THE TEMPEST

Wonder and Magic

TEMPEST NOTES FROM: [Link] on Alonso and Wonder

Alonso and the Death of his son

Let us shift our attention for a moment to the Tempest. The character Alonso, in the power of the magician
Prospero, spends the length of the play in the illusion that his son has drowned. To have him alive again,
Alonso says, “I wish Myself were mudded in that oozy bed Where my son lies” (V, i, 150-2). But he has already
been there for three hours in his imagination; he says earlier “my son i’ th’ ooze is bedded; and I’ll seek him
deeper than e’er plummet sounded And with him there lie mudded” (III, iii, 100-2). What is this muddy ooze?
It is Alonso’s grief, and his regret for exposing his son to danger, and his self-reproach for his own past crime
against Prospero and Prospero’s baby daughter, which made his son a just target for divine retribution; the
ooze is Alonso’s repentance, which feels futile to him since it only comes after he has lost the thing he cares
most about.

But the spirit Ariel sings a song to Alonso’s son: “Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea change Into
something rich and strange” (I, ii, 397-402). Alonso’s grief is aroused by an illusion, an imitation of an action,
but his repentance is real, and is slowly transforming him into a different man. Who is this new man? Let us
take counsel from the “honest old councilor” Gonzalo, who always has the clearest sight in the play. He tells us
that on this voyage, when so much seemed lost, every traveller found himself “When no man was his own” (V,
i, 206-13). The something rich and strange into which Alonso changes is himself, as he was before his life took
a wrong turn. Prospero’s magic does no more than arrest people in a potent illusion; in his power they are
“knit up In their distractions” (III, iii, 89-90). When released, he says, “they shall be themselves” (V, i, 32).

Miranda and Wonder in The Tempest

On virtually every page of the Tempest, the word wonder appears, or else some synonym for it. Miranda’s
name is Latin for wonder, her favorite adjective brave seems to mean both good and out-of-the-ordinary, and
the combination rich and strange means the same. What is wonder? J. V. Cunningham describes it in the book
I mentioned as the shocked limit of all feeling, in which fear, sorrow, and joy can all merge. There is some
truth in that, but it misses what is wonderful or wondrous about wonder. It suggests that in wonder our
feelings are numbed and we are left limp, wrung dry of all emotion. But wonder is itself a feeling, the one to
which Miranda is always giving voice, the powerful sense that what is before one is both strange and good.
Wonder does not numb the other feelings; what it does is dislodge them from their habitual moorings. The
experience of wonder is the disclosure of a sight or thought or image that fits no habitual context of feeling or
understanding, but grabs and holds us by a power borrowed from nothing apart from itself. The two things
that Plotinus says characterize beauty, that the soul recognizes it at first glance and spontaneously gives
welcome to it, equally describe the experience of wonder. The beautiful always produces wonder, if it is seen
as beautiful, and the sense of wonder always sees beauty.

Ugly Wonders - Caliban

But are there really no wonders that are ugly? The monstrosities that used to be exhibited in circus side-shows
are wonders too, are they not? In the Tempest, three characters think first of all of such spectacles when they
lay eyes on Caliban (II, ii, 28-31; V, i, 263-6), but they are incapable of wonder, since they think they know
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 everything that matters already. A fourth character in the same batch, who is drunk but not insensible, gives
way at the end of Act II to the sense that this is not just someone strange and deformed, nor just a useful
servant, but a brave monster. But Stephano is not like the holiday fools who pay to see monstrosities like two-
headed calves or exotic sights like wild men of Borneo. I recall an aquarium somewhere in Europe that had on
display an astoundingly ugly catfish. People came casually up to its tank, were startled, made noises of disgust,
and turned away. Even to be arrested before such a sight feels in some way perverse and has some conflict in
the feeling it arouses, as when we stare at the victims of a car wreck. The sight of the ugly or disgusting, when
it is felt as such, does not have the settled repose or willing surrender that are characteristic of wonder.
“Wonder is sweet,” as Aristotle says.

This sweet contemplation of something outside us is exactly opposite to Alonso’s painful immersion in his own
remorse, but in every other respect he is a model of the spectator of a tragedy. We are in the power of
another for awhile, the sight of an illusion works real and durable changes in us, we merge into something rich
and strange, and what we find by being absorbed in the image of another is ourselves. As Alonso is shown a
mirror of his soul by Prospero, we are shown a mirror of ourselves in Alonso, but in that mirror we see
ourselves as we are not in witnessing the Tempest, but in witnessing a tragedy. The Tempest is a beautiful
play, suffused with wonder as well as with reflections on wonder, but it holds the intensity of the tragic
experience at a distance. Homer, on the other hand, has pulled off a feat even more astounding than
Shakespeare’s, by imitating the experience of a spectator of tragedy within a story that itself works on us as a
tragedy.

