This underlying theme of Utopia ties in with the context of the play as it is written in the time when Elizabeth was the leader of England and many people believed she should marry but she felt this unnecessary as she would as a result lose her power over England. Another contextual point that I discovered while watching the play of The Tempest is that their is only one female character in the play being Miranda, this may be Shakespeare’s subtle way of showing the hierarchy between sexs during the Elizabethan times, as women were treated much worse than men.
Prospero sometimes refers to himself in the third person ‘Prospero, master of a full cell’ this shows that he views himself very highly and knows that he has supreme power, or at least believes he does. When Shakespeare states that Prospero is master of a full cell, this could either show that he is fully content with his daughter and that she is all he needs or it could show that he needs all of his servants and magic to make him ‘full’ and complete as a human being.
Another ‘servant’ to Prospero is Ariel, the spirit of the air that is promised freedom if he does whatever Prospero tells him to. This is quite shocking as Prospero learnt his magic through books whereas Ariel’s is more of a natural Art and could easily overpower Prospero as it was Ariel that ‘put the wild waters in this roar’ and Prospero simply told him to. Shakespeare is showing that Ariel’s magic is more powerful but that comes down to nothing as Prospero is a more manipulative character so he remains to have the power over him.
Propsero uses bribery to gain power and control over people as he says that if Ariel doesn’t follow his orders he will ‘rend an oak’ if Ariel ‘murmur’st’ as he freed him to begin with from Sycrorax’s curse or he will make sure that Caliban ‘have cramps, side stitches that shall pen thy breath up’ if he doesn’t do whatever Prospero commands. I think Shakespeare does this to show that Prospero is all words, he learnt his magic out of a book full of words, and he doesn’t have the power or the magic to actually do the things he says, and that’s why he needs servants of both the Earth and the Air. In effect Prospero is the artist and Ariel and Caliban are the Art.
Prospero also manipulates Miranda and Ferdinand’s affections and feelings towards one another. Firstly he ensures that Ferdinand is shipwrecked so that he walks into the path of Miranda, he then forbids his daughter from telling him her name, although he knows that she will. He watches on as they fall in love with each other oblivious to the fact that this is exactly what Prospero wants in order to unite Milan and Naples together. As a result of this uniting of two cities he therefore gets more power as Miranda is marrying into a very powerful family. Prospero’s attention to detail and articulation in this plan shows that he is very clever and knows what he needs to do in order for things to work out the way he wants them to, ‘poor worm thou art infected’ this shows that Miranda is ‘infected’ under Prospero’s spell and that it has worked out for him the way he wants, the use of the animal imagery ‘worm’ conjures up to me the thought of bait hanging waiting to be snatched up, Miranda is Prospero’s bait in his scheming and plans, it also suggest that Prospero believes he is more important than Miranda as he see’s her as this mere ‘worm’ compared to him being a ‘prince of power’.
The play is somewhat autobiographical of Shakespeare himself, and we as the audience can see many links to Prospero and Shakespeare, Shakespeare has power over the audience as he is the writer of the play therefore meaning he is using his Art to both have power and empower his audience with his views and ideas. Prospero’s Art is his magic and he uses this with every single character in the play in someway or another.
Furthermore Shakespeare portrays thoughts of colonization during the time the play was written, when people were going to new countries and uprooting the existing inhabitants of it, thus making it their own Utopia and holding their power over the people living there. In The Tempest, Prospero the colonizer usurps Caliban the ‘slave’ and I think this is showing both the opinions and feelings of Shakespeare and the people living during the Elizabethan times, as rich European men were uprooting Native Americans and controlling them in order to feel more powerful and fulfil their needs to feel strong and higher than others. The sympathetic light Caliban is cast in to me shows that Shakespeare disapproves of colonization and Utopia, as there is a close tie between both.
Altogether, Shakespeare fully and contextually explores ideas of control and power portraying his thoughts and feelings throughout, the constant presence of these feelings draws conclusions to the viewer of the play as to problems occurring during the Elizabethan times when this play was written, by giving these opinions Shakespeare is allowing people to see him with the absence of his ‘magic cloak’ as this is his last play he is reserving many of his feelings till the end as he knows it’s the last times he will be using his magic to put his audience under the spell of his creative ‘Art’. I feel that the theme of control is a key and major theme throughout the play as Prospero manipulates every character in one way or another, and I feel that without this theme the play would not draw as many questions from the audience.
‘Let your indulgence set me free’
