There were quite a lot of books and films this month, so I've divided this into two blog entries. This one deals only with the books - books of criticism, children's books, and novel adaptations. The second blog entry details the various film versions that I've watched.
Related Books:
- William
Shakespeare’s The Tempest edited and
with an introduction by Harold Bloom - This
is a volume in the Modern Critical Interpretations series, and is a new
edition. It presents criticism on the play by several writers, including
Kenneth Muir, Northrop Frye, Tom McAlindon and others. Kenneth Muir writes,
“Secondly, it is important that Prospero should be played not calm of mind, all
passion spent, but one who has brooded for twelve years on his brother’s
treachery, the memory of which still rankles. He is an angry old man, whose
rage is precipitated by his memories of the past. He is moreover one who
neglected his duties as a ruler and thereby opened the door to his brother’s
treachery, so that his violent speeches about Antonio are animated partly by a
desire to excuse himself” (page 7). Later Muir writes, “At least we can say
that Ariel, at some moments, represents the poetic imagination, and his desire
for freedom is said to reflect Shakespeare’s wish to retire, though about this
we may well have doubts” (page 8). John G. Demaray writes, “Throughout The Tempest, it is precisely the element
of fire, with its power to cause the heat of burning desire, that Prospero
seeks to keep at a distance from cool and chaste Miranda” (page 47). Then,
regarding Ariel’s line about the “sixt
hour” from Act V, Demaray writes, “According to all four Gospel accounts,
it was at the sixth hour that, as Christ hung crucified on the Cross, darkness
came over the earth and the graves gave up their dead” (page 50). Tom McAlindon
writes, “In the opening scene, the word ‘plague’ in the boatswain’s outburst,
‘A plague upon this howling’ (i.e., the cries of the courtiers) is followed in
the Folio by a long dash; this must have replaced a blasphemous oath or string
of oaths which was heard on stage (I.i.35). The boatswain is immediately
condemned as a ‘blasphemous, incharitable dog,’ an ‘insolent noisemaker’ (I.i.39-43);
and when he reappears in the last scene in a dumbstruck condition he is
greeting ironically as a loud-mouthed blasphemer chastened by experience”
(pages 62-63). B.J. Sokol writes, regarding incest in Shakespeare’s last plays,
“Therefore I think incestuous wishes may be powerfully represented in The Tempest, in a negative form, when
Prospero expresses his absolute disgust at the sexual attempt on Miranda by her
foster-brother Caliban. This fury, joined with Prospero’s general scorn for
physicality, combine to silence any deviant desires of his own. Thus the play,
I think, represents a skillful ploy of denial, and in Prospero’s hatred of
lustful Caliban represents psychological projection” (page 98). Paul Yachnin
writes, regarding Prospero’s books, “Since they are objects of great emotional
investment, the source of Prospero’s supernatural powers, and among the primary
agents of the dramatic action (they distracted Prospero from his duties as Duke
of Milan, which led to his ouster), it is striking that the play-text does not
call for the onstage appearance of a single volume” (page 116). Peter Holbrook
writes, “The play explores the notion of self-government throughout; and
appreciating the centrality of this theme helps us understand an initially
puzzling episode, Prospero’s lecturing Ferdinand and Miranda on the importance
of pre-marital chastity. The speech seems boringly neurotic; and the scene as a
whole can appear superfluous. Actually both are fundamental to the play’s
intellectual structure. Prospero’s emphasis on the importance of Ferdinand’s
preserving Miranda’s ‘virgin-knot’ (IV.i.15) until marriage is part of
Shakespeare’s meditation on the connection between the passions and tyranny”
(page 159). Published in 2011.
- William Shakespeare’s The
Tempest adapted by Daniel Conner;
illustrated by Cynthia Martin - This
is a volume in the Graphic Shakespeare series. Like other books in this series,
it is very short, and so contains not much more than an outline of the play.
Prospero does not mention how his books distracted him when he was Duke, nor
how Gonzalo provided him with his books on the boat. Ariel is presented as a
green, glowing pixie, and is female in this version. Caliban looks like a
demonic ogre. Caliban does not mention how Prospero taught him language. As
soon as Stephano approaches, Caliban gets up and moves away, so Stephano’s line
about “four legs” makes no sense. And
Trinculo is standing before him when Stephano says “Four legs and two voices.” Again, that doesn’t make sense. The
creators of this book clearly do not understand this scene. Prospero’s famous
speech from Act IV is completely cut, though a line from it is included in the
list of “Famous Phrases” at the end of the book. Also, in Act V, there is a
weird mistake. Alonso’s lines, “A most
strange story. Thy dukedom I resign and do entreat thou pardon me my wrongs,”
are assigned to Prospero. That’s a big error, and will confuse anyone not
already familiar with the play. Miranda’s famous lines (including “O brave new world”) are cut (though
again, a line is included at the end under “Famous Phrases”). A portion of the
epilogue is included. Published in 2009.
