a comparison of shakespeare

7/27/2019 A Comparison of Shakespeare

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A Comparison of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and Cesaire's "ATempest"

MORE: The Tempest Caliban Prospero

The Tempest is one of William Shakespeare's final plays, written

around the year 1610 and considered to represent the "culmination of

his career" (Damrosch 1665). Centred around a deposed ruler,

Prospero, the play takes place exclusively on a distant island after theship carrying the King of Naples encounters a powerful storm and the

crew is forced to abandon the vessel. We find out that this is caused

by the spirit Ariel, a servant of Prospero's. This in fact marks the

beginning of a series of actions by Prospero to manipulate the other

characters in the play towards his own end.

After reassuring his daughter Miranda that no one on the ship was

hurt, Prospero proceeds to inform her of how they ended up on theisland, being betrayed by his brother Antonio who took his title as

Duke of Milan (Damrosch 1672). We then meet Caliban, a slave of

Prospero's and the rightful owner of the island by his Mother Sycorax

who owned it previously. Soon Ferdinand, the Kings son happens

upon Miranda and the two instantly fall in love. Although this is just

what Prospero expected and hoped to happen he plays the suspicious

father and enslaves Ferdinand despite his daughters protest.

The next characters we come across are Alonso, the King of Naples

and his party, including his scheming brother Sebastian, Antonio and

the good hearted Gonzalo. We find Sebastian and Antonio both

plotting against the king despite the dire situation they appear to be in.

The next scene has the jester Trinculo and Stephano, a drunk, come



across Caliban as he hides from what he takes to be an agent of

Prospero's. By the end of this scene Caliban has decided to swear his

loyalty to Stephano and secure his aid in killing Prospero (Damrosch

1699).

In act 3, scene 3 Prospero finally confronts his enemies as he presents

them with a banquet only to snatch it away at the last minute. Ariel

echoes his feelings towards them when calling them "three men of

sin" (Damrosch 1703). Towards the end of the play Prospero again

meets with the kings party and a remorseful Alonso. This meetinghowever is meant to reconcile their differences and bring his plan to a

close. Alonso restores Prospero's dukedom during there meeting and

in turn learns of his son's survival and betrothal to Miranda. He more

or less calls out Antonio for the traitor that he is but forgives him

nonetheless. The play itself ends with Prospero appealing to the

audience to release him from the island through applause (Damrosch

1720).

Aime Cesaire's A Tempest is a politicized take on Shakespeare's play

created during the late sixties, a time of great social change. It is

really a "post-colonial response to The Tempest " and as such deals

much more with the story from the point of view of Caliban and Ariel

(W. Mich University). In this version Caliban is a black slave and thespirit Ariel is represented as a mulatto slave.

This version more or less follows the same story however there are

other differences from the play which influenced it. The dialogue on

Caliban's part is much more harsh and more frequent. In saying "I'll

impale you! And on a stake that you've sharpened yourself! You'll



have impaled yourself!", Caliban's aggression and hate towards

Prospero is a bit more evident (Damrosch 1726).

There are clear lines drawn between characters based on race and

even the formerly neutral Gonzalo is condescending towards what he

views as a rebellious Caliban obviously in need of Christianity

(Damrosch 1726). Caliban's race and subsequent treatment as a result

of is quite obvious and the same with Ariel in his role as the willing

servant. Better treated but still a captive, Cesaire's decision to make

him a mulatto slave was probably an obvious one as they aretraditionally viewed as better treated.

In The Tempest there are quite a few characters that might be easily

identifiable as villains but the main figure, Prospero seems to play

many roles, good and bad. All of the events in the play are more or

less orchestrated by him in his attempt to get justice and return toMilan. It can even be argued that he is largely at fault for his current

situation by neglecting his duties as Duke and passing off

responsibility to his brother (Damrosch 1671). Whether Prospero is a

villain or not is not so difficult to figure out in Cesaire's work as that

is his purpose as an oppressive European colonist.

Prospero is also a good example of the role power plays in the story.

He wields great magic and has the loyalty of a powerful spirit which

he uses to exact his revenge and control all of the characters in the

around him. Not least of all is his daughter Miranda whom he very

much uses to reconcile with King Alonso by marrying her off to his

son. As mentioned previously as King Alonso's party is wandering the

island Prospero conjures up a feast using his magic only to snatch it



away from them (Damrosch 1703). In doing so he demonstrates his

power over his enemies, whom flee in fear.

The character Stephano who happens upon Caliban as he's hiding

gives us another example of power in the play and more specifically

how the characters often abuse it towards their own ends. When

Caliban swears his loyalty to him he readily agrees and takes

advantage of this, more or less declaring himself king of the island

(Damrosch 1694). We see that Caliban has once again decided to trust

an outsider to his detriment.

Miranda plays a unique role as she is really the only female character

present on the island. She is also depicted as a helpless character

whom was the focus of Caliban's unwanted attention thus resulting in

his current situation. In this way his treatment is justified, he comes to

represent "bestial desire", and Miranda establishes herself as aninnocent in need of constant protection (Sanchez 2).

As to whether Shakespeare's play lends itself to an interpretation like

Cesaires, I would have to say that it does. Caliban's character and the

way Prospero treats him is a good representation of colonial attitudes

towards indigenous peoples (Damrosch 1666). His rebuke of the idea

that Prospero did him a favor by teaching him English is synonymous

with the view of many, especially during the late sixties when Cesaire

wrote his version (Damrosch 1679).

Sources Cited:



Aime Cesaire's Revision of "The Tempest" with Caliban as a Heroic

Rebel Against Co...

Aime Cesaire's 1969 play rushes through most of Shakespeare's plots

and characterization to a denunciation by Caliban of insidious

colonilization of seeing himself as brutish and inferior.

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