Man and the Wild: An Ecocritical Reading of Shakespeare’s The Tempest I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
- H.D. Thoreau, Walden In the past, American ecocritics tended to celebrate wilderness in their response to nature while their British counterparts often opted for the more ominous minatory point of view. In America, this field of study is known as ‘Ecocriticism’ while in United Kingdom it is known as ‘Green Studies’. During the 1990’s Green Studies began in UK with Jonathan Bates emerging as the founding figure. However, I would like to begin this paper with a definition penned by Cheryll Glotfelty, who is also the acknowledged founder of Ecocriticism in the USA. Talking about this still emergent branch of study she wrote in the introductory note to The Ecocritical Reader-
What then is ecocriticism? Simply put, ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. Just as feminist criticism examines language and literature from a gender-conscious
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One can disrupt the natural order to a certain extent but cannot totally recreate it. Perhaps that is why it is called the “natural” order. Just as the sun cannot be made to rise from south, sunshine cannot be demanded from the moon and the wind cannot be asked to not to sway the trees, Caliban cannot be ‘civilized’ enough to behave like a human being. He cannot be trained to love like Ferdinand or serve like Gonzalo with utmost loyalty. These unchangeable characteristics of this extremely interesting yet barbaric persona of Shakespeare’s lights a green spark in the mind and calls for a greener reading of the play The
Ecomodernist’s believe that modernization is the major tool to resolving environmental issues. Ecomodernist’s feel as though society needs to always progress and that humanity cannot ever slow down or else development would stop completely. Ecomodernist’s view modernity as the human separation from mastery over nature (Taylor). This perspective stresses the idea of using our technological and
Explain how Ariel and Caliban serve as character foils for each other. Be sure to consider their physical appearance and their roles as servants to Prospero.
The Tempest is about an ousted Duke of Milan ,Prospero, who has been living in exile on a remote island for the past twelve years with his daughter Miranda. He is a powerful magician, who happens to be the master of Ariel and Caliban, and a guy who really likes his books. When Prospero's enemies wash up on shore, he uses his black magic to seek revenge and restore himself to power. The Tempest belongs to the genre of Elizabethan romance plays. It combines elements of tragedy with those of romantic comedy, and like one of Shakespeare's plays previously, it asks deeper questions that are not completely resolved at the end. The tone that seeps into the play is one of wonder, amazement, and admiration. Mystery is still present , but the magic performed is not black and scary. The version that seems to grasp my attention more, would have to be the Utah Valley University interpretation because it takes Shakespeare’s main purpose and tone but shows it in its own unique way. Furthermore, with its silly drunkards, the play has a certain lightness to it and even the so called killers of the King tell hilarious jokes and are lighthearted. But there is also the tone of revenge and reconciliation in the play. We feel a revenge burning in Prospero while, at the same time, a wish for forgiveness and reconciliation with those who have wronged him.
As a concept, ecocriticism is a contemporary approach and it is therefore highly unlikely that Owen would have intentionally included such heavily cited links with eco criticism, especially considering that he claimed his subject to be, ‘war and the pity of war’. Owen himself believed that the war he was fighting was needless, and only caused pain and suffering. His work sheds light on the harsh, brutality of warfare whilst challenging the patriotic nature of other existing war poems at the time, believing that they did not truly depict the war he was all too familiar with, "true Poets must be Truthful". However, applying Owen’s work through an ecological perspective is not a completely futile, as Owen’s depth of understanding can provide us with insight into the effect humans, particularly soldiers, had on their biosphere during this period in history and vice versa; this is, “The fundamental premise that human culture is connected to the physical world, affecting it and affected by it.” It is these connections with the natural world that highlight both Owen’s love of the natural world, influenced by the likes of Romanticist poet John Keats, and his sense of anguish towards humanity and their distorted concept of war.
In the reading “The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism”, the author, Karen J. Warren, explains her argument on the inevitable connection between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature. She further suggests that ecofeminism provides a framework to re envision feminism and create an environmental ethic which takes into account the connection between sexism and naturism.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential
In Paul Taylor’s essay, “The Ethics for Respect for Nature,” he argues that… In this paper I will first describe Taylor’s concept of “respect for nature.” I will then explain the part this attitude plays in rationally grounding a biocentric outlook on environmental ethics. Lastly, I will present Rosalind Hursthouse’s criticism of Taylor’s view, and state how Taylor might respond to this criticism.