- The Tempest For Kids by Lois Burdett - This
book is a volume in the Shakespeare Can
be Fun series, a series aimed at getting children interested in
Shakespeare. The book is written in rhyming couplets and is illustrated by
children. There are also short bits written by children. It begins with
Shakespeare sitting down to write The
Tempest. It seems from the illustrations that most kids think that Ariel is
female, though the author indicates he’s male (as in the lines, “Ariel was
filled with joy and despair,/He and his master had been such a pair,” page 61).
This adaptation still retains some of Prospero’s famous speech: “Be cheerful.
Our revels now are ended./These our actors, are melted into air,/And, like the
baseless fabric of this vision rare,/The great globe itself shall one day be
gone./We are such stuff as dreams are made on,/And our little life is rounded
with a sleep./Bear with my weakness. Come, do not weep” (page 51). Also, the
“brave new world” line is kept. In this adaptation, Prospero actually throws
his books into the ocean: “Then he cast his treasured books into the sea,/And
for the first time, he too was free” (page 62). Published in 1999.
- Williams Shakespeare’s The Tempest adapted by Marianna Mayer; illustrated by
Lynn Bywaters
- This is a beautifully illustrated children’s book,
adapting the story of The Tempest. The first illustration is of Prospero and
Miranda in their little boat, with the island in the distance. In this version,
Prospero tells Miranda he will “finally extract revenge upon these villains”
when explaining who he and she really are. (Revenge is mentioned again later –
“his all-consuming desire for revenge.”) Then the author writes, “Prospero left
his daughter and went at once to speak with his servant,” rather than Prospero
using magic to make her sleep. An odd choice.
Ariel seems female in the artwork. Prospero says he’ll free Ariel
without Ariel reminding him of his promise. Caliban is green and resembles an
ogre. The plot to kill Alonso is completely cut from this adaptation. Sebastian
is not even a character in this version. Gonzalo is also cut, though at the beginning
he is referred to in the line, “But a loyal friend of Prospero had hidden a
bundle of provisions and precious books on the magic arts inside the hull of
the boat.” In this version, Antonio makes amends in lines that have no
equivalent in the play – “Then Antonio, with tears in his eyes, implored his
brother’s forgiveness. ‘I promise to restore your dukedom to you and if another
attempts to take what is yours, I will lay down my life to protect it.’” Also,
in this version Ceres, Iris and Juno arrive to celebrate the marriage of
Ferdinand and Miranda after Prospero has forgiven Antonio and Alonso, so those
two are present at the celebration. At the end there is a bit about Prospero
after he has left the island. Published in 2005.
- The Tempest edited and with an introduction by Harold
Bloom - This is a volume in the Bloom’s Shakespeare Through The Ages series, and includes criticism
from the seventeenth century all the way up to the twenty-first century. The
volume editor is Neil Heims. In the section on key passages: “Scene 1 seemed to
be a representation of an actual shipwreck. But it actually is the
representation of a representation of a shipwreck” (page 13). In the
introduction to the chapter on the seventeenth century: “In June 1609, a fleet
of nine ships with some 500 colonists set out from Plymouth, England, for
Jamestown, Virginia. Around Bermuda, the lead ship, Sea Venture, was separated from the rest of the fleet by a storm.
