The Tempest and Renaissance Viral Culture

 The invention of the printing press made it possible for Renaissance “memes” to reach Shakespeare and influence his loudest and weirdest play, The Tempest.

First Draft-Brave New World in The Tempest

“O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is!

O brave new world,

 That has such people in't!” –Miranda, Act V Scene I, The Tempest, Shakespeare

            The Tempest is Shakespeare’s most original play. This quote is one of the most famous and shows how full of wonder and hope the main female protagonist is as she faces new people and challenges. Why is she so full of hope? Should she be afraid of what is unknown and unfamiliar? Shakespeare shows how people in his time dealt with the “Brave New Worlds” of his day and of the few ways to cope with it: Dominate it or Embrace it. In the end, a combination of both of them seems to be the best way to handle oneself when faced with new lands and new opportunities.

Dominate It.

            While Domination is a sub-theme explored by many in the play, none know it better than Prospero and Caliban. Caliban’s mother ruled a mysterious island until Prospero showed up. Caliban said

“This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,

Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first,

Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst give me

Water with berries in't, and teach me how

To name the bigger light, and how the less,

That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee

And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,

The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile”-Act I, Scene 2.

Prospero had freed Caliban from the tyranny of Sycorax who was a witch. He taught Caliban an education and Caliban returned this education in kind. However, he was not fully enthralled with Prospero’s rule either.

“Cursed be I that did so! All the charms

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!

For I am all the subjects that you have”

This disdain for his master leads Caliban to another two men who are ambitious about the island to which they have arrived: Trinculo and Stephano. Now in order to understand this new world to which they have encountered, they frequently refer back to their old one in order to bring understanding to it. Caliban’s encounter with these men was new for him and them.

Old World Vs. New World

“A strange fish! Were I in England now,

as once I was, and had but this fish painted,

not a holiday fool there but would give a piece

of silver: there would this monster make a

man; … this is no fish,

but an islander, that hath lately suffered by a

thunderbolt” .-Trinculo, Act II, Scene II.

In seeking out these new lands there seems to be a give and take about how much of the old world you must bring with you. In Trinculo’s and Stephano’s case, they bring all of the old world with them and share it with Caliban. Clothes, liquor, and titles abound with these three and they go about the island. Prospero brought a small part of the old world with him: his books.

Prospero’s story is about how he lost his dukedom due to his obsession with reading. We see as the audience how he could have avoided his fate had he just left his study and not left sole power to his brother. As Prospero then is banished to this new isle, he brings with him his books and learning and shows how what failed in the old world could be adapted to the new one.

Embrace it

Part of the allure of the island is this new freedom that all experience. All the rules and regulations that existed before can be thrown out the window. Gonzalo in trying to help alleviate Alonso’s pain, imagines the island if he were to be king on it. Instead of a typical kingship Gonzalo imagines a society with “No sovereignty” (Act II, Scene I).

Conclusion

Notes: I am missing a conclusion. I intend to cite The Tempest and the Introduction part of our eBook in its discussion of Shakspeare’s reading of travel journal’s and their influence on Shakespeare’s perception of the new world. I also intend to show how Prospero’s attempt to educate Caliban fails but his attempt to exact vengeance at the end of the play is successful. The point I’m arguing is that Shakspeare shows us that we need to conquer new worlds and try new methods of thinking to grow out of our old world. I’m also missing secondary sources to strengthen my argument. So far this is just representative of my close reading and keeping in mind our past class discussion.

Questions: Would my mentioning of Shakspeare’s travel journal readings be relevant to the argument I’m making?

You can see the structure my chapter is forming here in this rough first draft, is the organization good?

Is my argument sound? Does it highlight the theme adequately?

I intend to include more quotes and give better commentary in arguing the bigger thesis claim.I will include Ferdinand and Miranda’s admiration of eachother among the other quotes and points I brought up in my Notes section. Should I include other quotes to strengthen my argument?

Is the picture good? I have another one with a sunset on an island mountain. These are public domain pictures. Should I cite where I got the photos too?

Thank You Fellow Classmates and Professor For helping me understand this play better and explore the six themes of our eBook. I'm getting more excited about it. 