REFERENCES:
 Aristotle, Poetics, Joe Sachs (trans.), Focus Philosophical Library, Pullins Press, 2006.
 Aristotle, On the Soul, Joe Sachs (trans.), Green Lion Press, 2001.

[Link]

Caliban as a colonial slave

Throughout history, the interaction between civilized people and native islanders has caused confusion and
turmoil for cultures. In The Tempest, William Shakespeare portrays the character Caliban as a savage, horrid
beast and as the slave of the Westerner, Prospero. Through Prospero’s ownership, Shakespeare views Caliban
as a lesser being. Prospero symbolizes the Western power dominating an island and its inhabitants; while
Caliban represents the islander who is forcefully controlled by the Westerner. On the surface, Shakespeare’s
interpretation of Caliban seems racist and stereotypical but underneath, Caliban represents the falsified image
of the Caribbean people.
Caliban’s relation to Prospero embodies symbolism and irony. The Ironic relationship of Prospero and Caliban
is that Prospero, who has the supreme control of the island, knows less about the island itself than Caliban.
Originally, Caliban was owned by another authoritative figure, Sycorax, but Prospero freed him from Sycorax’s
control and enslaved Caliban for his own uses. With the ability to manipulate the weather, induce sleep and
instantly create pain, Prospero has an almost godlike ego that the colonizers at the time felt as well. The
symbolism in this play lies in Prospero’s control of the island. The over powering attitude that Prospero
exhibits, symbolizes the white man’s conquest over other cultures. The concept of one man being more
powerful than another stands as a contributing factor for the immoral relationship between Prospero and

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Caliban. Caliban represents the indigenous islander who cannot escape the brutality of his master. Often in
the play, Caliban makes remarks against Prospero’s exploitation of the island.
“All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o’ th’ island” (Shakespeare 1.2).
In the beginning of the play, before Caliban even enters, Prospero talks about Caliban in a very patronizing
tone:
“Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, whom now I keep in service” (2.1).
Prospero’s attitude toward Caliban seems condescending and rude:
“Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow’d thy purposes
With words that made them known: but thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in’t which good natures
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confin’d into this rock, who hadst
Deserv’d more than a prison” (2.1).

Not only does Prospero abuse his power against the native Caliban but also against his own daughter,
Miranda, and the indigenous spirit Ariel. One unusual side of Caliban Shakespeare uses to highlight the primal
side of Caliban is the sexual tension between Miranda and Caliban. To tempt Caliban, Prospero brings around
Miranda and keeps her at a distance so Caliban cannot touch her. This temptation that Prospero creates
between the three characters shows the lack of respect Prospero gives to his daughter and Caliban.

“No, pray thee.—

[Aside] I must obey. His art is of such power,
It would control my dam’s god, Setebos,
And make a vassal of him” (1.2).

Caliban exemplifies Nature by pertaining to earthly deeds such as gathering wood. Also, Caliban actually lives
on the island so he relates much closer to nature than the Westerners. The collision of these two symbols
creates problems like slavery and warfare. At the time of Colonization the mix of these two ways of life
resulted in many of the problems the Caribbean and other nations face today
When the Western nations first interacted with the native islanders they were referred to as cannibals.
“Cannibal-has been perpetuated in the eyes of Europeans above all as a defamation” (Retamar 6). In Rosario
Ferre’s poem “Coming Up the Archipelago”, the writer states “The words Carib and cannibal have the same
root: anyone from the archipelago knows that. Speaking in tongues is one of our skills. We love to suck the
bone to get to the marrow and imbibe the strength” (12). Although the Europeans use the word in a
derogatory manner, cannibal, to the Caribbean people means a person who soaks in culture all around them.
Since the Caribs have witnessed so many different people; westerners, Arabs, Africans and various other
islanders, it seems there are no other options but to cannibalize all the different cultures around them.

