William Shakespeare’s The Tempest refines his portrayal of nature from the earlier play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, nature is shown to be mysterious presence that blurs the lines between reality and illusion; it is a magical force that is unreachable and incomprehensible for human beings. A Midsummer Night’s Dream gives nature a mischievous, playful, dreamlike feel because in this play nature interferes for the sake of love. The Tempest breaks down the barrier that divides human society and the natural world, a divide that is present in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, because nature’s presence and effects become more noticeable and it becomes a power that is within the reach of humans. In The Tempest nature isn’t romanticized but rather is given a darker ominous characterization due to it becoming a tool for Prospero’s revenge. While Shakespeare does refine his depiction of nature in The Tempest, he shows through both plays that nature interferes with the lives of humans and entangles humans by blinding and diverting them from their chosen paths. In both plays’ the forces that drive the conflicts are caused by nature. The conflict in A Midsummer Night’s Dream centers on the confusion and mistakes caused by Puck, the fairy, who enchants the wrong people causing them to fall in love, while in The Tempest, the play’s conflict begins with a tempest ravaging the ship that is carrying the nobles and Gonzalo, therefore diverging them from their path and stranding them on an island. The interference of nature within both plays shows that while it is used for different reasons, being love and revenge respectively, it is an uncontrollable force that manipulates people.
Within A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare ...
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...and he is able to finally let go of his powers. In resolving to give up his powers, Prospero’s need for revenge vanishes, causing nature’s control to dissipate. In choosing to leave the island and return to Milan, Prospero leaves nature, which mirrors the moment the Athenian lovers leave the forest to return to Athens. Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest differ in certain aspects of their portrayals of nature, Shakespeare characterizes nature as a manipulative and influencing force in both plays, showing that although they may appear different, nature is essentially the same in both plays.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ed. Wolfgang Clemen and Sylvan Barnet.
New York: Signet Classic, 1998. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Ed. Peter Hulme and William H. Sherman. New York:
Norton, 2004. Print.
...self in his quest for vengence, (or at least righting the wrongs done him), is the prime mover of The Tempest. He exists in a higher level of 'nature' than do the other characters because he has educated himself in obedience to primordial laws and exercised the habit of virtue. To this extent, the entire society formulated on the island by Prospero's ministrations is a natural society. Prospero's daughter, Miranda, occupies the highest level of this society, because of her chastity and innocence, which place her in harmony with higher nature. The discipline-required to exist in this higher nature is imposed on the other characters by Prospero's magic. Throughout The Tempest the emphasis is on moral and spiritual rebirth; this suggests rituals of initiation and festivity in a way which represents the culmination of achievement in Shakespeare's dramatic art.
The island is full of noises; Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight,” says Caliban. The responses which the characters in The Tempest offer to their immediate surroundings reveal much about their individual traits, at the same time they allow the audience glimpses of Prospero's island as different parts of the island are isolated in the play. The island itself and the sea that surrounds it may be seen as encompassing elemental nature and throughout the play, the elements are used to emphasize the inherent nature of characters (notably Ariel and Caliban) as these elements to an Elizabethan audience possessed "primarily certain qualities attributable to matter" (Tillyard's Elizabethan World Picture). The imagery of clouds dissolving and melting, or reason that had ebbed flooding back, and in changes of state between sleeping and waking all draw on images from the natural environment that extend the main thematic concerns in The Tempest. Analogies may also be drawn between the macrocosm and microcosm and how disorder in one corresponded to disorders in the other.
black general is the hero. This would have been at a time when much of
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