Contextual information Flashcards
(9 cards)
What genre was The Tempest initially categorised as? In what ways does this work, and in what ways does the play not actually conform to this genre?
- Editors of the First Folio grouped The Tempest with Shakespeare’s other comedies, rather than as its own tragi-comedy genre – this is fitting to some extent as the play ends with the wholesome marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda, with Prospero having pretended to block their courtship but ultimately giving his blessing
- BUT The Tempest doesn’t conform to the genre of comedy in many ways because the play’s action is much more focused around Prospero (not the young lovers), and their marriage is planned before they even meet, arguably only because Prospero wants to secure his own power and position
- Additionally, themes of usurpation, vengeance and violence are very close to the play’s comedic surface (i.e., even in the comedic scenes with Trinculo, Stephano and Caliban, the purpose of their mission is not so light-hearted as they aim to kill Prospero and establish their own kingdom on the island)
Outline key parallels between James I and Prospero?
- Whilst Shakespeare was writing the play, King James I was in the middle of negotiations surrounding the marriages of his children Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth – so Prospero’s diplomatic marriage of Miranda to Ferdinand was playing into the public’s interest in dynastic marriages at the time (maybe suggests that the play’s focus was not on young love but on the struggles of leadership and the qualities required of Prospero to rule well…?)
- Prospero could be seen as a mirror of King James I – Prospero neglected his rule for magic and academic study, and James I was known to have neglected his royal duties for hobbies like hunting
Describe the shipwreck on Bermuda and its relevance to the play
Shakespeare was almost certainly familiar with William Strachey’s ‘True Reportory’ of the shipwreck on Bermuda in July 1609
It recalled a fleet being scattered by a hurricane and driving his ship to Bermuda’s rocky coast. All passengers survived and ended up thriving on the island for 9 months before sailing to Virginia in two newly constructed vessels – so, Shakespeare was drawing on recent tales of adventure and miraculous survival to appeal to popular interest.
What evidence is there of sympathetic views towards natives/foreign cultures?
Captain Arthur Barlow’s travel narrative of 1584 describes the natives of Roanoke Island as ‘most gentle, loving, and faithful, void of all guile and treason’ – in crafting Caliban’s character, Shakespeare could’ve been drawing on stories of American natives being sensitive in nature – some level of respect for other, alien peoples and civilisations – use this to help inform a reading of Caliban as sensitive and caring, and possibly even more so than Prospero
Additionally, in Montaigne’s ‘Of the Canniballes’, he idealises the indigenous culture of Brazil and argues that barbarousness should be based Upton behaviour rather than ethnicity (and Gonzalo’s speech practically quotes straight from it).
When Prospero renounces his magic, what classical text does he borrow from and what is its significance?
- Prospero’s farewell to his magic is pretty much a direct translation of Medea’s invocation in Ovid, which would’ve been familiar to many members of the audience. The passage was deeply associated with witchcraft and black magic, so would’ve suggested to an audience that Prospero was recognising an element of ‘blackness’ in his own magical powers, and possibly realising his own hypocrisy in condemning Sycorax’s black magic whilst practising it himself.
- However, whilst in Medea’s invocation she is inverting the forces of nature and using her power to destroy her enemies, Prospero here ultimately relinquishes his power. There is, therefore, a distinct contrast between Prospero and Medea here, and the parallel drawn out by Shakespeare may have been intended to emphasise Prospero’s ultimately virtuous nature, or at least genuine transition into such character.
- However, the fact that so much of the speech is referencing Medea’s invocation, with Prospero seemingly gloating his supernatural powers, may still suggest that he is at least struggling to relinquish his magic and choose virtue over vengeance.
- I can use this context when exploring themes of leadership, morality and the supernatural
What was the wild man and what does Vaughan and Vaughan say about Caliban with relation to this archetype?
- The archetype of the wild or ‘salvage’ man was prominent across the world (in Italy, France, Germany etc.) - generally was used to represent the kind of savage, instinctual, primitive behaviour which humans can access, but try and resist in order to stay civilised
- Vaughan and Vaughan introduction: ‘Yet, like the wild man, he is essentially human, even while representing humankind’s most bestial qualities’
- Use context of the wild man to inform a reading of Caliban – he may be described as a ‘monster’ and a ‘fish’ (and it remains unclear whether Caliban can be considered human or not), but his character is undoubtedly used to explore what qualities make human’s human, and what it means to be civilised
Where does Gonzalo quotes from in his Utopian speech and what is the significance?
- The wild man was also a figure who could be idealised in some contexts, representing perhaps a more free, spiritual, and less corrupt lifestyle. Montaigne idealizes the indigenous culture of Brazil, in his ‘Of the Caniballes’, describing a nation with ‘no occupation but idle; no apparrell but natural […], no use of wine’
- Gonzalo’s utopian speech similarly idealises such a way of living (and uses even the same phrases) – the impact of this may be to highlight the wrongness of labelling Caliban as an uncivilised ‘deformed’ ‘monster’ simply because of the way he looks or because he is different. Shakespeare, I think, is trying to prompt the audience to see how Caliban does actually represent, in some ways, human’s best qualities (sensitivity, appreciation for beauty, spirituality, kindness and generosity (initially at least))
- The central theme of Montaigne’s essay is that barbarousness is defined by behaviour, not ethnicity.
How did Shakespeare’s contemporaries, as well at James I himself, view magic?
- James I condemned magical studies as damnable, and thought that witches and magicians should be punished by death.
- Ben Johnson’s The Alchemist, performed by Shakespeare’s company a year before The Tempest, and most likely by the same person, dramatizes the negative view of magic expressed by James I. Shakespeare offered more ambiguity with regards to the moral standpoint of magic, but Johnson was far more clearcut.
What is the other meaning of the play’s title?
The title ‘The Tempest’, as well as referring to a storm, refers to the alchemical term for boiling down base metal to remove any impurities, transforming it into the pure gold
This perhaps symbolically represents Prospero’s mission to transform fallen human nature ‘from a condition of sinfulness to a higher level of morality’.