Mine! Mine! Mine!

There are several concepts in The Tempest that fit in our theme of “Brave New World”: There is the setting of an undiscovered island in which the entire play occurs, there’s the history of the island and its many rulers, the concept of other-worldliness/spectacle from all groups of characters in the play, and pure wonder.

Isaac Lyman in his Brave New World post put it best, “Shakespeare writes a play set in Cyprus: no magic. Shakespeare writes a play set in Messina: no magic. Shakespeare writes a play set on a Mediterranean island: magic. (?)” This new world that Shakespeare and his fellow countrymen had learned of had this magic to it because of it being unknown. All reports about the new world came from stories from the Captains and crew of ships that had made the journey. As we discussed in class, a few details of these stories may have been exaggerated due to human error and the natural state of storytelling.

In the play Act V scene I has the best example of the wonder and other-worldliness experienced by all groups of the play. Miranda says, “O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world That has such people in't!” She says this in response for seeing the whole group of people that had been in the shipwreck. They react in kind to her by Alonso asking Ferdinand, “What is this maid with whom thou wast at play? Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours: Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us, And brought us thus together?” Of course not all new encounters were all in good terms. Caliban as he meets Trinculo and Stephano is at first a confused scene. It ends somewhat well when Caliban gets a drink and trades his current master for another.

The island had been ruled first by Sycorax Caliban’s mother. She was defeated by Prospero and he rules the island. In the play the idea of gaining new dominions and freedom is presented at several lengths. Prospero’s own banishment was the result of this ambition by his brother. The kings own followers think of thoughts of killing the king himself in order to gain land back home. Stephano gains a vision of being ruler when Caliban suggests to him to kill Prospero. Even in a moment when Gonzalo is trying to console Alonso, he imagines a Utopia on the island with him as ruler.

Despite all the wonder and imagination of dominion that the newcomers to this island portray. There is always an idea of home that is apart from the island. Stephano when he meets Caliban even remarks how if they were in London how things would be different.

Works Cited

Mabillard, Amanda. "Miranda" Shakespeare Online. 2000. 27/September/2015< http://www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/horatiochar.html >.

Lyman, Isaac. “Barbaric (read: brave), Ancient (read: new) Islands (read: worlds)” Website Blog. eRenaissance project blog. Gideon. September 8, 2015. Web. September 27, 2015.

The Yin & Yang of Human Nature

For years The Tempest was seen as the closing masterpiece of Shakespeare’s career as a playwright, and some critics have looked at it through a postcolonial lens. The problematic relationships Prospero has with Ariel, Caliban, and Miranda have raised questions about the political and social dynamics of colonizers vs. colonized. 

When scholar Robert B. Pierce originally critiqued The Tempest he expressed a sympathetic view toward Miranda and Prospero. Yet the development of academic discourse on Shakespeare’s final play, most specifically the New Historical and anti-colonial readings, forced him to re-evaluate his original sympathetic reading. Pierce’s conflicted understanding of The Tempest lead him to the conclusion that we need to redefine the way we understand the meaning of the play.Rather than rejecting one reading over the other, he accepts both as valuable and necessary to his understanding of the play. Prospero and Miranda’s exile is worthy of sympathy, but at the same time the colonist relationships that permeate the work give rise to a less than friendly view of Prospero and Miranda. 

These two ideas may seem difficult to reconcile, but we don’t have to. Prospero can be both a victim and a perpetrator of the evil that exists in his world. With Prospero as a character that embraces both the virtuous and questionable aspects of human nature I realized that while the "Brave New World" theme is easily identifiable in Shakespeare's The Tempest, our theme of "What a Piece of Work is Man" also emerges as a necessary companion. If Prospero is both a victim and a perpetuator then we are forced to ask ourselves how characters like Caliban or Miranda may likewise be the embodiment of seemingly opposite  characteristics. 

Works Cited: Pierce, Robert B. "Understanding "The Tempest"" New Literary History 30.2, Cultural Inquiries (1999): 373-88. JSTOR. Web. 27 Sept., 2015. 

