Shakespeares The Tempest as a Microcosm of Society Essay -- Shakespea

The agitation as Microcosm of social club The Tempest is one of Shakespeares most universal plays and, not coincidentally, is very some(prenominal) concerned with human sort and emotion. As John Wilders observes in The muddled Garden, Prosperos island is what the sociologists call a model of human society. Its cast of characters allows Shakespeare to pose in microcosm nearly all the basic, fundamental social relationships those of a pattern to his territory, a g overnor to his subjects, a father to his child, masters to servants, male to female, and the sensible to the irrational within the human microcosm itself (London Macmillan Press Ltd., 1978, 127). Prospero himself is an observer of and experimenter with human bearing he saw human nature at its worst when his chum salmon usurped his dukedom and sent Prospero and Miranda off to almost certain death he has tried to nurture Calibans human half and to teach the colossus acceptable human conduct he demonstrates a workin g noesis of reverse psychology when he maneuvers his daughter into love with Ferdinand and, finally, he examines his take behavior and emotions in relation to his enemies, relatives, and friends. Prospero and the play ask two questions Is behavior such an Antonios the basic nature of human beings and, if so, can nurture emend upon nature? In modern terms, the play struggles with the ever-present debate over the impact of heredity and environment. His first observations--of Antonios and Alonsos treachery--were inadvertent and even surprising however, they prompted Prospero to shift the focus of his studies from the liberal arts to human behavior. Prospero has devoted himself to gaining knowledge and, as he admits to Miranda, neglected h... ...the Ariel and the Caliban of which his possessand ournature consists (Wilders, stark naked Prefaces to Shakespeare, 273) he has found the answer to the dilemma of nature vs. nurture in his own psyche, and with this knowledge he returns t o the human society of Milan a more than balanced, more complete human being than when he left it. Works Cited and Consulted Hirst, David L. The Tempest Text and Performance London Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1984. Rowman and Littlefield Manchester University Press, 1980. Shakespeare, William Measure for Measure 3.1.148 The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans capital of Massachusetts Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. Callaghan, Dympna William Shakespeare Oxford Basil Blackwell, 1986. Wilders, John The Lost Garden London Macmillan Press Ltd., 1978. Wilders, New Prefaces to Shakespeare Oxford Basil Blackwell, 1988.