Issues of race are present in many of Shakespeare’s plays. Racial difference is a “central” issue in several of his works, most notably Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest (Bennett 209). Much of the debate about this issue has centered on the character of Caliban in The Tempest. Some modern critics see him ...
Over the years, Shakespeare has been transformed and adapted in many different ways and has come to be seen as the epitome of high art and culture. Yet many people find themselves so utterly bored or bewildered by the strange words used in traditional Shakespearean plays, leaving a few disappointed theatergoers, “The clouds methought would ...
Last April, while I was in France, the Martinique-born French poet/politician Aimé Césaire died and was given a state funeral. I was a bit surprised by the state funeral attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy whom while alive Césaire had refused to meet. I was more surprised that Césaire had not already died, as had ...
To many readers, Shakepeare’s plays seem to be written in a foreign language. Sometimes the words are familiar but don’t seem to carry the same meaning as they do today. But Shakespeare’s English is really not that different from modern American English. Learning a few word meanings can make reading the plays much easier and ...
For centuries, the intricate characters in William Shakespeare’s plays have enchanted audiences all over the world. Each of these plays is filled with rich characters that people can truly relate to, and often, the character who “steals the show” is not necessarily the lead character. The names of these powerful supporting characters have become household ...
William Shakespeare was a creative playwright who wrote dozens of remarkable plays. He ingeniously drew from his life for inspiration. This was evident in his final play, The Tempest, into which he imbued his personal experiences. By doing so he was able to highlight the differences between illusion and reality through the actions of his ...
In 1969 Aimé Césaire published his spinoff of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Césaire’s version, A Tempest, exaggerates and modifies characters in order to illuminate certain of their traits, and to deal directly with questions of colonization raised by Shakespeare’s original work. Specifically, Césaire demonstrates the several types of mindsets common to colonization, and offers insight ...
Elizabeth Nunez’ new novel, Prospero’s Daughter, is set on a small island off the main island of Trinidad in the early 1960s, just as the Trinidadians are struggling to gain their independence from Great Britain. Racial and class tensions are high, as the British try to hold onto their position of authority over the black ...
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest incorporates an array of different characters, conflicts, themes, and other literary tools in its development as a play. The play’s island setting, however, is vital to the framework of the play as a whole, creating the foundation for these literary elements. The island, with its many features, can be viewed as ...