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THE TEMPEST (1611), Shakespeare (156-1616)

Shakespeare → he was involved in theater on many different levels. He was an actor. He became the
manager of the Globe Theatre.
VEDI Shakespeare’s opera omnia (in the Manuale p. 59)

Before 1600 Shakespeare wrote comedies and history plays. Then, after 1600 he wrote great tragedies
and romance plays. These plays have something in common, they share themes with the medieval
romance (adventure, love). He wrote 3 main romance plays (one of them is The Tempest, the others
are Pericles and Cymbeline ). A characteristic of these plays is that they have aspects that may be
defined as tragic but combined with comedic aspects. They are hybrid in terms of genre. They start as
tragedy, but end as comedy (there is a happy ending).

Shakespeare took a lot of story’s elements from the classic to write his writings. For example Macbeth
was reinterpreted from the chronicles of Scotland. There are elements of non-originality in
Shakespeare’s writings.
There are authors who have re-written The Tempest from different perspectives. The Tempest,
Othello and Hamlet are three most re-written Shakesperian plays. Also Gollum (in The Lord of the
Rings) has been inspired by a character from The Tempest.

The Tempest was first performed in 1611. Critics indicate Prospero as the protagonist. Caliban is the
monster creature. And then there is Prospero’s daughter called Miranda. These are the three main
characters. Caliban lives in a cave (darkness, the metaphor of something)

James I was the king in 1611.

The Tempest → it is the last play he wrote by himself (Shakespeare’s swan song = il canmto del cigno =
the last performance): this detail is relevant.
It was published after Shakespeare’s death in the First Folio in 1623 among the “comedies” (not in
the “tragedies” category). It is a romance play. It starts as a tragedy and then develops into a comedy.
It respects the 3 Aristotelian units of the play: time, action, place.

PLOT:
The Tempest starts with a shipwreck (= naufragio). Alonso, the king of Naples, is returning to Italy
from Tunis together with a crew of people (Alonso’s brother Sebastian, Alonso’s son Ferdinand, the
usurping duke of Milan, Antonio, who is Prospero's brother and Gonzalo, a courtier). They were
coming back from Tunis and they found themself involved in a tempest. We discover that the tempest
is not an actual tempest, but it is provoked by Prospero who saw the crew coming to his island.
Prospero is the former Duke of Milan. He caused the tempest on his island because Prospero has been
dethroned. Prospero used to be the duke of Milando but he was removed from Milan in an illicit way
by his brother.
This is a Shakespearean theme: the hostility between brothers. They end up on Prospero’s island.
There Prospero lives with his daughter Miranda. Prospero wants to take revenge. FLASHBACK:
Prospero feels the duty to tell his daughter Miranda why he is doing that and also why they are there.
There is a story within the story that takes place in Act IV (a wedding masque serves as a
play-within-a-play). Prospero tells Miranda a tale: he tells her how they arrived on the island 12
years earlier after his brother Antonio usurped his dukedom in Milan.
It is not possible to identify where this island is. It is left vague. It seemed to be the Mediterranean but
it is not clear.
After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on
the island. When they get to the remote island, Prospero takes possession of the island. There he lives
with his daughter Miranda and some natives: one is Ariel, an airy spirit, and the other one is Caliban
(a savage monster figure and the son of a witch). He became the ruler of the island after the witch
Sycorax, liberated the spirit Ariel from a tree trunk and enslaved Caliban. Caliban collects wood in the
forest for him. Prospero frees Ariel from his imprisonment and so Ariel owes something to him.
Prospero tells him to give him liberty if he helps him to set the scene in the island and get the
characters to suffer and go through some tragedies. Ariel is more a “HE” but his gender is ambivalent.
Ariel becomes the ruler of the island.
So Prospero uses magic to cast the ship’s passengers up on the island. He plans his “harmless”
revenge with Ariel. Prospero manipulates some situations, for example he ignites the love between
Ferdinand and Miranda. This is part of his revenge. He also encourages Sebastian to be king. He wants
to take revenge mainly with Antonio. He has a plan in mind.
Caliban is angry with Prospero and he plots together with other characters to kill Prospero but Ariel
stops that.

