The Tempest Adaptations and Transformations

The most recent version of The Tempest by Julie Taymor changes Prospero to “Prospera,” a female figure played by Helen Mirren. Consider both 17th-century gender issues and more recent ones in examination of the play’s discussions about virginity, marriage and femininity.

In the reader's first encounter with Miranda and Prospero, it is clear that she suspects he's caused this tempest to occur. (1.2.1) Miranda is displeased because she thinks Prospero has used his magic to stir up the seas. Prospero never denies he caused the tempest, but he never openly admits it either. Instead, he offers the conventional response of Shakespearean love: "I did it for you." (1.2.16) Typically, such a response would not take place in the vertical parental relationship, but rather between lovers or potential lovers. (see Richard III : 1.2.138) Shakespeare's use of this response from a father to a daughter alludes to a break in the traditional make-up of the father-daughter relationship. And thus, it is important to examine.

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.

A different representation of Sycorax’s in the adaptation reflects a change in cultural values with a feminist attitude. Taymor’s The Tempest is faithful to the setting and plot but deviates in order to create characters relatable to the real world of the audience, particularly regarding discriminatory ideologies against women. Taymor’s The Tempest changes her audience’s understanding of the representation of gender stereotypes between protagonists and antagonist. By making Prospera magic darker, Taymor “blurs the opposition between Prospero's supposed white magic and Sycorax’s black magic” (Vinson 53). Most significantly, Taymor’s inclusions and exclusions of lines and representations of Sycorax make the character more sympathetic because it softens the representation of Sycorax. Including explicit similarities between Prospera and Sycorax’s as a witches. There is a space generated for an excuse of their magic and explanations for their exile. This further makes Sycorax sympathetic because “her identity and role as an evil witch are reshaped and she can begin to be understood not as an implicit antagonist” (Vinson 53). The result of Taymor’s adaptation is not plugged by gender stereotype and She put efforts to remove gender stereotypes embeded in the characters. By removing stereotypes, Taymor allows audiences to

                 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

The role of motherhood in the movie is powerful than the play, which we can see in Act 4, Scene 1 when Prospero approves the love Miranda and Ferdinand declares, however points out a harsh warning to Ferdinand. In the movie, because of the female character, it is easier to make the connection of mother and daughter. By switching the gender in this movie, it lead women characters have a sexual power and empowerment, which was none in the play caused by the pressure made in the Elizabethan Era. Taymor, director of “The Tempest” adds; “I didn't really have a male actor that excited me in mind, and yet there had been a couple of phenomenal females—Helen Mirren being one of them—who [made me think]: 'My God, does this play change? What happens if you make that role into a female role?” (Roger) By casting Prospera, instead of Prospero changed the main themes such as power and sexual empowerment, also the voice of Shakespeare in Prospero, whom he is sometimes occurred as.

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.

In Shakespeare's play, “The Tempest”, Prospero, the main character, is the rightful Duke of Milan. He found refuge on a distant island after his brother, Antonio, seized Prospero’s title and homeland. These events and experiences of being exiled advance character to become isolated and enriched at the same time. As a comic hero, Prospero start off as being frustrated and vengeful due to his separation from his title and homeland, but is later refined due to those experiences.

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

Shakespeare’s The Tempest movie and play have many differences and similarities with the characters. Such as, Ariel, Ariel’s actions, Prospero, and Ferdinand song. One of the obvious changes is the fact that Prospero (the main protagonist and Miranda’s father) has been changed to a woman and acting as Miranda’s mother. As a cause of this many of her lines had to be changed so that they would be feminine. Secondly, Ariel in the movie was far more masculine than he seemed in the play. Another thing is that Ariel’s actions were different as well. In the movie Ariel’s spell made strange frogs appear and firedogs unlike the play. Lastly, the character Ferdinand never sang in the play but in the movie he had a singing

With such brutal betrayal, at the hands of his brother, Prospero yearns to have complete control to avoid matters ever going against him. Prospero exhibits complete control over his daughter, Miranda. Every parent and child are bound to have arguments at some points throughout their lives together, but such arguments hardly change the dynamics of a relationship. While Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, women were given insignificant roles in society and were believed to be inferior to men. In interpreting Shakespeare’s play, it is evident that he uses Prospero’s relationship with Miranda to signify the little say women had in their own affairs.

In 'The Tempest' Shakespeare presents parent and child relationships as an emotional process that eventually ends in a sacrifice, leaving the parent and child happy. Through the characters of Miranda and Prospero, Shakespeare shows that for parents to make their children happy they need to sacrifice what they like but can live without.

Julie Taymor 's 2010 film adaptation of Shakespeare 's The Tempest is a truthful recreation of the classic romantic tragicomedy in all aspects except that the role of the magician, Prospero, is played by Helen Mirren, turning him from Prospero to Prospera. Through this simple change in the gender of one of the main characters, we see the play 's themes called into question and viewed differently to how they would have been if the role of Prospero was played by a male. These themes include the usurpation of royalty and family. This review will discuss how Taymor 's decision to change Prospero 's gender is a critique of modern gender discourse.

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.