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Caliban’s ability to learn, speak and reason from Prospero is Shakespeare’s example of cultural cannibalism.
Caliban reinforces the idea of grasping on to whatever outsiders impose onto the Caribs.
In the play, Caliban is often labeled an animal or something less of a human. Shakespeare creates a complex
analysis of the western’s perception of the Caribs through these offensive terms. To the westerner the only
distinction between an animal and Caliban, is that the islander can speak an accepted language. In this
context, Shakespeare feels in order to be accepted in society, one must subscribe to the language and customs
of that regime. Despite that Ariel lives as a servant of Prospero, Ariel is looked upon differently and
Shakespeare deliberately does this to make a claim about the westerners’ greedy intentions. Caliban is
viewed as a beast that serves only for laborious uses; such as: picking up firewood or collecting food. While
Ariel represents the true treasure of the Caribbean isles.
The complexity of colonization has created an almost withdrawal to the oppressed people of the islands.
Fernandez Retamar, a well respected Cuban writer, claims: “For it is the colonizer who brings us together, who
reveals the profound similarities existing above and beyond our secondary differences. The colonizer’s version
explains to us that owing to the Caribs’ irremediable bestiality, there was no alternative to their
extermination” (Retamar, 7). This primal ownership can be seen with Caliban when he was first owned by
Sycorax and followed by Prospero’s possession. After meeting Stephano and Trinculo, Caliban again tries to
become their possession.
William Shakespeare never traveled to the Caribbean Island’s so his visualization of what Caliban should be
appears to be based on the assumptions and literary documents of his time. Influences like Montaigne’s “Of
Cannibals” written in 1603 may have given Shakespeare ideas for Caliban. “Because if in Montaigne-in this
case, as an unquestionable literary source for Shakespeare” (Retamar 8). Considered to be the most respected
playwright, Shakespeare purposely displays Caliban in an important way. “What has happened in simply that
in depicting Caliban, Shakespeare, an implacable realist, here takes the other option of the emerging
bourgeois world” (8). On the outside, the physical appearance given by Shakespeare seems to present itself as
stereotypical of the images represented by other authors of his time. The part animal, part human aspect of
Caliban represents the way people envision how and islander appears physically, but what Shakespeare does
by having Caliban speak is transforming a creature of horrible appearance into a real person with thoughts and
human emotions.
In a way, William Shakespeare to me seems almost as a soothsayer of the problems the Caribbean people
faced and currently are troubled with at this present time. The brutal depiction and social status of Caliban
are all warning signs of how slavery and condescension are problematic. In the end of the play, Caliban rises
above his master and defies him. This plotline challenges the reader’s expectations and in result makes the
slave the conqueror. This unusual but most important plotline conveys how Shakespeare saw Caliban as
something more than a creature. One of the primary motives in writing is to persuade the reader into
believing whatever the author intends. Shakespeare intended for the reader to see a Carib in a new light by
the end of the play. Not as some savage animal but as a character who had true emotions just like the reader
would. In addition, the closing scene may have been a future warning for revolution and destruction against
the colonizers of the world. In many ways, Caliban appears horrid and ugly but internally Caliban represents a
beautiful person who has emotions and character just like all people in the Caribbean and no matter how the
Europeans at the time depicted the Caribs; they are people of true beauty.
Cite this article as: William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team), "William Shakespeare’s The Tempest:
Caliban Analysis," in SchoolWorkHelper, 2019, [Link]
tempest-caliban-analysis/.

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ELIZABETHANS AS COLONIALISTS

Voyages of Discovery

The Elizabethan period was one in which the major European powers were engaged in many voyages of
discovery. The discovery of the Americas had opened up new lands to explore. There was a desire to find
faster, more economical, routes to the far east. Explorers became famous and their work has had a lasting
legacy.
The Elizabethan period came as exploration of the seas and New World was emerging as one of great
importance. For centuries Europe had traded with the far east, though through middle-men. The discovery of
the Americas and then the first circumnavigation of the globe made exploration of economic importance. Now
it was known that ships could travel around the globe, the race was on to find the fastest routes and discover
new lands.
The Spanish and Portuguese empires were the first to colonise the New World of the Americas. Following this
the Dutch, French and English sought to explore themselves. North America offered the Elizabethans several
things. First, it was unsettled land. No Europeans had colonised it as yet. Elizabeth’s court granted Sir Walter
Raleigh the rights to colonise. This attempt at a first North American Colony can be read here.

North America also offered hope. If it was possible to sail around the toe of South America, was the same true
of the North? Could shipping make its way through river systems and emerge on the other side of the New
World? If either of these were possible, it would speed up trade with Asia.

