The Renaissance was a period of time defined by the social classification of its citizens. One is led to conclude Prospero is indeed seeking his reprisal as a result of the overture of the play however, we must ruminate that there are more primal motives which lie beneath. As Miranda is Prospero’s daughter and the only female on the island it is unlikely to assume this is his motive. However, this demonstration in the animal kingdom occurs as a result of one male attempting to win or defend a harem of females from another able male. Male lions challenge one another’s masculinity via elaborate displays of theater or through actual physical violence.
This display of macho behavior is not too dissimilar to the instinctual conduct we can observe in the animal kingdom amongst apex predators. Within this premise lies the dilemma that each male character is jockeying for their position within the theoretical pecking order on the island. We are led to believe Prospero’s motive is revenge but quickly realize that his pursuit is not one of retribution but rather a query of ultimate male supremacy one which must culminate in anticlimactic fashion.
Prospero, the main character in The Tempest spends the majority of the play exercising his ability to dominate the males who inhabit his “territory”. Prospero effectively imparts his control over these two characters and therein can we obtain a perspective of his desire for inter-gender control. Prospero’s relationship with both of these characters feature explicit examples of the male versus male competition. Within the context of libido appraisal and hierarchy classification, we will detail the role of Caliban, the sexual depraved deviant and Ariel a sprite. What implications does this have in regard to being trapped on an island populated with men? Certainly the conflict amongst the hierarchy of social order is evident but I suggest that the very nature of Shakespeare’s choice of the gender of the cast provides a much more interesting insight to the very nature of this play. It is effectively a study of the competition between virile males and their contention for supremacy on the island. The Tempest is an excellent example of what our world would be like if populated solely by males. The Tempest takes place on a remote island and we must consider the ramifications of a nearly all male cast in regard to sexual tone within the play. The Tempest highlights effectively the vicious competition amongst men and details the depths to which a man is willing to lower his empathy for others in order to achieve supremacy. Objectively speaking, it is a historical fact that most actors during the Renaissance period performing Shakespearian works or otherwise was male and perhaps this fact is the strongest implication as to why William Shakespeare wrote the majority of his characters as male? Did William Shakespeare write the majority of his characters as male because the actors which would perform his works would be exclusively male? I believe these subtle clues point to a hidden sexual context apparent throughout William Shakespeare’s works: competition for the patriarchal position. In fact it has been argued that “every single role on the Shakespearean stage was written for a white man” (Loomba). This implies that masculinity was the prevailing gender throughout William Shakespeare’s works. William Shakespeare effectively wrote in a masculine tone for the majority of his characters regardless of their gender. An equal number of Shakespearean male and female characters were analyzed and it was determined that more than 70% of the language used by both was classified as male (Aragamon). The premise behind this analysis was to analyze the language written by William Shakespeare in order to divide the written text into gender. What implications does this have when considering gender conflict amongst the genders as well as those within specific male gender itself? Which male actors were chosen to play the female roles and why?Ī study conducted by the Linguistic Cognition Laboratory at the Illinois Institute of Technology yielded some remarkable results. When considering the majority of William Shakespeare’s plays, male characters overwhelmingly outnumber the female characters.
Ariel in the tempest free#
As defined by the Free dictionary online a Romance is “an artistic work, such as a novel, story, or film that deals with sexual love, especially in an idealized form.” This definition hardly seems appropriate in reference to the tempest. It is interesting that The Tempest is considered a romance albeit with one female. There are 16 main plot characters in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and all but one is male. Ranking of the Male Libido and The Tempest
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