essay on the topic:

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’s THE TEMPEST: THE

SYMBOLIC MEANING OF THE TITLE

Prepared by:
Daryna Borovets
Group 2.3(5)
 PLAN
1- Introduction
2- Biography
3- Tragicomedy
4- Burlesque

5-What's in a Name!
6-The Tempest: Sea-Storm
7-The Tempest: Literal and Metaphoric
Connotations
8-Suitability with Genre
9-Water, Water, Everywhere!

10-Conclusion
11- Sourses
 Introduction

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the greatest dramatist of all

time. He occupies a position unique in world literature. Other poets, such as
Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as, Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, have
transcended national barriers; but no writer’s living reputatio compare to that of
Shakespeare.1 His plays, sonnets and two long narrative poems earned him an
international acclaim and acceptance as the best writer in the history of English
literature.

"Or rather: let's examine each and everything in the transparent light that
comes after the storm." -Alain Badiou

The title of the work is the first thing we learn about the work.

I. As an actual tempest; actual, not in the sense of having really occurred, but of

being conceived and portrayed as a real storm. II. As a metaphorical or
allegorical tempest, representing the calamities and disasters of human life.
 Tragicomedy, dramatic work incorporating both tragic and comic
elements. When coined by the Roman dramatist Plautus in the 2nd century BC, the
word denoted a play in which gods and men, masters and slaves reverse the roles
traditionally assigned to them, gods and heroes acting in comic burlesque and
slaves adopting tragic dignity. This startling innovation may be seen in
Plautus’ Amphitryon.

In the Renaissance, tragicomedy became a genre of play that mixed tragic

elements into drama that was mainly comic. The Italian writer Battista
Guarini defined tragicomedy as having most of tragedy’s elements—e.g., a certain
gravity of diction, the depiction of important public events, and the arousal of
compassion—but never carrying the action to tragedy’s conclusion, and
judiciously including such comic elements as low-born characters, laughter, and
jests. Central to this kind of tragicomedy were danger, reversal, and a happy
ending. Despite its affront to the strict Neoclassicism of the day, which forbade
the mixing of genres, tragicomedy flourished, especially in England, whose writers
largely ignored the edicts of Neoclassicism. John Fletcher provides a good
example of the genre in The Faithful Shepherdess (c. 1608), itself a reworking of
Guarini’s Il pastor fido, first published in 1590. Notable examples of tragicomedy
by William Shakespeare are The Merchant of Venice (1596–97), The Winter’s
Tale (1610–11), and The Tempest (1611–12).

A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by

caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of
their subjects.[1] The word derives from the Italian burlesco, which, in turn, is
derived from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery.
Burlesque overlaps in meaning with caricature, parody and travesty, and, in its
theatrical sense, with extravaganza, as presented during the Victorian era.
[4]
 "Burlesque" has been used in English in this literary and theatrical sense since
the late 17th century. It has been applied retrospectively to works
of Chaucer and Shakespeare and to the Graeco-Roman classics.

