Power in Shakespeare's Tempest and Césaire's A Tempest
Power is defined as the possession of control, authority, or influence over others. In William Shakespeare's The Tempest and Aimé Césaire's A Tempest, power is a key element in the relationships that exist between characters. As Caliban and Prospero battle for dominance over the island, Miranda finds that she holds a certain power of her own as she matures from an innocent youth to a sensual, strong-headed young woman. Seen by some as a victim of Prospero's need to control, yet by others as both content and charming, it is that transformation that influences those about her and guides her growth into adulthood. Miranda is an intriguing character whose actions influence those about her in a quiet yet powerful way .
In creating Miranda, Shakespeare broke the mold of his traditional female role by omitting the appearance of additional female characters (Yancey 1). As Prospero's only daughter and the only female on the island, she leads an extremely sheltered and innocent life at the hands of her father, "Here in this island we arrived, and here Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit Than other princess can, that have more time For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful" (Shakespeare 1.2.171-174). As a representative of youth and innocence, Miranda faces difficulty in her attempts to understand the past yet remain dutiful to a father she loves despite the oppression handed down to her. She is intelligent and even headstrong, yet remains ignorant to many issues. In Lorie Jerell Leninger's "The Miranda Trap", "Miranda is given to understand that she is the foot in the family organization of which Prospero is the head. Hers is not to re...
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...r advantage. She can be contrasted to Sycorax, whose banishment was most likely due to her large amount of power. Miranda continues on the journey of finding herself throughout the play, and though her maturation does not complete itself, she left in a much better position than where she began.
Works Cited
Césaire, Aimé. A Tempest. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1999.
Leininger, Lorie Jerrell. "The Miranda Trap." The Woman's Part: Feminist Critisicm of Shakespeare. Eds. Carolyn R. S. Lenz, Gayle Green, and Carol T. Neely. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1980.
Miranda in The Tempest: an Annotated Bibliograpy. Martha Yancey. English Department Site. Update date unknown. University of Georgia. 21 Sept. 2001 <http.//www.arches.uga.edu/~yancey/bib.htm>
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. London: Penguin, 1968.
Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997. 366-398. Neely, Carol Thomas. “Shakespeare’s Women: Historical Facts and Dramatic Representations.”
Confronting experiences may prompt inner discoveries which result in the re-evaluation of the importance of power. Shakespeare’s The Tempest follows Prospero, an exiled megalomaniac’s plan to exact revenge
the end of the Second World War. The play is set in 1912, just before
In the fair city of Verona, two rival families, the Montagues and Capulets were involved in a nasty family feud that goes back years before any of the members were born. Even the townspeople were involved in the dispute, because the families were always fighting in the streets and causing disturbances. They disrupted the streets of Verona and even Prince Escalus tried to break up the fighting. They were given a warning, by him that another public fight would result in death. While this was occurring, Romeo, (a Montague) the main character, was getting over his last love, Rosaline, and was very upset. Juliet of the Capulet household had just been introduced to a wealthy young man, Paris, whom her parents wished her to marry. Yet she did not love him. Romeo goes to a party in an effort to forget about Rosaline. At this party he met Juliet, and immediately fell in love with her. He later finds out that she is a Capulet, the rival family of the Montagues. He decides that he loves her anyway and they confess their love for each other during the very famous "balcony scene" in which they agreed to secretly marry the next day. Friar Lawrence agreed to marry them in an effort to end the feuding between the families. Unfortunately, the fighting gets worse and Mercutio (Montague) a good friend of Romeo ends up in a fight with Tybalt (Capulet), Juliet's cousin. Tybalt killed Mercutio, which caused Romeo to kill Tybalt in an angry rage. For this, Romeo is banished from Verona. At the same time, the Capulet's were planning Juliet's marriage to Paris. Juliet didn't want to marry this man so she arranges with Friar Lawrence to fake her own death with a sleeping potion that would make everyone think that she was dead. Friar Lawrence promised to send word to Romeo to meet her when the potion wears off and to rescue her to Mantua, where Romeo was currently staying. There they would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Romeo didn't receive the message on time and upon hearing of her "death" went to Juliet's tomb where he drinks poison and dies. When Juliet's potion wears off, she wakes to find her lover's dead corpse. She then proceeds to stab herself with Romeo's dagger. The two families find the bodies and with their shared sorrow, finally make peace with each other.
Shakespeare uses symbolism in this scene to help create meaning and emotions from the audience, in the form of archetypes. The symbol of Miranda’s virginity, symbolizes Miranda’s purity and innocence. Miranda
...n Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Hulme, Peter. "Prospero and Caliban." The Tempest. eds. Peter Hulme and William H. Sherman. New Your & London: Norton, 2004. pp. 233-43.
Lastly, the women of the early 17th century to late 17th century differ greatly as it is seen in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, and Moliere’s Tartuffe; Miranda is characterized as an individual who is dutiful to her father, yet has the strength to revolt against him at any time, meanwhile, Dorine, Mariane, and Elmire are presented as intelligent and blunt as to any other man in the late 17th century.
Power: it is something that everyone wants and so few know how to justly maintain. Power causes blood to be shed and divisions to be created among friends and family that may be irreversible. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero, Antonio, Sebastian, and Alonso grapple with the effect power has on them and how to remain just. All four lose their sense of morals and harm others in order to have personal gain. Power, whether it is the idea of possessing it or the possession of it, will cause individuals to become corrupted and immoral, thus losing their attachments to others.
Throughout the play, Prospero is a figure who talks at rather than to the other characters, including his daughter Miranda, Prince Ferdinand, and Ariel, his airy servant. At the end of Act IV Prospero is caught up in the ecstasy of punishing and determining the fate of his foes. The beginning of Act V, however, marks a change in the character of Prospero, which averts a possible tragedy. Prospero is unsettled even though his plans are reaching fruition. In his talk with Ariel for the first time we see an actual conversation take place. In addition, in the line "...And mine shall." (Shakespeare V.i.20) we see a change of heart on the part of Prospero, and in the following monologue the audience is privy to introspection and contemplation even beyond that of the end of the masque in Act IV "We are such stuff as dreams are made on..."(Shakespeare).
shows the effect of the society on them, the loss of hope they had in
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,...
goes to the party held by Lord Capulet in order to see Rosaline. He is
Treatment of women has evolved much since Elizabethan England. As a preface to the dissection of The Tempest – in particular, the character of Miranda, Shakespeare’s role for women as a whole must be addressed. According to Carolyn Ruth Swift Lenz’s introduction of Woman’s Part, “patriarchal order takes different forms and is portrayed with varying degrees of emphasis throughout the Shakespearean canon” (5). In the midst of this patriarchy, where do women stand? What social assumptions guided the pen of the great English poet and playwright as he wrote The Tempest? Lenz discusses that “In the comedies women are most often nurturing and powerful; as their values educate the men, mutuality between the sexes may be achieved” (6). However, “in tragedy…their roles are at once more varied, more constricted, and more precarious…they are condemned for acting, accused of being deceitful even when they are not” (6). Why the canyon between the two? How does Shakespeare reconcile women in what The Norton Shakespeare terms a romance play?
In the story The Tempest by Shakespeare, the desire for power can be seen through the characters of Stefano and Antonio. Stefano is one of the men who was on the ship along with Antonio and other characters like Gonzalo, and Alonso, etc. The ship was caught in the tempest, which is a violent storm that was created by the protagonist, Prospero, and the sailors were pretty much goners. However, all of the people on the ship did make it out alive onto the island of which Prospero resides and the characters reveal their desire for power and how much it affects their actions and mindset.