Portrayal of Utopia in The Tempest Essay example

Yet her compassion, as real as it is, also has a certain element of shallowness, or at least inexperience about it. She has lived the majority of her life in isolation, on an island known with her only companionship being that of her father. Growing up on this deserted island, Miranda learns to live and abide by the example set by Prospero. He is her only contact with the humanity and therefore he is her only friend and teacher. She knows no other woman and therefore had no female figure to aid the process of raising her. She is naïve and unaware of life's experiences, having been shielded from the rest of the world.      

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.

The Tempest was Shakespeare’s last play that was written shortly after England colonized Virginia in 1609. Throughout the play, there are many different references to imperialism and colonialism within the characters. The Tempest analyzes the imperialistic relationships between England and America but applies it to personal human interaction between the central characters. The island gives newcomers a sense of endless possibilities like claiming the land for themselves because of the belief in the Great Chain of Being and the seventeenth century being an age of exploration. The idea of ruling a colony lured many people into the idea that having that kind of power over a large group of people is attainable. Master-servant relationships are

Aime Cesaire’s A Tempest is a ‘new world’ response to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In Cesaire’s adaptation, the characters and plot are generally the same. However, there are a few small deviations from Shakespeare’s The Tempest that make a significant impact on the play as a whole, and lead the play to illustrate important social issues occurring in the time of the adaptation.

Imagine this, a perfect world of complete harmony and justice. There is no wrong, and there is no right. There is only utopia. It might be the perfect place where people want to live, or the place that people dream about. It might even be the picture of the future. However, this Utopian world is revealed to have flaws. It lacks many of the qualities of life that exist today. Thus the Utopian world isn't so Utopian anymore. And the more that is revealed about the world, the more horrible it becomes. Soon, it becomes a nightmare, a world of illusions, of lies. That is the dystopic world that authors such as Bradbury and George Orwell pictures in their books, a world that exists under the image of utopia, and yet to the reader seems like a

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.

The island of magic and mystery that Shakespeare creates in The Tempest is an extraordinary symbol of both the political and social realities of his contemporary society, and of the potential for a reformed New World. Shakespeare’s island is a creation which allows the juxtaposition of real and idealised worlds, and shows his audience both what they and what they ought to be. The seventeenth century was a time of ideological upheaval in Europe, with Medieval ideas of a hierarchical and ordered society being challenged by Renaissance thinkers. For the dynastic powers, including England under Elizabeth I, colonialism was an important opportunity to realise territorial ambition and prove religious

Due to these debates, it’s possible that Shakespeare has contemplated on the different views on colonization and decided not only to create the setting of the play on an island, but uses the storm in the first act as way to create excitement and danger and also to reference to the perils of the struggle of exploration. Also the title of the play is The Tempest which also hints how powerful the storms of the ocean are, that it can determine the fate of many people as seen in the play; and is relatable to real life events such as the one described earlier. The Tempest also reflect the concerns of the times such as the exploration of foreign lands and struggles for power and the colonization of lands as seen in the role of the characters in the play.

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.

Alonso's utopia is revealed at the end of the play as he wants freedom from guilt, freedom from his past sins. He also wishes to play a more involved role within his family. Therefore his utopia is one of goodness and again shows he has found a "utopia" on the island, as his personality has totally changed. This also contributes to Miranda finding a "utopia" as it shows her the power of repentance.

Although the King’s son, Ferdinand loses his luxury life and has to face the test of survival, his determination and valor enables him to live a time of jubilation. Living in Naples, Ferdinand struggled to find his true love, but shortly after he arrives on the island, a spirit named Ariel uses his mellifluous voice to guide Ferdinand towards Prospero’s daughter, Miranda. With one glance, Ferdinand falls for Miranda, who he claims as, the “perfect and… peerless” (III, i, 47) lady he’s been waiting for. In addition to love, Ferdinand is also living every adolescent’s dream; being away from their parents. Without his father next to him on the island, Ferdinand gets to make his own decisions and lives his life without his father’s ruling; obtaining the feeling of independence and discovering what he is capable of doing on his own. Ferdinand finds pleasure with the feeling of freedom, wanting to “live here [forever]”

The Tempest by virtue of plot seems and even more direct attack on wealth and abundance. In the play, characters are stripped of their “real world” places and placed in an area where everything is quite different. The “abundance” here becomes for some characters, the so-called hope for the New World that we have discussed in class. But for others, Caliban in specific, his view is corrupted by these new elements and he begins to crave riches as well. Both of these wants, however, do turn on to be negative.

The prospect of utopia, that is, an unchanging static society, has little appeal compared to the prospect of trying to reach such an exalted existence. And it's this idea of progress that we often associate with the idea of utopia. Appealing as it may seem, an utopia is a double edged sword. It is both the end result of our desires and an end to those desires. Because ending our desire goes against our human nature, the notion of utopia can no longer exist to the human mind. Therefore, neither the Garden of Eden nor the island of the Houyhnhnms is an utopia because both societies are unchanging. In them, both progress and desire is forbidden.

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

William Shakespeare's The Tempest Generally acknowledged as one of Shakespeare's final plays, 'The Tempest' may be described as a romantic tragi-comedy - where love and contentment prosper despite the threatening presence of evil forces. However, beyond the almost 'fairy-tale' like exterior lies a seemingly direct approach to a greatly topical debate at the time. This was the supposed contrast between civilised and uncivilised persons, brought to the fore as a result of recent expeditions overseas. Although pioneering voyages of discovery were not a recent commodity since the travels of Christopher Columbus, almost a century earlier, it wasn't until the early sixteen hundreds that such voyages