This Guide Contains Information on the Following

This guide contains information on the following

1. Introduction to the form of the play
2. Notes on Context

History

Conflict and religion

The Divine Right of Kings and Hierarchy of Being

Magic/supernatural

Gender roles

The power of the stage

1. The structure of the play
2. Summary of the plot (by act)
3. Themes

Power and colonialism

Love

Magic

Revenge and forgiveness

Nature Vs. Nurture

Introduction: the form of the play

In depicting a remote island, peopled by spirits and a monster, reflecting the strange tales of contemporary travellers, Shakespeare anticipates some of the features of what is now called speculative fiction or science fantasy. The play conforms to the pattern of comedy in its happy resolution but is more sentimental than the earlier comedies. Some students of the play have identified the character of Prospero with Shakespeare.

Context

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History

Records indicate that The Tempest was performed before James I on November 1, 1611, but there may also have been earlier performances. The Tempest was again performed during the winter of 1612-13 to celebrate the marriage of Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King James I. But this play was not printed until it appeared for the first time in the 1623 Folio.

Unlike many of Shakespeare's other plays, The Tempest, is not drawn from another, earlier literary work. There is no formal source, except for the ideas that the author might have found in reading accounts of the Bermuda shipwreck or the stories emerging from the new colonies, which had been recently established in the New World.

Colonialism

The setting of a maritime adventure and being castaway upon a deserted island is fitting for the period. In the decade in which Shakespeare wrote the play, 1611, the exploration of the world sped up greatly: in the early 1600s, there had been several expeditions to the New World, including Captain John Smith’s settlement at Jamestown, and a highly published shipwreck of a British expedition on an island that we know today as Bermuda (the story, published in numerous pamphlets in London, may have been a source for Shakespeare’s play). The issue of British exploration and colonization of alien worlds was fairly new when Shakespeare wrote the play. Although it is certain that a burgeoning colonial England was on Shakespeare’s mind, he certainly did not think of colonial issues as we do today.

Conflict and religion

At the time when King James I became the monarch, England had been suffering from religious turmoil. The religious conflict had continued since before the beginning of the Elizabethan period. This conflict was principally between the Protestants and the Catholics. However, the Jacobean people were extremely religious and God fearing. They believed that everything was controlled by God and so they must behave properly so as not to anger the Gods.

Mary, Queen of Scots had tried to restore the Catholic power in England. But when Elizabeth ascended, things changed. She was in favor of the Protestants. During her rule, Queen Elizabeth established the Church and became the Head of the Church. After her death, King James I was the Head of the Church. Towards the beginning of the Jacobean period, the Church became a dominant entity. Puritans played a crucial role in the Jacobean society.

By the time King James I came to power, the Protestants had become powerful and the Catholics became a minority group. The Catholics felt so much rage against the Protestant King and his Government that they plotted to attack the Parliament and dethrone the King. However, the plan (the Gunpowder Plot) was foiled at the last minute.

The Divine Right of King and Hierarchy of Being

Thedivine right of kings,divine right, orGod's mandateis apoliticalandreligiousdoctrine of royal andpolitical legitimacy. It asserts that amonarchis subject to no earthly authority, deriving the right to rule directly from the will ofGod. The king is thus not subject to the will of his people, thearistocracy, or any otherestate of the realm, including (in the view of some, especially in Protestant countries or during the reign of Henry VIII of England) the Catholic Church. It implies that only God can judge an unjust king and that any attempt to depose, dethrone or restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God and may constitute a sacrilegious act. It is often expressed in the phrase "by the Grace of God," attached to the titles of a reigning monarch.

The Hierarchy of being is a strict, religious hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to have been decreed byGod. The chain starts from God and progresses downward to angels, demons (fallen/renegade angels), stars, moon, kings, princes, nobles, commoners, wild animals, domesticated animals, trees, other plants, precious stones, precious metals, and other minerals.[1]

In Elizabethan times, there was a different way of looking at life.People, including Shakespeare believed in a Divine Order, or Great Chain of Being.The Divine Order was the belief that everything in the universe has a specific place and rank in order of their perceived importance and "spiritual" nature.The more "spirit" a person or object had, the more power he or she had.