What's in a Name!
Shakespeare himself has said, “A rose may smell as sweet as by any other name.”
This statement reflects his tendency to be less choosy about the titles of his plays.
The value of his plays should be judged by their worth and not simply by their
names. Usually, Shakespeare has given the names of his heroes as the titles of his
tragedies, for example Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and Hamlet. He has also
given his historical plays names of the ruling kings, though there may be very little
in the play about the ruling King. In case of his other plays, especially the
Romantic Comedies, he has given any fanciful title to his plays: for example, As
You Like It, Twelfth Night or What You Will and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
These names are meant only to capture the minds and the interest and attention of
the audience. Shakespeare means that one may call these plays as one likes them or
as one will but one should concentrate more on the significance of the plays. In
light of this, the title of The Tempest may be evaluated as similar to other
Shakespearean comedies in acting as obscurely suggestive and not overtly
indicative of the play as a whole.
The Tempest: Sea-Storm
How do we account for the title of the play The Tempest? The sea-storm or tempest
in the play rises and is over in the very first scene of Act I. There is nothing left of
the tempest during the action of the play and yet Shakespeare has called the
play The Tempest. Although most critics have accepted the title of the play as it is,
there are a few exceptions who feel that the play should have been named
“Prospero” as the entire action of the play moves round the figure of him.
Some might aver that The Tempest is not a good title because a tempest is
suggestive of death and destruction. There is no death or destruction in the play.
The passengers remain safe, even the ship remains whole and safe. The action of
the play follows the storm. So, a better title would be “After The Tempest”. But
would such a title be poetic? It would certainly be dull and prosaic. It may also be
borne in mind that the storm is not a natural event. It is raised by Prospero by his
magic art for certain purpose and the storm ceases and there is calmness. The storm
in The Tempest has no destructive effects. On the other hand, it is a beneficent and
benevolent storm. The action of the play results from the tempest.
The wreck of Sir George Somer’s “The Sea-Venture” had caused a commotion and
a thrill of excitement in England. The Ship was wrecked in 1610. Immediately
afterwards, The Tempest was written. Shakespeare as a clever artist and dramatist
naturally knew what would cause a thrill and what would capture the imagination
of the people. So he probably chose to give the title “The Tempest” to the play.

Tempest: Literal and Metaphoric Connotations

In such plays as Othello and King Lear, Shakespeare uses a storm as means of
cutting the characters off from places and people with whom they were familiar,
thus making them re-examine their relationships. The Tempest uses a similar
technique. It cuts the characters off from the natural world and places them on a
mysterious island where love and reconciliation are magically allowed to conquer
hatred and envy. The title, therefore, refers not only to the physical storm that
occurs in the first scene of the play, but to the turbulent passions of the characters,
passions which, like the storm, are magically transformed into the promise of
peace with which the play ends.

Suitability with Genre

The Tempest belongs to the last phase of Shakespearean Drama, popularly known
as Tragi-comedy or Dark Comedy. There is a certain amount of gloom, even
melancholy in the cast and setting of the plays belonging to this genre. In The
Tempest, the story of love and courtship is overshadowed by alienation,
subjugation and bitter loneliness. Despite his magical powers, Prospero suffers in
his exile from homeland and, in turn, makes the spirits of the island suffer under
his repressed misdirected impulse to subjugate. Post Colonial Critics have severely
interrogated Prospero's treatment of Caliban, calling Prospero a cruel colonizer.
Despite her strong bonding with her father, Miranda gets haunted by her faint
memories of vibrant childhood. It is as if their lives are overcast by clouds of
despair. No wonder the tempest is such a welcome change for them. Moreover, the
word "tempest" suits the dark gloomy setup of Prospero's island.

The Tempest: Nature/Super-nature Duality

The tempest that disturbed the island was one that was raised by Prospero. He was,
at that point, desirous of vengeance and justice. This is set in sharp contrast to the
gentle gale that Prospero wishes for in the Final Scene of the play:
"I’ll deliver all,And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales,
And sail so expeditious that shall catch
Your royal fleet far off."
The play presents not just a transformation of the weather, from a tempestuous one
to a fair one. It also presents the transformation of Prospero's heart, from an
agitated restless loner to a calm, pacified man. The tempest he raised was not
something natural but a supernatural manifestation of his personal impulses.
Therefore, the metaphoric tempest ends not in the first scene, but at the end of the
play when Prospero transforms from the malicious magician to a humble human:
"Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,"
Casting away his supernatural might, Prospero can finally pray for deliverance and
mercy of higher powers because he can separate himself from the tempest that had
sustained him, empowered him and yet tormented him in his exile:
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands.
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
The tempest, from such a perspective is more than a sea-storm. It is a metaphor of
Prospero's magical prowess, his supernatural potency to subjugate even the forces
of nature. The title of The Tempest is therefore appropriate on multiple levels of
interpretation.

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Water is central to this play, and, particularly, the act of being immersed in water –
namely, drowning. Of course, the first scene when the ship splits is a pretty good
time to worry about drowning, but the imagery goes beyond that to represent loss
and recovery.

