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The Tempest

William Shakespeare

Start date: November 1, 2016

Finish date: November 15, 2016

Discussion: Classics Corner

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Mar 31, 2016 Kai Coates rated it liked it · review of another edition

The Tempest falls under the Shakespeare category of "Comedies" but it rightly belongs in today's "Fantasy" genre. There is some broad comedy, mainly consisting of drunken would-be murderers who easily get distracted by clothes. The fantasy element, however, is sprinkled throughout.

You have Prospero and his daughter Miranda, stranded on an enchanted isle with only a witch's son, Caliban, to do the heavy lifting. Prospero is ostensibly the hero of the story. He was the Duke of Milan, but was too The Tempest falls under the Shakespeare category of "Comedies" but it rightly belongs in today's "Fantasy" genre. There is some broad comedy, mainly consisting of drunken would-be murderers who easily get distracted by clothes. The fantasy element, however, is sprinkled throughout.

You have Prospero and his daughter Miranda, stranded on an enchanted isle with only a witch's son, Caliban, to do the heavy lifting. Prospero is ostensibly the hero of the story. He was the Duke of Milan, but was too much of a bookworm to do any of the work. So his brother, Antonio, stepped in, eventually usurping the title and banishing them. Prospero, who does not seem to have learned much from the incident about hard work, spends most of his time on the island reading and putting down on Caliban. (Granted, Prospero accuses Caliban of trying to rape his daughter, which is not cool.) Prospero has somehow gotten the enchanted powers in his control and has spirits such as Ariel do whatever he wants. Why he doesn't use these mighty spirits to build him a ship and get him off the island is never clearly addressed. But whatever it's a comedy.

Returning back from his daughter's wedding, the King of Naples, Prospero's brother (usurper to the dukedom Antonio), and a bunch of other dignitaries, are shipwrecked. Immediately, almost everyone decides to start killing each other off in order to become king of the newly landed area, without much regard of the fact that they will have very few subjects to lord over at that rate. People fight, drink, and fall in love. Sprinkle in plenty of stage directions such as "Enter Ariel, invisible" and that's pretty much it.

Not my favorite work of Shakespeare. The language seemed a bit sparse through most of it - missing the customary gorgeous wordplay. There is one memorable passage in which Prospero talks about his daughter's hymen and how pre-marital sex is a no go, but I guess it is balanced out with the feminist Miranda being the one to propose marriage to her lover. There is a dark undertone running through the book about slavery that was probably unintentional at that time but speaks a lot about how Europeans viewed these newly discovered lands and the people who lived in them. ...more

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