CQ - The Tempest (Acts I to II)

The Tempest by William Shakespeare as a representation of the theater

            William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest is often described as his most elusive work. It has been read as “a romance of reconciliation, a Christian allegory of forgiveness, a meditation on the powers of the imagination and the limits of art” (Lindley 1) among other readings. These different interpretations can be supported by elements in the text, which makes all of them valid and does not allow one reading to be pointed out as the right one. Although the play can be read in many different ways, the similarity the story being told has to theater itself is a relevant reading of the playwright’s work. The Tempest is a reflection on theater and art and constantly reminds us of the made-up quality of what we are reading while highlighting its reformative power in the real world. From the beginning of the play when Prospero uses his art to cause the shipwreck to the epilogue, in which the character, and not the actor, is the one closing the play, we are presented with many metatheatrical elements that emphasize this reading of the play. (Egan, Johnston)

            In the first scene of the first act of The Tempest we watch a terrible storm in the sea and the fight of mariners to avoid the wreck of their ship. The King of Naples, Alonso, and his companions are not happy with the tempest and the threat it represents to their lives and want to talk to the master of the ship. The boatswain tells them to go back below deck because they are not helping them by standing in the way. Even when Gonzalo remembers him that he is talking to a king he is still adamant that they should leave. On the next scene we learn that the storm was actually caused by Prospero, it was not a natural occurrence: “MIRANDA: If by your art, my dearest father, you have / Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them” (1.2 – 1-2). Prospero orchestrates the storm, being careful not to cause harm to those in the ship, as a director or a playwright orchestrates a dramatic scene in a play. Here we can already recognize Prospero as the one who will direct all the other characters, through his art, into following the necessary steps for them to better themselves.

            Prospero proceeds to tell his daughter, Miranda, the story of how they came to live in the island. He tells her of how he was betrayed and lost his dukedom, but assumes that he was not a good ruler because he was more interested in his books. According to Johnston, Prospero’s admission of his own fault in losing his position reminds us that “whatever the powers and wonders of the illusion, one has to maintain a firm sense of what it is for, what it can and cannot do, and where it is most appropriate” for art cannot substitute life. He then puts Miranda to sleep by use of his magic so that he can talk to Ariel, the spirit that serves him. The dramatic, metatheatrical aspect of Prospero’s magic is again evidenced when he asks the “PROSPERO: Hast thou, spirit, performed to point the tempest that I bade thee?” (1.2, 193-194), the tempest was no more than a performance by Ariel that gives a report of the wreck and the ship passengers and is then requested to continue to help Prospero, which is actually an order since Ariel is not free but bound to the exiled duke by his magic.

           

As the play progresses, until the end of the second act, we learn that Prospero uses his powers to control the islander Caliban; to contrive the meeting between Miranda and Ferdinand, the king’s son; and to prevent the murder of Alonso and Gonzalo by the hands of Sebastian and Antonio. The way that Prospero conducts the events in the island is reminiscent of the way the writer or the director controls a play. We are constantly faced with Prospero’s art as Mirands calls his magical powers: “If by your art, my dearest father” (I. II. 1). The betrayed duke guides the events and the people on the island to fit his own proposes of revenge, although he changes his mind and chooses forgiveness later, with the same skill that a playwright would guide the characters in a play.

            The Tempest seems to imply that art has power and that real life is much like the life shown in the plays in the theater, which is an idea recurrent in Shakespeare plays. Prospero constantly asks Miranda if she is paying attention to what he is saying, “Dost thou attend me?” (I. II. 78), which could be also a way to ask the audience if they are paying attention, not only to the play The Tempest, but also to the play of real life in which they are the main characters.

           

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The New Cambridge Shakespeare. Ed. David Lindley. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 2002.