Because this is a hybrid play, the ending is not tragic. At some point, Prospero realizes, also thanks to
Ariel, that revenge takes to nothing, it is useless. Maybe it is better to try to forgive his brother and go
on, instead of revenge. At the end, we have Prospero who finally forgives his brother who reconciles
with Caliban. Caliban and Ariel will be liberated and will remain on the island. Prospero and Antonio
will go back to Milan.
The negative feelings are linked to tragedy, but at the end it turns into a comedy.

The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores
many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. .

«Agostino Lombardo parlava della Tempesta come di

‘una grande conchiglia’ che conteneva tutti i suoni del
teatro shakespeariano, e in particolare il suono del
mare. […] accadeva proprio come nella conchiglia che
accostavo all’orecchio da bambina; prestavo orecchio
alla Tempesta di Shakespeare e vi coglievo suoni
misteriosi che si confondevano con i miei propri
suoni interiori, fino a trasformare l’ascolto in un
esercizio di conoscenza di me stessa. […] Ecco
perché sono arrivata a pensare alla Tempesta di
Shakespeare come a una conchiglia: la porto
all’orecchio e vi sento il suono della vita»
(Nadia Fusini, Vivere nella tempesta, 2016)
The sea is associated with voyage, with change, mobility. The idea of change and fluidity is important
in this play.

Important Themes (linked to tragedy) :

- betrayal and usurpation
- plotting
- attempted murders
But then also (themes linked to comedy):
- final celebration of life and renewal through repentance and forgiveness
- love theme
- wonder, enchantment, supernatural

MAIN ASPECTS/THEMES:
ART - METATHEATRE → it is a play about theatre and art. It is interesting that the last play
Shakespeare wrote alone is about theatre. There are a lot of references to previous Shakesperian
plays. For example, Prospero is similar to Hamlet (in the revenge theme they are linked). As if The
Tempest were like a summa of Shakespeare’s theatre. There are a lot of echoes.
There is another more important reason why the tempest is a metaplay. Because it contains
another tale in itself: Prospero causing the tempest, he was a victim of the tempest. He is a
 dramatist because he creates an artificial tempest, he puts on stage a play where all the
characters are involved. The island is a metaphor of the stage. Ariel is his helper and all the
other characters become actors of his play. This is why a lot of critics think that Prospero is
sort of autre of shakespeare. And they think Shakespeare projected himself into Prospero.
The Magic is a metaphor of the magic of theatre, or the art of theater in general. Prospero’s
magic is knowledge but also a metaphor. He is able to conjure dreams and illusion. He is an
illusionist. He then finally admits it was all an illusion.

STRUCTURE of THE TEMPEST

Fact is combined with fiction in the structure of The Tempest.
The “real” tempest is the tempest where Prospero and Miranda get involved.
On the other hand there is Prospero’s staged tempest: Alonso, Antonio and their crew.
What Prospero does is to recreate on his island, that is his stage, what he experienced in reality. This
is an example of Shakespeare's idea of theatre as something that holds mirror to reality (= il teatro
come se tenesse uno specchio verso la realtà).
This mirroring effect is very interesting.
The tempest is a tragicomedy about a tragicomedy entitled the tempest. The tempest within the
tempest.

