The Tempest
Comments(2) In The Tempest we are taken again to the place familiar to us from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice: Shakespeare’s Green World. But is The Tempest Green World similar to the ones that we encountered in his other plays?
Literary critic Northrop Frye defines the notion of Green World in The Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton; Princeton University press, 1957), pp. 182-4: “In some comedies by William Shakespeare, the main characters escape the order of a city for a forested and wild setting adjacent to the city. This natural environment is often described as a green world. It is in this more loosely structured, fantastic environment that issues surrounding social order, romantic relationships, and inter-generational strife, which are a prominent part of the “city world”, become resolved, facilitating a return to the normal order.”
This definition resembles closely the Green World that we encountered in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but in the Tempest the island seems to have more to it. Not only it is a place where societal norms do not apply, where monsters reside and where magic is the ruling power, but it also appears to be a representation of numerous possibilities for any character that lands on it. Gonzalo builds his theory of the utopian society on the island and how he would rule it; for Prospero it is the place where he learned his magic and later he also mentions that the island was an ideal place to educate his daughter; those that were banished find shelter on it; Miranda (not clear whether under the influence of the magical Green World or naturally) falls in love with Ferdinand at first sight and the youth later on proclaims that we would like to stay on the island forever; even Stefano (Alfonso’s butler in real life) obtains his own servant (Caliban) and at some point assumes the title of the Lord of the Island. It seems like this place is a blessing to most of its inhabitants. While the forest in the Midsummer Night’s Dream was the Green World that spread around mess and muddle, a place out of which you would want to find your way out sooner than later, in the Tempest, however, the island is a place that our characters seem to enjoy, a place that they envision as the land of unlimited potential. Anything that is unthinkable in real world is a possibility here.
I think that in The Tempest the island can be compared to the green world because many things are happening under the influence of Prosperos’ magic and at the end the everything and everyone falls into place or is content in their life. I think that for some of the characters like Gonzalo, Prospero and the others the island is a meaningful place in the sense that it has given them another chance in life (Prospero) or it has giving them the idea to start a new life (Gonzalo). For (Alonzo, Antonio and Stephano) is more about the power that they can obtain one day in the island. However, for Ariel, Caliban and Miranda I think the Island represents a place of restriction and oppression. Ariel seems to be fighting each day for his freedom from Prospero. In every moment he seems to be asking for it repeatedly but Prospero keeps asking him for favors before he gives Ariel his freedom. Then there is Caliban who has been a slave to Prospero and feels that he should own and lead the island because of the history of his mother Sycorax. lastly, we have Miranda who has been limited in meeting other people (especially men) because of the exclusion of the island. She does not have many life experiences.
I find this interesting:
“While the forest in the Midsummer Night’s Dream was the Green World that spread around mess and muddle, a place out of which you would want to find your way out sooner than later”
I tend to think that the island in the tempest is also a maze:
Act III, Scene iii, lines 1-4:
Gonzalo: By’r lakin, I can go no further, sir;
My old bones ache: here’s a maze trod indeed
Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience,
I needs must rest me.
ACT V, Scene i, lines 269-72
Alonso: This is as strange a maze as e’er men trod
And there is in this business more than nature
Was ever conduct of: some oracle
Must rectify our knowledge.
Act V, Scene i, lines 103-05 (amazement being a pun)
Gonzalo: All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement
Inhabits here. Some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!
Both islands are very similar in that seemingly unexplained events occur to the characters. I say seemingly because in both cases there is a higher power holding the strings. In Midsummer it is Puck , and in Tempest it is Prospero. The end result is that characters on both islands are often confused for comedic effect. And never truly know where they are or how to get out.