Posted May 10, 2010 
Comments(2)
Comments(2)
when i first started to read the tempest, i wasn’t sure what this play was about. I did not know if Prospers was a real man or ghost. As i finish reading up to the end of acted 3, it left me with a questions. The questions i have is why does Antonio really want Sebastian to kill the King and take over. What is he after? What is in it for him? Also, why did Sebastian readily agree to kill his own brother? It does not make sense to me.
Think about this passage by Gonzolo during the same scene:
Act II, i, 144–161
Gonzalo: I’ th’ Commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things: For no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate; Letters should not be known; riches, poverty, And use of service, none; contract, succession, Born, bound of land, tilth, vineyard none: No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil; No occupation, all men idle, all; And women too, but innocent and pure: No sovereignty. . . . All things in common nature should produce Without sweat or endeavor. Treason, felony, Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine Would I not have; but nature should bring forth Of it own kind, all foison, all abundance, To feed my innocent people.
Gonzalo in this passage (almost wholly taking from Montaigne’s On Cannibals) describes a kind of utopian place. Both Antonio and Sebastian mock him. I feel like this is a hint from Shakespeare about what is to come and his thematic concern is the idea of thwarted ambition as a punishment. Since after all this is an issue which hits close to home for Prospero.
Then Ariel arrives and, i suppose at the direction of Prospero, puts everyone to sleep except Sebastian and Antonio. This again seems to be part of the plan. Their motives are obviously power. Sebastian would become King of naples. Antonio as a duke, and one who helped Sebastian come to power would also gain power. Shakespeare in a way is mocking Gonzalo further, so shortly after this impassioned description of a utopia, he shows us exactly why it wouldn’t work.
Put simply there are men that are wicked in this world. Almost by nature (think Iago, Shylock, Aaron) and as such, this sort of utopia that Gonzalo describes can not possibly exist.
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