The real tempest Prospero’s staged tempest

Prospero and Miranda after leaving Milan Alonso, Antonio and their crew

Real Plotting Staged plotting

Usurpation of Prospero’s dukedom Prospero provoking Antonio

CHARACTERS
Prospero – the rightful Duke of Milan
Miranda – daughter to Prospero
Ariel – a spirit in service to Prospero
Caliban – a servant of Prospero and a savage monster
Alonso – King of Naples
Sebastian – Alonso's brother
Antonio – Prospero's brother, the usurping Duke of Milan
Ferdinand – Alonso's son
Gonzalo – an honest old councillor

STRUCTURE OF THE 9 SCENES (symmetrical)

- Scene 2 and 8 : involve Prospero, Miranda and Ferdinand. In scene 2 Ferdinand thinks he has
lost his father forever. In Scene 8 he assumes a new father in Prospero by marrying Miranda.
- Scene 3 and 7 : develop Antonio and Sebastian’s plan to kill Alonso and usurp his throne. In
both scenes their conspiracy is postponed. In Scene 3 by Ariel’s intervention and in Scene 7 by
the arrival of a banquet
- Scene 4 and 6 : display the silly and drunken behavior of Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo (two
King’s servants) and their plot to kill Prospero and take over his island
- Scene 5 is the central and shows Ferdinand and Miranda’s betrothal (= promessa di
matrimonio)
→ The Tempest’s symmetrical structure represents the multiplicity of a hall of mirrors in which
everything reflects and re-reflects everything else.

ACT 4 146-163 (pag 253 pdf)

“Our revels now are ended……..”
Prospero said that he has done everything, now it is time to stop it and return to reality. He decides to
end the magic and is ready to return to real life.
He is talking to Ferdidand.
“Our little life is rounded with a sleep” ”Siamo fatti della stessa sostanza dei sogni”
We see Prospero tired. He wants to go back to normal life, to Milan. He is trying to suggest that after
all we are such stuff as dreams are made on. Life starts as sleep and ends as sleep.
Our life starts in our mother’s womb and ends in our sleep. After all, this is fiction but also our life is
somehow inconsistent like the illusion that is in fiction. It is another way to underline the power of
art even though it is destined to end.
He is trying to explain what theater is: artificial. Prospero is giving up: it is like Shakespeare giving up
his job as a dramatist and returning as a human being (this is his last work).

EPILOGUE spoken by Prospero

Here Prospero speaks as if he is Shakespeare. He addresses the audience: he asks to liberate him from
his magic. He expresses the desire to go back to ordinary life, to a real life rather than the fictional life
he created. Shakespeare did the same: after his last work, he left London to go to his hometown.
“Now my charms are all o’erthrown..”
Ora ogni mio incantesimo è infranto. La forza che resta è solo mia.
He appeals to the audience asking to liberate him from the bands of his magic art because he has
forgiven the traitor.

JOURNEY MOTIF, PURGATORIO, DEATH AND REBIRTH

Journey in a metaphorical way. Miranda and Prospero went on a journey, it was a forced journey from
Milan. It is metaphorical also because all the characters sat in a journey of self-understanding,
discovery. realize their faults, their guilts and move towards a sort of redemption from those sins,
including Prospero who realizes that revenge is wrong. His behavior towards Caliban has been too
hard. Therefore, he feels a sense of guilt which leads him to forgive.
➢Prospero
The inferno in Milan, a sort of ‘death’, shipwreck and rebirth on the island. Journey through his self,
confronting his other inside, his darkness (rage, revenge …) until final acceptance and open unveiling
of his humanity (vs. power, magic)
➢Antonio, Sebastian and Alonso
The inferno of the sea and atonement on the purgatorial island where they face their guilt
➢Gonzalo. «Here’s a maze trod indeed/ Through forthrights and meanders» (3.3.2-3)

IMPRISONMENT VS. FREEDOM

Aspects of this theme connected with the colonial theme and colonial otherness.
➢Sycorax (Caliban’s mother, a witch) – Ariel: Prospero actually liberated Ariel from Sycorax. When
Prospero arrived on the island, he heard Ariel shouting from the tree and he liberated him. But from
that moment on, Ariel had to be Prospero’s slave.

