what started all the problems in The Tempest but who really serves who? Now The

Transcription

1 1 English 8 14 January 2017 Trouble in Tempest Town Taking sides, blindly following, and a servant who wants to be the master this is what started all the problems in The Tempest but who really serves who? Now The Tempest was a play originally written for the Blackfriers which was the playhouse of the kings men acting company Shakespeare belonged to as a romantic comedy. In The Tempest the story is driven by relationships between masters and servants but the main story drivers are the bad relationships and the problems caused by them. There were four of these plays written all of them were in fact romances. Now most of the play either implies or outright tells you about a relationship between someone who possesses power and someone who is under it normally in a harsh of abusive way. Twelve years before the play Prospero was the Duke of Milan. There was a problem he was not doing his job just putting it off on his brother Antonio who got tired of doing all the work with ought the title. So he went to talk to the King Alonzo to get his brother removed. Antonio then sees a chance to get rid of his brother entirely so he manipulates Alonzo to exile his brother on a ship with no mast. When this happened Prospero was shocked and they even put his baby daughter on bored to die. When

2 2 Gonzalo saw this he decided to put some supplies on the boat to help them survive. So the boat was sent off and Alonzo and company thought they died at sea Once Prospero and Miranda landed on the island they found that the island was being controlled by a witch named Sycorax. She had enslaved dozens of spirits and even her own son and she mistreated and used all of them for her dark magic. Then when Prospero found her he killed her and took her magic ability s while freeing her son Caliban. Prospero taught Caliban and treated him like a son and Caliban showed him the island and what little he knew of magic. After a while he founda oak stump with a spirit named Arial who Sycorax put him in so he could not get out. Prospero freed Arial and told him that he served Prospero now and he would eventually free Arial. So Arial showed Prospero more about how to use magic and helped him make the island habitable for him and his daughter. Now Prospero loved Caliban like a son at first and taught him things like astronomy and several other things. When you first got here, you petted me and took care of me, you would give me water with berries in it, and you taught me the names for the sun and the moon, the big light and the smaller light that burn in daytime and nighttime. Sun and the moon, the big light and the smaller light that burn in daytime and nighttime (Caliban ). Caliban began to think like he was the rightful ruler of the island and tried to rape Miranda to fill the island with his own people. After that

3 3 Prospero was so furious he enslaved Caliban and mistreated him for the rest of the time they are there Now there were two less important characters that are not mentioned in the first act their names were Trinculo and Stefano who are two of the king men who are known for getting very drunk. So Caliban is off carrying wood when he hears something in the distance. He thinks it is one of Prospero s spirits come to torment him so he hides under his cloak and hopes they don t see him. When Caliban hides Trinculo emerges from some bushes and sees the cloak. He decides he can use that to get out of the rain so he hops under the cloak with Caliban. Caliban starts to beg not to torment him at this Trinculo calls for his friend Stefano. When Caliban looks up he sees they are not spirits at all but that they are new. Then the very drunken Stefano see Caliban and gives him a drink. At this Caliban thinks they are gods sent to help him so he began to worship them. At this Trinculo and Stefano think Caliban is some poor monster and decide to have him serve them. Caliban made a request that they kill Prospero and they can keep everything else. With this knowledge they decide to take the offer and they set off to kill Prospero. At the end of the play Alonzo and Antonio were reconciled at long last. But now that Prospero can go home and the guilt is no longer tearing Alonzo apart, Antonio lost all power over them and lost the respect of Sebastian. So Antonio never really regretted his actions against his brother and might even try again but we

4 4 never get to know. So now that Prospero is getting to go home and everything is right in the world except one thing. Prospero summoned Arial and told him everything that happened. then he told Arial that his services were no longer needed and freed Arial like he promised from the start. now in they play there are a few good relationships like with Ferdinand and Miranda but everyone that caused the main problems were bad relationships between a master and one who is under his power. With this it is quite clear what drives the story and that is only the masters and servants relationships there are many other bad relationships that I could get in to. So I leave you hopefully more informed about The Tempest and what drives it.

5 Bibliography 1. SparkNotes Editors. SparkNote on The Tempest. SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC Web. 6 Jan Jamieson, Lee. A Guide to Power Relationships in The Tempest. 24 September Editor Pritchard, Louise eyewitness Shakespeare DK Children (2015) 4. Crowther, John, ed. No Fear The Tempest. SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC Web. 6 Jan