A World of Wonder or Not!

Serious Drama                     

Lighthearted Escapist

      The play "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare has all the elements to make the play a serious drama but it also has a lot of different elements like spirits and magic. The story is very interesting to read but at times it can be difficult to understand some elements in the play because of the deeper meaning behind certain instances that the reader doesn't catch when you first read the play. I do feel that the play "The Tempest" is more like a lighthearted escapist work because the story seems to have a fun feel to it with the main character Prospero having the ability of magic and controlling spirits to do his will. As I said before the play did have the elements of being a drama with Prospero being a Duke who was betrayed by his brother cause he wanted to be Duke as a consequence Prospero and his daughter Miranda were exiled and condemned to death but by luck they didn't die and landed on a remote island.

       Only taking his library of books and his daughter Miranda, Prospero learns how to do magic which seemed to me more like Sorcery or the type of magic that Merlin had. With all the magic that Prospero learned he was able to control the spirits and cause the huge storm that caused the shipwreck with his brother on board and all his other targets. What really made it funny was that when the Butler(Stephano) and the Jester(Trinculo) came into the play, Trinculo took cover next to Caliban while Stephano approached them being drunk. Then they get the idea, with Caliban a character that was described to be half fish, half man, to go kill Prospero and become rulers of the island, it made the play a little comedic because as a reader you know that it would never happen. Also with the power that Prospero had being able to control everyone by manipulating everything around them or even the people themselves, it seems to be more of a fantasy like Shakespeare really got into the topic and just went where his imagination took him. Especially with the idea that Prospero was controlling the spirits because spirits were really powerful being able to change and bend reality it begs the question as to why the the spirits would follow his commands and not just killed him when he first tried to control them or Ariel to be specific. But, I do feel that a lot of what went on in the play with Caliban being some kind of creature, all the magic, and spirits made this play more of an escapist rather than a serious drama because of the extensiveness of the imagination.

      I did like this play a lot more than the others for the same fact that as a reader you get to read something that as a lot of imagination with the magic in it rather than the play just being serious, morbid and stressful like reality. The reader can escape to a place that is different than just the norm. Not that this play was a big joke or anything, it is just that I didn't find this play as a serious drama for example like Oedipus because this play seemed to be a lot more fun with all the magical elements that were included in the play.