➢Prospero – Ariel and Caliban: they are Prospero’s subjects, his servants. They are enslaved. Both of
them ask for liberty. Ariel is very obedient to Prospero but asks him for something, that is his liberty
after he has carried out his plan. Ariel asks for personal liberty

➢Caliban would like to achieve not only his personal freedom, but he asks for a ‘national’, ‘political’
liberty. This is because he is the son of Sycorax: Caliban is the actual heir of the island. He wants to get
his island back for the people.

➢Prospero asks the audience for freedom from his magic robe (the tired artist wanting to re-embrace
ordinary life). Prospero feels as if he was imprisoned in his magic art and wants to go back to his life
without feeling the duty of a wizard to create fictional worlds.
 OTHERNESS
There are 2 main aspects of otherness in the play: psychological and colonial (relationship between
the colonizer and the colonize)

➢PSYCHOLOGICAL OTHER
We can see Ariel and Caliban as representation of something

❖Ariel-Prospero – Ariel associated with the AIR – projection of the magic art of Prosero and the
LIGHT(NESS). In a sort of way, he is associated with rationality and knowledge.

❖Caliban-Prospero – Caliban associated with the EARTH (also because he is very much attached to
his land, his country) - he is the projection of the natural side and DARK(NESS). Caliban may be the
autre of Prospero’s own darkness. Caliban is represented as a monster: ugly and dark. At the end,
when Prospero looks at Caliban “questa cosa dell’oscurità riconosco come mia” / “This thing of darkness I
acknowledge mine” (V. I)
His monstrosity is Prospero’s too. This is a moment of acknowledgment of his dark side and his
desire for revenge. Prospero repressed that through his science, but resurfacing on the island
(uncanny, Id, unconscious). Caliban is apparently unfamiliar (totally different from Prospero), but
then he appears more familiar than he thought. Prospero then manages to overcome his darkness.

➢COLONIAL OTHER and COLONIAL DISCOURSE

Prospero > Coloniser - Caliban > Colonised
In the 17th century (when the tempest was played): England was not a colonial power yet.
Much earlier than the tempest, explorers visited the New World (America) and those explorations
were meant to study the place, collect information and then eventually set there and conquer.
- In 1497 North America exploration by John Cabot
- In 1570s-1580s North America explorations by Francis Drake, Martin Forbisher, Walter
Raleigh
English explorers went back to England with the colonized and they were seen according to a double
register: on the one hand coming from a different exotic place they were associated with an ideal of
wonder and exoticism. Miranda for example “the wonder of the other” is what she refers to who
comes to the island. On the other hand there is racism: they were seen as inferior.

In 1607, during the reign of James I, first settler colony in Virginia, then called Jamestown
In 1609 a Bermuda island claimed by England after the Sea Venture shipwreck there
> In the tempest there is a reference of the Bermuda island and this shows Shakespeare was aware of
these explorations. Shakespeare knew about those explorations of the time. He knew his country was
beginning this period of exploration. vedi pag 165 pdf

Shakespeare was also familiar with the pamphlets and essays about the nature of the “natives” as
children of nature. Michel de Montaigne wrote an important pamphlet in 1580 entitled “Des
Cannibales”. The way this author described the native is through exotic, wonder and primitivism. This
is expressed also by some lines said by Miranda referring to the italian crew arriving on the island “O
brave new world/That such people in’it”
Caliban’s wickedness and darkness is referred to by Prospero and Miranda in the play, and can be read
as a racist way of seeing the others coming from another world.
Even if this is the beginning of the 18th century, the way Caliban is described seems to suggest that
colonization of the island, belonging to Caliban, is justified because Porspero brings knowledge and
civilization and so does the colonizer. !!!!!!

Is Shakespeare here somehow justifying colonization because western people bring civilization?
Prospero is the colonizer and the colonized are Ariel and Caliban that are submitted to Prospero. Ariel
is submitted by his art. Caliban is Prospero’s slave in any sense, for example Caliban is exploited (=
sfruttato) by Prospero in order to collect wood from the forest of the island. Caliban knows the island
very well and Prospero keeps asking to fetch (= andare a prendere) the woods. There is also the theme
of deforestation of the island: Caliban wants to protect his island. Prospero is the western man that
wants to exploit the resources of the island to his own benefit. There is an ecological theme.

