The Importance of Ideas in The Tempest Essay -- Tempest essays

The Importance of Ideas in The Tempest Shakespeares play, The Tempest, is constructed on a framework of ideas rather than on any dramatic principle. It is ideas that are presented throughout, and the play is build around the presentation of these themes -- themes such as the line of merchandise over whether nature is superior to nurture or vice versa (as in the case of Caliban and Antonio, the first creation one on whom all efforts at nurture can never stick due to the inherent baseness of his nature, the second being one whom uncomplete nature nor nurture has availed to deter him from consciously choosing evil), the moral duties of the sovereign (in the case of Prospero and Alonso, both of whom have to go through physical or emotional disoblige because of their negligence, in one way or another, or these duties), the transitoriness of all material things (as in Prosperos speech following the masque), the rights of the colonialist and whether he is exploiting or educating the natives (in the case of Prospero and Caliban), the argument over whether enlightened civilization is superior to the natural man or otherwise, and the importance of retaining social hierarchy. It is also, to a certain extent, not inaccurate to suggest that the characters, or at least the important ones, have a symbolic function. Prospero does symbolize Art and enlightened civilization, Caliban Nature and the primitive, uncontrolled succumbing to instinctual, sometimes base, urges that results from the lack of civilization, Ferdinand and Miranda the worthiness and virtue of noble birth, most of the court party (Antonio, Alonso, Sebastian on a different level, Stephano and Trinculo) the imperfection of civilization in the form of ... ...nd Political Thought. A keep company to Shakespeare. Ed. David Scott Kastan. Massachusetts Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1999. 100-116. Gervinus, G.G. A review of The Tempest. Shakespeare Commentaries. (1877)787-800. Rpt. Scott. 304-307. More, Sir Thomas. Utopia. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol 1. Ed. David Damrosch. New York Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 1999. 637-706. Platt, Peter. Shakespeare and Rhetorical Culture. A Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. David Scott Kastan. Massachusetts Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1999. 277-296. Sacks, David Harris. Political Culture. A Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. David Scott Kastan. Massachusetts Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1999. 100-116. Snider, Denton J. A review of The Tempest. The Shakespearian Drama a Commentary The Comedies. (1890). Rpt. Scott. 320-324.