Shakespeare's The Tempest
a discussion by
scholars
on Tuesday, 7 April 1998.
[1] From: David J. Knauer
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 10:36:31 -0500 (CDT)
Subj: Tempest & Po-mo
[2] From: Billy Houck
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 14:22:22 EDT
Subj: The Tempest and Forgiveness
[3] From: David Evett
Date: Monday, 06 Apr 1998 16:04:40 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 9.0316 Re: The Tempest
[4] From: Mary Jane Miller
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 15:11:13 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 9.0305 Re: The Tempest
[5] From: David Evett
Date: Monday, 06 Apr 1998 16:11:58 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 9.0316 Re: The Tempest
[6] From: Gabriel Egan
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 21:50:39 +0100 (BST)
Subj: RE: TMP, The Master's Behaviour
[7] From: Nancy N. Doherty
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 17:10:28 EDT
Subj: Re: SHK 9.0316 Re: The Tempest
[8] From: Richard Regan
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 23:16:49 EDT
Subj: Re: SHK 9.0316 Re: The Tempest
[9] From: John Velz
Date: Tuesday, 7 Apr 1998 00:15:27 -0500 (CDT)
Subj: Tempest
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: David J. Knauer
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 10:36:31 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Tempest & Po-mo
Jamie Brough asks what postmodern philosophy is and how it might be
applied to _The Tempest_. At the risk of sounding glib about a topic
that is highly contested on this list, I'll give my favorite
quick-and-dirty answer to question #1: A few years back, I believe _The
Guardian_ newspaper ran a kind of contest for the shortest description
of postmodernism. If memory serves, the winner was, "Skepticism towards
all meta-narratives." The postmodern punchline, of course, is the way
the definition deconstructs itself a la those bumper stickers that read
"Question Authority."
Dave Knauer
[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Billy Houck
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 14:22:22 EDT
Subject: The Tempest and Forgiveness
OK, OK, you've got me.
There are other plays that have forgiveness in them.
I mis-stated my point, which was that The Tempest is structured in a
manner that would allow Prospero to horribly punish all those who have
done him wrong....but as soon as he's got the whole group of villains
rounded up, he lets them off the hook as soon as he gets his dukedom
back. Can anybody remember reading this play for the first time and
expecting Prospero to leave his brother and the king on the island?
Try this experiment with your students: Have them read up to act 4,
then guess the ending.
Are there any other Shakespeare plays in which all are forgiven?
Billy Houck
[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Evett
Date: Monday, 06 Apr 1998 16:04:40 -0400
Subject: Re: SHK 9.0316 Re: The Tempest
Larry Weiss asks, "can anyone think of another in which the male
protagonist does the forgiving? Even Duke Senior does not express
forgiveness for his suddenly converted brother."
The play to which he refers includes the episode in which Orlando,
finding his previously despicable brother assailed by a serpent and a
lion, finds himself unable to let the critters do his getting even for
him: de facto forgiveness, I would say, esp. since it leads to a formal
reconciliation.
Dave Evett
[4]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mary Jane Miller
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 15:11:13 -0500
Subject: Re: SHK 9.0305 Re: The Tempest
>What strikes me about the Tempest is not the 20th century revisionist
>view that tells us that colonialism is bad, but the fact that this is
>the only Shakespeare play whose climax is forgiveness.
>
>Billy Houck
I don't think Hermione would come down from that pedestal to embrace
Leontes if she had not found it possible to forgive him after 16 years.
The fact that she hesitates while Paulina exhorts (and then almost
implores ?) her to move suggests just how difficult it is to do.
Mary Jane Miller
[5]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Evett
Date: Monday, 06 Apr 1998 16:11:58 -0400
Subject: Re: SHK 9.0316 Re: The Tempest
Ron Dwelle says,
> Regarding the ship and her crew in the Tempest, the "master" is the
> "captain." That's still true today, when the term "Captain" could be
> confusing (as a military rank, for example, a captain might not be the
> master of a vessel).
Note that this episode mirrors/prefigures Prospero's account of his
administrative truancy as Duke of Milan.
If master means "owner" it may also signify that the owner is a
businessman who looks after things like schedules and cargoes and hires
a professional sailor to do the actual seamanship stuff.
Dave Evett
[6]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gabriel Egan
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 21:50:39 +0100 (BST)
Subject: RE: TMP, The Master's Behaviour
Ron Dwelle writes
> As a life-long sailor and amateur student of naval history,
> I've always been surprised that Shakespeare has the master
> appear on deck, delegate responsibility to the Boatswain,
> and then disappear, presumably belowdecks. To do what? Read a
> book? It's a strange action, even for an incompetent
> master, and I would think Shakespeare expected his sea-conscious
> views to note the peculiarity.
Isn't the master blowing his whistle, offstage, which gives the
impression that he is elsewhere on deck directing the manoeuvres? Hence:
Botes. ... Tend to th'Masters
whistle...
and
Anth. Where is the Master, Boson?
Botes. Do you not heare him? you marre our labour,
Keepe your Cabines: you do assist the storme.
In the Oxford Shakespeare single-volume edition (1987, edited by Stephen
Orgel) there is an appendix called "The Seamanship of Act 1, Scene 1"
with a passage quoted from A F Falconer Shakespeare and the Sea
pp37-9 to show that in the scene "The ship is sound, the seamen are
disciplined, the right orders are given. Some of the new manoeuvres of
the day, even one that is debatable, have been tried, but all without
success". The scene, it is claimed, shows a high degree of technical
knowledge.
Gabriel Egan
[7]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nancy N. Doherty
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 17:10:28 EDT
Subject: Re: SHK 9.0316 Re: The Tempest
First off any one interested in Shakespeare films, videos, etc should
check out Poor Yoricks at Yorick@cyg.net
I have been reading comments re: Tempest with much interest as I am
directing it this summer. Also, not wanting to overstate the obvious
"new world" allusions but looking at it as a jumping off place, - have
been watching the bevy of Columbus movies which came out several years
ago and quite intrigued - interesting politics regarding the "new world"
and the change in the politics of kingship, and the new politics of
discovery out weighing the philosophies/truths of the past.
[8]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Richard Regan
Date: Monday, 6 Apr 1998 23:16:49 EDT
Subject: Re: SHK 9.0316 Re: The Tempest
On the subject of forgiveness by the male protagonist, how about
Valentine for Proteus in TGV?
[9]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Velz
Date: Tuesday, 7 Apr 1998 00:15:27 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Tempest
I see the island as not England, but a chessboard. The Royal
Shakespeare Company production in 1978 left out the chessgame until one
of my students asked at a private interview with the cast why so and
David Suchet (Caliban) said it did not amount to much and the student
said "Isn't Prospero a chessplayer on the board of the island?" Suchet
looked enlightened. This was April just after the play opened. I was
in Stratford in August and took in the play (no students this time)
again and lo and behold a chess game between the lovers.
Cheers,
John Velz
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