Reaction to "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare Essay

Introduction: Context and Setting of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

William Shakespeare's play, the Tempest was written between 1610 and 1611. This ply is one of the last plays that William Shakespeare wrote alone. The Tempest is a play which was described from a setting of a remote Island. In this remote Island, there was the Sorcerer, Prospero, who was the rightful Duke of Milan. The Sorcerer was planning to return Miranda, his daughter, to where she belonged by employing illusion as well as skillful manipulation. Therefore, the Sorcerer created a tempest which made Antonio, his usurping brother, as well as the complicit King Alonso of The Naples to accept that they are marooned in the Island as well as shipped wrecked. From different themes and actions in the play, some opinions can be derived from it.

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The Ancient Kingdoms and Magical Elements in "The Tempest"

This idea presented in this play were similar as of those of the Hamlet (1609) and the Merchant of Venice (1605). The historical perspective of this play was that it was created based on the ancient kingdoms. Most ancient kingdoms were situated in islands that were surrounded by large water bodies. Most of these ancient kingdoms had kings who would lead the people in various ways. Also, some ancient kingdoms had sorcerers who would use their magic to make certain events happen. These elements were evident in this play because there were kings such as the king of Tunis and King Alonso of Naples (Taymor, Goldenthal, & Shakespeare 2010). Also, there was Prospero who was the magician as well as the rightful Duke of Milan. Prospero uses his powers to cause a tempest.

The Theme of Romance and Prospero's Influence in the Play

The production of this play was worth doing because it has represented the theme of romance between Ferdinand and Miranda. According to Adelman (2012), the romantic relationship between these two people was influenced by Prospero. Ferdinand and Miranda fell in love quickly, but Prospero later came to worry that when there is light winning, the prize will be too light. Therefore, Prospero decides to test Ferdinand to identify whether he is willing to marry Miranda.

The setting that was used for this play was appropriate because it helped to bring out specific themes that created a good flow of the play. A large volume of water and isolated Island developed the setting of the play. With this kind of a setting, the people on the island would use their boats to go to different places. However, it came a time when Antonio, Prospero's brother was riding on a ship with other passengers as they were coming from the wedding of his son. Prospero being a sorcerer, he had powers that would allow him to do certain activities. This setting made it easy for him to exercise the power that he had. Therefore, as his brother was coming from the wedding with other passengers, Prospero caused a tempest. The tempest made his brother and the passengers to believe that their ship had been wrecked and marooned. After that, Prospero separates the survivors of the ruined shipped into four groups. These groups play a significant part in the play as they alternate in various scenes.

Conclusion

While watching the play, it was a little disappointing after learning that Prospero and his daughter had been stuck in the Island for three years. It was the jealousy of his brother Antonio with the help of King Alonso of the Naples that caused them to be stuck at the Island. However, within a short time, Prospero learns to survive in the island and gains power that helped him to raise the tempest which caused his brother to learn that they had been shipwrecked and marooned.

References

Adelman, J. (2012). Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of maternal origin in Shakespeare's plays,Hamlet to The Tempest. Routledge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw03uCfM0QM

Taymor, J., Goldenthal, E., & Shakespeare, W. (2010). The Tempest. New York: Abrams.