The Tempest
The Tempest and a Colonialist Representation
The Tempest, most likely written in 1610-1611 and staged for the first time at the royal marriage of Princess Elizabeth around 1612, is the final play that Shakespeare's wrote on his own. It is shrouded in the classic ambiguity that is unique to Shakespeare's work and thus allows for multiple interpretations. For over a century, and particularly in the past twenty years, one of the more popular approaches to The Tempest is the influence of colonialism and it's representation in Shakespeare's last play. In 1818 the English critic, William Hazlitt, was the first to actually point out that Prospero had usurped Caliban from his position of rule on the island, therefore placing Prospero in the role of an agent of imperialism (T. Vaughan). Caliban's character is thus identified as the European symbol of the colonized. Since Hazlitt's first account of supposed colonialism, the theme has remained more or less a mainstream theory, albeit a slippery one.
In exploring the influence of European colonialism on the play, many critics place much of their attention on the events surrounding European colonization of the "New World" in Jamestown, Virginia that occurred around 1607. The play's initial storm or tempest scene has early scholars paying attention to a particular incident in the British efforts to colonize the "New World." Nine pilgrim ships and another ship called the Sea Venture, which was carrying all of the colonial officers, left England in 1609, and headed for Jamestown, Virginia. All the ships disappeared and its passengers were thought dead until they resurfaced approximately a year later in Virginia and revealed that they had wrecked off the coast of Bermuda (Skura). Both of these historical events, the colonization of North America and the consequent ship wreck, are thought to be significant influences on Shakespeare's imagination and on The Tempest itself.
If we are to acknowledge the historical relevance
The Tempest, most likely written in 1610-1611 and staged for the first time at the royal marriage of Princess Elizabeth around 1612, is the final play that Shakespeare's wrote on his own. It is shrouded in the classic ambiguity that is unique to Shakespeare's work and thus allows for multiple interpretations. For over a century, and particularly in the past twenty years, one of the more popular approaches to The Tempest is the influence of colonialism and it's representation in Shakespeare's last play. In 1818 the English critic, William Hazlitt, was the first to actually point out that Prospero had usurped Caliban from his position of rule on the island, therefore placing Prospero in the role of an agent of imperialism (T. Vaughan). Caliban's character is thus identified as the European symbol of the colonized. Since Hazlitt's first account of supposed colonialism, the theme has remained more or less a mainstream theory, albeit a slippery one.
In exploring the influence of European colonialism on the play, many critics place much of their attention on the events surrounding European colonization of the "New World" in Jamestown, Virginia that occurred around 1607. The play's initial storm or tempest scene has early scholars paying attention to a particular incident in the British efforts to colonize the "New World." Nine pilgrim ships and another ship called the Sea Venture, which was carrying all of the colonial officers, left England in 1609, and headed for Jamestown, Virginia. All the ships disappeared and its passengers were thought dead until they resurfaced approximately a year later in Virginia and revealed that they had wrecked off the coast of Bermuda (Skura). Both of these historical events, the colonization of North America and the consequent ship wreck, are thought to be significant influences on Shakespeare's imagination and on The Tempest itself.
If we are to acknowledge the historical relevance