How does Shakespeare address the theme of colonization in the Tempest? How does his treatment differ from Cesaire’s? How is it similar?
Colonialization is one subject that is linked to slavery. As much as people try to forget all the negatives that occurred during the colonial era, there are still other things that cannot be forgotten. There are a lot of authors who have addressed the theme of colonization in their authorship. William Shakespeare and Aime Cesaire are among them. In that context, this paper is going to summarize the plays A Tempest and The Tempest by Aime Cesaire and William Shakespeare respectively; in addition, the paper will also tackle the theme of colonialism in Shakespeare’s The Tempest and later on address how his treatment on colonization differs from that of Cesaire and how they are similar.
The Tempest is a play written by William Shakespeare. The story has been categorized differently; for example, sometimes it is categorized as a romantic story and sometimes as romance. The play is about a Prospero, the wronged Duke of Milan who is stranded on an island with his daughter. The play starts with the ship of Alfonso, King of Naples, his nobles, servants, and seamen on a boat in the middle of a dreadful storm. It is quite apparent from the beginning that the ship is about to fall apart in the ocean, and everyone is concerned for their lives. Immediately following the scene, Prospero and Miranda is introduced (Patterson, 11). Their relationship is also introduced. While they converse, the audience gets to know that Prospero was originally the Duke of Milan but preferred to be subject to his book than to his people. Giving his responsibilities to his brother, Antonio, he realized too late that his brother was trying and successful at usurping him. In order to protect Miranda’s innocence he puts her to sleep while he discusses with his fairy slave, Ariel about causing the storm for the boat to collapse on their island and everyone stranded with them. From this discussion we learn that Ariel was ensnared in a tree by a witch who previously lived in the Island and that Prospero’s attention to free Ariel from his bondage as soon as Ariel completes all of his requests. The witch also had borne a son, a disfigured being that was enslaved by Prospero permanently to whom we are introduced at the end of scene.
Consequently, A Tempest is a story that was written by Aime Cesaire back in the year 1969. The story is retells The Tempest by Shakespeare. The play begins with an introduction of the Master of Ceremonies who introduces the heroes, Villains and gods who make up the cast, then chooses the most significant personality out of the characters in the play to play the storm itself. At the beginning, the author introduces nobleman Gonzalo, Sebastian and Antonio who are on board on a ship in the midst of huge storm (Patterson,13). The characters are so worried about the sinking of the boat but the captain advices them to go below the deck so that they will be safe in case the boat sinks. But they fail to take into consideration the advice that the captain gave them, and after sometimes the Sailor enters into the boat and announces that the boat is going to sink. On the other end, the exiled Duke, Prospero and his son Miranda are on the nearby island and they witnessed the boat sinking. Since Prospero is a magician his son Miranda begs him to stop the boat by use of his magic so that the boat will not sink. But the exiled Duke explains to Prospero that all that was a play and everything was going to be fine. He reminds Prospero of the time that Antonio had arrested him over a political Disagreement. And now fate has brought Antonio to his island.
From The Tempest by William Shakespeare , there are a lot of scenarios whereby the theme of colonization has been addressed. For instance, Shakespeare states that during his time several nation in the European land including England and France expanded their boarders through conquering the third world countries who were known as colonies. The author demonstrates the themes of colonization through the character traits of the characters in the play. For instance Prospero plays the role of the colonialists since he has been burned earlier on from his estate for neglecting his duty as a Duke; thus he takes the island as the only way to practice the powers that he owned.
On the other hand, A Tempest of Cesaire portrays a theme of colonization in a different approach from the way Shakespeare portrays. Cesaire portrays the theme of Colonialization from the way Ariel and Caliban are portrayed in the play. Ariel and Caliban are the natives who are facing exploitation from Prospero from Shakespeare who is acting an exploitative European authority. Ariel and Caliban plays the role of colonies from the underdeveloped or rather developing countries who facing a lot of challenges from the colonialists, who Shakespeare’s Prospero represents.
Furthermore Prospero from Shakespeare forestalls Prospero from A Tempest by adding a twist to the deific epiphany. Prospero from Shakespeare perceives the latter as a representative of colonialists. The Language of Prospero becomes conspicuously least hegemonic when he notices that the liberation of the people in the island can only be achieve through his supremacy (Patterson,18). In the same context Prospero from A Tempest becomes the mouthpiece of the counter-colonial values.
Notably, both of the plays The Tempest and A Tempest it can be argued that the themes of colonization is a common theme from of the books. From the two books it can be conclude that the colonists used to treat black people in a sort of rude and inhuman ways. Besides one things that is not evident is the reason as to why colonists treated the blacks in such a harsh way. The two questions that arise from how the whites treated blacks include; were they doing it for them to appear powerful just like Cesaire’s Prospero or were they doing it because they wanted free help. Arguably, there are several reasons as to why the colonists valued colonialization but from a human point of view, it was wrong. Many books have been written; others to justify and others to oppose but the truth of the matter that every human being will take is that the whole situations whether justified or not was never right.
Furthermore, the main theme in Tempest by Cesaire is colonization which is also tackled in Tempest by Shakespeare. Prospero does not want to hand over the power and therefore he moves to the Island so that he can exercise the vey power that he wants it with all the means. He represents how the way in which colonists rules the blacks. They did not want to return to their land to leave Africans in peace; they however went with the power they had and then subject the Africans to that power. It can be witnessed in the way the colonist mistreats Caliban and grab his own vast piece of land (Patterson, 17).The way the colonist grab the piece of land from Caliban is relatable to how the Colonists grabbed large pieces of land in Africa and then mistreated the Africans who were the owners of the very lands.
Convincingly, it is deducible that the two plays both The Tempest by William Shakespeare and A Tempest by Cesaire Aime portrays a lot of themes that are similar but among which include the theme of colonialism. The two plays also depict a utopic world which is full of notions and images that are beyond human thoughts and these notions and images works towards establishing an enigmatic land. It is also vital to note that the explicitness of the Politics of Cesaire helped A Tempest in his trial to portray the theme of colonialism. Besides, it can also be argued that the writings of the two authors made many people to hate any ruling; whether political or social that work under autocratic control. This is evident when Prospero still mistreats people even after moving to the island.
Work Cited
Patterson, Jeremy. “The Metamorphoses of Magic: The Tempest and A Tempest Read from the Perspective of the Metamorphoses.” Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics 42.S1 (2019): 6-20.