Day 9: What I Learned: The Tempest
So this is a bit late, but here are some thoughts on the first play I read in my Shakespeare This Year Project, The Tempest:
Plot: Prospero is a sorcerer and rightful Duke of Milan but he's been usurped (so he says) by his brother Antonio (though, to be fair, Prospero even admits that he sort of put Antonio in charge while he was too busy with his books and sorcery to be bothered with being a duke) and now he's exiled to an island with his daughter, Miranda. Thanks to a magical storm (or "tempest") Prospero manages to make sure that Antonio's boat is shipwrecked on his island, along with the King of Naples and his son, Ferdinand (and others). Prospero then arranges for Ferdinand and Miranda to fall in love, thus securing a position for his daughter, albeit through magical contrivance. Prospero is aided by his deformed slave (and son of a cursed witch) Caliban, his airy spirit servant Ariel and numerous spirits and goddesses, most of whom resent him and think he's a prat.
Interesting Facts: The Tempest contains more music than any other Shakespearen play. The audiobook staring Ian McKellen seems to think most of this music should be annoying and endless. Pity.
Influence: Like many of Shakespeare's plays, The Tempest has been the inspiration for manyother works of art, most notably Waterhouse's painting, "Miranda, The Tempest," Julie Taymor's 2010 film The Tempest, starring Helen Mirren as Prospera, and Erin Morgenstern's novel The Night Circus.
Least notably, The Tempest was also the inspiration for the Western film, The Yellow Sky (1948) and the Sci-Fi classic Forbidden Planet (1956).
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