Customer Reviews

The Tempest

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Many consider "The Tempest" to be the final play that Shakespeare wrote solo, which gives a certain bittersweet flavor to its story -- especially since the main character is a sorcerer who manipulates others to get the ending he desires. Shakespeare juggled a trio of main stories before tying them off in rare style, but it's Prospero and his final speech that are truly intriguing.

For many years, the exiled Duke of Milan Prospero has lived on a remote island with his young daughter Miranda. But when he discovers that his treacherous brother Antonio and his similarly treacherous friends are nearby on a sailing ship, he summons a storm that causes the ship to crash on the island.

And like a puppet-master, Prospero arranges this as he wants -- he sends his servant Ariel to haunt the men who betrayed him, he thwarts the machinations of his evil servant Caliban, and he pretends to treat Alonso's son Ferdinand badly while secretly matchmaking him with Miranda. In the end, everything will be as he desired.

"The Tempest" is a play with two different dimensions. On one hand, we have a simple story about a mage whose power allows him to manipulate everything in his little domain. And on the other, we have the story of a brilliant storyteller who arranges his own little worlds as he sees fit, and bids farewell to his role ("Now my charms are all o'erthrown/And what strength I have's mine own...")

And appreciated on its own, "The Tempest" is a brilliant play -- Shakespeare juggled the three main plotlines nicely, and brought a solid sense of resolution to the story. His rich dialogue is stunning ("But doth suffer a sea-change/Into something rich and strange/Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell..."), especially during Ariel's songs and Prospero's speeches. Even the insults are brilliant -- just try yelling "A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!" at someone you don't like.

Prospero is a rather unique character -- he rules over his little island with magical powers, sort of like a local demigod. Everything that happens on the island is because he wants it to be so, but he's a sad, benevolent figure rather than a tyrannical one. And Shakespeare sketches up an intriguing cast of characters, both mortal and immortal -- the ethereal, puckish Ariel and grotesque Caliban, the naive Miranda, and the contemptible trio of onetime conspirators.

"O brave new world, That has such people in't!" cries Miranda at the end of "The Tempest," and while not every character in it deserves a "brave new world," the play itself feels like a weekend trip into a magical world.

Although I wasn't expecting a sturdy book since I ordered a paperback, the book is more feeble than most books I own. Therefore it was real easy for the mailman to fold and squeeze it real tight in my (too small) mailbox. Except for that, what you see is what you get: a book. It arrived in good shape if you forget the folding. Plus, what really matters is the story.

The Oxford School Shakespeare series is excellent for students, both high schoolers and undergraduates. They provide play text that is clearly and attractively laid out on the page with copious notes and annotations, as well as line-drawings and illustrations to enliven and elucidate. The introductory material on sources, plot summary, characterizations, thematic interpretations, music, and even suggestions for classwork and projects for expanded study, are excellent. Highly recommended!

The Tempest is a play filled with deceit, manipulation and magic. Prospero was dethroned from his dukedom and sent to an island, he uses magic to lure his enemies there. This is unlike any Shakespeare I have read before, I enjoyed but was a bit surprised. Shakespeare doesn't usually lean toward magic but this time he did. It was enjoyable, a fast read, that takes a reader into another world.

Shakespeare is not my favorite author, although I do understand the concept of his Iambic Pentameter and its style and flourishes are highly regarded. While I can appreciate the labor it must take to put a story in such format, I frankly find the poetics of it hard to read. That makes the commentary (which is about half of this version) very helpful to people such as myself. By reading the corresponding notes, I was better able to put the story together with the style, making for an exciting tale. I would highly recommend this version to people who have difficulty deciphering Shakespeare's style.

i watched the bbc television production of this play and my only reaction was, huh? it seemed to be over before it began, and yet, nothing seemed to happen. there's a silly love story, with some pretty lines. and a revenge story, with some angry lines. and some fairies, and some magic. but??? oh, there's some old guy named prospero who settles some old scores and marries off his only daughter. i guess this was the point of the play: how a guy fades in to the twilight of life. i better read the play to see if i missed anything.