The more "spirit" the person or object had, the more power it had in its interactions with people or things below in the order. People in Elizabethan England believed that God set up this order and wanted it to be followed. If someone or something were to break the Divine Order by not being obedient to whatever was above it, the person or thing that went against the God's will would be punished. Bigger betrayals of the Divine Order were believed to bring bigger punishments by God, while smaller betrayals would bring about smaller punishments. For example, if a noble overthrew a king, Elizabethan people thought that a natural disaster (an earthquake, a hurricane, etc.) would strike. This was a very convenient way for people higher in the Divine Order to maintain their power.

Magic/The supernatural

Magic was also a matter of importance in the sixteenth century involving life and death to practitioners and victims. The burning of witches and the publication of many books on the subject, including one even by James I, bears witness to its place in public thought. Consequently the very full use of it in The Tempest would have a much greater effect on the audience than can be felt today.

There were two different types of it, a maleficent one represented by witches and wizards, who sold their souls to the devil in popular belief and who were governed by him to work evil on victims. The other was beneficent, derived from studies in the occult and used generally for discovery of new forces and investigation the occult and used generally for discovery of new forces and investigation into the laws of physics and other scientific research.

Gender roles

Jacobean period succeeds the Elizabethan period and so it has naturally adopted everything from its preceding era. The gender roles during the Jacobean era were fairly similar to the Elizabethan ones.

Men assumed a dominant position in the society. It was the man of the house who worked and fetched for food to keep his family alive. Apart from being the sole bread earner of the family, the eldest male member was the head of the house. Everyone had to obey him and do as was being told. Marriages were normally decided by elders or parents of the bride or bridegroom.

The young couple getting married had no say in selecting their spouse. Jacobean men had property rights as well as voting rights. The property was either passed down from father to son or from brother to brother. This superior position of men in society was also reflected in the Jacobean theatrical plays. Most of the characters were played by men. Even the role of a woman was played by a young man. Boys were given preference as far as education was concerned.

Jacobean women continued to live a life that was sub-ordinate to men. They were supposed to obey what was told to them. The main responsibility of married women was to take care of the household matters and raise children. Before marriage, a girl was under the control of her father, after marriage her husband and after the death of her husband, her son. Thus, women were made to depend on their male relatives throughout their lives. Young girls were groomed for later life. Since childhood they were trained to take care of the house apart from sewing. However, if there was a need felt women also took up a job to add to the family income. During Jacobean era, women did get to work in some plays. However, the scope was were restricted.

The power of the stage

The extraordinary flexibility of Shakespeare’s stage is given particular prominence in The Tempest. Stages of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period were for the most part bare and simple. There was little on-stage scenery, and the possibilities for artificial lighting were limited. The King’s Men in 1612 were performing both at the outdoor Globe Theatre and the indoor Blackfriars Theatre and their plays would have had to work in either venue. Therefore, much dramatic effect was left up to the minds of the audience. We see a particularly good example of this in The Tempest, Act II, scene i when Gonzalo, Sebastian, and Antonio argue whether the island is beautiful or barren. The bareness of the stage would have allowed either option to be possible in the audience’s mind at any given moment.

At the same time, The Tempest includes stage directions for a number of elaborate special effects. The many pageants and songs accompanied by ornately costumed figures or stage-magic—for example, the banquet in Act III, scene iii, or the wedding celebration for Ferdinand and Miranda in Act IV, scene i—give the play the feeling of a masque, a highly stylized form of dramatic, musical entertainment popular among the aristocracy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is perhaps the tension between simple stage effects and very elaborate and surprising ones that gives the play its eerie and dreamlike quality, making it seem rich and complex even though it is one of Shakespeare’s shortest, most simply constructed plays.

It is tempting to think of The Tempest as Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage because of its theme of a great magician giving up his art. Indeed, we can interpret Prospero’s reference to the dissolution of “the great globe itself” (IV.i.153) as an allusion to Shakespeare’s theatre. However, Shakespeare is known to have collaborated on at least two other plays after The Tempest: The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII in 1613, both probably written with John Fletcher. A performance of the latter was, in fact, the occasion for the actual dissolution of the Globe. A cannon fired during the performance accidentally ignited the thatch, and the theater burned to the ground.

The structure of the play

The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays and has only nine scenes. Its action is continuous and effectively takes place in real time, with Shakespeare making several references to the fact that only a few hours have passed since the storm.