Humans have often struggled to define their relationship with nature throughout history. In the early periods of their existence, humans were ruled by the brutality of untamed nature. They utilized nature to an extent of survival, but had not yet developed a system to thrive within it. As humans advanced, both mentally and technologically, their aptitude and desire to exploit nature increased dramatically. These two polar relationships between humans and nature are mirrored in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Aimé Césaire’s A Tempest. In The Tempest, Shakespeare fixates on Caliban’s attachment to nature and Prospero’s exploitation of it, while in A Tempest, Césaire employs nature as the dividing force between Caliban and Prospero. These two separate themes both represent the consequences that occurred throughout history as a result of two ideologies about nature colliding during colonization.
Caliban is Shakespeare's representation of natural instinct and how it collides with society. Of course Caliban could have simply been a man raised in nature,
In this motif tracing, I argue that the epithet “monster” is used as an agent of othering, a way to remove Caliban from the other characters and depict him as something other than human. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Caliban’s name is only said eight times, while he is addressed as “monster” the rest of the 34 times he is spoken to. This motif is used to belittle and dehumanize a unique character that plays an essential role in the plot. Shakespeare’s use of this epithet combined with Caliban’s servile role, restraint of his speech to simple diction, and portrayal as an insurgent, causes the uncultured native to be born. This plays into the 16th century view of the native: one who is there to serve the more sophisticated, knowledgeable masters.
The similarities and differences between Aime' Cesaire's ATempest and William Shakespeare's The Tempest gives the reader an idea that it is a political response. From the way that both of the titles of these works of literature differ, an idea of concept is offered. They share a similar story line yet, after some one has read A Tempest : a different perspective is gained. A Tempest is actually considered a post colonial period piece of writing and one can acquire and prove this by the forms in which Aime' Cesaire portrays the characters and switches around their personalities and their traits,the time periods and the acquisition of language, and the ways power is used reveals that it is indeed a political response from a post
Even though Caliban is hailed as the original ruler of the Island throughout the entire play, after his mother’s entrapment, as seen in act 1 scene 2
“The Tempest” is a Shakespearean play that takes play on a desert island somewhere between Tunis and Naples. A hazardous storm appears impacting a ship of European nobles and mariners; on board are Alonso, King of Naples, Gonzalo, Boatswain, Trinculo, Stefano, Antonio, Sebastian, and Ferdinand. The nobles are leaving Tunis, Africa after the wedding of Claribel, daughter of the King of Naples to the prince. Prospero, the former Duke of Milan uses his sorcery to conjure the very storm that bombards the nobles in order to bring them to the island. Frey interjects, “In 1808, Edmond Malone argued that Shakespeare derived the title and some of the play’s incidents from accounts of a storm and shipwreck experienced by Sir Thomas Gates and other Jamestown colonists on the Bermuda islands in 1609” (Frey 29).The play entails the romance of Ferdinand, Alonso’s son and Miranda, Prospero’s daughter; while also detailing a twelve year power struggle that is resurfacing itself in a treacherous plot for power. In comparison to the New World’s politics, “The Tempest” can be read as a play that deals with these same political issues: rebellion of constituted authorities, colonization of a new land, dehumanizing of the natives, marriages and romances of royalty, masters and servants, Christian virtues, and visions of a utopia.
The Tempest is widely considered to be one of Shakespeare’s greatest works and is seen by many to be the perfect finale to one of the greatest writing careers of all time. At time of writing in 1610 The world was changing and full of turbulation much like the travelers among the tempest in the first scene of the play. Old and New Worlds were colliding with the settlement of North and South America and many civilians of Europe had little time to adjust to their evolving setting. Conflicts arose with natives and some lay question to whether or not this exploring was ethical considering these people had occupied this new land first. The newfound resources from these adventures served as a focal point of discussion with the opportunities of national
The main objective of this study is to attempt an ecocritical analysis of Jawaharlal Nehru’s Glimpses of World History. Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) is one of the greatest statesmen and writers of the twentieth century. He has written a number of books of which Glimpses of World History is an outstanding contribution to Indian Literature in English. His letters to his daughter clearly reveal Nehru’s interest on ecocritical tropes and his ecological sensibility. As a lover of nature, he imparts this characteristic to his daughter, Indira Gandhi too. Ecocriticism has gained the attention of many scholars over the last three decades throughout the world. It depicts the relationship between human and nature – depiction of nature in literature. This theory has been gaining popularity day by day because of the ecological disaster which the humans witness in everyday life. This study analyses the letters of Nehru from an ecocritical point of view by using various ecocritical tropes like wilderness, pastoral, animals, and pollution and apocalypse (ecocide) for understanding the ecological sensibility of Nehru. This study’s approach is to concentrate on the major