Searches for the Northern Passages

1497 John Cabot discovered Newfoundland

1553 Sir Henry Willoughby sets sail with 3 ships in search of a Northeast Passage. Only one ship survives,
making contact with the Muscovite court of Ivan the Terrible having reached the port of Archangel.

1555 Richard Chancellor, who had sailed under Willoughby, returns to Russia and establishes the Muscovy
Company.

1576 Sir Martin Frobisher sets sail in search of a Northwest passage. He fails to find one, landing instead in
Greenland and Canada.

1585 John Davies uses Greenland as a stepping stone into the Northern seas. He fails to find a passage through
but sails further north than any other Englishman had done previously.

At the same time as these men were sailing in search of a Northern Passage, people continued to seek out
new lands. In 1577, Sir Francis Drake set sail. He was searching for new lands in the Southern Oceans. On his
voyage he plundered gold from the Spanish. His voyage led him to becoming the first Englishman to
circumnavigate the globe. He returned to England and fame in 1580.

North America

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1583 Newfoundland was claimed for England by Gilbert.

Raleigh was commissioned to establish a colony in North America. This was attempted by Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, on Raleigh’s behalf, at Roanoke Island. The first colony was started in 1585. This was abandoned the
following year. In 1587 a further 117 colonists were sent to reestablish the colony. Among these settlers was
Elizabeth Dare, who gave birth to the first English child born in the Americas. This colony vanished without
trace though, an English ship visited in 1591 and found the site abandoned.
Colonisation of the Americas was delayed due to the Spanish Armada. It resumed following the English
victory.

Africa and the Slave Trade

In 1562 John Hawkins began a trade that is now thought of as horrific and inhumane. Hawkins realised that he
could profit from triangular trading. He bought or captured native Africans. Then he sailed to Spanish colonies
and sold them as slaves. The Spanish needed workers, Hawkins could provide them. From the New World he
could return to England with goods that would reach a high price. With the three stopping points this became
known as triangular trade and continued until the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1807. The trade
did cause some friction with the Spanish and was sometimes linked with the privateers.

Northern Europe

In 1598 the Baltic Sea became open to British shipping. Prior to this a monopoly on trade had existed with only
the Hanseatic League able to trade there. With the league losing their monopoly, the ships of British merchats
could enter the Baltic and trade.

Principles of Colonisation

Richard Hakluyt wrote several pieces on the principles of colonisation. These were presented to influential
people such as Sir Walter Raleigh. His work spanned the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. It was his book, The
Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589), that influenced the development
of Virginia.

POST COLONIAL THEORY – IMPORTANT TERMS:

You should read over the following definitions in order to understand some of the basic ideas
associated with post-colonialist literature:

colonialism: The imperialist expansion of Europe into the rest of the world during the last four
hundred years in which a dominant imperium or center carried on a relationship of control and
influence over its margins or colonies. This relationship tended to extend to social, pedagogical,
economic, political, and broadly culturally exchanges often with a hierarchical European settler
class and local, educated (compractor) elite class forming layers between the European "mother"
nation and the various indigenous peoples who were controlled. Such a system carried within it
inherent notions of racial inferiority and exotic otherness.

post-colonialism: Broadly a study of the effects of colonialism on cultures and societies. It is

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 concerned with both how European nations conquered and controlled "Third World" cultures and
how these groups have since responded to and resisted those encroachments. Post-colonialism, as
both a body of theory and a study of political and cultural change, has gone and continues to go
through three broad stages:

1. an initial awareness of the social, psychological, and cultural inferiority enforced by

being in a colonized state
2. the struggle for ethnic, cultural, and political autonomy
3. a growing awareness of cultural overlap and hybridity

ambivalence: the ambiguous way in which colonizer and colonized regard one another. The
colonizer often regards the colonized as both inferior yet exotically other, while the colonized
regards the colonizer as both enviable yet corrupt. In a context of hybridity, this often produces a
mixed sense of blessing and curse.

alterity: "the state of being other or different"; the political, cultural, linguistic, or religious other.
The study of the ways in which one group makes themselves different from others.

colonial education: the process by which a colonizing power assimilates either a subaltern native
elite or a larger population to its way of thinking and seeing the world.

diaspora: the voluntary or enforced migration of peoples from their native homelands. Diaspora
literature is often concerned with questions of maintaining or altering identity, language, and
culture while in another culture or country.

