The Tempest The Tempest
Shakespeare Hypertext Study Guide original materials and compilation copyright 1999 Helen J. Schwartz
(Helen Schwartz makes no claim of copyright to materials incorporated in this program from copyright-protected works or works in the public domain.)
NOTE: Students with password access to these materials may download (and save for the duration of this course) only material prepared by Helen Schwartz or William Shakespeare. Other material is protected by copyright and should not be saved. Do not transmit any materials in this project to others.
What would happen if you landed on a desert island? Would you act differently if you were alone? Landed with someone else? Encountered natives on the island who were different from you? Desert-island stories usually test the castaways' character and make us think about human nature. Are people naturally good, but corrupted by society? Or is it society and culture that civilize us? Shakespeare's The Tempest (written probably around 1610) raises these questions on an island ruled by Prospero, a Duke from Milan who has been ousted from political power and now stage-manages the testing of other castaways with the magic he has learned from his studies. The play raises questions about Prospero's character and those he tests. The lectures discuss 1)various views of Prospero in light of the story background and initial stage-setting to test people, 2) the reactions of those tested, and 3) the resolution enacted by the ending.
Lectures
Explorations
Issues
Characters
Plotting
Genre
Critics
Staging
Background
URL: http://www.iupui.edu/elit/~shakes/tem/temtoc.html
Copyright 1999 Helen J. Schwartz
Last updated: 28 September 1999 by Helen Schwartz