William Shakespeare's The Tempest - Comprehensive Study Notes

William Shakespeare: Biography, Context, and The Tempest

About William Shakespeare

• Known Information: Our understanding of Shakespeare is derived from approximately 40 official documents and 50 references by his contemporaries.

• Key Biographical Dates & Family:

  • Born: 1564

  • Died: 1616

  • Had 2 older sisters.

  • Married Anne Hathaway in 1582 (Shakespeare was 18, Hathaway was 26).

  • Children: Susanna (born a year after marriage), twins Hamnet and Judith (born in 1585).

• Early Career & Criticism:

  • One of the earliest written references is a criticism by playwright Robert Greene in 1592. Greene attacked Shakespeare as an "upstart phony" lacking sufficient education to write his own plays, suggesting jealousy or disdain from an established writer.

• Theatrical Company:

  • Member of the Chamberlain's Men, which became the royal company (King's Playwright) in 1603.

  • Performed primarily at The Globe Theater, located outside London.

  • Shakespeare uniquely owned a \frac{1}{10}\text{th} stake in The Globe, a rare feat for playwrights of his era.

• The "Chandos Portrait":

  • Believed to be the only portrait Shakespeare (probably) sat for in person.

  • Possibly painted by John Taylor.

  • Named after a previous owner.

  • The first work acquired by Britain's National Portrait Gallery upon its founding in 1856.

On (Not) Knowing Shakespeare

• Despite his revered status, a comprehensive personal understanding of Shakespeare remains elusive, frustrating scholars.

• Lack of Documentary Evidence: Little strong documentary evidence of his personal life or thoughts exists, and what does survive is often contradictory.

  • Very few personal documents (journals, letters) survive.

  • Only six documents believed to bear his signature exist, each spelling his name differently.

  • Surviving legal records (property deeds, tax documents, lawsuits) and his will offer minimal insights into his writing or relationships.

• Fragmentary Physical Records:

  • Early modern record-keeping systems were not designed to preserve an author's legacy.

  • Information often comes from indirect sources: playbills, theatre payment records, and later anecdotes from other writers.

  • No surviving manuscripts of his plays in his own handwriting.

  • The most crucial source for his plays, the First Folio (1623), was published seven years after his death by friends and actors, raising questions about its accuracy and editorial choices.

Key Term: The Early Modern Period

• Definition: A period in British history from approximately 1500-1700.

• Context: An era of significant cultural, political, and technological transformation across Europe, bridging the Middle Ages and the early stirrings of the modern world.

• English Significance: Encompassed the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the emergence of print culture, and the reigns of monarchs such as Elizabeth I and James I.

• Shakespeare's Era: Shakespeare lived and wrote during this period (1564-1616), a time of rapid shifts in ideas concerning art, science, religion, and identity.

Key Term: The First Folio

• Publication: The first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, compiled by his actor friends, John Heminges and Henry Condell, seven years after his death in 1623.

• Contents & Importance:

  • Includes 36 plays, many of which (e.g., The Tempest, Macbeth) would have been lost without this publication.

  • Remains a foundational source for modern editions of Shakespeare's works.

  • Its posthumous compilation, however, introduces questions about textual accuracy and editorial decisions.

• Historical Context & Value:

  • In 1623, a copy cost about \pounds1 (equivalent to roughly \$700-\ \$800 today).

  • Most contemporaries would have encountered Shakespeare's works in inexpensive single-play pamphlets (known as "quartos"), not grand collected folios.

  • The Folio was targeted at wealthy purchasers and libraries as a prestigious item.

  • Approximately 750 copies were originally printed; around 230 survive today.

  • In 2020, one copy sold at Christie's Auctions for \$10 million USD.

• Legacy Cementation:

  • Without the First Folio, Shakespeare might simply have been remembered as one among many Elizabethan playwrights.

  • The deliberate act of collecting, preserving, and presenting his plays as serious literature was instrumental in establishing his enduring status as the central figure of English literature.

The Author vs. The Myth

• Contemporary View: In his own time, Shakespeare was a working playwright within a bustling theatre scene, alongside other prominent dramatists like Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Thomas Kyd, John Fletcher, Thomas Dekker, George Chapman, and Robert Greene.

• Post-Mortem Mythologization: Over centuries, Shakespeare has been idealized as a universal genius, a perception not prevalent during his lifetime.