essentialism: the essence or "whatness" of something. In the context of race, ethnicity, or

culture, essentialism suggests the practice of various groups deciding what is and isn't a particular
identity. As a practice, essentialism tends to overlook differences within groups often to maintain
the status quo or obtain power. Essentialist claims can be used by a colonizing power but also by
the colonized as a way of resisting what is claimed about them.

ethnicity: a fusion of traits that belong to a group–shared values, beliefs, norms, tastes, behaviors,
experiences, memories, and loyalties. Often deeply related to a person’s identity.

exoticism: the process by which a cultural practice is made stimulating and exciting in its
difference from the colonializer’s normal perspective. Ironically, as European groups educated
local, indigenous cultures, schoolchildren often began to see their native lifeways, plants, and
animals as exotic and the European counterparts as "normal" or "typical."

hegemony: the power of the ruling class to convince other classes that their interests are the
interests of all, often not only through means of economic and political control but more subtly
through the control of education and media.

hybridity: new transcultural forms that arise from cross-cultural exchange. Hybridity can be social,
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 political, linguistic, religious, etc. It is not necessarily a peaceful mixture, for it can be contentious
and disruptive in its experience. Note the two related definitions:

catalysis: the (specifically New World) experience of several ethnic groups interacting and mixing
with each other often in a contentious environment that gives way to new forms of identity and
experience.

creolization: societies that arise from a mixture of ethnic and racial mixing to form a new material,
psychological, and spiritual self-definition.

identity: the way in which an individual and/or group defines itself. Identity is important to self-
concept, social mores, and national understanding. It often involves both essentialism and
othering.

ideology: "a system of values, beliefs, or ideas shared by some social group and often taken for
granted as natural or inherently true" (Bordwell & Thompson 494)

language: In the context of colonialism and post-colonialism, language has often become a site for
both colonization and resistance. In particular, a return to the original indigenous language is often
advocated since the language was suppressed by colonizing forces. The use of European
languages is a much debated issue among postcolonial authors.

abrogation: a refusal to use the language of the colonizer in a correct or standard way.

appropriation: "the process by which the language is made to 'bear the burden' of one's own
cultural experience."

magical realism: the adaptation of Western realist methods of literature in describing the
imaginary life of indigenous cultures who experience the mythical, magical, and supernatural in a
decidedly different fashion from Western ones. A weaving together elements we tend to associate
with European realism and elements we associate with the fabulous, where these two worlds
undergo a "closeness or near merging."

mapping: the mapping of global space in the context of colonialism was as much prescriptive as it
was descriptive. Maps were used to assist in the process of aggression, and they were also used
to establish claims. Maps claims the boundaries of a nation, for example.

metanarrative: ("grand narratives," "master narratives.") a large cultural story that seeks to
explain within its borders all the little, local narratives. A metanarrative claims to be a big truth
concerning the world and the way it works. Some charge that all metanarratives are inherently
oppressive because they decide whether other narratives are allowed or not.

mimicry: the means by which the colonized adapt the culture (language, education, clothing, etc.)
of the colonizer but always in the process changing it in important ways. Such an approach always
contains it in the ambivalence of hybridity.

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 nation/nation-state: an aggregation of people organized under a single government. National
interest is associated both with a struggle for independent ethnic and cultural identity, and
ironically an opposite belief in universal rights, often multicultural, with a basis in geo-economic
interests. Thus, the move for national independence is just as often associated with region as it is
with ethnicity or culture, and the two are often at odds when new nations are formed.

orientalism: the process (from the late eighteenth century to the present) by which "the Orient"
was constructed as an exotic other by European studies and culture. Orientalism is not so much a
true study of other cultures as it is broad Western generalization about Oriental, Islamic, and/or
Asian cultures that tends to erode and ignore their substantial differences.

other: the social and/or psychological ways in which one group excludes or marginalizes another
group. By declaring someone "Other," persons tend to stress what makes them dissimilar from or
opposite of another, and this carries over into the way they represent others, especially through
stereotypical images.

race: the division and classification of human beings by physical and biological characteristics.
Race often is used by various groups to either maintain power or to stress solidarity. In the 18th
and19th centuries, it was often used as a pretext by European colonial powers for slavery and/or
the "white man's burden."

semiotics: a system of signs which one knows what something is. Cultural semiotics often provide
the means by which a group defines itself or by which a colonializing power attempts to control
and assimilate another group.

space/place:space represents a geographic locale, one empty in not being designated. Place, on
the other hand, is what happens when a space is made or owned. Place involves landscape,
language, environment, culture, etc.

subaltern: the lower or colonized classes who have little access to their own means of expression
and are thus dependent upon the language and methods of the ruling class to express themselves.

worlding: the process by which a person, family, culture, or people is brought into the dominant
Eurocentric/Western global society.
"All manner of thing shall be well/ When the tongues of flame are in-folded/ Into the crowned knot of fire/
And the fire and the rose are one." -- T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding

On Forgiveness:

Have been fascinated by how Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu rather than decimate and
remove the white population of post apartheid South Africa, decided to conduct TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
COMMISSIONS, wherein victims of racism came forward to give testimonials while the perpetrators
acknowledged and asked for restitution. Reparations were then given.

