Vengeance and Forgiveness in Shakespeares The Tempest Essay -- Tempes

Vengeance and Forgiveness in Shakespeares The TempestThere are more elements in Shakespeares play, The Tempest, which one cannot reconcile with the real world. The main theme in The Tempest is illusion, and the main focus is the experiment by Prospero. The Tempest, it is clear, features an experiment by Prospero. He has not brought the Europeans to the vicinity of the island, but when they do come close to it, he has, through the force of illusion, lured them into his very special realm. The experiment first of all breaks up their social solidarity, for they land in different groups Ferdinand by himself, the court group, Stephano and Trinculo by themselves, and the sailors remain asleep. The legerdemain leads them by separate paths until they all meet in the travel drawn by Prospero in front of his cave. There he removes the spell of the illusions the human family recognizes each other, and together they resolve to return to Italy, leaving behind the powers of the magic associate d with the island. Before considering the purpose of Prosperos experiment, we should note how central to all his magic Ariel is. And Ariel is not human but a magical spirit who has been released from natural bondage (being riven up in a tree) by Prosperos book learning. The earlier inhabitants of the island, Sycorax and Caliban, had no sense of how to use Ariel, and so they simply imprisoned him in the world which governs them, raw nature. Prosperos power depends, in large part, on Ariels release and willing service. In that sense, Ariel can be seen as some imaginative power which makes the effects of the theatre (like lightning in the masts of the boat) possible. One of the great attractions of this view of the play as a celeb... ... vengeance. (5.1. 18-28) Here, the imaginative sympathy for the sufferings of others leads to an active intervention based upon virtue rather than vengeance. This is a cardinal recognition in the play virtue expressed in forgiveness is a higher hum an attribute than vengeance. And in the conclusion of the play, Prospero does not however mention the list of crimes against him. He simply offers to forgive and accept what has happened to him, in a spirit of reconciliation. Unlike other Shakespeare plays, the ending of The Tempest requires neither the decease nor the punishment of any of the parties. Works Cited and Consulted Gervinus, G.G. The Tempest. The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc., Detroit. 1989 304-307.Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Greenblatt, Stephen. New York W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1997.