Exploring the Brave in The Brave New World

There's a persistent theme that cropped up in our texts this week, but particularly in The Tempest and Of Cannibals, and that is the idea of colonialism and the self-perceived superiority of a culture or people. The Brave New World, for all it's enlightenment and rebirth was, as the Norton Anthology describes it, "a profoundly intolerant age. There was very little willingness to accept the legitimacy of structures of belief, patterns of behavior, systems of rules and social organization other than one's own." We see this with the portrayal of Caliban in The Tempest  and the depictions of the Cannibals in Montaigne's essays.

While Prospero and Caliban seem to represent complete opposite sides of society—the civilized vs the primitive (but who's who?)—their similarities are uncanny. Both characters are outcasts whose right to their kingdom was usurped. And although they are similar in their circumstances, and possibly in their nature, neither one ever makes the effort to create a relationship or forge a connection between their maybe-not-so-different worlds.

 Montaigne, Shakespeare, Heriot, and even More tried to explore this theme of otherness by giving us societies full of irony or even perfection and as a result we can recognize that maybe The Brave New World required braveness not so much in the conquering, but rather in acknowledging the strangeness of others and ourselves when measured against each other. Because to find the hypocrisy that Montaigne points out in Of Cannibals ("I am not sorry we note the barbarous horror of such an action, but grieved that, prying so narrowly into their faults, we are so blinded in ours...") requires a cultural self-awareness that may be easier theorized than done.

The proclivity to favor one's own culture and beliefs above those of other's beliefs is known as ethnocentrism, and it is something that we grapple with even today. As we observe the differences between an us vs a them, do we accept the theory that morality is relative and that some practices or beliefs are acceptable under certain cultures and not others? Or do we cling to our vision of ourselves as the true and only source of right and reason in hopes that others will be guided by our "light"?

In truth, I don't have an answer—but neither did the Renaissance greats—and so the question remains demanding that we seek our own answers and perhaps even find a compromise of our own.


Works Cited:

"Of Cannibals, Kings and Culture: The Problem of Ethnocentricity." The Stone. The New York Times, 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/on-ethnocentrism/?_r=0>.Times, 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/on-ethnocentrism/?_r=0>.

This Is Spinal Outline

I had a slightly more detailed and interesting course map for this theme, but my wife accidentally took my notebook to her class this morning, so I had to reconstruct everything from memory.

Oh, and I appear to have missed a couple of arrows.  How embarrassing.

The Art of Leadership: Ruling through Reason

Well, let's see if we can get this to work via the campus Internet.  My apartment's web service decided to take a break this fine morning. 

The scene from 3:09 to 4:40 is among my favorites of Julie Taymor's interpretation of The Tempest.  One of the critical moments in the play, it shows Prospera reigning in her passion and making decisions based on reason.  She has her enemies caught in feverish visions of terror.  Yet despite the wrongs done her by these men--exiling her and shipping her and her daughter away on a leaky boat to face unknown hardship--she must control her emotions and make the reasonable, compassionate, merciful choice.  This is very much in line with the decisions faced by the nobility of the time.  They could not rule through force, but through compassion and logic.

Proposed Activities:

--Have the student read Act I and look for other instances of passion vs reason.
--Have the student read Act II and explore the ideas presented about leadership and power over others.
--Compare and contrast Prospero's emotional control with Trinculo, Stephano, and Caliban.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who Wears What and Why does it Matter?

Throughout the past 400 years, The Tempest has been performed by many companies. Each of the different companies and groups that performed The Tempest have taken their own interpretations of how the players should be dressed. Traditionally, Propsero is dressed regally, his robes are a symbol of his power. In some versions, Prospero is cast as a woman named Prospera. And of course, she dresses accordingly.



While browsing Youtube I discovered versions in which Miranda is dressed in pants; living on an island with only her father for company apparently makes the dress code a little more relaxed.





Why does this matter? What significance do the clothes make in the interpretation of the play? Do the clothes make the man? It would be worth it to consider what Miranda says:

"There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple. If the ill spirit have so fair a house,. Good things will strive to dwell with 't."

