The Tempest Essay

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Tracey Lewis
Mrs. Hoekstra
ENG3U1-07
20 April 2015
Isolation kills “We're all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding [while someone manipulates and plots against everyone in the background]” (Rudyard Kipling). When others are isolated they are deceived by what they are taught to believe versus reality; while the person in the background manipulates everyone for the sole purpose of power. This kind of exploitation towards others keeps them oppressed because they never question their beliefs or what appears to be true. This is true for Prospero, the bourgeoisie who plots against everyone and other characters which are the proletariats in The Tempest written by Shakespeare. Prospero keeps everyone in the island in a state of false consciousness while he manipulates them with his power of the arts. Firstly, isolation has a destructive impact on Miranda’s and Ferdinand’s thoughts and actions. Secondly, Prospero’s isolation cause him to be inconsiderate of other characters’ thoughts and feelings. Thirdly, isolation has a detrimental effect on Caliban because it leads him to be easily swayed and controlled. Therefore, Isolation has an alarming, dreadful impact on the characters in The Tempest from a Marxist’s perspective. Isolation has a destructive impact on Miranda’s and Ferdinand’s thoughts and actions. Firstly, Miranda assumes Ferdinand is the perfect man who is unimaginable and immediately falls in love with him when he is the only man she has seen who is European her besides her father. For example Miranda states, “Nor have I seen/More man… than you…and my dear father. How features are aboard I am skill-less of…I would not wish/Any companions in the world but you,/Nor can imagination”(3.1.50-56) This reflects on how Miranda is stuck in false consciousness due to her isolation on the island. This is well evident when Miranda states the previous quote. This has a destructive impact on Miranda’s thoughts because she has a limited knowledge with men but yet assumes Ferdinand is the ideal man for her. This can lead to her to have certain automatic expectations for Ferdinand to meet based on her limited experience with men and when they are not meet she could end up devastated. In Miranda’s case her thoughts lead her into marrying Ferdinand which is her love at first sight; but ironically it wasn’t true love at first sight because Prospero planned the meeting up with the work of his art. Additionally, if her father, Prospero did plan for Miranda to marry Ferdinand in hopes of crushing Miranda that would be an example of how he keeps her oppressed indirectly. Secondly due to being isolated on an island after coming out off of a shipwreck alone for a while Ferdinand assumes his father is dead which makes him sorrowful. For example when Ferdinand states “Myself am Naples/Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld/The king my father wracked”(1.2.337-339)Ferdinand is left in false consciousness due to his isolation because he believes his father has died in the ship wreck while in reality his father is alive. This is destructive because it plays with his emotions which gives him unavoidable grief and makes him think irrationally. All things considered isolation ruins and deeply Ferdinand’s and Miranda’s thoughts. Prospero’s isolation cause him to be inconsiderate of other individuals’ thoughts and feelings. Firstly, when Ariel asks Prospero when she is going to be free; Prospero responds by being unsympathetic and careless. For example Prospero exclaims “If thou more murmur’st,/I will rend an oak and peg thee in his knotty entrails”(1.2.349-3500) Previously Prospero had been isolated on the island with only his daughter before he stumbled across Ariel. When he meet Ariel she was stuck in a oak tree by the magic of a witch named Sycorax. When Prospero states “I will rend an oak and peg thee” this show how he doesn’t want to let Ariel free. Also threatening to put Ariel to put her back into a rend
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