Summary Of Tim Winton's The Tempest

The transformation of one’s perceptions are triggered in an environment that stimulates new experiences and has the potential to evoke discovery. This notion is evident in Shakespeare’s The Tempest where Prospero’s unexpected subjection to the island challenges his preconceived ideas and causes him to discover new perceptions of himself and the world. Similarly, Tim Winton’s Distant Lands depicts the monotonous environment of Fat Maz as the stimulus for her connection with people which in turn causes her discovery of new perceptions of herself and the world.

The discovered island in The Tempest serves as a catalyst for Prospero’s provocative and confrontational discovery of the value of forgiveness, which transforms his widely held beliefs

The Tempest is dominated with water imagery, the most significant being “the tempest”, which foreshadows the transformation in Prospero. Water imagery “But doth suffer a sea change” is prolific in The Tempest in order to illustrate the extended metaphor that the island is the catalyst for the transformation of Prospero. “The tempest” also represents the shift in power that the island invokes, causing Prospero’s discovery of the fragility of his own authority. The inversion of Boatswain ordering the nobles “To cabin, silence! Trouble us not” is representative of the ‘Great Chain of Being’ being overturned, contextual to the Elizabethan era where this chain was representative of the hierarchy. This inversion of power is demonstrated when Prospero, who was “the Duke of Milan and A prince of power”, was subjected to the island without his power but then regained his power through the usurpation of the native Caliban. The assumption of control over the island “This island's mine, Which thou takest from me” is ironic as he has been a victim of the very actions he himself perpetrates. The overthrowing of the natives is contextual to the colonisation period is Great Britain at the time the text was written. The discovery of his own complicity in Caliban’s behaviour “this thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine” is symbolic of his acceptance of the

The “Pakistani” acts as a significant motif throughout the text, proving him to be the catalyst for Fat Maz’s discovery of the “different world”. He is symbolic of the “new world” which Fat Maz has been concealed from in the monotonous environment of “her father’s news agency”. Winton’s use of diction to describe the man’s “exotic hands” and the book’s “exotic purple cover” emphasises the concept of the unknown, situating this “mysterious” “dark skinned man” to disrupt the banal environment of her “father’s newsagency”. Fat Maz’s influence from her father’s racist notions “Her father would have thrown him out” are shown to have transformed, “the girl knew they understood one another”, through her connection with the “dark man”. This parallels Miranda’s discovery of a “brave new world” as she is transformed from her connection with Ferdinand. The book “Distant Lands” is symbolic of the distant lives that the protagonist and the “Pakistani” man come from, yet is the symbol that unites them as she has never felt this “tacit” feeling with anyone. The “Nescafe coloured man” is the only “exciting” occurrence in the protagonist’s “boring” routine, causing her desire to make a deep connection with the “dark skinned man”. This in turn provokes her discovery of the “new world” and transforms her perceptions of the