Research Paper On The Tempest

“The Tempest and geological discoveries” William Shakespeare is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time. He was baptized in April 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He was the third child of John Shakespeare, a glover, and Mary Arden, a woman coming from a wealthy family. William had two older sisters, and three younger brothers. He wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and lots of writings of many kinds. During his life, he gained a huge popularity, but his biggest success came after his death.
The Tempest is the last play of Shakespeare, probably written in 1610. It is believed, that this is the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. The inspiration for the play might have been the story of shipwreck of an English ship in

By his characters the writer shows the way “white” people saw new, exotic places. The author created a world of imagination and illusion, made a contest between an old, well known world, and a “new” one. When Caliban talks to Prospero in his monologue, he complains about how Miranda’s father has mistreated him in so many ways. Unlike Ariel, Caliban has no future promise of freedom. Prospero made him a slave, thinking that the original inhabitant of the island has no rights to it. It’s a kind of a situation that could have been easily imagined by Shakespeare. It was quite common that at the beginning the when colonists made their first contact with the local people, both sides were very friendly and kind to each other. But as soon as the colonist started to get comfortable on, in their opinion, their lands, the tension started to grow on both sides of the relationship. The white European people became a threat to local ones. Colonists used them as a labour force, took their material goods and sold then back in Europe. Shakespeare didn’t need any knowledge or information from the colonies to know how people can behave when given a chance to take over someone’s lives, to get power over someone. But although Prospero’s behaviour might seem cruel, after some time a reader or a viewer of the play sees that Caliban was uncivilised after all. The author understands that in Caliban’s

For most of European colonists finding an inhabited island was a great opportunity to experiment in forms of social system or even a government. The author alludes to this utopian urge mainly in the speech of Gonzalo. And as the crashed ship was full of different people, from various social classes, the concept of a “perfect land” differs from character to character. For Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, utopia consists a world with many people, taking under consideration that her whole life she was kept in an isolation. People in general fascinate her, so living in a society full of men and women, living among them is something she dreams of. Prospero’s concept of utopia is the island itself. He’s happy the way the thing are, although he still wants his daughter to be happy. Prospero arranges the storm for his only child, to get her into her rightful place. A similar point of view to Prospero’s is Gonzalo’s. He also thinks of the island is an “ideal place”. He’s utopia would not have a glimpse of evil unlike Prospero’s land, where evil is lurking everywhere on his island and inside of him.
By his play Shakespeare explores the connection between human nature and modern civilization. He shows that no matter how “civilised” European society might be, it will always try to take an advantage, take control over the less educated, poorer people. Shakespeare compares and contrasts his Christian beliefs. He believed that the evils in