The Tempest by William Shakespeare

 Hello readers !

                    Once again warmly welcome to my blog. We all know that Post- colonial literature played vital role in human life and literature. In this blog I will discuss about the work The Tempest by William Shakespeare. This blog is a part of my thinking activity task wich was assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir. 

                         The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that Shakespeare wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, a complex and contradictory character, lives with his daughter Miranda, and his two servants—Caliban, a savage monster figure, and Ariel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In Act IV, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-the play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language.

💠 The Tempest as a post-colonial play :-

                              This play can be interpreted in post-colonial perspectives. The plot is based in an island and the description of it seems more significant of colonies, which were being colonized during the time, the play was written. This play reveals how the  colonizers captured the land of the natives and how they controlled the native people, their traditions and culture. Here we find that Prospero is the most powerful protagonist of the play. Prospero's character, actions, reasoning and the way he deals with the inhabitants reflects the attitude of the colonizer. According to the critics,  Prospero reflects the character of a colonizer.

I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour 

 One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage, 

 Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like

 Athing most brutish, I endow' d thy purposes

 With words that made them known . (1.ii.17)

                    The following passage states that Prospero's address to Caliban resembles the colonizers attitude of  civilizing the natives.

                        The play ends with Prospero deciding to return to his country along with his daughter. He leaves the island, frees his slaves and enables Caliban to be the inhabitant of the island. At last, Caliban gets the  freedom and the right to claim his island. He gets the freedom to be himself in his native place. This  incident reflects the period when the colonizers returned to their country after Britain gave freedom to its  colonies. Yet the impact of the colonizers and colonialism remains in the lives of natives.

💠 A Tempest by  Aime Cesaire :-

                     A Tempest by Aime Cesaire was originally published in 1969 in French by Editions du Seuil in Paris.  A Tempest is the third play in a trilogy aimed at advancing the tenets of the negritude movement. A Tempest is a postcolonial revision of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and draws heavily on the original play—the cast of characters is, for the most part, the same, and the foundation of the plot follows the same basic premise. Prospero has been exiled and lives on a secluded island, and he drums up a violent storm to drive his daughter’s ship ashore. The island, however, is somewhere in the Caribbean, Ariel is a mulatto slave rather than a sprite, and Caliban is a black slave. 

                     A Tempest focuses on the plight of Ariel and Caliban—the never-ending quest to gain freedom from Prospero and his rule over the island. Ariel, dutiful to Prospero, follows all orders given to him and sincerely believes that Prospero will honor his promise of emancipation. Caliban, on the other hand, slights Prospero at every opportunity: upon entering the first act, Caliban greets Prospero by saying “Uhuru!”, the Swahili word for “freedom.” Prospero complains that Caliban often speaks in his native language which Prospero has forbidden. This prompts Caliban to attempt to claim birthrights to the island, angering Prospero who threatens to whip Caliban. During their argument, Caliban tells Prospero that he no longer wants to be called Caliban, “Call me X. That would be best. Like a man without a name. Or, to be more precise, a man whose name has been stolen.” The allusion to Malcolm X cements the aura of cultural reclamation that serves as the foundational element of A Tempest.

💠Reference :-

• Shakespeare, William. The Tempest . Peacock Books, 2006. Print.