Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the play "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare and contends that no matter how much a reader may wish to see "The Tempest" as a fairytale or a metaphor for Shakespeare's own magic with words, the colonial subtext prevents many modern readers from fully enjoying the play. The paper supports this contention by pointing out how metaphors of "The Tempest" do not suggest the dangers of human beings assuming godlike power and control. Instead, it validates the absolute authority of older men like Prospero over 'inferior' peoples and makes unacceptable the rule of women or lower-class individuals. The paper also points out how the plot and structure of the play validates conventional ideas about ruling. For example, the play makes Prospero's domination over the sea seem acceptable. The paper concludes that a modern observer who knows about the lies of the ideology of colonialism, is likely to feel angry rather than charmed when reading "The Tempest" today.

From the Paper:

The ways that "The Tempest" validates conventional ideas about ruling is first manifest with Prospero's seemingly rightful domination over the sea, which enables him to bring the ship full of Europeans to the island and to reclaim his title and property from home. This is morally supported by the plot structure of the play, rather than seen as a hubristic and artificial exercise by a human being overcoming the laws of nature. Miranda, rather than learning about the world through her own experience by choice, learns about it only through her father's eyes, and he selects and controls her first sight of a man of her own race, and creates a situation where Ferdinand will have to woo and win her that is just difficult enough to incite their passions, without proving to be a real, uncontrolled obstacle.

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