The Importance of Ideas in The Tempest Essay - 1252 Words

The Importance of Ideas in The Tempest Shakespeares play, The Tempest, is constructed on a framework of ideas rather than on any dramatic principle. It is ideas that are presented throughout, and the play is built around the presentation of these themes -- themes such as the argument over whether nature is superior to nurture or vice versa (as in the case of Caliban and Antonio, the first being one on whom all efforts at nurture can never stick due to the inherent baseness of his nature, the second being one whom neither nature nor nurture has availed to deter him from consciously choosing evil), the moral duties of the sovereign (in the case of Prospero and Alonso, both of whom have to go through physical or emotional†¦show more content†¦However, upon closer scrutiny, this would be excessive. The characters, while perhaps symbolic, are never purely so; and by suggesting that they symbolize abstract ideas would be to detract from the richness of the characters in question, for they are seldom symbolic to the ext ent of being allegorical. They are, firstly, not flat characters in Forsters sense (i.e. that they do not develop in the course of the play), the exceptions being comparatively minor characters like Antonio, Gonzalo, Ferdinand, Miranda, and the lower characters like Stephano and Trinculo. Prospero learns the necessity of a rulers knowing the limitations of his subjects and acting accordingly; the necessity of relinquishing his Art in order to fit in with the rest of humanity, from whom he has been separated, both directly and indirectly, by his Art; the necessity of forgiveness, amongst other things. He develops from being a slightly equivocal figure who may be plotting to wreak his vengeance on Antonio and Alonso and who conjures up a storm, symbol of chaos, to being the enlightened, magnanimous figure of Act V. He changes from a paranoid tyrant-figure in his gross overreaction to Ariels civil request that he remember his promise to free him in Act I Scene II to the speaker of th e benevolent, even affectionate words My Ariel, chick, / That is thy charge: then to the elements / Be free, and fare thou well!Show MoreRelatedEssay Elements of the Masque in The Tempest1005 Words   |  5 Pages The Tempest was written when masques were becoming exceedingly popular in England, and were often performed at weddings to honor marriages. 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