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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
From BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3:
Four hundred years after its first performance, Shakespeare's play still captivates audiences with its story of usurping brothers, monsters, magic and romance. Significantly it is also a world in which sound plays a crucial part, with Prospero's island being 'full of noises'. Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place, using illusion and skilful manipulation. A tempest brings Prospero's brother Antonio and Alonso, King of Naples to the island. Once there, Ariel and Prospero's machinations bring about the revelation of Antonio's evil cunning, the redemption of Alonso, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso's son, Ferdinand.
Four hundred years after its first performance, Shakespeare's play still captivates audiences with its story of usurping brothers, monsters, magic and romance. Significantly it is also a world in which sound plays a crucial part, with Prospero's island being 'full of noises'. Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place, using illusion and skilful manipulation. A tempest brings Prospero's brother Antonio and Alonso, King of Naples to the island. Once there, Ariel and Prospero's machinations bring about the revelation of Antonio's evil cunning, the redemption of Alonso, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso's son, Ferdinand.
I wanted to read The Tempest at some point for two reasons.
1. I would like to read Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed one day. But I have never seen any productions of The Tempest and don't really know the story very well.
2. I have never read a play before that I had not already seen a theatre, movie or TV production of (I don't count seeing Return to the Forbidden Planet in 1991 at the Cambridge theatre, London, as I remember absolutely nothing about it!)
So I added it to my Classics Club List #2 and it came up during the last CC Spin.
I was curious to know how easy it would be to read an unknown play.
It was not.
Easy, that is.
I struggled to gather any information about the characters. I couldn't pick up any inflections, tone or tempo from the bare words on the page. I didn't know if the various speeches were meant to funny, sad or ironic. There were simply not enough clues for me to work it out on my own.
In the end I let the words just wash over me. I gave up trying to remember who was speaking to whom, except for Prospero, Miranda and Ariel.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-tempest-william-shakespeare.html
1. I would like to read Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed one day. But I have never seen any productions of The Tempest and don't really know the story very well.
2. I have never read a play before that I had not already seen a theatre, movie or TV production of (I don't count seeing Return to the Forbidden Planet in 1991 at the Cambridge theatre, London, as I remember absolutely nothing about it!)
So I added it to my Classics Club List #2 and it came up during the last CC Spin.
I was curious to know how easy it would be to read an unknown play.
It was not.
Easy, that is.
I struggled to gather any information about the characters. I couldn't pick up any inflections, tone or tempo from the bare words on the page. I didn't know if the various speeches were meant to funny, sad or ironic. There were simply not enough clues for me to work it out on my own.
In the end I let the words just wash over me. I gave up trying to remember who was speaking to whom, except for Prospero, Miranda and Ariel.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-tempest-william-shakespeare.html
Transgression and redemption, loss and retrieval, exile and reunion
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, written between 1610–11. It is thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. The sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan and his daughter Miranda are stranded on an island with the deformed Caliban. A second shipwreck brings ashore the man of Miranda’s dreams. Prospero plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place. He uses illusion and skilful manipulation to conjure up a storm, the eponymous tempest. He does this to lure his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island. There, his scheming brings about the revelation of Antonio's lowly nature. It also redeems the King, and the brings about the marriage of Miranda to Alonso's son, Ferdinand.
The story draws on the tradition of the romance. This is a fictitious narrative set far away from ordinary life. Romances use themes such as the supernatural, wandering, exploration and discovery. They were often set in coastal regions, and featured exotic, fantastical locations. The also use themes of transgression and redemption, loss and retrieval, exile and reunion.
These are a few more themes I noticed when I watched and read the play.
The Illusion of Justice
The Tempest tells a straightforward story involving an unjust act. This is the usurpation of Prospero’s throne by his brother and his quest to restore himself to power. But, the idea of justice that the play works toward seems subjective. This idea represents the view of one character who controls the fate of all the other characters. Prospero’s idea of justice and injustice is somewhat hypocritical—though he is angry with his brother for taking his power, he has no qualms about enslaving Ariel and Caliban to achieve his ends. Because the play offers no notion of higher order or justice to supersede Prospero’s interpretation of events, the play is morally ambiguous.
