Is Civilization the Answer to the Chaos?

Personal power has the ability to be essential to greatness, and at the same time is able to destroy a person’s nature. William Shakespeare’s destructive play, Folger Shakespeare Library “Macbeth”, reveals the corrupting force of power through its complex characters and interactions. The play shows that even someone who starts out like Macbeth and does not crave power, will do terrible things to gain authority and power.

     In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero's magic is the means that Prospero teaches his lessons to the plays various characters. Whether or not those lessons were learned or not is irrelevant. The main issue is that Prospero's character is indeed a complex one, and one that deserves much attention. Two essays that look at the complexity of Prospero and his magic are Stephen Miko's "Tempest," and Barbara Mowat's "Prospero, Agrippa, and Hocus Pocus." Both of these essays, in dealing with Prospero and his magic reveal things about Prospero that only enhance the mystery of his character.

Coming from a more advanced civilization in the Europeans eyes they thought they were better than the Natives and therefore wanted to “change” the Natives way and wanting them to conform to their society. (Mooney 37)

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.

The play, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare is a very cleverly thought out piece of work. Shakespeare very deliberately inter-relates several different forms of power during the course of the play. There is political power, shown through the plethora of political characters and their schemes, while at the same time parodied by the comic characters. The power of magic and love, and its ability to reunite and absolve also plays a major role in the play. Throughout the play, Prospero, the main character, takes great advantage of his power and authority, both properly and improperly. The epiphany of this however, is realized at the end of the play.

Through discovery, our perception of human nature changes alongside the world we live in. this is shown in Micheal de Montaigne’s essay “of cannibals” and ‘The Tempest’ drama written by William Shakespeare. Both show, when man is left alone in a natural state, humans grow to perfection, compared to the state of a civilized man whom is corrupt and alters human nature to an animalistic form. The tempest portrays human beings in a civilized state, whom the characters do inhuman acts for material gain and Micheal de Montaigne’s “ of Cannibals” represent man in a natural state whom when left untouched grows to an paragon society. Yet, which is better? a man in a natural state or a man in a civilized state.

The concept of dehumanization is seen all throughout the Shakespeare’s play. We begin to see this pattern through Trinculo and Stephano’s first encounter with Caliban in Act II, scene II. Due to Caliban’s animalistic appearance, Trinculo discredits his humanity: “What have we here? A man or a fish?” (2.2.24).

    One of the indispensable themes displayed in The Tempest is the duality of nature and society.  This is made apparent through the character of Caliban.  Caliban is a dis-figured fish-like creature that inhabits the island where the play The Tempest, takes place.

The Tempest, often regarded as Shakespeare’s last play, displaces the theme of possession of control and command over other, commonly known as power. Ariel, Caliban and the courtiers from Milan, all demonstrate different levels of control. Prospero, the protagonist of the play, especially displays his ability to cast influence and affect others psychologically. The characters, their relationships and their use of power can be compared to the English government and society of the 17th Century.

William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” speaks about multiple authoritative relationships throughout the play and the abuse of power and authority. The main character Prospero lives on a deserted island with his daughter Miranda. Prospero used to be the Duke of Milan until he has been usurped by his brother Antonio with the help Alonso the King of Naples and his brother Sebastian. Prospero and Miranda were banished to sea in a rotten boat and eventually lands in a deserted island who was once ruled by a witch named Sycorax but is now only inhabited by her son Caliban and a spirit named Ariel. Since arriving at the island, Prospero has been ruling the island and enslaved Caliban and Ariel by the use of magic. He acts as if he is God by creating a storm in order to shipwreck the King of Naples and Antonio. Prospero uses his powers to get revenge on his brother for having been exiled to the island. Prospero is a controlling character who seems to be obsessed with getting revenge in order to regain his status. He abuses his authority and takes advantage of his slaves and his daughter Miranda to fulfil his evil plan.

Envision living in a nation that has achieved the paramount form of society, one that is ideal in its ethical, social, and political facets. Simple to imagine but impossible to replicate, and that is, according to Plato’s Theory of Forms, because the physical world is a poor copy of these ideas, these forms, even the ones closest to perfection are imperfect. That is why a utopia can not be attained in reality. Although, in Montaigne’s Of Cannibals, it is proposed that the natural state is the closest to accomplishing this. The ideas set forth in this work, chiefly the concept of cultural relativism, influenced Shakespeare in his writing of The Tempest, and the characters Gonzalo and Caliban portray

The Tempest is a play that has a theme of nature and civilization. It has a strong theme that deals with issues of colonizer and the colonized. While to many people this play may simply be just a play, it really has a story of what happens when nature and civilization collide. The character Caliban represents a being of pure nature. The character Prospero is civilization. These characters can also be seen as the colonized and the colonizer. The relationship they have is very complex and is a constant struggle, much like any relationship between a colonizer and colonized. It questions what is pure nature? Is it savage and monster like, as Caliban is? In this paper I will examine the relationship between Caliban

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 Tempest is believed to be the final play written by English playwright William Shakespeare (Arnold 2009: 1). This allegorical play takes place on an exotic island and describes the master-slave relationship between Prospero the virtuous ruler and Caliban the ugly evil. Approximately three and a half centuries later, French poet and author Aimé Césaire, who objected to colonialism and was concerned about post-colonial issues, published A Tempest (‘Une Tempête’), a post-colonial adaptation of Shakespeare’s work.

It is said that "A power struggle collapses when you withdraw your energy from it. Power struggles become uninteresting to you when you change your intention of winning to learning about yourself" (Gary Zukav). A comedic play written by William Shakespeare demonstrates the theme struggle for power that develops throughout the story of The Tempest. The Tempest is defined as an outrageous storm in which Shakespeare uses to enhance the play. This story is about a person named Prospero and his daughter who are stuck on an island due to Prospero's brother, Antonio. Antonio took over Prospero's dukedom of Milan after "kicking them out" (Act 5) and trying to end their lives. With the help of good, Lord Gonzalo, they survive. Now, marooned on an island with a malevolent servant [Caliban] and a spirit helper [Ariel], Prospero continues the practice of magic which will 12 years later come to haunt his fellow enemies whom receives a gift of Prospero's power in the end. The "outrageous storm" (Act 1) is just the beginning of a struggle for power. In The Tempest, Shakespeare uses conflicts to develop the theme struggle for power.