The other ships safely reached the port of Jamestown in the summer of 1609, but
not the Sea Venture. Its crew and
passengers, including the admiral and the governor-to-be of the colony, were
presumed dead. Then on May 23, 1610, nearly a year later, the passengers from
the wrecked ship arrived in Jamestown. They had managed to survive on the
island they had been cast upon and had even built two seaworthy ships” (page
31). From the introduction to the chapter on the nineteenth century: “The idea
of identifying Prospero with Shakespeare was first presented by a Scottish poet
and critic named Thomas Campbell in 1838, when he said, ‘Shakespeare, as if
conscious that [The Tempest] would be
his last [play], and as if inspired to typify himself, has made its hero a
natural, dignified, and benevolent magician, who could conjure up spirits…Shakespeare
himself is Prospero, or rather a superior genius who commands both Prospero and
Ariel’” (pages 71-72). Samuel Taylor Coleridge (in 1811-1812) wrote, about
Miranda’s line “Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her,” “The doubt
here intimated could have occurred to no mind but to that of Miranda, who had
been bred up in the island with her father and a monster only: she did not
know, as others do, what sort of creatures were in a ship; others never would
have introduced it as a conjecture” (page 76). E.M.W. Tillyard (in 1938) wrote,
“If he had seriously intended vengeance, why should he have stopped Sebastian
and Antonio murdering Alonso? That he did stop them is proof of his already
achieved regeneration from vengeance to mercy” (page 135). Northrop Frye (in
1959) wrote, “Of the others Caliban says, probably with some truth, ‘They all
do hate him/As rootedly as I.’ The nervous strain of dealing with such
creatures shows up in Prospero’s relations with human beings too; and in his
tormenting of Caliban, in his lame excuse for making Ferdinand’s wooing
‘uneasy,’ in his fussing over protecting Miranda from her obviously honorable
lover, there is a touch of the busybody” (page 190). A little later in the same
piece, Frye wrote, “In this island the quality of one’s dreaming is an index of
character. When Antonio and Sebastian remain awake plotting murder, they show
that they are the real dreamers, sunk in the hallucinations of greed” (page
191). Published in 2008.
- Ariel by Grace Tiffany - This
novel, aimed at teenagers, is a re-telling of The Tempest with a focus on the character Ariel. The author takes a
lot of liberties with Shakespeare’s play, the first being a change of Ariel’s
gender to female. This version also makes many references to Christian
mythology, which are off-putting (lots of mentioning of Christ and the Virgin
Mary). Most of this novel takes place before the events of the play. It begins
with Ariel’s beginning: “She jumped from the head of a luckless sailor, who was
blown across the Atlantic in the fifty-eighth Year of Our Lord” (page 1). Dying
on the shore, the sailor (named Jasper) dreams up Ariel. Ariel is then powerful
enough to create other spirits, but finds a barrier on the island which she
cannot pass. The story then recounts the tale of Sycorax, pregnant, arriving on
the island. Sycorax becomes angry with Ariel, for Ariel doesn’t want to help
with the birth. So Sycorax yells out to her god Setebos, “Curse this worthless
sprite who lies! Give her a body so she knows the feel of it!” (page 39). Ariel
is given the body of an insect and trapped within a tree. Sycorax forbids her
son Caliban from touching that one tree, which of course makes him curious
about it. Caliban gives water with berries in it to the spirit of the tree
(That, of course, is a reference to Caliban’s line to Prospero in Act I Scene
ii of the play: “When thou cam’st first,/Thou strok’st me and made much of me,
wouldst give me/Water with berries in ‘t”). This book removes nearly all of the
magic from Shakespeare’s play. For example, Ariel tells Caliban that Sycorax is
a witch, that she casts spells, but Sycorax isn’t a witch at all. Ariel turns
Caliban against his mother, even telling him that she is not his real mother.
Sycorax dies from eating poison filberts Caliban had gathered. Caliban then
turns on Ariel. There is also some mysterious drumming heard occasionally from
the other side of the island.
And then Prospero and Miranda arrive. In this version
Antonio took not only Prospero’s dukedom, but also his wife. Prospero frees
Ariel by burning the tree. Ariel makes Miranda sleep, to which Prospero
responds, “I can see you are a spirit to be reckoned with, Ariel. Yet I must
not worship you. That would be idolatry” (page 98). (That’s just one example of
the Christian nonsense that is throughout the book.) So instead of worshiping
her, he makes her his servant (No, that doesn’t quite make sense). Caliban
emerges from the forest, burned. Plus, since his mother’s death, he’s grown
wild. So he appears a monster rather than human. However, in this version
Caliban and Miranda play together. The “brave new world” line is spoken twice,
the first time by Prospero to Ariel: “Ah, there are fine folk there for you to
charm, my chick! A brave new world!” (page 125). Prospero talks about his
revenge on Antonio. And, though he’s been on the island for years, he knows
about the marriage plans for Alonso’s daughter. In this adaptation, Miranda
kisses Caliban, and Ariel makes Prospero think he’s seeing Caliban attempting to
rape her. Obviously, this is quite a departure from the play. Miranda later
sneaks behind Prospero’s back to visit Caliban. Another change is that Caliban
offers to fetch wood, and Prospero tells him, “There’s wood enough within”
(page 142).
