The Nature Of Discovery In The Bell Jar And William Shakespeare's The Tempest

Marcel Proust once said ‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.’ Through this unceasing process of discovery, individuals attain the opportunity to the acquisition of greater knowledge and a renewed perspective of oneself and one’s relationship with the world. These broader concepts are accentuated in the play ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare, the novel ‘The Bell Jar’ by Silvia Plath as well as James Marsh‘s film ‘The Theory of Everything’. The capability of a person to discover is ultimately inalienable. However, these discoveries can only be beneficial when individuals are able to experience realisations, remove wrong presumptions and courageously make potentially life-changing decisions

In The Tempest, Prospero comes to a realisation that there is a limitation to his magic and the importance of love, familial relations and forgiveness as the fundamental components of humanity. The title suggests the play is concerned with the destructive forces of nature, but mostly it is about the continuous fight an individual undergoes in the recognition of a man’s virtue. Prospero repents in the confrontation of his own negligence and failure in fulfilling the responsibilities of a ruler. The utilisation of hyperbole reflects Prospero’s determination to redeem himself, shown in ‘I’ll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth…I’ll drown my book.’ Through the dramatic device of the masque and Ariel’s music, the power of discovery is highlighted in Prospero’s case as he relieves from a self-transformation, gaining a renewed perspective and further understanding about himself and his position in his

Through an incidence, Stephen rediscovers his passion for life and science. In the film, his progressively weakening muscles forces Stephen to become entrapped in a sweater as he tries to wear it without external assistance. The extreme close-up and the blurring of the visuals of both the human eye and the fire through the sweater allow the audience to view the discovery from Stephen’s point of view. Although trapped and imprisoned in a wheelchair, Hawking nonetheless enjoys a degree of freedom because his imagination and motivation drives him forward. This evidently shows that everyone has the equal power to discover and this rediscovery of passion can result in a transformation of the