• Misconceptions: The immense fame of his plays leads people to expect a clear, concise biography, which the incomplete historical record does not provide. This disparity often results in modern readers holding numerous misconceptions about him and his writing.

Conflicting Interpretations

• The incomplete and contradictory historical evidence fuels ongoing scholarly debates about Shakespeare.

  • Was he Catholic or Protestant?

  • Was he politically conservative or radical?

  • Did he retire contentedly to Stratford, or die embittered and frustrated?

• Audiences frequently project their own desires and anxieties onto Shakespeare, meaning debates about him often reveal as much about contemporary society as they do about his own era.

Shakespeare's Written Work

• Volume: Believed to have written 37 plays and a collection of non-dramatic poems, most famously his 154 sonnets.

• Generic Categories: His plays are typically categorized into three genres:

  • Comedies

  • Tragedies

  • Histories

• Common Organizing Logic: A crucial element across all three genres is the restoration of order to a world plunged into chaos.

  • Comedies: Order is typically re-established through marriage.

  • Tragedies: Order is typically re-established through a death.

  • Histories: Disorder is either resolved through political action/warfare, or it remains unresolved, granting them a more realistic quality compared to comedies or tragedies.

The Tempest (\sim1610-1611)

• The Tempest is classified as a comedy that commences amidst significant disorder across political, natural, and supernatural realms.

• The play's opening in Act 1, Scene 1 immediately establishes this state of chaos.

Act 1: Disorder in the Natural World

• Opening Storm: The play is named after its powerful opening storm.

• Pathetic Fallacy: Nature itself is in disarray, exemplifying pathetic fallacy (a literary device where human emotions are attributed to non-human elements like objects, weather, or animals).

• Reflection of Internal Chaos: In The Tempest, the turbulent environment mirrors the internal experiences of the characters; social and supernatural chaos is visibly manifested in the storm.

Act 1: Disorder in the Social/Political World

• Challenge to Hierarchy: The Boatswain (a lower-class, second-in-command sailor) speaks defiantly to King Alonso and his noblemen.

  • He highlights that their political power and wealth are utterly meaningless in the face of the storm (reference: 1.1.9-50).

• Noble Disloyalty: Antonio (Prospero's brother) and Sebastian (King Alonso's brother) exhibit disloyalty in Act 1, Scene 1 (reference: 1.1.62-3) and later plot to assassinate Alonso for Sebastian to ascend to the throne of Naples (Act 2, Scene 2).

• Prospero's Overthrow: Act 1, Scene 2 reveals that Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, was deposed by his brother Antonio with assistance from Alonso, the current King of Naples.

• Miranda's Status: Consequently, Miranda is rightfully the princess of Milan.

• Question (1.2.36-59): Prospero and Miranda have been on the island for twelve years.

Act 1: Supernatural Disorder

• Ariel's Enslavement: In Act 1, Scene 2 (lines 194-256), the audience learns that Prospero used his magic to compel Ariel, described as "an airy spirit," to conjure the opening storm and terrorize Alonso's ship. This demonstrates a man (Prospero) wielding power over a supernatural being (Ariel).

• Question (1.2.251-300):

  • Ariel's Indebtedness: Ariel is indebted to Prospero because Prospero freed him from his torturous imprisonment in a pine tree, where he was trapped by Sycorax for twelve years.

  • Sycorax: Sycorax was a powerful witch from Argier (Algiers) who was banished to the island before Prospero arrived. She was Caliban's mother and the original enslaver of Ariel.

Act 1, Scene 1 Plot Points

• Opening Crisis: The play begins with a violent tempest threatening a ship carrying King Alonso of Naples, Prince Ferdinand, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, and other nobles.

• Class Conflict: The Boatswain, a working-class sailor, attempts to manage the chaos and orders the aristocratic passengers to stay out of his way. The nobles react with outrage at his perceived insolence, expecting their social status to override practical expertise. However, in this critical moment, practical knowledge proves more vital than social rank.

• Shipwreck & Foundation for Experiment: The ship appears to be wrecked, scattering the characters across the island and setting the stage for various social and power experiments.

Act 1, Scene 1 on Knowledge

• Knowledge vs. Authority:

  • The storm serves as an equalizer, rendering even kings powerless against the forces of nature.

