The Tempest

1
The Tempest
Henry Fuseli, The Enchanted Island Before the
Cell of Prospero (1797)
2
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural
  production to urban factory
• production

3
The Conditions of Early Modernity
Shift from subsistence agricultural production
to urban factory production The ideal society
of the Utopians is essentially an urban society,
with a rationally organized production and
service economy In Book I of Utopia, Raphael
criticizes enclosures of public lands for grazing
sheep to produce wool. He observes that, in
England, the sheep have grown so wild and greedy
that they eat men.
4
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural
  production to urban factory
• production
• Shift from local barter economies to
  international mercantile
• capitalism

5
The Conditions of Early Modernity
Shift from local barter economies to
international mercantile capitalism The
Utopians have a communist economy in which money
has been abolished this implies a critique of
the emerging capitalism of English Society Gonzal
os speech describing an ideal society in Act I,
scene ii of The Tempest projects a paradise
without money or work
6
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural
  production to urban factory
• production
• Shift from local barter economies to
  international mercantile
• capitalism
• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by
  the centralized
• "nation-state"

7
The Conditions of Early Modernity
Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by the
centralized "nation-state with a divine-right
monarch Utopia is a republic, but it is
established by a benevolent monarch, King Utopus,
rather than by a popular revolution) In
Gonzalos vision of an ideal state there would be
no name of magistrate and no sovereignty,
Yet, as Sebastian wrily comments, he Gonzalo
would be king ont
8
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural
  production to urban factory
• production
• Shift from local barter economies to
  international mercantile
• capitalism
• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by
  the centralized
• "nation-state with a divine-right monarch
• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence
  of democratic-
• republican government

9
The Conditions of Early Modernity
Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence of
democratic-republican government Utopia is a
republic, though it has slavery Gonzalos
paradise seems to be an anarchy, with no
government at all
10
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural
  production to urban factory
• production
• Shift from local barter economies to
  international mercantile
• capitalism
• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by
  the centralized
• "nation-state with a divine-right monarch
• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence
  of democratic-
• republican government
• The emergence of colonialism

11
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• The emergence of colonialism
• Utopians practice colonialism when a Utopian
  city has too many inhabitants, some of them
  colonize (uninhabited?) areas nearby
• The Tempest explores many different aspects of
  colonialism
• Europeans appropriation of and exploitation of
  foreign territories
• Europeans subordination and co-optation of
  indigenous populations (cf the different
  treatment of Caliban and Ariel)
• Europeans claims that they are colonizing to
  bring Christianity and civilization (cf
  Prosperos taking credit for the fact that he has
  taught Caliban how to speak and the fact that he
  has liberated Ariel)
• Europeans use of colonialism as a way to let off
  pressure from their own social conflicts (cf
  Prosperos exile on Calibans island after he has
  been deposed by Sebastian Gonzalos vision of an
  island society that would correct all of the bad
  things about Europe lower-class men like
  Stephano and Trinculo seeking to exploit Caliban
  and set themselves up as rulers of the colonized
  space)

12
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural
  production to urban factory
• production
• Shift from local barter economies to
  international mercantile
• capitalism
• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by
  the centralized
• "nation-state with a divine-right monarch
• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence
  of democratic-
• republican government
• The emergence of colonialism
• Shift from rigid social hierarchy to
  self-directed, egalitarian
• individualism

13
The Conditions of Early Modernity
Shift from rigid social hierarchy to
self-directed, egalitarian individualism Utopia
is egalitarian, but, it doesnt seem to encourage
individualism In The Tempest, Trinculo and
Stephano imagine themselves as rising in social
status, but their aspirations are curtailed by
reality (or magic)
14
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural
  production to urban factory
• production
• Shift from local barter economies to
  international mercantile
• capitalism
• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by
  the centralized
• "nation-state with a divine-right monarch
• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence
  of democratic-
• republican government
• The emergence of colonialism
• Shift from rigid social hierarchy to
  self-directed, egalitarian
• individualism
• Protestant Reformation's challenge to the
  Roman Catholic Church

