The Tempest: The Monsters in the realm between Magic and Men.
The Tempest is all about changing narratives and interestingly the change in narratives that changing perspective can bring about.
The theme I have chosen seeks to look at Prospero as a character caught between two realms- a material realm at Milan and a spiritual realm at the island. What makes these two reams material or spiritual is actually Prospero’s own perspective in each of these places and also the role that he plays, in each of them.
In Milan, Prospero as a duke lives in a world of material excess and Shakespeare does hint towards it in Prosper’s dialogue with Miranda in Act 1 Scene 2 when he paints with words an image of “rich garments, linens, stuffs, books” and in that of an abundant, robust state. In this realm, his success is cast under somewhat of a shadow. His scholarly pursuits( arguably on the occult) and his quest for “neglecting wordly ends”(90) makes him an ineffective administrator and not quite a man of the realm, this material realm. His brother, his intentions and motivations aside, is quite simply the better man for the job of the duke as an administrator who hints at being politically savvy while negotiating with Naples a seemingly protectorate agreement.
When Prospero moves to the spiritual realm or the island, something his interest and aptitue seems to make him better suited to; we see how well he is placed in this realm. Funny he is also a savvy and brutal politician in this realm in his dealings with Sycorax, Ariel and Caliban. His emergence as the alpha male in this realm speaks of the contradiction in his own character.
As a man, Prospero is caught between his humanity and his spirituality, would be one way to look at it. Prospero’s speech then speaks to us as a defining moment when he makes the choice between the two realms and two sides of his personality. The choice is difficult to make, but in the end Prospero is human, all too human perhaps. In his own words towards the end, he will drown his book, return to Milan leaving behind a space in which he actually is formidable, perhaps even better at it than he is in Milan. In that we find how Prospero, as similar as his words and magic seem to be to that of Medea’s reveals his true nature, or the chosen nature as Shakespeare seems to remind us in his wise way. Medea is a creature born in the spiritual world and her magic, potent and powerful was used by her in the ultimate act of revenge- killing her own children. Prospero, born in the womb of the material human world, gains Medea’s powers and a similar motivation for revenge.
But his act of revenge is almost Shakespeare’s tribute to the spirit of humanity -the ability to forgive and a chance to repent which is what he wants from those who wronged him. A statement oddly nostalgic of the Christian virtue for a play that references the supernatural, maybe that is the point of it.
