The Tempest By William Shakespeare

Since the beginning of civilization there have many stories and drawings of monsters. Where do the monsters come from and why are these tales told. Are we the ones who create the monsters? Today as adults we do not really have fear that a half human half bull will attack us but why did people of the past fear these creatures. As time progressed humans started to interpret and use the word monster in a different manner. In this essay I will be arguing that reader-response criticism is the best way to interpret William Shakespeare’s The Tempest by showing that we create the monsters. The best way to argue this play is to use the Toulmin model of argumentation. I think that Shakespeare argues that we create the monsters we fear and only we can
stop them from being monsters.
The best way for me to interpret Shakespeare’s play The Tempest is to use the school of reader-response criticism. Throughout the play there are many interpretations of what I think of as a monster or possessing monster qualities. But first we have to understand what is a monster is and what defines a monster. Jorge Luis Borges says in his essay The Origins of Half-Human, Half-Animal Creatures that “it seems to us, any number of monsters, combinations of fish, bird, and reptile, might be produced the only limit being our own ennui or revulsion”. This is true because who says that monsters have to be some creature made up of different freighting animals. Monsters can be anything your imagination can think of. For example the Tempest at the beginning of the play was monster in of itself, without a face or felling but in that it had brought fear, destruction and death to many, it possesses many of the qualities of a monster and it is a very important part of the story. I also think that the most important role of the play has to be King Alonso of Naples because if it wasn’t for his fear and greed then the monster qualities would never have come out of Prospero. When on the island Prospero now only knows revenge and hate because of what had happened to him and with his encounter of Caliban and mistreat of him lead Caliban to gain monster like qualities to him. For example I though it to be wrong when I found out that because of his hate towards Prospero that Caliban tried to rape his daughter and the fact that Caliban had actually plotted and agreed to kill Prospero was proof enough that he had indeed become a monster, a monster created by a monster. I think another quality that I missed the first time around about Prospero is the fact that he uses manipulation to get what he wants no matter who or what it is for example with his daughter when he puts her to sleep without her consent just so she won’t find out how much of a monster he really is. Many people will claim that they do no create monsters but in reality they do it subconsciously.
In his essay, “Monsters and the Moral Imagination” author Stephan T Asma states, “Monsters have a purpose – not merely to express our fears but also to test our sense of morality”. This is perfectly exemplified in The Tempest’s Prospero, he was created by the king when he was banished to island because he was a threat to his power. Shakespeare wrote “This King of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate hearkens my brothers suit” basically stating that his brother the king saw Prospero as a threat so he banished him and his family instead of killing them for fear that his people would turn on him. In doing that King Alonso also created a monster out of fear. Towards the end of this play the King is forgiven by Prospero for his actions, to me this is not Prospero forgiving him it’s the king forgiving himself for the evil he committed and trying to do right by help by destroying the fear he had, the fear being Prospero. My interpretation of this is that the king’s fear has manifested as Island Prospero and to get rid of the fear he had to overcome it knowing consciously he was the root of the problem. I think that in this case King Alonso did create his own
monster. There are many things that can be considered a monster but I think that Jorge Luis Borges defines it perfectly.
In his essay “The Origins of Half-Human, Half-animal Creatures” Jorge states, “A monster is nothing but a combination of elements taken from real creatures and the combinatory possibility’s border on the infinite” This helps Shakespeare’s claim about creating the monsters because it happens in The Tempest not just with Prospero and the king. When Prospero is on this land he meets an island native named Caliban, Prospero teaches him English and I think that Prospero mistreats Caliban is because he does not want the same thing to happen to him twice so he makes sure he is now the one with power so he learns magic but with his mistreatment of Caliban, Caliban starts to develop some of these monstrous elements like hate and revenge. This is apparent because in of the scene Prospero explains that Caliban almost tried to rape his daughter Miranda and that act in of itself is monstrous and who knows if he would have done that if it wasn’t fueled by his hatred toward Prospero. Stephan T. Asma says in his essay Monsters and the Moral Imagination that “In our liberal culture, we dramatize the rage of the monstrous creature… then scold ourselves and our ‘intolerant society’ for alienating the outcast in the first place”. If Prospero would have treated Caliban more like a human and not a creature or a monster or slave then Caliban wouldn’t have tried to rape Miranda or even
plot to have Prospero killed. With the mistreatment of Caliban came along more the monster qualities and Prospero was not aware of it because he was so consumed with revenge for his banishment that he did not care what Caliban thought if his mistreatment.
There is another great example of how we create the monsters we fear, and this one is not so subtle and it is when Stephano and Trinculo were on the beach and they meet Caliban. They had meet him and automatically thought that he was a monster because of the way he looked. Then they proceeded to get him drunk and then they got to see the real monster he had hidden inside him. With all the mistreatment that Prospero had given Caliban thought his time on the island there had been a monster building up inside him and there have been little glimpses of him releasing that monster for example when he was dragging some wood thought he forest and Trinculo first saw Caliban. On the beach Prospero’s monster had come to fruition when Caliban had become drunk and we could see that his passion for hate and revenge towards Prospero had been released. When on the beach Trinculo also keeps calling Caliban Monster instead of his real name for example Trinculo says” This can sack and drinking do. A murrain on your monster, and the devil take your fingers!” this is a great example because this line of context is a metaphor and it shows that the liquor helps bring out the worst in people and Caliban is no exception. Not knowing Prospero himself had created this monster he had witnessed an instance of Caliban’s hidden monster qualities before the beach, when Caliban had tried to rape Miranda is when I knew that Caliban had bottled up qualities that monsters held up in him. Prospero may not fear Caliban but he has now created and released a monster for the world to deal with.
There is many evidence to help support my argument that The Tempest is a metaphor for explain that we create the monsters we fear and I believe it to be true. Monsters don’t have to be half-human half-bird creatures to scare us they could be monsters in our own head like a brother with fear who is afraid of losing something so he does the unforgivable or a native who is threatened by invaders. Monsters can take many shapes and forms but ultimately come from one place and that’s the person’s fear of something unexplainable or real emotions. This is why reader-response criticism is the best way to analyze this play and that is because different readers might interpret this play differently and they will definitely respond differently than I have and there is so much in this play for any reader to have their own response to the text. In his essay Monsters and the Imagination Stephan T. Asma says “Good monster stories can transmit moral truths to us by showing us examples of dignity and depravity without preaching or proselytizing” and Shakespeare’s The Tempest play does that very well with Prospero and his story ark from revenge and hate like a monster to a path that will eventually lead him to forgive his brother for his actions and it does it in a very subtle way that’s not in your face. Based on the evidence from William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest and excellent points from the essays it’s safe to say that we are the ones who create monsters in our own image and they manifest with our fears and qualities we seem to label as monstrous.