15
The Conditions of Early Modernity
Protestant Reformation's challenge to the Roman
Catholic Church Utopians have religious freedom
and religious tolerance
16
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural
  production to urban factory
• production
• Shift from local barter economies to
  international mercantile
• capitalism
• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by
  the centralized
• "nation-state with a divine-right monarch
• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence
  of democratic-
• republican government
• The emergence of colonialism
• Shift from rigid social hierarchy to
  self-directed, egalitarian
• individualism
• Protestant Reformation's challenge to the
  Roman Catholic Church
• Scientific Rationalism (humans can control
  their own affairs)

17
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Scientific Rationalism (humans can control their
  own affairs)
• This view is the over-riding concept of Utopian
  society
• In The Tempest, Prosperos magic can be seen as
  a kind of sciencehe learns it out of booksbut
  it an ambivalent representation of science, since
  it is irrational.
• Prosperos science seems especially irrational
  to Caliban, since he doesnt understand it.
• In this, he is like many modern people, who dont
  understand science, and sort of take it on faith
  that science is good.
• In The Tempest, the Boatswain might be seen as
  a better representative of the modern faith in
  rational knowledge. In the Boatswains
  conversation with Gonzalo during the storm, the
  Boatswain asserts his faith in the practical
  knowledge of experienced sailors, rather than the
  authority of aristocrats

18
The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural
  production to urban factory
• production
• Shift from local barter economies to
  international mercantile
• capitalism
• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by
  the centralized
• "nation-state with a divine-right monarch
• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence
  of democratic-
• republican government
• The emergence of colonialism
• Shift from rigid social hierarchy to
  self-directed, egalitarian
• individualism
• Protestant Reformation's challenge to the
  Roman Catholic Church
• Scientific Rationalism (humans can control
  their own affairs)
• Replacement of a pessimistic, fatalist view
  of history by an optimistic,
• progress-oriented view

19
The Conditions of Early Modernity
Replacement of a pessimistic, fatalist view of
history by an optimistic, progress-oriented
view Utopia might be seen as an expression of
optimism for the future On the other hand, Utopia
seems to exist outside of European history In
The Tempest, the marriage of Miranda and
Ferdinand and the restoration of Prosperos crown
might be seen as expressions of hope for the
future
20
The Conditions of Early Modernity
The "Introduction" to the "Early Modern Period"
in the Longman Anthology describes the
transformation of the economic system and its
effect on class relations in England during the
sixteenth century as follows As much as an
older world was being reborn in the rediscovery
of classical Greek and Roman cultures, a modern
world was being born, and it is in this sense
that we can speak of these centuries not only as
the Renaissance but also as the "early modern
period." Its modernity was registered in various
ways, many of them having to do with systems of
quantification. Instruments for measuring time
and space provided a knowledge of physical nature
and its control. . . . Sailing to the new world
in 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh made use of
Mercator's projection map, published in 1568. .
. . Means were devised to compute the wealth that
was being created by manufacture and trade. . .
. Money was used in new and complex ways, its
flow managed through such innovations as
double-entry bookkeeping and letters of exchange
that registered debt and credit in inter-regional
markets. The capital that accumulated as a
result of these kinds of
21
The Conditions of Early Modernity
transactions fueled merchant banks, joint-stock
companies, andnotably in Englandtrading
companies that sponsored colonies abroad.
Heralded with enthusiasm by William Drayton in
1606, the Virginia colony was reflected in a more
muted fashion five years later in Shakespeares
The Tempest. . . . In England, especially,
wealth was increasingly based not on land but on
money, and the change encouraged a social
mobility that reflected but also exploited the
old hierarchy. . . . Urban life flourished in
conditions increasingly hospitable to commerce
rural existence because precarious as small farms
failed. During the fifteenth century, the
nobility had begun to enlarge their estates by
the incorporation or enclosing of what had
formerly been public or common land. They sought
to profit from the newest kind of farming sheep.
As Sir Thomas Mores Utopia illustrates,
thousands of men and women who had worked the
land on modest estates lost their livelihood as a
result. Longman Anthology, p. 670