Buy term paper on The political and social influence behind the characters in Shakespeare’s “The tempest”

The complication of the play – is a storm, while which the ships were broken in the vicinity of Bermuda – the story was suggested to Shakespeare by real events of his time. In 1609 a British squadron, under the command of Admiral George Somers, was sailing to Virginia, the first English colony in America, and suffered a crash near Bermuda islands. Admiral’s ship had sprung a leak and was saved from destruction only by that Somers managed to make prosperous the landing on the shore of one of islands studded with sharp rocks.
Particularly unique piece is its main action takes particular person – the sage and philosopher, Prospero, which has a deep knowledge of magic: of course, “white magic” aimed to extract from nature all that is good and healing, but not sinister and deathful “black” magic. Prospero by his generosity will and harnesses the knowledge of selfish motives in himselves and in others, eventually direct the destiny of all others to their own and the common good. But all this happened without a struggle and conflict, played out by the wave of the magic of Prospero, who knows in advance when and what he should do and what would happen.
Island of Prospero is ideal, but not idyllic. Prospero’s kingdom is so unique and that’s why it’s harmony is separated by the sea from the rest of world. Highlighting the uniqueness of the world in which characters live, Shakespeare did not convert it to a pastoral idyll. In “The Tempest” love of Miranda and Ferdinand plays a secondary role, the focus is no longer on natural human feeling , but on unnatural perversity of human nature. So negative characters make this play a pastoral tragicomedy, which immediately loses its former harmony.
Some scenes very brightly shows the social side of the topic. One of them is a remarkable demonstration of methods of “colonialists” in the scene where Stefano drugs the Caliban, who for “divine” drink Expresses its willingness to be forever his slave and give him all natural resources of his island:buy term paper
“I’ll show thee every fertile inch o’ th’ island;
And I will kiss thy foot: I prithee, be my god”. (Act II, scene 2)
Belief in natural goodness of savages is one of the illusions of XVII century. The goodness of natural man who didn’t know the money, and generated by them inequality, was told by sailors in their diaries. Such hero is Honzalo, but his phrases immediately returns the viewer to English actually: in the utopian state there is no “fencing” lands. Beautiful dreams of the old philosopher, however, is impracticable: having appeared soon, utopian images change monologues of general pastoral idyll in the bosom of nature. Considerations of Honzalo are naive and helpless, the whole episode is full of irony. Faith of the early Renaissance in eternal perfection of human nature have disappeared, destroyed the real contradictions of time.
And yet remarkable is another scene of rebellion of Caliban. Simplistic and awkward expresses Prospero his protest at first. This is followed by a direct rebellion. But not in the name of the absolute liberation (in this case it is Caliban is not available, although the op more just dreaming about it), but only for the replacement of a host of other, “the worst” in his opinion for “the best”. But still: he has the impulse to freedom, which finds expression in his frantic, truly a rebel song:
No more dams I’ll make for fish
Nor fetch in firing
At requiring;
Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish
‘Ban, ‘Ban, Cacaliban
Has a new master: get a new man.
Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom,
hey-day, freedom! (II, 2)
It is interesting further how this uprising. Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo is sent to kill Prospero. On the way Ariel hangs beautiful clothes, which lured two of the Europeans. Caliban in despair, he begs his companions not to be tempted by this rubbish and not to linger, and go straight to his main goal – freedom, but his entreaties are useless. Caliban turns to be a head taller than Stefano and Trinculo, he is the only animated gust for freedom, he alone is a real rebel.
The Renaissance epoch often pushed poets to include in their works images, taken from various areas of life: politics, military affairs, economics, law. Also work of William Shakespeare is full of the bright depictions of realities of life. Shakespeare regularly uses the words of socio-political lexicon: slave, vassal, servant, serving, homage, sovereign, monarch, lord, owner, tyrant, reign, crowned, majesty, excellence, kingdom, politic.
“The tempest” shows that Shakespeare strictly felt the comic and tragic aspects of life, but presented them in a very traditional way, Shakespeare uses a national tradition, and a European views in his humanist position, and the influence of patriarchal morality is also evident.
The topic of “The tempest” is the fate of the state, taken in historical perspective, the main conflict is based on the collision of public and private interests, and disclosed in the struggle of different social groups, which are represented by individual characters, outlined in a more schematic way, and also bright personalities. The basic idea of “The Tempest” is winning a legitimacy of centralized authority (absolutism) over the anarchic self-will – reflect the ideology of the humanists. The humanist views together with traditional notions of good and evil are seen in the characters of rulers and how rulers and subordinates are depicted. However, the identity of lord shows that Shakespeare knew how far from the ideal the real power was, and understood the illusory nature of the ideal of absolute monarchy in general.