So yeah, sorry I'm late again guys, things have been busy lately but I'm going to try really hard to be on time on Friday.
I don't know about you, but I'm WAY excited for T
he Tempest. It's so ridiculously archetypal, much like
The Winter's Tale, that it's difficult not to connect it to other things. For example,
 |
| Caliban |
is like
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| Gollum |
and
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| Grendel |
because each character illustrates the corruption of dark magic upon the natural world. Grendel, much like Caliban, was born of a dark witch, deformed and twisted by the magic within her, more like a tumor than a man. Gollum was born whole, but, through exposure to dark magic and evil after a period of years, he too became deformed and grotesque--much like getting cancer after being exposed to too much nuclear waste. Then there's Caliban, the spawn of a hag and Satan himself, born with inhuman form and evil so deep within him that, despite the efforts of Prospero the civilizer, he can only take what he is given and twist it into something crude, like when he was taught to speak only that he would curse Prospero for keeping Caliban away from Miranda.
That said, we can compare Prospero with Beowulf, the tamer and purger of corruption, the civilizer. Much like Beowulf, Prospero comes to a place beseiged with corruption and danger and immediately makes it safe for the inhabitants, namely his little girl, Miranda. He seeks to purify the corruption, to teach it manners and rhetoric, and subdues it to create a safe place. Good thing for Prospero that Caliban's mother is already dead, otherwise he might find himself creating new corruption.
I love that we can draw these kinds of connections in Shakespeare's work. I don't know how Beowulf-ey Prospero actually is, at least in a literal sense. Prospero isn't primarily a warrior, so while the parallel between Caliban and Grendel is very literal, I think the parallel between Prospero and Beowulf is much more metaphorical.
ReplyDeleteI really like this connection. I have to ask, did Shakespeare get the story for the Tempest from any where, or did he make it up on his own, borrowing from other legends? Anyway, I'm not sure how much Gollum fits into the scenario. Grendal seemed incapable of good, my jury's still out for Caliban, but Gollum showed flashes of goodness and humanity.
ReplyDeleteVery true, Gollum does have a rather large role in LOTR as a force of good. But for all we know (unless of course you've finished the play), Caliban may end up being a force for good as well. It's hard to say exactly what Shakespeare borrowed from for The Tempest, since it's one of his few original stories, the only major thing I know of is the log of a shipwreck, but I have no clue about specific legends. But he certainly uses a lot of archetypes.
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