The Tempest: A Hybrid Genre Play by William Shakespeare, Slide di Letteratura Inglese

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Robert Browning, «Caliban Upon Setebos» (1864)
Rainer Maria Rilke, «Der Geist Ariel» (1923)
Aimé Césaire, Une tempête (1969)
Angela Carter, Come Unto TheseYellow Sands (1985)
Suniti Namjoshi, Snapshots of Caliban (1989)
Peter Greenaway, Prospero’s Books (1991)
Marina Warner, Indigo (1992)
Ted Hughes, «Setebos» (1998) Gollum or Smeagol, in the film version of Lord of the Rings
Betrayal and usurpation
Plotting
Attempted murders
Final celebration of life and renewal through repentance and forgiveness
Love theme
Wonder, enchantment, supernatural
HYBRID GENRE THEMES
ART - METATHEATRE
The Tempest as summa of Shakespeare’s theatre, e.g. : Prospero-Hamlet (fiction used to ‘stage’ revenge); Claudius/Antonio-King Hamlet/Prospero; Romeo/Ferdinand- Juliet/Miranda; Cordelia/Miranda- Lear/Prospero; Oberon/Prospero-Puck/Ariel; Lear/Prospero-Fool/Ariel; Caliban/Othello …
Island = a metaphor of the stage
Prospero = dramatis persona of Shakespeare exercising his “magic art” for the last time to stage a revenger’s play, the conjurer of ‘dreams’, finally admitting that it was all an illusion From the magic island to Milan From magic London to Stratford Now my charms are all o'erthrown, And what strength I have's mine own, […] release me from my bands With the help of your good hands: […] Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant, And my ending is despair, Unless I be relieved by prayer, Which pierces so that it assaults Mercy itself and frees all faults. (Epilogue) Shakespeare’s knowledge of contemporary pamphlets and essays about the nature of the ‘native’ (e.g. Michel De Montaigne, Des Cannibales, 1580) travelogues describing European encounters with the inhabitants of the New World (Miranda: «O brave new world/ That has such people in’it», V. i) Caliban’s wickedness → justification of colonization -- N.B. language used throughout the play MIRANDA Abhorred slave, Which any print of goodness wilt not take, Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage, Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known. But thy vile race, Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou Deservedly confined into this rock, Who hadst deserved more than a prison. (I.ii)
Psychological Ariel-Prospero – LIGHT Caliban-Prospero – DARKNESS, primitive, natural side which Prospero represses through his science, artifice but resurfacing (uncanny, Id, unconscious)
JOURNEY MOTIFAND PURGATORIO
Antonio, Sebastian and Alonso The inferno of the sea and atonement on the purgatorial island where they face their guilt
Prospero The inferno in Milan, a sort of ‘death’, shipwreck and rebirth on the island. Journey through his self, confronting his other inside, his darkness (rage, revenge …) till final acceptance of his humanity (vs. power, magic) Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd; Bear with my weakness; my, brain is troubled: […]: a turn or two I'll walk, To still my beating mind. (IV. i)