Shakespeare's Forbidden Planet: Scene Analysis

Robert E. Morsberger in his article “Shakespeare and Science Fiction” says “Viewers of MGM’s 1956 motion picture Forbidden Planet probably did not recognize that beneath all the trappings of futuristic science fiction, much of the basic plot comes from Shakespeare’s early Seventeenth- Century play The Tempest”(Morsberger, 161). The Scene of the daughters having a nightmare of the crews in trouble, there are many more similar scenes that you can see if you look carefully. The article “Shakespeare in Outer Space” mentions a quote from Kenneth Rothwell which points out that “Part of watching this film (Forbidden Planet) lies in picking up all the connections within The Tempest (Shakespeare in Outer Space). The Tempest and the Forbidden Planet action scenes both being in the same way. A crew ship lands on a stranded island, but in The Tempest the crew is “Invited” or Prospero led them to this island, but in Forbidden Planet Morbius wants the crew to leave. Both crews are brought to the powerful leaders of this island by slaves which are Ariel and Robby the Robot. Anther scene we see within the plots of the story are Stephano and Caliban’s conspiracy to steal Prospero’s book which clearly parallels Dr. Ostrow’s fatal attempt to gain more knowledge than Morbius through his machines. The only true noticeable differences are the endings which separate these two. The fact that Prospero was willing up to give up Power, and Morbius had no control of his power. In the end Morbius has no choice other than to destroy his studies and work. Prospero willingly leaves the island, while Morbius stayed and in-directly committed suicide, which was the only option to destroy his negative sub-conscious creation the “Id”. The setting where all this takes place are visually the same, a barren planet, with just a father and daughter with a slave. So other than what we can see

One thing most people don’t notice is the different point of views between The Tempest and Forbidden Planet. In The Tempest we mainly see Prospero’s plot and actions/thoughts, but in Forbidden Planet we see mainly what the Commander see’s or thinks. We do not see what Morbius is doing outside of the camera or in his secret cave where he did his studies. The point of view can really change what the outcome of the story is or how we view other characters. A theme we could look at is the total control of power. Throughout both stories both Prospero, and Morbius are noticed to contain amounts of knowledge and power. In the beginning of The Tempest you can view Prospero as someone who is evil, and uses his power only for revenge which was his whole plan in the first place. Morbius, in the beginning he didn’t want the crew there in the first place. Morbius was not as inviting or seemed to want the Commander and his crew off the Island as quickly as possible, showing he was up to no good. Though as The Tempest slowly progresses you can see a change through Prospero’s action, thinking if he really wanted to go through with his plan. In the end of Forbidden Planet we see that Morbius was in denial that he was not in control of his mind and did not create the “Id”. Showing that Prospero was able to control his powers and himself from evil actions, but Morbius did not. This creating not necessarily a different theme, but a different outcome of the