Tempest Blog #5

Ross Schonberg

Ms. Gubanich

English

December 16, 2015

Power and control

In the Tempest, there are so many characters on the island, that all the characters are on, with different levels of social class, on and off of the island. These characters are not just peasants stranded on an island (well two of them are), but rather people of importance and high society back in their homeland. They either have power or control, while other characters have both power and control. Some examples would be Prospero, Ariel, and Even King Alonso.

In the beginning of the story, we see that there is a big storm and everyone on the ship is being tossed around, thinking that they are going to die out at sea. As the ship is being hit by “the storm” it turns out that Prospero, the smart wizard, who was forced to be sent out of Milan by the people who are on the boat, is the person behind the storm. So Prospero sees this as the perfect opportunity to get back at his former colleagues. So Prospero, over the years, has become a powerful wizard and was able to create the storm and controlled it so that everyone would land on the island safely. Prospero has basically taken control of the island, ever since he killed Caliban’s mother. With his magical powers, he is also able to hold to other characters as his servant/slave, like Ariel and Caliban, and has control over what they do and. Another character that has some power and control is Ariel, Prospero's servant. Ariel is a spirit who was cast into a tree, by Caliban’s evil mother, then saved by Prospero, so Ariel was thankful for saving him, and became his servant, hoping that if he does enough work for Prospero he will get his freedom. But Ariel isn’t just some little fairy, he is the one that Prospero sent out to create the storm, there is also a scene in which King Alonso and his men are wandering the island and all of the sudden Ariel comes towards them and puts Alonso and Gonzalo under a sleep spell, then when he needs to wake them he says “My master through his art foresees the danger that you, his friend, are in, and sends me forth for else his project dies--to keep them living.”(2.1.341-343). Another example is when King Alonso and his men are still wandering and they see this big table of great food, as they are about to eat it Ariel pops up and looks like a harpy. So in the grand scheme of things Ariel has a significant amount of power, but with all that power he really doesn't have that much control, other than will his spells.

Opposite to the previous characters with some great power is that of King Alonso. Even though he is a king and probably has a good amount of power back in Milan, on the island he is almost powerless. He is stranded on an island with his me, and even the men that he walks around with, Sebastian and Antonio, want to kill him because they want the power that he has as king. He is also powerless because this island is almost all controlled by Prospero, who messes with Alonso, scaring him when Prospero sends Ariel as the harpy. He is also giving away his daughter Claribel (who we don’t see in the play) to another king in some other country, which then leads to the tempest story. So it is fair to say that King Alonso has practically no power on the island whatsoever, other than letting his son marry Miranda at the end of the story.

In conclusion, there are a decent amount of characters with certain levels of power. It is intriguing to see how the characters with power use them, and how much of their power they use in the play. Also, it’s interesting to see who uses power on who and why are they using these powers on other people, and sometimes these powers mean that they now have control over another character, like with Prospero and Caliban. So in this story there are many different themes and power and control are certainly two of them.

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.

Tempest Blog #3

Ross Schonberg

Ms. Gubanich

English

December 3, 2015

Tempest Blog 3: Love

In the play The Tempest there is so much happening throughout the story. There is action, magic, revenge, betrayal, and especially love. Love is probably the most prominent theme within the story, it changes people’s feelings. There are a few examples of love in the play. Prospero towards Miranda, Ferdinand and Miranda, even the (family) relationship between the brothers Alonso and Sebastian. The way people interact in the play based on their relationships plays out interestingly.

First, One of the most important relationships is between two family members, Prospero and Miranda. Prospero is the father of Miranda, and many years ago Prospero, and when Miranda was a little girl, were kicked out of Milan, fortunately they made to an island. So ever since they were kicked out of Milan Prospero has been very protective of his daughter. A good example of this is when Prospero and Miranda go to meet with Caliban, their slave, who wanted to have sex with Miranda, because he said to Prospero “O ho, O ho!Wouldn’t had been done! Thou didst prevent me. I had peopled else this isle with Calibans.”(1.2.419-421). Prospero is totally against what caliban wants to do, also the relationship between Caliban and Prospero is basically hatred towards one another. Even later on in the story Caliban makes a plan to try and kill Prospero.

So later on, after the shipwreck and everyone has made to the island, Ferdinand, King Alonso's son, is seen by Prospero and Miranda just walking around the island. When ferdinand and miranda first meet it is easy to see that they are beginning to fall for one another. As they get closer with each other Prospero is somewhat protective of Miranda, since Miranda has never really met a man, also that Ferdinand is the son of the king who betrayed him years ago, so it can be somewhat justified as to why Prospero is trying to protect his daughter. As mentioned earlier, in the beginning of the play we see the another one of the most important relationships, which is Ferdinand and Miranda. This is a love story very similar to another shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, because Ferdinand and Miranda come from two separate families, who have a bad connection, but Ferdinand and Miranda still love each other. Their love story is really not that complex, so it is really just the two of them falling in love, with Prospero looking over them.

Another key relationship in the story is between two brothers, King Alonso and his brother Sebastian. On the outside Sebastian seems as if nothing is wrong and that him and his brother are on good terms, but really Sebastian does not like the his brother and feels that he should be king. Alonso is unaware of this hatred from Sebastian, and always acts kindly to him. Sebastian is not the smartest as well, because in the play while Gonzalo and Alonso are asleep Sebastian gets tricked into killing them by his friend Antonio, who also wants to take power from the king, but fortunately right before they're about to kill them they both wake up.

In conclusion, the way people act in the play based on their relationship is very interesting. I find the most interesting relationship in the play is the one between the two brothers, since we know that this is a comedy and that no one dies in a shakespeare comedy, I am curios as to what will happen to Sebastian. This is one of the key aspects of the play and it is presented in a very nice way, showing how they are all connected to each other.