The Storm Scene: This nautical scene- the only scene in the play not set on the island serves as a kind of introduction to the main events of the play. It is action-packed and depicts an event so significant that it sets in motion everything that follows. Shakespeare uses the scene to establish the theme of power and to introduce us to the key characters in the play’s central power struggle.

Recounting the past: In act 1 Scene 2 several stories are recounted that describe events that took place before the action of the play began. First Prospero tells Miranda how his brother Antonio usurped his position as Duke of Milan and sent the two f them into exile twelve years ago. Going further back, Shakespeare also provides details of Ariel’s and Caliban’s back stories both in their own words and in Prospero’s version of events. The audience also learns about the witch Sycorax who was banished from her hom,e in Algiers and arrived on the island pregnant with Caliban.

The Epilogue: An epilogue comes at the end of a piece of writing and can be described as a final comment by the author. The Tempest concludes with an epilogue of twenty lines delivered by Propero. In this epilogue, Prospero speaks both of the fictional world of the island from which he is about to set sail and of the theatre in which his performance is nearing its conclusion. The use of a shorter length rhyming couplets epilogue help to make this passage sound different to what has preceded it and bring closure to the play.

Summary of the plot

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Act I; scene i: A captain, boatswain and sailors are trying to save their ship from a terrible storm. A number of noblemen shout at them: Antonio and Sebastian swear at them but Gonzalo is cheerful. The ship appears to be sinking, and those on board prepare for the worst.

Act I; scene ii: We are surprised to learn from Miranda, that her father, Prospero, (with whom she lives on a remote island) is responsible for the storm. He says he has important information which he has never told her till now: twelve years ago he was not a poor man living on an island, but the Duke of Milan, a great Italian city-state, and Miranda was a princess (not a duchess, who is a duke's wife). Because he loved to study, he spent all of his time in his library, trusting his brother, Antonio, to rule as his deputy. Treacherously, Antonio plotted against him, with help from Alonso, the powerful King of Naples. One night, Prospero and Miranda (then only three) were seized, taken out to sea, and set adrift in an open boat. Gonzalo, a servant of Alonso, was in charge of the operation, but made sure that the boat contained food, drink and Prospero's magic books.

On the island he found Ariel, an airy spirit, imprisoned in a tree, where the evil witch Sycorax had left him. Ariel was set free by Prospero's magic, and became his servant, for a time which is almost up; Caliban, the son of Sycorax, an ugly and monstrous creature, was befriended by Prospero, who taught him how to talk, but when he tried to rape Miranda, Prospero made him a slave, to chop wood and do other odd jobs. All this has happened before the start of the play; having Prospero tell Miranda, means Shakespeare does not have to show it on stage. He knows the scene may be a little boring (Miranda is repeatedly told off for not paying attention), but he has caught our attention with the explosive opening, and saved time which might be taken up in later explanations!

Prospero causes Miranda to sleep before he speaks to Ariel. Having made the storm, Ariel has split up the survivors from the ship into several groups. He is now sent to bring Ferdinand, Alonso's son, to Prospero's cell (cave). He thinks he is the only survivor and that his father is drowned. Miranda has seen no man other than her father, and believes Ferdinand is a spirit (there are many on the island); he thinks she is a goddess, and is amazed that she speaks his language. They fall in love, but Prospero is rude to Ferdinand, calls him a spy, and uses his magic to make him a prisoner.

Act II; scene i: On another part of the island, Alonso is sad because he thinks his son Ferdinand has drowned. Gonzalo tries to comfort him (this leads to some exchanges of verbal humour which challenge the modern audience, as we are unfamiliar with the obscure cultural and historical references here). But Sebastian (Alonso's brother) and Antonio blame him. We learn that the reason for the voyage was the wedding in Tunis (north Africa) of Claribel, Alonso's daughter. On the way back from the wedding, the ship was struck by the tempest. The invisible Ariel plays music which lulls to sleep everyone except Sebastian, and Antonio, who now persuades him that, since Ferdinand is drowned (he isn't, in fact) and Claribel is in Tunis, they should kill Alonso (and Gonzalo), so that Sebastian can become king. Antonio believes he can control the weak Sebastian more easily than Alonso. But just as they are about to strike, Ariel wakes the sleepers, and the guilty pair have to explain why their swords are drawn.