Chapter 13 is titled “The Tempest,” and it’s then that we
finally reach the events of the play. Ariel uses magic to make Miranda appear
more attractive to Ferdinand, and then makes Ferdinand more attractive to
Miranda, which of course takes true love out of the equation. Prospero requires
Ferdinand to give him a written statement declaring his intention to marry
Miranda, which is odd. Prospero has selfish motives – the riches that will come
with a royal wedding, rather than his daughter’s welfare. By the way, a large number
of the play’s characters are cut, including Sebastian, Adrian, Francisco,
Trinculo and Stephano. The banquet table appears almost immediately, and also
Ariel says the line, “Were I human, I would pity them” (page 179). Prospero
responds, “But you are not human,” which again is a big change from the play.
Because Sebastian is cut, Ariel saying “You three from Milan did supplant good
Prospero” (page 180) doesn’t make sense. For now it includes Gonzalo.
This novel really starts to forget the play toward the
end, when suddenly it is revealed that Prospero was not a duke at all, but a
farmer. And that he and Miranda got in the little boat on their own accord.
(Yes, this is seriously stupid.) He calls himself, “Only a very bad farmer, who
owns too many books” (page 205). And Prospero’s wife, Althea, did not run off
with Antonio, but waits for him. Prospero tells Antonio, “I began to forget
what had happened, what had really
happened. I began to think you were the villain, and had set us adrift” (page
211). So it was all in Prospero’s mind.
Ugh. Prospero does say, “But our revels now are ended” (page 200), but
does not continue that speech. He even apologizes to Caliban for treating him
like a slave. The book becomes more and more absurd, as Miranda ends up with
Caliban, partially because she beat him in a burping contest (I’m not kidding).
Miranda says, “Oh, brave new world” (page 222) when she sees the sailors.
Prospero buries his books and breaks his staff. He then prays to God (that is,
the Christian god) to give him enough magic to make Ariel sleep. And then at
the end it turns out the island was America. So the drumming was by Indians.
And Christobal Colon arrives. No explanation on the weird barrier that kept
Ariel from investigating further.
As a side note, Grace Tiffany makes a few references to other works of Shakespeare in this novel. For example, she has Prospero tell the young Miranda: "On this beach, little Miranda, we are safe from the various animals that might take it into their heads to chase and munch us in the darkness. Loping monsters, and depraved unicorns, and - who knows? - the dread anthropophagi, perhaps, who eat their dead, or the men whose heads grow beneath their shoulders" (page 80). That is a reference to Act I Scene iii of Othello, when Othello says, "And of the Cannibals that each other eat,/The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads/Do grow beneath their shoulders." There is also a reference to Hamlet, when Ariel tells Prospero, "Sleep will restore you. Perchance you should dream" (page 186). That is a reference to a line from Hamlet's famous speech: "To sleep? perchance to dream" (from Act III Scene i).
- Understanding The Tempest: A Student
Casebook To Issues, Sources, And Historical Documents by Faith Nostbakken - This
is a volume in The Greenwood Press “Literature In Context” Series. It’s not
particularly well written, but does include excerpts from interesting, related
documents, including portions of the Bermuda pamplets, recounting the wreck of
the Sea-Venture. Though toward the end, the author also includes excerpts from
fantasy novels. Author Faith Nostbakken writes, “The word ‘romance’ was first
used for plays such as The Tempest by
literary scholar Edward Dowden in 1877, more than 250 years after Shakespeare
wrote his final plays…But ‘romance’ was by no means a new term, being based on
a tradition of romantic literature that existed as far back as in ancient
Greece” (page 4). Nostbakken writes, “The first scene, for example, is
characterized almost entirely by prose, even when court characters such as
Gonzalo speak. This is a deliberate departure from convention to suggest that
the storm is a social leveler treating everyone equally, from the common
boatswain to the royal characters who travel with him” (page 11). Regarding Prospero’s intentions, Nostbakken
writes, “But although the goal is not punishment, Prospero is certainly capable
of it. The goal is not even simply guilt or regret but rather the right frame
of mind for the wrongdoers to receive his pardon, which, when he has brought
all the company together, he generously offers. His forgiveness is what makes
possible the union of Miranda and Ferdinand and the promise of a new generation
to bring hope for the future” (page 19).
