Prospero's Magic Island example essay topic

The Tempest, by William Shakespeare is the last comedy of his career. The main character, Prospero, is the exiled Duke of Milan. He lives on an enchanted island and seeks the opportunity to punish and forgive his enemies by raising a tempest that drives them ashore. At first glimpse, the storm in the play appears to be more than Mother Nature acting up.

Just as the tempest is more than a storm; Shakespeare's The Tempest is more than what meets the eye. It is a symbolic tale of life in the theater, the art of acting and playwriting. The Tempest is filled with many references and comparisons to theater and acting. It also serves as Shakespeare's farewell to theater. A comparison to theater is Prospero's stage. Prospero's magic island can be viewed as an illustration of a Shakespearian stage: a place where stories are told, conflicts are brought to an end, and magical things happen.

The island, which Prospero inhabits, is one of magic, just like as a stage is a place of magic. In a theater, the playwright controls his stage. The stage is what he tells it to become. Similarly, Prospero has complete control over the island and all whom inhabit it. When Prospero obtains magic, he has learned to become a playwright. Throughout the play, Prospero uses this magic to control those living on his island.

Prospero uses it to bring his enemies to the island for the purpose of gaining control of them in an attempt to right old wrongs. Just as Prospero brings those he wishes to manipulate and change to his island with the tempest, a playwright brings actors into his theater to train them to play his roles. In the play there are other characters that represent different aspects of theater like: the stage crew, the audience and the critic. These characters are Ferdinand, Miranda and Caliban. Ferdinand, the son of the King Alonso, falls in love with Prospero's daughter Miranda. He begins to move logs for Miranda to prove that his love for her is true and claims, "but the mistress which I serve quickens what's dead / And makes my labors pleasures". ( , i, 6-7) Hauling logs, becomes Ferdinand's way of 'courting' Miranda, which causes her to fall madly in love with him.

His act of moving these logs closely resembles the job of the stage crew in a play. A stage crew does everything they can to move the sets quickly in order to impress the audience. If Ferdinand represents the stage crew, then Miranda would represent the audience. Miranda is an extremely innocent character and her innocence can be associated with the audience before seeing a play for the first time. Before a play is ever seen, the members of the audience are 'virgins' to that play, just like Miranda is a virgin. The character Caliban, the slave of Prospero, is the hardest in the play to figure out.

Caliban has a monstrous appearance and does some horrible things. However, his speech can be considered among the most beautiful in the play. While reading the play, the power struggle between the master and his slave becomes evident. Both Caliban and Prospero claim the island to be theirs and they try to get rid of one another. Caliban could represent the plays critic. This is because sometimes Caliban is harsh and brutal and yet other times, he can glorify the work of the playwright.

This could explain why his speech is so beautiful. Even though on the outside, Caliban may appear savage, on the inside he speaks the truth about the beauty of the stage, the stage being the island. Perhaps the most obvious reference to theater can be found in Prospero's epilogue when he says "But release me from my bands; with the help of your good hands". (Epi, i, 10). Prospero's words can be traced back to a renaissance theater, where the finale of the play was an epilogue of the main character asking for applause. Shakespeare does not close his play with Prospero's journey back to Naples to resume his dukedom.

Rather, he closes it with Prospero thanking the audience and inviting applause. Prospero and Shakespeare are very similar. They are alike in the sense that they both gave up something they viewed important. Prospero gives up his magic and Shakespeare gave up his plays. Prospero broke staff, "removed (his) cloak" and. ".. drowning (his) book". (V, i, 65-66).

The Tempest is known to be the last work of Shakespeare, his final farewell to the theater. Through his representation of Prospero as himself, Shakespeare is thereby retiring his magic of playwriting. As stated by Prospero in his epilogue, "Let your indulgence set me free". (Epi, i, 20).

Shakespeare wanted nothing more than to please his audience. Shakespeare would be free to retire when the audience applauded his work one last time, once he realized how much they enjoyed his final performance. It can easily be seen how Shakespeare uses the characters of his final play to say farewell to his audience for the last time. He may have found this type of goodbye to be the most appropriate to give the fans of his work.

By writing a figurative look at the life of theater for his last play, Shakespeare is not only saying goodbye in a classy way, but also he is paying respect to the artist. All of Shakespeare's work, can be interpreted in various ways. However, one thing is certain: Shakespeare will always live on within the mind and the imagination of those who read his work. After all, as Prospero said himself, "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with sleep". (IV, i, 156-158).