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The Tempest Research Paper

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In modern times an individual that watches a T.V. show series will most likely be able to point out many popular-culture references hidden into the show. The director often incorporates these subtle references to allow the viewer to engage more intently, as well as contextualize the plot for its time. Led by example through Shakespeare’s work, there are subtle undertones of historical references that genuinely allow the reader to contextualize the influence of play. The early 1600s marks the notorious embarking of westward expansion, Europe’s attempt to colonize what is now known as America. Shakespeare’s The Tempest contrasts Prospero and Caliban's relationship to the abuse of power seen through the colonization by European power. Colonization …show more content…

In 1492 Christopher Columbus set a voyage out west to discover the new lands. Eventually discovering what is now known as America, Columbus and his entourage infringed on a culture-rich people that were happily living under their own control. To his ignorance these people were established as ‘Indians’, believing to have traveled to India. Once European powers reached these lands, they took it as their duty to colonize and reestablish these people, what was recognized at the time as “the white man’s burden”. Colonization essentially seems to be a sugarcoated scheme for the Europeans to conquer new land and impose the their culture on the natives, stripping them of their own. To a culture-rich society such as Native Americans, this was a monumental shift in history as it paved for a new world that they did not anticipate. William Shakespeare’s The Tempest was notable as a social commentary criticizing the British colonial imperialism, seen through Prospero’s blatant abuse of power (the colonizer) as well as the victimization of Caliban (the …show more content…

This again depicts Prospero as a representative of the Europeans, usurping Native American land. Assuming a tyrannical rule over everything on the island, Caliban worked as his servant. The Europeans viewed the people of the new land as untamed animals that were in search of a higher system, as if they needed the institutions of the Europeans. As Prospero mentioned of the others, ‘‘is thing of darkness I acknowledge mine” (The Tempest 5.1.267–276), displaying the colonizer's condescending opinion about the colonized people. Similar to the way the natural spark of racism originated, simply the differences between white people gave them their own justification: Some are winners and some are born to

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