Power and Powerlessness in The Tempest
The Power and Powerlessness of a Tempest
First performed in 1611, The Tempest is Shakespeare’s final play. It explores traditional notions of power through rulers and subjects. By examining the relationship between the two, the piece challenges the simplicity of such titles. Through the construction of characters, and the interactions between, we can appreciate each ones’ possession of power, as well as their limitations. Prospero, both a subject and a ruler, exemplifies this. We can analyze this dynamic further through close examination of Ariel and Miranda, each subjects to Prospero, yet powerful in their own ways.
The play’s structure allows us to look at the complexities of characters, and therefore their level of power, a great deal. This is because, unlike some of his other works, Shakespeare’s Tempest dives straight into what is effectively the climax of the play by commencing with the storm. This way, we observe actions interactions between characters that are influenced by conflicts that occurred before the story told in the play. Due to this, readers can challenge their own assumptions about the characters, and observe them as more complex beings, each with their own fields of power and powerlessness.
Before exploring the ways in which Shakespeare challenges a reader’s expectations, we should acknowledge these ‘traditional notions of power’ with which one may be approaching the text. In order to legitimize one character’s power over another, they are given roles that we might find relevant to those within our own society. Due to our context - be that modern or the original audiences’ Elizabethan period - these roles identify with a place on a sort of hierarchy of power. In this way we might see Prospero as dominating in his role as an empowered magician, while Miranda falls under his control as his daughter, and Ariel, like Caliban, his slave. Such simplicity of roles would indeed reaffirm understood notions of power and powerlessness.
First performed in 1611, The Tempest is Shakespeare’s final play. It explores traditional notions of power through rulers and subjects. By examining the relationship between the two, the piece challenges the simplicity of such titles. Through the construction of characters, and the interactions between, we can appreciate each ones’ possession of power, as well as their limitations. Prospero, both a subject and a ruler, exemplifies this. We can analyze this dynamic further through close examination of Ariel and Miranda, each subjects to Prospero, yet powerful in their own ways.
The play’s structure allows us to look at the complexities of characters, and therefore their level of power, a great deal. This is because, unlike some of his other works, Shakespeare’s Tempest dives straight into what is effectively the climax of the play by commencing with the storm. This way, we observe actions interactions between characters that are influenced by conflicts that occurred before the story told in the play. Due to this, readers can challenge their own assumptions about the characters, and observe them as more complex beings, each with their own fields of power and powerlessness.
Before exploring the ways in which Shakespeare challenges a reader’s expectations, we should acknowledge these ‘traditional notions of power’ with which one may be approaching the text. In order to legitimize one character’s power over another, they are given roles that we might find relevant to those within our own society. Due to our context - be that modern or the original audiences’ Elizabethan period - these roles identify with a place on a sort of hierarchy of power. In this way we might see Prospero as dominating in his role as an empowered magician, while Miranda falls under his control as his daughter, and Ariel, like Caliban, his slave. Such simplicity of roles would indeed reaffirm understood notions of power and powerlessness.