Tempest Blog #4

Ross Schonberg

Ms. Gubanich

English

December 11, 2015

Betrayal and Revenge

In the Tempest, there are many different themes that are represented throughout the play. There are also many different characters that display these themes. A very important theme throughout the story is Betrayal, characters going against other characters, like Sebastian going against King Alonso. Another important theme is revenge, which getting back at someone for something they did. There is a good amount of revenge shown in this story. These traits are seen throughout the story, and it’s intriguing to see how the work within the story.

First, one of the many relationships in the story is between two brothers, King Alonso and Sebastian. Throughout the story we learn that Sebastian doesn’t really have a position back in Milan, like his treacherous friend Antonio, who became the Duke of Milan also by betraying his brother, the smart, and powerful wizard Prospero, Sebastian is a mean and conniving schemer. As the story progresses you can start to tell that he is aggressive but also cowardly. An example of this is when Alonso and Gonzalo are put to sleep by Ariel, so when they are asleep Sebastian is tricked (but really persuaded) by Antonio into killing his brother Alonso and, therefore, he would become the next king. As he is about to kill Alonso Sebastian says, “Thy case, dear friend, Shall be my precedent. As thou got’st Milan, I’ll come by Naples. Draw thy sword. One stroke Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest. And I the king shall love thee.” (2.1.332-336). fortunately though Alonso and Gonzalo awake and Since Sebastian and Antonio have their swords out, they just make up a lie saying that they were protecting them from lions. Throughout this whole scene, we learn that Sebastian has betrayed Alonso because this shows us that he doesn’t care for Alonso and doesn’t have any loyalty towards his own brother. Also, Antonio has betrayed his brother as well, because he stole the position of duke from his brother. This shows that these two characters have no care for anyone other than themselves and will betray anyone to get what they want.

The other theme shown in the story, which is similar to betrayal is revenge. There are many different times that this is shown, an important one is when Caliban meet Stephano and Trinculo. As the two drunkards listen to Caliban, who is telling them about this plan to get revenge on Prospero for killing his mother and then enslaving him, they start to agree. It makes sense as to why Caliban would make this crazy revenge plot, he did have almost everything taken from him, his mother and his freedom. So Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo go and try to kill Prospero, but that doesn’t work out well for them, as they are chased out by spirit dogs. Another important revenge plot in the story and perhaps the most important one is Prospero’s. This plot is basically the whole story, he creates this storm, which causes his past enemies, like Antonio, Alonso, and Sebastian to come to the island, Gonzalo's there as well, but Prospero likes him because he helped them escape years ago. Then as they are walking around Prospero sends Airel to become a Harpy and scare them, but also giving them hints that Prospero is on the island as well. So this whole plan was played out to perfection, just so that he can get revenge on the people, who sort of ruined his life by making have to leave Milan and go to a lonely island, so this revenge plot does have some reasoning to it, Prospero also never thinks to kill any of them, he just wants to get back at them.

So it is quite obvious that these themes have a big impact on the story and that the story sometimes circles around revenge and betrayal. These themes are some of the motives for the characters in this story and it was interesting to see what they will do when they are either going to betray someone or create a revenge plan against another character.