Regarding Miranda’s famous line: “Miranda’s remark, ‘O brave new
world/That has such people in’t’ (5.1.183-184) alerts audiences to the New
World overseas” (page 25). Regarding the end of the play, Nostbakken writes,
“Antonio and Sebastian never show remorse, however, for their part in the past
treason and the attempted regicide on stage. Their silence leaves somewhat
open-ended the sense of peace and reconciliation, suggesting that this
particular power struggle may be over but that the power hungry never
completely disappear nor find appeasement on the political scene. Moreover,
Prospero’s suitability as an effective and astute political leader remains
questionable from his comments at the beginning and the end of the play” (page
82). Regarding an early adaptation of the play, Nostbakken writes, “William
Davenant, with assistance from John Dryden, composed The Tempest; or the Enchanted Island for its first performance on
November 7, 1667. They used less than a third of Shakespeare’s original text,
diminishing Prospero’s role substantially, making him both less powerful and
more repressive as the governor of the island. Other roles were added. Miranda
was given a younger sister, Dorinda, while Caliban gained a twin sister
Sycorax. Prospero maintained a young man under his protection, Hippolito. Ariel
received a companion, a female spirit named Milcha” (page 134). Regarding the
portrayal of Caliban: “Darwin believed that humans evolved from an aquatic
animal, and so Shakespeare’s fishlike references to Caliban only helped to
confirm in the minds of stage producers that this strange creature of The Tempest was what one critic referred
to as the ‘missing link’ in human development from animal predecessors. One of
the most famous players of Caliban, Frank Benson, spent hours in a zoo observing
the movements of monkeys so as to imitate their behavior in his role, played in
1891” (page 135). Published in 2004.
- The Storm by Frederick Buechner - This
novel is a loose adaptation of The
Tempest. It actually opens with a passage from the play: “Come unto these
yellow sands,/And then take hands:/Curtsied when you have, and kiss’d,/The wild
waves whist…” Those lines are sung by Ariel in Act I Scene ii. This novel also
has a reference to King Lear: “As
Kenzie sat there doing the best he could not to make them clam up by trying too
hard to draw out their stories and letting them know what the Alodians could
offer in the way of shelter, food, and professional help if they were sick or
pregnant or addicted, he thought often of the lines in which King Lear says,
‘Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,/That bide the pelting of this
pitiless storm,/How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,/Your loop’d and
window’d raggedness, defend you/From seasons such as these?’ He never forgot
how once when he had used them in one of his readings at the Apollonian, some
octogenarian had risen unsteadily to his feet and interrupted him with Lear’s
answer to his own question. ‘Take physic, pomp,’ the old man had shrilled as
though it was Kenzie himself he was admonishing, ‘Expose thyself to feel what
wretches feel,/That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,/And show the
heavens more just’” (pages 13-14). In this novel, Kenzie is the Prospero
character; Gabrielle (who goes by Bree) is the Miranda character; Calvert is
Caliban (“the whole island was rightfully his,” page 37); Averill is Ariel
(“the water sprite and mystic,” page 41); Nandy Maxwell is Ferdinand (“They
called him Ferdinando,” page 85); and Dalton is sort of a combination of Alonso
and Antonio, in that he is Kenzie’s brother, but also Nandy’s father. In a sort
of reversal of the play, Kenzie seems to have the power to stop a storm:
“…standing there barefoot on the grass with his wet, tousled hair in his eyes,
he raised his arms over his head and looked toward where the lightning
flickered on the horizon. He said, ‘Rain, rain, go away, little Willow wants to
play.’” And then: “As suddenly as they had appeared, the clouds started to
thin” (page 81). The big storm of the story doesn’t occur until toward the end
of the book, and when it does, Willow asks Kenzie, “Is this your revenge,
Kenzie?” She adds, “If you can keep bad weather away, I suppose you can make it
happen too” (page 155). Like in the play, Dalton and Nandy each thinks he sees
the other drown, though both arrive safely on shore. Calvert speaks lines
similar to Caliban’s: “’This island is always full of weird noises,’ Calvert
said. ‘There’s been times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night when there
wasn’t a breath of air stirring and could have sworn I heard fiddles or
somebody plucking on a harp or God only knows what. But I’m used to it’” (page
182). (Those lines, of course, aren’t nearly as good as Caliban’s from Act III
Scene ii.) The novel also includes a variation of Prospero’s famous speech from
Act IV: “It makes you wonder if we only dreamed up the whole business – not
just the storm but this whole implausible little island, maybe the great globe
itself… Such revelry!” (page 184). Published in 1998.
- The Sea And The Mirror: A Commentary on
Shakespeare’s The Tempest by W.H.
Auden; edited by Arthur Kirsch
- This poem begins at the end of
a performance of The Tempest. The
second chapter of the poem has verses spoken by each of the play’s characters.
The third chapter is titled “Caliban to the Audience.” This poem was written in
the years 1942-1944, and first published in 1944. This edition incorporates
corrections that Auden made on the galleys of the first edition. Published in
2003.
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