‘The Tempest,’ by William Shakespeare contains many recurring themes, and a main one of these is the idea of power within the play, and the movement of it. The idea that power does not create happiness is explored within this play, this is expressed not only by Prospero, whose power over Ariel and Caliban does not give him what his heart desires, and by Antonio, as even though he has a lot of power as a result of usurping his brother, he still is not happy. The power that he has acquired has mad him greedy for more and has not satisfied him. Another aspect of the theme of ‘power’ that is explored is the idea that it changes people to become more unpleasant than they were before. A prime example of this becomes at the beginning of the play when Prospero is telling Miranda the story of their fate, he relays how ‘to him put The manage of my estate,’ in Antonio’s hands, and how he was usurped from his kingdom. Antonio’s experience of power here made him want it and in this wanting, he hurt his brother and niece. This original gain of power also made him crave more power and more wealth, it is this original sin that destroyed his conscience and made him unable to be able to experience remorse, regret or forgiveness.
Power and position are important status items in the type of society that ‘The Tempest,’ is based in and the idea that to be popular and rich you have to have power is a very popular one. Alonso himself in Antonio’s mind planted the original seed of temptation, as it was him who told Antonio to get rid of Prospero and Miranda in order to control Milan and to gain both power and position. This is what tantalised Antonio, the idea of having power, he saw how easy it would be to take Milan away from Prospero and power and position weren’t that important to him. Alonso was driven by the idea of being powerful and even more rich when he gave Antonio that idea, as he knew that Antonio would pay give a set sum of money regularly for giving him the power and not telling his entire the kingdom the truth of his duke ship. The theme of greed for power and money comes through again here, as although Alonso primarily set the ball rolling for Antonio, he only did it get more money himself, however ironically the focus has now changed onto him as in the play Antonio is now conspiring to kill him and take away his power and wealth.
Antonio has the attitude that he will do anything to gain power and position; it is something that he lusts for. The more power that he has, the more he wants, it is like addiction with Antonio, especially as he will do anything to get it, even if it means murder in cold blood. He did try and kill his brother for it and during the course of the play plans to kill his king Alonso, and Gonzalo, who is another duke. The fact that he is willing to kill Gonzalo in this play shows that he is ruthless and will get rid of anything that is in his way, or anything that may pose a threat on his advancement in power. Gonzalo is a character that is loyal to the king, and this is why Antonio thinks he is a threat.
Antonio has a very cold hearted attitude towards the idea of a conscience, and believes that is it something that makes you weak ‘ Twenty consciences That stand ‘twixt me and Milan.’ He doesn’t have show any fear in the play, and though some critics of the play may say that he is courageous as isn’t scared by spirits, I think that it is not courage he shows, but the idea that he is void of any feelings; remorse, conscience and fear. He doesn’t believe that it is possible for him to get caught, which is why he has got this far. It is this confidence that makes him fearless of the illusions that he sees as a result of Ariel’s magic and the idea that Prospero is alive does not bother him, as he does not think it is true.
Antonio’s fearless attitude makes him arrogant, he doesn’t care about what he does ‘My brother’s servants Were then my fellows. Now they are my men,’ or how it effects others. Anything that gets in his way he thinks he can get rid of like Gonzalo for instance. Antonio is also a very selfish man, as he takes what he wants when he wants it, regardless of who it belongs to, he took advantage of his brother’s moment of weakness, this shows that if he’d take advantage of the man who is meant to be closest to him, he will take advantage of anyone. He shows no remorse or repentance, even when at the end when he looses his dukedom; this shows that he is also a proud man and that the way in which he does not even thank Prospero for his forgiveness shows that he has received the harshest punishment a man with pride like his can, especially when something he believed he has worked so hard for is just taken away from him.
In the ‘Tempest,’ Antonio’s main actions is plotting the murder of Alonso and Gonzalo, his partner in crime here is Sebastian, however the differences between the two characters are very evident, since Antonio openly admits to not having a conscience, whilst Sebastian does as his minds is filled with doubt about the plotting and usurping of Alonso. It takes a lot of persuasion on Antonio’s part to convince
Sebastian to agree to his plan ‘I’ll teach you how to flow,’ especially since initially Sebastian thinks that Antonio’s plan is crazy and will never be fulfilled. However Sebastian is tempted by the idea of power and position, even though his conscience is telling him that it would be wrong to kill Alonso. I know that Sebastian has a conscience, as he questions Antonio’s motives and his plans. However Sebastian is easily convinced, which shows that he is a weaker, more impressionable character, even though Antonio is very convincing in the picture that he paints for Sebastian.
Antonio’s actions and plans throughout the play raises the question of whether he is truly evil. In the play he is labelled as one of the ‘three men of sin,’ which implies that he does have an evil nature, however it is originally Alonso who plants this evil seed into Antonio, as it is him who primarily gives him the idea of usurping Prospero. Out of the ‘three men of sin,’ Antonio is the most culpable as he is the character who doesn’t repent his sins, which shows his pride and obstinacy.
The fact that Antonio doesn’t think of the consequences of his actions and isn’t careful as to what he is doing; this is shown initially by the fact that he allowed Gonzalo to live even after he knew the truth as to Miranda and Prospero. His lack of thoroughness originally, almost implies innocence around what he is doing, the idea that he doesn’t think that he could get caught shows that he is naïve and this implies that he is not truly evil just power hungry. Also the fact that he doesn’t kill Prospero and Miranda, just leaves them to die, shows the idea that he doesn’t want to be left with blood on his hands, another inclination as to the fact that he isn’t pure evil, just corrupted by the idea of power and position.
In ‘The Tempest,’ by William Shakespeare, Antonio is a protagonist character who has no conscience that is evident to the audience as he is willing to break all social rules to gain more power. He has destroyed his brother and his niece; his own blood, and effectively tried to kill them, just to gain position in the hierarchal society that he lives in. When the opportunity arises to gain more power he is eager to grab it with both hands, even though this may mean breaking all social codes. The audiences that Shakespeare wrote for respected the monarchy and the king or queen’s rightful place in society, and the idea that Antonio would loose all respect for this shows the measures he would go to to gain power. The effect of this for an Elizabethan audience would be to shock them into thinking that Antonio is an evil character. However, Elizabethan society also believed in the idea that the monarchy have to be religious and be able to uphold social values, the fact that it was Alonso (the king,) who initially planted this seed of power hunger in Antonio would also shock the audience that Shakespeare wrote for as it would destroy their belief of Alonso as a good king.
Antonio’s lack on conscience in this play shows that he no longer has any moral values and this is enhanced by his lack of remorse at the end of the play. This heightens the idea that he will go to any lengths to get power even if it means killing people who get in his way during his search for more power and position.
