As the great William Shakespeare once said, “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” Out of all of the plays that Shakespeare has written, they all have things in common and they all have things that are dissimilar. In the two plays Macbeth and The Tempest, there are many things that are the same and that are different. Two of these characters that can be compared and contrasted are Macbeth from the play Macbeth and Miranda in The Tempest. These characters, Macbeth and Miranda, within these two plays can be compared and contrasted in many different ways, three of these ways are their conscious, how they treat others, and their position in the kingdom.
Shakespeare's play, The Tempest tells the story of a father, Prospero, who must let go of his daughter; who brings his enemies under his power only to release them; and who in turn finally relinquishes his sway over his world - including his power over nature itself. The Tempest contains elements ripe for tragedy: Prospero is a controlling figure bent on taking revenge for the wrongs done to him, and in his fury he has the potential to destroy not only his enemies, but his own humanity and his daughter's future.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.” The main character of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth, is filled with ambition. Macbeth is a Shakespearean play in which Macbeth is given a prophecy by three witches which tells that he will eventually become king of Scotland. Macbeth, filled with ambition to fulfill these predictions, let’s nothing get in his way. The principles within Macbeth direct him and his ambition to perform very bad acts. Between Macbeth and his wife, the theme of ambition without morales leads to absolute destruction is abundantly present, especially as the play progresses.
Shakespeare's Use of Language, Imagery and Setting to Illuminate Prospero's Journey from Revenge to Reconciliation
Shakespeare was the absolute man of his time during the medieval ages in which he lived. Actually, his plays began to be famous far after his death, which has resulted in a lasting legacy for his writings. He has composed an incredible amount of plays that have almost all continued on to be performed. Two more commonly known plays of his are The Tempest, and Macbeth. These are two very diverse plays that have a completely separate plot, characters, and meaning. In both plays, an unfortunate event occurred. Bill Delaney states about the perspective of King Duncan, “Obviously there would have been no knocking at the gate if Macduff had slept inside the castle or if Duncan had simply asked Macbeth himself or his most kind hostess Lady Macbeth to see that he was awakened in the morning.” Like Duncan, Prospero in The Tempest, he was not expecting at all to be stranded on an island. Also, there were many people that helped throughout these situations in the two plays. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth played a huge role in helping with the murder of King Duncan. In The Tempest, Ferdinand fell in love with Miranda and helped Prospero with all that he needed to help get on his good side. In The Tempest and Macbeth, Ferdinand and Lady Macbeth can be compared with their willingness to help someone who needed it, their intentions to help someone they loved, and they can be contrasted with the end result of their objectives.
Shakespeare used the same definition of tragedy when he wrote Macbeth and Hamlet. Both tragedies use supernatural incidents to intrigue the readers and both Hamlet and Macbeth have a tragic flaw which cause him to make a fatal mistake. Although both plays are similar, I believe that Hamlet is a superior play to Macbeth. I believe this to be true because of the characters, plot and theme in Hamlet that support my claim.
William Shakespeare is the most performed and read playwright whose works captured the complete range of human emotions. He wrote various types of plays including comedies, romances, tragedies, and tragicomedies. Macbeth, is one of his most famous tragedies he wrote between 1599-1606. The dramatic alterations made by Shakespeare bear little resemblance to the facts, leading us to conclude to three main purposes. The first being the dramatic. Hoping to capture the attention of his audience Shakespeare changed the plot making it much more dramatic than found in his Holinshed source. Second, the thematic affect. He wanted to create a more complex characterization of Macbeth.
...nowledge on The Tempest, both that it is Shakespeare’s final play and believed to be his farewell to theater Mendes unifies Shakespeare and Prospero. Prospero’s actions can be unified to Shakespeare himself, specifically in the final scenes of the play when Prospero relinquishes his magical abilities.
Shakespeare, William. _Othello_. (_The Arden Shakespeare_) ed. E.A.J. Honigmann. 3rd ed. Surrey: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1997.
There are many important characters in the Shakespeare plays “Macbeth” and “The Tempest.” The characters that are in the play “Macbeth” are: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, The Three Weird Sisters, Macduff, Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Fleance, Ross,Lennox, Lady Macduff, a Boy, Siward, Young Siward, a Scottish Doctor, a Gentlewoman, a Sergeant, a Porter, Hecate, a Messenger, Seyton, and Manteith (Personae). Many of these characters played a huge role in the play “Macbeth.” In the play “The Tempest” there is also several characters that had a important role in the play. Those characters are: Prospero, Miranda, Ferdinand, Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, Gonzalo, Ariel, Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo (Smith). There are two characters from these plays that are very important from each play; those characters are Lady Macbeth from the play “Macbeth” and Ariel from “The Tempest.”
* Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans, et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974.
Shakespeare, William. The First Folio of Shakespeare: The Norton Facsimile. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1968.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Through The Tempest play, William Shakespeare weaves together a tale that is characterized by anti-colonialist sentiments. Prospero - the deposed Milan Duke - adopts a colonialist mentality by treating his colleagues as slaves who have no rights. Characters who suffer mistreatment under Prospero include: Ariel - the spirit creature; Ferdinand - the Naples Prince; and Caliban - Sycorax’s son. Prospero possesses much magical power which he uses to oppress his compatriots. Consequently, Prospero is portrayed as a colonial tyrant who abuses his immense power. Anti-colonialism feelings are especially evident through the actions, utterances and disposition and of Caliban, Miranda, Ferdinand and Ariel. To illustrate, Caliban berates Prospero for the former’s forced labor. Likewise, Ariel protests Prospero’s reluctance to release the former as earlier agreed. Miranda also expresses her dissatisfaction with Prospero’s unfair imprisonment of Ferdinand. Similarly, Ferdinand appears to challenge Prospero’s authority by briefly stopping dragging timber so as to flirt and chat with Miranda. The foregoing four characters exhibit conduct that highlights their displeasure with Prospero’s colonial-style authority over them. From the preceding expose, it can thus be concluded that Shakespeare’s The Tempest play is about anti-colonialism based on its depiction of Caliban, Miranda, Ferdinand and Ariel’s opposition to Prospero’s oppressive authority.
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, one of Shakespeare’s final plays and debat-ably his final play ever written, focused on man’s gluttonous desire for power. Power manifests itself in “The Tempest” in many different ways, including the exploration of the power of betrayal, the universal desire for power between men. The power of a mas-ter over his slave, and the power of magic and illusion. Although this is clear, many in-terpretations over time have changed regarding the theme of power, which has resulted in questions as to whether power in the play is represented as good or bad. Shakespeare pre-sents these forms of power in different ways. Namely, through his character Prospero, who was once the duke of Milan but was betrayed by his brother, Antonio, and Alonso, the king of Naples. Prospero was kidnapped and left to die on a raft at sea, but Prospero and his daughter survive because Gonzalo leaves them supplies and Prospero’s books, which are the source of his magic and power. Prospero and his daughter Miranda arrive on an island where Prospero takes control after the witch dies. Also on the island is the spirit, Ariel, and the witch’s son, Caliban. Prospero appears to hold the majority of the power throughout the play.