By using magic and tricks that echo the special effects and spectacles of the theatre, Prospero persuades the other characters and the audience of the rightness of his case. As he does so, the ambiguities surrounding his methods resolve themselves. Prospero forgives his enemies, releases his slaves, and relinquishes his magic power, so that, at the end of the play, he is only an old man whose work has been responsible for all the audience’s pleasure. The establishment of Prospero’s idea of justice becomes less a commentary on justice in life than on the nature of morality in art.
Humanity
Miranda and Prospero both have opposing views of Caliban’s humanity. They think that their education of him has lifted him from his brutish status. But they seem to see him as inherently brutish. His base nature can never be overcome by nurture. The play leaves the matter ambiguous. Caliban balances all his eloquent speeches, with degrading drunken, servile behaviour.
Colonialism
The uninhabited island presents the sense of possibility to almost everyone who lands there. Prospero has found it, in its isolation, an ideal place to school his daughter. Sycorax, Caliban’s mother, worked her magic. All these characters envision the island as a space of freedom and unrealized potential. Yet, while there are many representatives of the colonial impulse in the play, the colonized have only one representative: Caliban. We might develop sympathy for him at first, when Prospero seeks him out to abuse him. But this sympathy is made more difficult by his willingness to abase himself. Even as Caliban plots to kill one colonial master (Prospero) he sets up another (Stefano). The urge to rule and the urge to be ruled seem intertwined.
As for the book itself, at this price you can't go wrong, its a bargain. Supplement your reading by watching the play itself, then it'll all make much more sense.
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, written between 1610–11. It is thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. The sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan and his daughter Miranda are stranded on an island with the deformed Caliban. A second shipwreck brings ashore the man of Miranda’s dreams. Prospero plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place. He uses illusion and skilful manipulation to conjure up a storm, the eponymous tempest. He does this to lure his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island. There, his scheming brings about the revelation of Antonio's lowly nature. It also redeems the King, and the brings about the marriage of Miranda to Alonso's son, Ferdinand.
The story draws on the tradition of the romance. This is a fictitious narrative set far away from ordinary life. Romances use themes such as the supernatural, wandering, exploration and discovery. They were often set in coastal regions, and featured exotic, fantastical locations. The also use themes of transgression and redemption, loss and retrieval, exile and reunion.
These are a few more themes I noticed when I watched and read the play.
The Illusion of Justice
The Tempest tells a straightforward story involving an unjust act. This is the usurpation of Prospero’s throne by his brother and his quest to restore himself to power. But, the idea of justice that the play works toward seems subjective. This idea represents the view of one character who controls the fate of all the other characters. Prospero’s idea of justice and injustice is somewhat hypocritical—though he is angry with his brother for taking his power, he has no qualms about enslaving Ariel and Caliban to achieve his ends. Because the play offers no notion of higher order or justice to supersede Prospero’s interpretation of events, the play is morally ambiguous.
By using magic and tricks that echo the special effects and spectacles of the theatre, Prospero persuades the other characters and the audience of the rightness of his case. As he does so, the ambiguities surrounding his methods resolve themselves. Prospero forgives his enemies, releases his slaves, and relinquishes his magic power, so that, at the end of the play, he is only an old man whose work has been responsible for all the audience’s pleasure. The establishment of Prospero’s idea of justice becomes less a commentary on justice in life than on the nature of morality in art.
Humanity
Miranda and Prospero both have opposing views of Caliban’s humanity. They think that their education of him has lifted him from his brutish status. But they seem to see him as inherently brutish. His base nature can never be overcome by nurture. The play leaves the matter ambiguous. Caliban balances all his eloquent speeches, with degrading drunken, servile behaviour.
Colonialism
The uninhabited island presents the sense of possibility to almost everyone who lands there. Prospero has found it, in its isolation, an ideal place to school his daughter. Sycorax, Caliban’s mother, worked her magic. All these characters envision the island as a space of freedom and unrealized potential. Yet, while there are many representatives of the colonial impulse in the play, the colonized have only one representative: Caliban. We might develop sympathy for him at first, when Prospero seeks him out to abuse him. But this sympathy is made more difficult by his willingness to abase himself. Even as Caliban plots to kill one colonial master (Prospero) he sets up another (Stefano). The urge to rule and the urge to be ruled seem intertwined.
As for the book itself, at this price you can't go wrong, its a bargain. Supplement your reading by watching the play itself, then it'll all make much more sense.