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It was based on the Christian belief that forgiveness is one of the highest virtues, rather than vengeance,
executions, exile. The perpetrators would be RECONCILED to the nation so that ALL South African can build the
nation together. Idealistic but they did it.

• Desmond Tutu – Forgiveness releases you. But perpetrator needs to admit what he did
• Example of Apartheid
• Come forward in the commission to confess crimes of apartheid:

Here are some excerpts from:

Transcript - Facing the Truth - Bill Moyers and Archbishop Tutu :

[Link]
• ARCHBISHOP TUTU: Yes, but you also say to them, as we had to say to our people, 'You know, in the
end, justice and goodness will prevail. This is a moral universe.'...In the Book of Revelation, there's a
wonderful passage where there are souls under the altar. And they cry out, as all who suffer cry out,
'Oh, Lord, how long?' Now the answer we would have expected to get would have been the answer
that says, 'Don't worry. It will be OK.' It does say that, but it says, 'Before it is OK, a few more of you
must suffer and die.' And we used to tell our people at home, 'It is going to be OK. The victory has
already been won.' But in the process of our apprehending this victory, appropriating it, there are
going to be causalities. More of our people are going to be detained. More are going to be imprisoned.
More are going to be killed. 'But my dear people, we used to say, 'we have already won. They have
lost. Those who support injustice have lost. They may have guns. They may appear to be powerful. But
don't let it kid you.' And we used to say to the white people in South Africa, 'We're being nice to you.
We're inviting you, join the winning side.' And that was in the dark days.

“Well, basically, you are saying 'I am abandoning my right to revenge, to payback. By the fact that you have abused me, you
have hurt me, you are —whatever it is that you have done, you have wronged me. By that you have given me a certain right
as — over you that I could refuse to forgive you. I could say that I have the right to retribution.' When I forgive, I say, 'I
jettison that right, and I open the door of opportunity to you, make a new beginning.' That is what I do when I forgive you”.

“For your own sake, the only way you can appropriate forgiveness is by confessing. That opens you to the possibility of being
able to receive it. It's like opening your window. You see, forgiveness can be likened to the fresh air that is outside or the
sunlight that is outside and you have a room and the windows are closed and the curtains are drawn. The wind is still out
there. My forgiveness is still available to you. But it won't find access until you open the window and the light streams in. You
draw the curtains apart, and the fresh air comes in. You, by your contrition and confession say, 'I am sorry; forgive me.' Open
and my forgiveness enters your being.”

Magic in the Tempest

• Like Macbeth, there are supernatural powers present

• Unlike the witches of Macbeth, Prospero, the protagonist is a ‘magician’ – he causes the action, but
does he cause ALL the action?
• And is he malevolent Magician?
• Other Magical plays of Shakespeare – MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM:
• The play is set in Athens and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of
Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict between four Athenian lovers. Another
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 follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the
wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the
humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue.
• Pure Fantasy and Fantastical – Production Design dream project!

• Like Dumbledore of Harry Potter, he LEARNED his magic through books

• Though Dumbledore is wiser, as secretive but
• Prospero is Vengeful
• Gandalf in Lord of the Rings is wise and
Knoweldgeable, too
But again both are in the world
Of fantasy
Why does Prospero resort to
Magic???

• Some related terms:

• Paranormal: events or perceptions without scientific explanation.
• Supernatural: above or beyond what can be explained by natural law.
• Magic: The art of producing a desired effect through human control of supernatural agencies or
forces of nature.
• The terms “paranormal” and “supernatural” are practically synonyms.
• However, the definition of “magic” includes a critical element that the other two lack: producing a
desired effect through human control.
• Thus Prospero, a human is a MAGICIAN
• And think also how through the “magic of theater” is the storm created in the Tempest?
• How are the supranormal characters of Ariel and Caliban characterized –
are they magical or supernatural?

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