These 2 slaves have a different attitude towards Prospero. Ariel was liberated by Prospero, he owes
Prospero something. Whereas Caliban has been deprived of his island.
=> So, Ariel and Caliban are natives, colonized subjects subjugated to Prospero’s art and power. Yet
they have different attitudes towards their master and his supposedly “civilizing mission”.

READ THE EXTRACTS AND ANSWER ORALLY THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. What kind of relationship do Prospero and Ariel have?
2. Is it different from that between Prospero and Caliban?
3. What do you think of Prospero after reading his words to Ariel?
4. And what about his attitude towards Caliban? Is he justified?
5. What are the central themes in these extracts?
6. Caliban refers to the «profit» of knowing English. What does he mean? The colonizers impose their
language. Caliban learns English thanks to Miranda.

Pag 162
Metti alla prova Ariel e tutte le sue capacità.
Ariel is the COMPLICIT OTHER ready to do everything for Prospero. In the history of colonialism,
there were complicit others that thought that working with the colonisers could get some advantages.

Pag 166
Ariel has a project in mind: to obtain liberty. But Prospero now needs Ariel. He knows that for his own
profit he has to exploit Ariel.
What you demand? My liberty
After a year, Prospero had promised to liberate him but he didn’t. He needs him. This is not enough,
says to Ariel, Ariel owes much and much more to Prospero.

Pag 167
Ariel says that Sycorax is from Algeria, and therefore Caliban too. This is interesting from a colonial
prospective.

Pag 169
Ariel was left inside the tree for 12 years. The son Sycorax litter here is Caliban.
Not honored with a human shape = Caliban has nothing to do with humanity, he is just a monster.

Pag 170
“If you insist on your liberty Ariel, I will put you again for another 12 years in a tree”.
Prospero is very cruel. But he suffered himself for being deprived of his kingdom. But then he
understands doing the same to others, the same he has suffered from, takes to nothing.

Dialogue between Caliban, Prospero and Miranda Pag 171

Prospero defined Caliban wild, violent and evil. But he doesn’t appear like this in the representation
that artists did. He looks instead scared. Contrary to Ariel, Caliban is described as a THREATENING
OTHER

Pag 171: Prospero tells Miranda what happened to them, the story within the story.
Miranda changes through the play when she meets Ferdinand.
Caliban = earth = state of nature of an individual, the impulsive and instinctive nature before the use
of rationality. Prospero calls him “tortoise” = tartaruga = an animal

Pag 174: What Caliban says about his island

He says the island is his. Prospero took it for him. But at the beginning Prospero was kind to him, he
taught him the language. He loved it at first. But now he is treating him so badly.
“I was my own king”
Prospero said he stopped treating Caliban as a human because Caliban tried to rape Miranda at the
end. We don’t know that really.

Pag 176
Caliban speaks with peculiar english. Possibly when Prospero came to the island, Caliban had his own
language that was replaced by the language of the coloniser.
→ here is underlined the difference between proper english and englishes (the various types of english
of the colonisers): natives have absorbed the language of the colonizers, but in a particular way (the
language they have learned is a bit different from the original)
Caliban now that speaks English will use it as a profit: to stay with Miranda.
At the beginning there seemed to be affection between Caliban and Prospero, that is the reason why
Prospero taught Caliban how to speak English. By doing so, Prospero imposes on him his own culture.
Now Caliban will use the tools that Prospero gave him, against him.
This is the passage that post-colonial critics use to take sights with Caliban as the colonized and to
see Caliban as a representative of the victims of the colonial that became a hero, a rebellious against
the colonizer.
Caliban is a co-protagonist. Post colonial critics have challenged the euro-centered idea of the
English (European) culture as superior.