First off, let's clarify one thing: when rating Shakespeare, I'm rating it as opposed to other Shakespeare. Otherwise, the consistent "5 stars" wouldn't tell you much. So when I rate this play five stars, I'm saying it's one of Shakespeare's absolute best.

It's a real shame that the language has changed so much since Shakespeare wrote that his plays are no longer accessable to the masses, because that's who Shakespeare was writing for, largely. (Especially in his comedies.) Granted, there is enough serious philosophizing to satisfy the intelligensia, but the action and bawdy humor would surely satisfy any connouiseur of modern hit movies, if only they understood it. Unfortunately, while the plots are good enough to be lifted and reworked into modern movies (and they frequently are, sometimes more subtly than others) once you change the language, it's no longer Shakespeare, until and unless the rewriter can be found who has as much genius for the modern language as Shakespeare had for his own. So far, that hasn't happened, and I don't expect it to any time soon.

As Shakespearean plays go, "The Tempest" is a fairly easy read. There are a few places where the footnotes are absolutely essential, and a few others where the main thrust can be grasped without them, but a double-entendre might be missed. But by and large, the play is readable for the literate modern reader. Granted, the romance element is as shallow as it usually is in Shakespeare, and there really isn't much drama: there's never any real doubt that Prospero and Ariel have matters well in hand. Still, it's an amusing comic romp, and that's all it was ever really intended to be. Don't try to read too many levels of symbolism and allegory into this play (or any other of Shakespeare's comedies, for that matter). You might as well do serious, in-depth analysis of the deeper meaning of "Men In Black II".

Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, is thought to be the most complex of his plays. The Island can be seen as a microcosm of life, and how Miranda comes alive after being captive to her father's tormented imprisonment of his own making.

'The Tempest' was the last of Shakespeare's plays and contains all of the finest elements of his comedies, tragedies and histories. Indeed, one wonders as to the autobiographical makeup of Prospero, 'The Tempest' coming across as a signatory piece.
The play deals with a shipwreck on an island inhabited by three people - the 'sorcerous' Prospero, his daughter Miranda and the 'beast' Caliban.
As such the play is probably the most thematic of all Shakespeare's plays, there being sub-themes of revenge (Prospero was banished from Milan), slavery (Ariel and Caliban), ridiculous material gain (Trinculo and and Stephano) whilst the main themes are those of innocence, baseness of character and intellectual impartment. Each of these comes into contact with 'civilisation' in the form of the princely shipwreckees with the inevitable innocent Miranda being seduced by Ferdinand and Prospero both separating and sending off the various parties around the island to manipulate the desired outcome. He gets it of course, but the primary focus is on his relationsip to his two 'slaves' Ariel the spirit and Caliban, the beast. The relationships are markedly different, the former being ethereal, intangible; the latter earthy and brutal.
This is certainly Shakespeare's finest play, if not the most poular, simply because it is a microcosm of everything that has gone before. It has romance, brutality, comedy, history, tragedy, pyschology, despair, laughter, the sublime, the ridiculous. None of the rest of the plays are as complete and, to echo George Eliot, you could say that 'The Tempest' was 'performed with [his] own best blood'.
Sure, Macbeth, King Lear or Hamlet - greatest tragedy, A Midsummer's Night Dream or Romeo and Juliet - greatest romance, Two Gentlemen of Verona or The Merchant of Venice - greatest comedy, Henry V or Richard III - greatest history ; I am sure there are many arguments for all of his plays to be classed as the greatest in the individual genres.
But, 'The Tempest' was his last play, the one that blends all of the above, and as such, when you really study it, it has to be his finest.

I'm not going to tell you about the Tempest, I'm going to dwell on the features of the book. This book contains numerous aids to guide you in your studies or pleasure reading. Along with an assortment of detailed footnotes to aid you in awkawrdly stated prose, their is a list of common words that Shakespeare uses and what they stand for in the context of the play. Contains a short biography that explains the life and times of William Shakespeare as well as an introduction to the play which helps you to understand the complexities of the play or the general meaning behind it. The introduction even breaks down a few blocks of tought prose to explain better their meaning. THere are also textual notes, commentary and suggested references. Even a good line finds it's way into the actual play as Stephano remarks "He that dies pays all debts.". Enjoy.