban is the proof of someone lost in the world, he acts bad and is a servant of the evilness because he does not know other forms of life, other possibilities different from his mother’s behaviour. As a consequence, Caliban depends on Prospero (who symbolizes the authority and justice in the play) and his unique option is to obey him so that the monster will receive in exchange some gifts like a language, kindness and identity (Prospero is now his father). However, he rebels himself against the power (try to rape Prospero’s daughter) and since this moment will be a slave that has lost his privileges.
Image of Caliban
Prospero knows all the facts that happen in the play. There is a theory which specifies that in the theatre he would stay at superior levels (galleries) to give the sensation of supremacy and powerful God. Furthermore, he controls magic and supernatural spirits (like Ariel, spirit of the Air). If precisely we commented the necessity of Shakespeare to create an axis in the play and to have a clear father figure, Prospero is the perfect personification of this character.
Prospero is most clearly a figure of the artist, and has been
identified with Shakespeare himself. He wields god-like power and manipulates the members of the play with the ease of a puppet-master.
©(http://www.jstor.org/pss/2906921)
It is also important to highlight the point that The Tempest was a play to perform in a private indoor theatre. This means that the play did not depend upon weather, light or traditional conventions (and it was represented for a more selective audience). The scenario was covered by a roof and the dramatist could perfectly have control over the complete ambient. The comedy fits extraordinarily well between these walls and creates a proximity with the spectator, an ideal place to see the spirits and mythological creatures represented over a scenario.
In Elizabethan theatre, you would immediately notice many aspects of the theatre’s interior that would seem strange to you. One of the first differences you might have noticed upon entering the theatre was the structure of the stage, a large platform surrounded by the audience on three sides. This produces a close proximity of the audience to the stage and created a more interactive relationship between the actors and the audience. Unlike most of today’s audiences, the people attending Elizabethan theatre were involved in the play, shouting suggestions, encouragement, or curses to the actors.
©(http://eng.1september.ru/1999/eng16-1.htm)
Photograph of the Blackfiars (an indoor theatre)
The characters that suffer the shipwreck and that form the sub-plot (Alonso, Sebastian, Anthonio, Ferdinando and Gonzalo) have different personalities and roles in the play. Alonso is the King of Naples, he would probably inherit the title of king from his father, so he simply follows the royal family. He is a strong representation of power and together with Prospero the two male figures that domain a territory. Alonso is a good father, he wants the best for his son. He thinks Ferdinando has died in the shipwreck and practically maintains during all the play a sad attitude, lamenting a possibility that destroys his heart. At the end of the play, when he reencounters Ferdinando, he cannot be enough grateful to see him again.
Sebastian is the brother of Alonso, but he has a character opposite to the king. He represents ambitiousness and treachery, although the father of both characters has been the same, Sebastian desires to be king and he will do anything to reach this aim (like killing his brother). Here we have a different approach, Sebastian has had a father figure and has enjoyed of the court’s luxuries, but he is still an evil person. Shakespeare perfectly knows what he is doing, it is an interposition of two brothers, two worlds. The first one represents the inherited values, the second is the own nature of Sebastian and his feelings of division from his original family. It is very difficult in Elizabethan times to succeed facing the life alone, only the biggest theatrical heroes are able to do that, and evidently Sebastian is not one of these characters. His intent of individualism fails as he chooses the wrong path.
Anthonio (brother of Prospero) follows the same description, he is the anti-hero character of the play (the opposite of Prospero) and his desire of power fails as his brother recuperates the dukedom of Milan. At the end of the play Prospero forgives him for his bad actions, the natural order is re-stablished.
Ferdinando is the son of Alonso, he is a young without evilness that falls in love with Miranda because of Prospero’s plan. The Prince wants to marry with her and she also loves him. He has to support the proofs that Prospero puts to him, but he desires her love so much that he passes them. The monarchy in the play does not suffer any variation, it will remain at the end with a new queen, this means that patriarchal society and order is not destroyed and the old values prevail as a system that is a source of security. Shakespeare does not do the same in all his plays, even if these are comedies.
Trinculo and Stephano are two simple characters which function is to produce laugh in the audience (two drunk men).
The clown characters are Trinculo and Stephano. When they appear the play itself is unquenchably comic. These people are ridiculous, absurd. They behave almost like clowns! But this behaviour actually uplifts our spirits.
©http://books.google.es/books?id=L-aDUsrRtbAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=theatre+studies+the+basics&hl=es&ei=sFKlTvewIYGx8QPW-MzkBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6wEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
They establish a relation with Caliban who confounds them with Gods. Caliban suggests that they can kill Prospero and convert themselves in the new kings of the island.
Ste. Monster, I will kill this man: his daughter and
I will be King and Queene, saue our Graces: and Trin-
culo and thy selfe shall be Vice-royes
©(http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/Tmp/F1/scene/3.2)
Obviously they fail, the spectator should pay attention to the fact that they are going against the God-like figure in the representation, they do not have any possibilities to succeed.
These characters remind that the play is a comedy, although it has apparently a difficult plot and the problems seem very complicated to be resolved (the happy-ending only is possible in the last part of the representation) there is a space for fun.
Finally, the end of the play is very ambiguous. All the characters described above come to Prospero who forgives his enemies and recuperates his dukedom with the consent of the King. Ferdinando and Miranda are going to be married and Caliban continues serving his master. However, Prospero has previously left his powers as a magician in a famous and incredible discourse:
Ye Elues of hils, brooks, st|~a|ding lakes & groues,
And ye, that on the sands with printlesse foote
Doe chase the ebbing-Neptune, and doe flie him
When he comes backe: you demy-Puppets, that
By Moone-shine doe the greene sowre Ringlets make,
Whereof the Ewe not bites: and you, whose pastime
Is to make midnight-Mushrumps, that reioyce
To heare the solemne Curfewe, by whose ayde
(Weake Masters though ye be) I haue bedymn’d
The Noone-tide Sun, call’d forth the mutenous windes,
And twixt the greene Sea, and the azur’d vault
Set roaring warre: To the dread ratling Thunder
Haue I giuen fire, and rifted Ioues stowt Oke
With his owne Bolt: The strong bass’d promontorie
Haue I made shake, and by the spurs pluckt vp
The Pyne, and Cedar. Graues at my command
Haue wak’d their sleepers, op’d, and let ‘em forth
By my so potent Art. But this rough Magicke
I heere abiure: and when I haue requir’d
Some heauenly Musicke (which euen now I do)
To worke mine end vpon their Sences, that
This Ayrie-charme is for, I’le breake my staffe,
Bury it certaine fadomes in the earth,
And deeper then did euer Plummet sound
Ile drowne my booke.
©(http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/Tmp/F1/scene/5.1)
The play does not have a complete happiness, Prospero realizes himself that he is an old man and that he has already done all the necessary actions to develop his plan, so his powers are not essential to him and decides to live in peace his last days without any supernatural privilege.
In a way God renounces to his divinity. The spectator knows that in a short period of time Prospero will die, but this option is preferable to manipulate the others. In this point he is under the rules of the destiny and the powers return to his origin, for someone the authentic father figure (God), for others simply they disappear and the normal order is restored.
Image of Prospero leaving his powers
Academic year 2011/2012
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Saturnino Figueroa Guerola
safigue@alumni.uv.es