“[The] long tradition of privileging Prospero's creative powers as beneficent and god-given began to be
overshadowed by the growing stature of Caliban, following the de-colonisation movements of the
1960s and 1970s in Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. If, traditionally, Prospero's art
represented the world of civility and learning in contrast to the 'natural' black magic of Caliban's
mother Sycorax, anti-colonial revisions of the play challenged this rather abstract Eurocentric division
between art and nature. 17 Instead, as Africans and Caribbeans saw that widespread national
liberation was imminent – that is from 1959 onwards – they began to revise and mobilise the play in
defence of Caliban's right to the island on which he is born prior to Prospero's arrival. Caliban's
assertion in the play, ‘This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou tak’st from me’ …
became the rallying cry for African and Caribbean intellectuals from the 1960s to the 1970s.” (Jyotsna
Singh)

Pag 232
Sleep, dream → we are such stuff the dreams are made of. Prospero uses the words to talk about
human life. This image connects two characters that are totally opposite but in the course of the play
became similar (the familiar and unfamiliar). Shakespeare wants to teach that humans are not so
different. The forgiveness, the admission of mistakes is something in Common between Prospero and
Caliban.
The tears: Caliban without the rage of the subjugation, without being a slave, with a sensitivity,
innocence. There is a kind of inner child in Caliban. Prospero could be the Self projection of
Shakespeare. The whole play doesn’t approve of what Prospero says, he is the protagonist but this
doesn’t mean that the play is pro-colonialism. The play encourages us to question what Prospero
says, and take Caliban's perspective into consideration. Possibly, the audience, reading the play, ends
up feeling some kind of empathy towards caliban.
“Especially in the relationship between Prospero and Caliban, one sees the destructive force that
exerts itself when a human being takes it upon himself to control another. Shakespeare's word play in
naming his characters emphasizes this idea. In the same way that Caliban’s name can be rearranged as
"Canibal", the letters in Prospero's name can be rearranged to spell out "Oppresor". This can hardly be
seen as coincidence, for in the relationship between the two, one is able to discern that Prospero
wields his intelligence and modernity as oppressive forces.”
- M. O’Toole, Shakespeare’s Natives: Ariel and Caliban in ‘The Tempest’

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FOR THE EXAM

Defence or critique of English colonialism?
Whose side does Shakespeare take?
Caliban’s and Ariel’s or Prospero’s?
Does the audience see Caliban as Prospero and Miranda see him?
Should we believe Prospero’s or Caliban’s version of the story concerning the island?
What does Caliban mean at the end by saying that he’ll «seek grace»?
Who’s more vicious: the savage Caliban cursing the master or the civilized Antonio betraying his
brother?

How is it possible Shakespeare wanted Caliban to be the monster, the wild figure, to speak in that way
(through a deep speech)?

Shakespeare wants us to look at Prospero with another perspective. This play is a critique of English
colonialism.
Who is more vicious: Caliban or Antonio? Antonio because he betrays his brother, Caliban’s behavior
is justified because Prospero made him his slave, and took his island. Aspects such as compassion,
empathy, pity, admiration are all part of the feeling of the other which is what the island represents,
the human life. (* vedi Essay vivere nella tempesta, Nadia fusini*).

«[…] sull’isola l’immaginazione trionfa. E trionfa grazie all’invenzione di una lingua simbolica, il cui
motivo dominante è il ‘sentimento dell’altro’. Che cosa significa il ‘sentimento dell’altro’? Significa
che nel dramma risuona secondo tonalità e registri i più vari – vuoi nel timbro del perdono, vuoi in
quello della meraviglia e dell’ammirazione e della paura – il sentimento della pietà. […] L’isola di
Prospero si configura in altri termini non solo come un luogo altro, spazialmente esotico, ma come un
tempo in più nella relazione umana, che trascende lo scambio del dare e dell’avere nel gesto del dono
e del perdono e nell’evento della salvezza». (Nadia Fusini, Vivere nella tempesta, 2016)