As with other GR friends, I have be reading - or re-reading - certain of Shakespeare's plays in preparation for reading the modern novel versions that have appeared around the 400th anniversary of his death, notably, but not exclusively, the Hogarth Shakespeare series.
I've obviously nothing of merit to add to hundreds of years of literary criticism, but nevertheless will note by subjective impressions.
While some plays have been a revelation - notably Hamlet - I must admit The Tempest hasn't been my favourite of those I have read: its multiple storylines combined with its short length don't allow the psychological detail of other plays, the action relies too much on the deus-ex-machina of Prospero's magic and Ariel's enchantments, and given the treachery of various of the characters all seems too neatly forgiven at the play's end.
But I should take Prosperos's advice: Do not infest your mind with beating on the strangeness of this business.
It will be interesting to see what Margaret Atwood does with it in [b:Hag-Seed|28588073|Hag-Seed|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463887982s/28588073.jpg|49490147], particularly as I was no fan of her most recent novel.
I've obviously nothing of merit to add to hundreds of years of literary criticism, but nevertheless will note by subjective impressions.
While some plays have been a revelation - notably Hamlet - I must admit The Tempest hasn't been my favourite of those I have read: its multiple storylines combined with its short length don't allow the psychological detail of other plays, the action relies too much on the deus-ex-machina of Prospero's magic and Ariel's enchantments, and given the treachery of various of the characters all seems too neatly forgiven at the play's end.
But I should take Prosperos's advice: Do not infest your mind with beating on the strangeness of this business.
It will be interesting to see what Margaret Atwood does with it in [b:Hag-Seed|28588073|Hag-Seed|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463887982s/28588073.jpg|49490147], particularly as I was no fan of her most recent novel.
Meh.
At this point, I feel like I'm reading Shakespeare more so I can get when it's referenced in everything else, rather than for the actual Shakespeare. (I literally just finished [b:The People in the Trees|16126596|The People in the Trees|Hanya Yanagihara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356108388l/16126596._SY75_.jpg|21950352], which had an epigraph from this play. I'm convinced [b:A Little Life|22822858|A Little Life|Hanya Yanagihara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446469353l/22822858._SY75_.jpg|42375710] was named for it as well, but I'd have to read it to see.) I'm finding I especially dislike his romances; the dramas might be more my speed.
There's always:
- a drunk
- a jester/clown
- an instalove romance
- random songs
- someone trying to kill someone else
- people trying to trick each other
... It's tiresome. Oh, and there's a ton of racism against Caliban, the slave.
At this point, I feel like I'm reading Shakespeare more so I can get when it's referenced in everything else, rather than for the actual Shakespeare. (I literally just finished [b:The People in the Trees|16126596|The People in the Trees|Hanya Yanagihara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356108388l/16126596._SY75_.jpg|21950352], which had an epigraph from this play. I'm convinced [b:A Little Life|22822858|A Little Life|Hanya Yanagihara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446469353l/22822858._SY75_.jpg|42375710] was named for it as well, but I'd have to read it to see.) I'm finding I especially dislike his romances; the dramas might be more my speed.
There's always:
- a drunk
- a jester/clown
- an instalove romance
- random songs
- someone trying to kill someone else
- people trying to trick each other
... It's tiresome. Oh, and there's a ton of racism against Caliban, the slave.
This play was not one of my favorites but I did enjoy the story. Romantic comedy with elements of tragedy.
If you want to know why Shakespeare is so famous read this. The play is so beautifully written, the foreshadowing and use of dramatic irony is so subtle and fun. The tragedy left me aghast and while I'm never one for happy endings it was just so well written that I couldn't help but be happy for the characters. Paulina is one of the best characters ever, and the last reunion between Hermione and her family was one of the most beautiful scenes ever written A lot of people complain about the disparity between tragedy and comedy but it never felt like completely different parts to me and the use of Time as a character seemed like a unique element that did tie in the events.
"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
William Shakespeare's The Tempest is a reincarnation of all the beauty that Shakespeare has accumulated in his plays throughout his life. It's a result of his excellence both in tragedy as well as comedy. The characters, once uprooted from their 'rightful' home, finds peace at the end. Though I'm still feeling for Caliban; someone who enslaved himself again for lack of experience of freedom, how's he going to thrive? Will he get used to freedom, or will he choose to enslave himself again?
