Michel De Montaigne The Tempest

William Shakespeare may have been aware of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays when he wrote his play The Tempest. A comparison between the two works reveals how Montaigne’s theory on humanity is tested through Prospero’s treatment of his servants, his daughter, and the shipwrecked nobles on his island. Montaigne believed that human beings could not be judged solely through rational means. To him, people are always changing, as is society. Experience is the best means for people to know themselves, but they should not use their limited experience to judge others. In “On Three Kinds of Social Intercourse,” Montaigne writes, “Our main talent lies in knowing how to adapt ourselves t o a variety of customs.” He relies on historical knowledge and case

In several essays, he punctures the myths surrounding supposedly valued institutions. For example, in “On the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers,” Montaigne challenges the high status physicians enjoyed. From his own family’s example, he says that doctors’ prescriptions are often confusing and perform the same actions that simple natural remedies and techniques can do. The patients’ blind faith in doctors is a social norm, but one that does not bear out with experience. While Montaigne values the role of doctors to keep people healthy, he has little use for their “art” in which they exploit society’s fears about sickness and death. Likewise, in “Of Cripples,” Montaigne argues that people’s dependence and acceptance of miracle cures, spiritual healers, and witchcraft betray their own deformed minds in terms of being abused by frauds and, worse, their own

In “On Cruelty,” Montaigne argues that stifling temptations and vices do not create more virtue because resisting temptations may make man “innocent” from doing ill, “but not one apt for doing good.” . He adds that some traits, such as prudence and bravery, may simply come from less-desirable traits, such as cowardliness and greed. Indeed, Montaigne traces his good character to his fortune and family background, rather than is one of his own making. However, he adds that he can “unlearn evil” by mortally hating vices and he lists cruelty as the greatest vice of all. For Montaigne, cruelty is more than just a mean act. It shows people as “vicious and unreasonable,” thereby denying people the chance to ability to reason. Montaigne combats cruelty by showing sympathy for the victim’s sorrow. The act of suffering brings out compassion. Montaigne argues that those who seek pleasure in seeing torture and mutilation, even when done to criminals or animals in sport, lose their humanity, and their ability to reason as they surrender to these passions. Montaigne states that mankind has an obligation to respect not only people and animals, but also trees and