Literary Analysis Of The Tempest By William Shakespeare

The Tempest is a play written by William Shakespeare. Its plot revolves around the usurped Duke of Milan, Prospero, who has been living in exile with his daughter, Miranda, on a remote uninhabited island for over a decade. One day he uses the magic he taught himself over the years to generate a violent storm to shipwreck the men responsible for his annexing and banishment. Upon their arrival on the island Prospero uses this magic to manipulate and disorientate his enemies. The tempestuous start of the play comes full circle when Prospero has the capacity to forgive (at least somewhat) those who have betrayed him. The play is written in a rich, complex and poetic style as well as having an abundance of figurative language. Specific word choice and sentence structure are meticulously planned in order to reflect the social hierarchy of the characters in the play. First and foremost Prospero customarily speaks in lengthy and sophisticated compound sentences. For instance when in the first act he describes to Miranda how his brother, Antonio, usurped his rank of duke of Milan he communicates with formal and complex sentence structure making it arduous to fully appreciate his meaning: “He [Antonio] being thus lorded, / Not only with what my revènue yielded / But what my power might else exact - like one / Who, having into truth by telling of it, / Made such a sinner of his memory / To credit his own lie, he did believe / He was indeed the duke, out o’th’substitution / And executing th’outward face of royalty, / With all prerogative. Hence his ambition growing”. The overall complexity of Prospero’s aristocratic and literate language reflects his noble status: rightful duke of Milan.

On the contrary, Trinculo (a jester) and Stephano (a butler) are less well-born characters and their dialogue certainly emphasises the fact. The pair becomes increasingly drunk over the course of the play making their lines whimsical and ridiculous. They regularly exchange jokes and witty one-liners, however more generally their language is more common and therefore easy to comprehend. An example of this verbal playfulness is Dustin Act 3 Scene 1 during which the two joke about whether the “servant monster”, Caliban, shall be their lieutenant or their standard. The conversation rapidly turns humorous when insults like “mooncalf (…) good mooncalf”, “fish” and “jesting monkey” are thrown about. Furthermore comments like “They say there’s but five upon this isle; we are three of them - if h’other two be brained like us, the state totters”, where Trinculo not only acknowledges that they are simpleminded but is able to make a joke out of it, as well as “I’ll (…) make a stockfish of thee.” a playful yet wild threat. Penultimately, Ariel, an airy spirit who works for Prospero’s in return for him freeing him from Sycorax, speaks in beautifully poetic, light and graceful sentences and songs without ever seeming out of place or foolish. Although he is in Prospero’s service, Ariel possesses immense power; not only does he have an impressive range of abilities such as playing mind games and changing his form/appearance, he also commands a crowd of lesser spirits. These extraordinary magical abilities are most probably the reason Prospero is sceptical about granting him full freedom; he feels threatened by his skills and depends upon his cooperation. Ariel’s rightful superiority is reflected in his tone and language filled with angelic grace.

Alternatively, Caliban the “hag-born” “demi-devil”, the'poor credulous monster” and 'strange fish” is a rough, belligerent slave. Caliban is the island's only true native, he is the son of the witch Sycorax’s who formerly ruled the island. Upon Prospero’s arrival on the island he treated Caliban humanly and equally, however he later enslaved him after he tried to rape Miranda. It was prospero who taught Caliban how to speak explaining his proper use of language however this newly acquired skill only accentuates how different and inferior he is to Prospero. Additionally he spends the majority of the play getting drunk with Trinculo and Stephano, two lowborns, who even they treat him as inferior. Therefore, it is clear that Shakespeare put time and effort into the specific vocabulary, figurative language and sentence structure unique to each and every character. It is unequivocal that the social rank of a character is mirrored and demonstrated through their way of communicating and acting. He wrote the play as a response to the society he lived in, explaining why social inequalities are so prominent as well as why some of the major themes are colonisation (relationship between coloniser and colonised), power, justice and freedom.