Man and HIS Magic in the Tempest

In the Renaissance, humanists championed the power and intricacies of mankind. In the Tempest, Shakespeare explores what makes a human, what makes education worthwhile and why language and learning is so powerful.

This extract from BBC's The Tempest shows the characters Prospero (sorcerer and Miranda's father, now ruler of the island), Miranda (Prospero's daughter, shipwrecked with him as a baby), Ariel (air/water spirit, good, native of the island) and Caliban (earth/fire spirit, evil, child of a sea witch, Sycorax who was left on the island by sailors and whose evil rule was later overturned by Prospero). Watch the clip with these ideas in mind:

Level One (Adventurer):
How do Prospero and Miranda deal with Caliban? 
What does he say "his only profit" of learning to speak is (at 5:57)?
Do you see any other good things about learning about other people or other languages?

Level Two (Explorer): answer the previous questions, plus...
How is Prospero able to control Caliban? 
How do knowledge and language indicate power and station? 
Thus, how does learning make a man?

Level Three (Courier?): answer the previous questions, plus...
Was Prospero right to enslave Caliban, and how does the answer depend on different interpretations of the actors' lines?
Just from these short minutes, what might be some contrasting views of mankind, learning, colonialism and slavery in the Renaissance?

START AT 4:01

START AT 4:01

Sprezzatura + Brave New World Idea and The Tempest

This is an idea for Sprezzatura, actually ---> I don't know if you've already found something, but I thought this clip might work. It really deals with Miranda's, erm, artlessness. She's definitely NOT a courtier. 

This clip where Caliban plays the traitor and pledges allegiance to Stephano brings up issues in Brave New World about colonization and the state of nature in these wild natives. The drunken monster has been wooed by firewater, and thus is an important commentary on the colonization going on in the Renaissance. 

Throwback Theater: The Tempest and Ad Fontes

The Renaissance was a time when referring back to ancient sources, otherwise known as “Ad Fontes,” led to inspiration for the work at that time. Ad fontes has to do primarily with turning to the past. Renaissance icons, Shakespeare in this instance, utilized the information, studies and cultures of their history to create new ideas, to create a better future.

(Two examples to start with)

Latin Influence:
By using The Tempest as a model, we are able to create a fuller picture of what the Renaissance was all about in reference to the theme “Ad Fontes.” Prospero’s name (or Prospera in this version of the play) is a derivative of the Latin word prosperus meaning successful or fortunate. We can now draw conclusions about what kind of character Prospero is, as well as how his (her) name fits into the description of the Renaissance time, because we looked back to the source of Prospero’s name. Prospero is fortunate, he is the most powerful character in The Tempest and has the ability to control his environment from his books. Prospero’s books gave him power in the same way that individuals in the Renaissance received knowledge from books. 

Romantic/Mythological references:
Shakespeare returned to the sources by including a masque in the middle of The Tempest. The masque includes Iris, goddess of the sea and the sky, Greek goddess Juno, and Roman goddess of fertility, Ceres. Including these Greek and Roman influences laces the play with echoes of the rich, reemerging culture of the past.

Using the following clip, how can we draw parallels from either Greek or Roman literature to The Tempest. What about this clip uses Ad Fontes in a meaningful way? How can a knowledge of previous works help us understand Shakespeare's play?

The Power of Words in The Tempest

If each character in The Tempest were given an object to represent them, Prospero's would be a book. He was usurped because he spent his days studying, with his books he gained power on the island, and from the power of his books he made his revenge on those who usurped him. Of course, in the end, he decided to "drown my books" as soon as his revenge was complete, as seen in this clip:

Why would Shakespeare have Prospero make such a speech? Why drown books, the very thing that gave him power? Perhaps because Prospero's use of magic became too much, too powerful, and had to be checked.

During Shakespeare's time, many people had access to books because of the printing press. Shakespeare himself benefited from such changes, which allowed him to study great classics. But with this shift to more people being able to read, the potential for power increased, because information is power. This is where Prospero received his power, but he sent his power perhaps too far, as he enslaved others. He could have taken this all further, but settled with restoring his dukedom.

Prospero's part does encourage increasing knowledge, but also checking it to not take that knowledge too far.