  • The Boatswain's practical expertise directly clashes with aristocratic privilege. This conflict acts as a microcosm of The Tempest's broader exploration of who legitimately should hold authority.

• Epistemic Chaos:

  • The characters onboard the ship are unaware that the storm is supernaturally engineered by Prospero. The audience, however, is soon privy to this truth.

  • This discrepancy between perceived knowledge (the nobles believe they face imminent death) and actual knowledge (Prospero is orchestrating events, and the audience knows this) is a central driving force of the play.

Five Key Passages from Acts 1 & 2:

• The Opening Storm (1.1.1-50): Explore its cause (Prospero's magic) and the distinctive reactions of King Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Antonio, and Ferdinand, which reveal their characters and power dynamics.

• Miranda's Worldview (1.2.1-13; 1.2.308-9; 1.2.410-419): These passages introduce Miranda's character to the audience.

  • Personality: She is compassionate, empathetic, and initially naive, distressed by the suffering caused by the storm.

  • Understanding Good and Evil: Her limited exposure to the world makes her understanding of good and evil uncomplicated and somewhat idealistic, often seeing the best in people (e.g., Ferdinand).

  • Character Demonstration: These reactions highlight her innocence and inherent goodness, serving as a moral compass early in the play.

• Prospero's Manipulation of Ferdinand (1.2.439-60): Prospero intentionally gives Ferdinand a hard time (e.g., accusing him of espionage, putting him to arduous tasks) to test his worthiness and commitment to Miranda. This also ensures that Miranda's love for Ferdinand is genuine and not simply a result of him being the first young man she has seen besides her father. It makes their eventual union seem more earned.

• Teaching/Learning from Caliban (1.2.330-374):

  • Who is Caliban? He is the native inhabitant of the island, son of the witch Sycorax, and currently Prospero's enslaved servant.

  • What he learns from Prospero and Miranda: Caliban initially learns language from Prospero and Miranda, which he later uses to curse them.

  • What Miranda and Prospero learn from him: They learn about the island's natural resources and landscape, and ultimately, they perceive the limits and dangers of trying to "civilize" someone they see as inherently wild or savage.

  • Why Prospero enslaves Caliban: Prospero claims to enslave Caliban because Caliban attempted to rape Miranda. It is also a manifestation of Prospero's colonial power and desire for control over the island and its native inhabitant.

Act 1, Scene 2 Plot Points

• Prospero's Revelation: Miranda is distraught witnessing the storm's devastation. Prospero then reveals that his magic caused the tempest, establishing himself as the play's primary orchestrator and source of knowledge.

• Backstory Unveiled: He discloses their history:

  • He was the Duke of Milan but neglected his duties, dedicating himself to "the liberal arts" rather than governance (reference: 1.2.66-106).

  • His brother, Antonio, usurped him with the aid of King Alonso.

  • Prospero and an infant Miranda were cast adrift in a boat, surviving due to the kindness of Gonzalo, who supplied them with provisions and Prospero's essential magic books.

• Island Inhabitants: Prospero introduces the magical island, Ariel (the spirits), and Caliban (the enslaved native).

• Romance Plot Initiation: The scene concludes with Prospero dispatching Ariel to guide Ferdinand towards Miranda, thereby setting in motion the play's central romance.

Act 1, Scene 2 on Knowledge

• Books = Power:

  • Prospero's books are the tangible foundation of his magical knowledge and his authority on the island.

  • His devotion to private study initially led to his failure as Duke of Milan. However, on the island, this very "book knowledge" grants him control over Ariel, Caliban, and Miranda.

  • This raises the question: When is knowledge empowering, and when does it lead to isolation?

• Knowledge as Manipulation:

  • Prospero deliberately withholds information from Miranda, controlling when and how she learns about her past.

  • He manipulates the perceptions of others; the storm itself is a fabricated event designed to instill fear and enforce compliance among the shipwrecked nobles.

• Who Gets to Know What?: At this stage in the play, characters possess radically disparate levels of knowledge:

  • Prospero: Knows everything.

  • Miranda: Knows very little but implicitly trusts her father's accounts.

  • The Shipwrecked Nobles: Are completely oblivious to their location or the true cause of their predicament.

  • These significant disparities in knowledge are a fundamental driver of the play's unfolding events.