Relationships – the Powerful Art
The world is a network of relationships between people, animals, and nature. More particularly there are important relationships that exist between people resulting in communities that make up society today. Various people in communities are blessed with the skills and in general the power to bring about change to society, however, this power is more often used as a mean s to influence relationships in society. Through analyzing the depiction of relationships in society and family settings in the Notre Dame Shakespeare Production and play text of the tragic comedy The Tempest, we see how marriage and family settings are means by which societies perpetuate themselves. This Shakespearean romance reinforces how the individual parties, father and daughter, fiancée and fiancé which sum up are relationships in society, exercise their power in differing ways as portrayed in the screening’s blocking and actors’ diction while adopting the use of human emotions and certain physiological feelings to manipulate others beings.
Firstly, in examining and critiquing the Father and Daughter relation between Prospero and Miranda, it is vital to note that the setting on an Island. “Here in this island we arrived; and here,” ought to be understand as exile considering that a tempest has just occurred (1.2.171). When people are away from the physical place they call home, their behavior and attitudes towards one another seemingly change thus the island becomes
Their interaction with one another, and Miranda's hesitations to believe all her father says are two areas in this relationship to study. She is seemingly unaware of the family feud between Prospero and Antonio. She doesn't remember their banishment or how she and her father even got on the island. She was only three years old. (1.2.48)
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.
In Act I of the play, Prospero finally tells Miranda the woeful story of how she and he arrived on the island. From the
Miranda's schooling in The Tempest shows the audience the conflicting arrangement white women in the Shakespearean drama as well as Shakespearean times are forced to act within. Paul Brown points out that "the discourse of sexuality…offers the crucial nexus for the various domains of colonialist discourse" (208) and the conduct in Prospero manipulates his followers' sexuality is the mainstay of his power. The Miranda-Prospero relationship servers to represent a sort of patriarchy, which is unarguably the system many Renaissance women and women of Shakespeare's time found themselves in. It is thus unsurprising that Prospero controls Miranda and her sexuality as well. The
Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest is set on a mysterious island surrounded by the ocean. Here the magician Prospero is ruler of the isle with his two servants Caliban and Ariel. Caliban is the abrasive, foul-mouthed son of the evil witch Sycorax. When Prospero was shipwrecked on the island Prospero treated him kindly but their relationship changed when Caliban tried to rape Prospero's daughter, Miranda. Caliban then became Prospero's unwilling servant. Caliban serves his master out of fear Prospero's wrath. Prospero's other servant Ariel is a graceful spirit who has courtesy and charm. Ariel has put her services at Prospero's disposal out of gratitude for his kind
Though often times in the world one may get caught up in the secrets and rumours about them or those around them, it is these secrets and rumours that shape a human being’s character and relationships with those around them. In the Shakespearean tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, the effects that secrets have on characters’ relationships shape the play, yet more specifically, it is the literal secrets regarding relationships that shape such relationships, which, in turn, shapes the play. Different relationships as outlined thoroughly in the play are not only a result of the secrets themselves, but the location in which these certain secrets are initially portrayed.
Specifically, Prospero uses his love for Miranda to hide under the shroud of patriarchy. “The Tempest” opens with a storm in the first act and by scene two, the reader learns that it is Prospero who has commissioned the storm. First, one must examine why Prospero summoned the storm. When Miranda presses her father as to why the people in the ship are in the tempest, he says that “I have done nothing but in care of thee” (Act 1, Scene 2). In some aspects, Prospero is acting against patriarchal ideals because he summons the storm. Directly after Prospero declares the tempest in the name of Miranda, he debases himself. Prospero draws attention to his fall from grace and says "your humble father who lives in a poor little shack" (Act 1, Scene 2). Within these scenes, Prospero is reinforcing his patriarchal role. Furthermore, Prospero is constructing his salvation through Miranda's desires. The tempest has been summoned to maroon Ferdinand and Alonso and ensure Prospero's prosperity off the island. Prospero’s love for Miranda serves only towards his assimilation back into a position of
Although, he acts like she is an inanimate object that can be just given away. This could demonstrate Prospero and Miranda’s lack of relationship, as he doesn’t treat her like a father should treat his daughter. Nevertheless, when Prospero says, “If thou dost break her virgin-knot… No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall to make this contract grow,” it could promote the possibility of Prospero becoming the overprotective father is naturally is.
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.
Marriage is the legally recognized union of two people, whereas a relationship is merely defined as a connection between two things, or in this case, between two people (OED). In the Elizabethan age, marriage was mainly arranged for political alliances and the merging of wealth in noble families (Vasuki). While relationships refer to the meaningful connections between people, marriage was more of a tool for advancement. Shakespeare’s plays demonstrate these societal conventions by organizing marriage plots fueled by political or financial gain. Likewise, the absence of romantic relationships in these plays reflects the period’s cultural norm in which romantic relationships were mainly nonexistent and marriages were pursued for protection rather than love. The treatment of marriage and relationships in Hamlet is side railed by the Hamlet’s revenge and bias, whereas relationships in the form of premarital sex are the primary focus of Measure for Measure. Nonetheless, this essay will analyze both of Gertrude’s marriages in Hamlet to prove that they are predominantly loveless tools for kings to pursue their personal agendas. This analysis will provide a frame of reference or lens, through which this paper will outline the problematic nature of Measure for Measure’s sexual relationships.
William Shakespeare once told us, "All the World’s a Stage" —and now his quote can be applied to his own life as it is portrayed in the recent film, Shakespeare In Love. This 1998 motion picture prospered with the creative scripting of Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman and direction of John Madden. The combined effort of these men, on top of many other elements, produced a film that can equally be enjoyed by the Shakespeare lover for its literary brilliance, or for the romantic viewer who wants to experience a passionate love story.
There are 6.5 million species of land mammals. Wildlife biologists get the privilege of studying and spending time with these animals as their everyday life. I should be a wildlife biologist so I can study land mammals.
Family is one of, if not the biggest theme in Shakespeare 's The Tempest and this theme is of course shown in Taymor 's adaptation of the play. But the fact that Prospero is a woman in the film shows the audience a deeper relationship between Prospera and Miranda – the mother-daughter relationship. In the original play, we see Prospero as owning his daughter rather than having a 'normal ' father-daughter relationship with her. It is as though Miranda is an object to be given as a prize to another man – Ferdinand. In
Miranda was the most important person in Prospero’s life, he loved and protected her throughout the play. When sharing with Miranda the tale of how they came to the island, Prospero tells her, “O, a cherubin, thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile…” (I. ii. 182-183). He states that she made their exile easier by bringing him peace and comfort. The film adaptation captures
This paper critically analyses the theme of social mobility through marriage in Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’. In addition, the paper highlights how different characters in the play got into higher social classes or desired to be in higher social classes through marriage. This paper holds that in a highly stratified society such as that presented in the Shakespeare’s play; marriage plays a significant role in in social class mobility. As opposed to some traditional society where marriage was only permitted along an individual’s class, Shakespeare presents a literally liberal society with marriage and other relationships permitted along all the classes within the society. In fact, marriage is more of a person choice, contrary to the perception in the tradition society.