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The Struggle For Power In Shakespeare's The Tempest

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People tend to always want to be in control and have power over everything, but when evil sets in it becomes a tragic story just like "The Tempest". In the play "The Tempest", written by William Shakespeare, tells a story about struggle for power. A terrible storm wrecks a ship on what is thought to be a deserted island. On this island there are several people who do not discover each other till the end. In the midst of all of the chaos that is approaching, Prospero, knows everyone who is in the island. Prospero and his spirit Ariel find things out and use it against everyone in the end so Prospero can look like the hero. At this point, Prospero is left with the decision to keep tricking everyone or to just bring them together and seek revenge. Throughout this play there are many events and actions put into the setting to understand the theme, struggle for power. Whether it's servants trying to take over or kings and duckies seeking their revenge. Shakespeare uses …show more content…

Many of these characters think one another are dead like everyone thinks that King Alonso and the kings son Ferdinand are dead. "Since you've given my dukedom back to me, I'll give you something equally nice, or at least I'll give you an amazement to satisfy you..." Prospero comes into the play knowing everyone on the island and on the ship. Prospero acts like Ferdinand is dead when he is really with Miranda playing chess. King Alonso soon then believes his son is dead lying in mud at the bottom of the ocean. Sometimes people trick each other by thinking someone has left, moved, or quit just to have the higher spot for the day. No matter the placement of the job they all strive to be better than another. If they are just a sales manager, the person who takes calls, someone who sits in meetings, or anything that's better than the job they have now in the company they strive to be

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In addition to Caliban, Prospero's yearning for vengeance also creates internal issues for himself. After Ferdinand and Miranda announce their marriage, Prospero claims his "rejoicing / At nothing can be more," because he must "perform / Much business appertaining," (Shakespeare, 95-99). Usually, a father focuses more on his daughter getting married, however Prospero can only focus on his plans for vengeance. Some believe that the characters internal struggles were caused by the wrongdoers, and not a lack of forgiveness; however, at the end of the play, after Prospero becomes a more virtuous character, his conflicts with his brother and Caliban are resolved, clearly showing that their focus on vengeance is what caused the internal struggles.

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Prospero’s Magic, the Age of Death and the 1610 Anthropocene When Prospero -- the hero in William Shakespeare’s last play The Tempest -- buries his magical books near a cliff of an uninhabited island, he sings out the first song of the “Anthropocene” at the edge of the great globe. As the Duke of Milan, he and his daughter are exiled to the isolated island for 12 years, during which process he uses his magic to enslave the natives on the island, including “ a savage and deformed slave” -- Caliban (Shakespeare 3). One may argue that the master-slave relationship shows Shakespeare’s postcolonial reflection while others may think that this viewpoint takes too far from Shakespeare’s original intention. Steve Mentz, in his essay “Enter Anthropocene, c.1610,” interprets The Tempest through lenses of the 1610

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Through The Tempest, the author tells the story of Prospero’s revenge on the men who took his dukedom away and left him and his daughter to die. Throughout the book Prospero tortures and manipulates them until he has complete control over them. In Act 5, Prospero’s chooses to forgive them and in the meantime abandons his art which can be a sign of change in character. However, through triumph, not change, the author uses Prospero’s choices to reveal that his desires are for power and superiority.

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Evidently Antonio’s wish was to have Prospero and his daughter killed however they were saved by Gonzalo a trustful councilor who set them up for a prosperous life on the island. It becomes clear that the violence in this play caused by Prospero was brought upon him and is therefore influenced by his brother’s treatment towards him, again we see that the need for power overpowers the love between the two brothers and later leads to a series of psychological torture for other

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As the play begins, it seems as if the massive tempest is simply a random occurrence, catching the mariners and nobility by chance. However, as the act continues, Shakespeare reveals that the tempest was actually the work of Prospero and his ghostly servant Ariel, who stirred up the seas and set fire to the masts (1.2, 193-194). This establishes Prospero as the executor of a mess of ‘coincidences’ ranging from Ferdinand stumbling upon his daughter Miranda to King Alonso and his party walking directly into the former duke’s cell. Though Prospero may have the same control over the English language as the other characters, Caliban points to his specific source of power. He says, “… for without [his books] /

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The Tempest is a play where a man named, Prospero, was a former duke of a land. He was exiled to an island because his brother, Antonio, usurped his dukedom. Prospero lives on the island with his daughter, Miranda attempting to reattain his title of duke. There are many causes of social issues, and it is important to view these issues on how they affect others.

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The various ways Shakespeare dramatizes and explores power, allows us to obtain a richer impression of the theme of power in The Tempest. Government and authority both carry out important functions in the play. It is the subject of government that initiates the events in the play and it is also the foundation of the progression throughout the play. Prospero is the fundamental piece in the play concerning governance because he used to be the Duke of Milan, but loses his title to his brother Antonio when he devotes too much of his time learning magic rather than ruling his people and seeing his obligations through: “The government I cast upon my brother, [a]nd to my state grew stranger, being transported [a]nd rapt in secret studies,” (p.10). This is also the cause of Prospero and his infant

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In comparison, the inconsistency between diction depicts the power dynamics observed in the play. Shakespeare often uses Prospero’s servant, Ariel and slave, Caliban to portray the differences in the hierarchy of the play. As observed by the audience Prospero often uses threats and insults to communicate and assign task to Caliban, hence “...tonight thou shalt have cramps, side stitches that shall pen thy breath up. ”(I.ii.325-326) Prospero threatens Caliban with pain after his refusal to do work, because he feels as if the isle belongs to him due to the fact that it was inhabited by his mother first.

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