When first exiled with Miranda, Prospero suggests that he could have drowned the
sea with his own tears when he cried over his lost dukedom and his past: "When I
have deck'd the sea with drops full salt" (1.2.18).

The new inhabitants of the isle are obsessed with water too. Ferdinand, upon
hearing Ariel's song, knows it refers to his father's certain drowning:

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange (1.2.20)

Ariel's song leads Ferdinand to believe that his father has drowned and is lost to
him forever. Not only that, but the song suggests that his body has been
transformed into something unrecognizable.

Later, when Alonso gives up hope that Ferdinand could have survived the
shipwreck he says, "he is drown'd / Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
/ Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go" (3.1.1) and Antonio notes the King
has "given up hope" (3.1.1).

The idea here is that when someone is lost to the sea, there probably isn't even
going to even be a body that can be recovered. Drowning demands that the dead
must be let go, without the closure of a burial ceremony. So what we're talking
about here is the seeming finality of drowning. Usually, once a thing is given to the
ocean, it can never be taken back, which is why Rose drops the diamond necklace
into the ocean in everyone's favorite tacky love story (yes, Titanic).

But wait! The Tempest isn't just a story about loss. It's also about the recovery of
what seems to have been lost forever. As we know, Ferdinand and his father don't
actually drown and when they discover each other at the play's end, we're reminded
that new beginnings are possible.

Same goes for Prospero, who once thought Milan would never be restored to him
but lives to see the day his daughter is married to Prince Ferdinand and will live as
a royal in Italy. While Miranda and Prospero will never get back the twelve years
they lost on the island, the play suggests that, despite their suffering, they will gain
something even greater.
 Conclusion

I have seen The Tempest described as a Romance play too, but these are modern
labels; the original classifications allowed for only 3 categories: Tragedies,
Comedies and Histories. If you have to put The Tempest into one of these, it
obviously has to be classed as a comedy, in the sense that it is neither a tragedy nor
a history, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a funny play (it isn’t). It has an
optimistic ending, with Prospero adjuring his magic and set to be returned to his
rightful status, Ariel and Caliban freed, and with Miranda and Ferdinand marrying,
so that the Natural Order of things can be restored (always important in the
Shakespearean view of things),, so that definitely counts as a Happy Ending play.

But none of the Comedies is without darkness. The cruel treatment of Malvolio
in Twelfth Night, for instance, or the very dubious basis for the Happy Ending
marriages between Viola & Orsino and Olivia & Sebastian - does that look like a
Happy Ever After future? And then there is the equally outrageous treatment of
Shylock in The Merchant of Venice - not just by the court, but even by his own
daughter. Shakespeare does not present a simplistic picture of life even in his
comedies.

So call it what you like, The Tempest has this darkness too. The treatment of Ariel
and Caliban is disturbing, and the whole basis for the life that Prospero and
Miranda have led on the island has unhappiness as its basis, with a history of
jealousy and deceit. It’s as much a comedy as Twelfth Night, The Merchant of
Venice or A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is to say, up to a point.

Nothing is simple.

Works Cited:
 1) Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Peocock Books. 2006. Print.

2) Paul, Rajinder. The Tempset. Rama Brothers India Pvt. Ltd. 2007. Print.

3)https://books.google.com.ua/books?
id=BgIzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=william+shakespeare%E2%80%99s+the+tempest:
+the+symbolic+meaning+of+the+title+essay&source=bl&ots=HTWSWmI_ZR&sig=ACfU3U25XjlnTzV3NJq
F-
tLQRUqX_wemUQ&hl=uk&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZtOezutHpAhUvxKYKHQchBEAQ6AEwD3oECAoQAQ#v=
onepage&q=william%20shakespeare%E2%80%99s%20the%20tempest%3A%20the%20symbolic
%20meaning%20of%20the%20title%20essay&f=false

4) https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-significance-title-tempest-terms-symbolism-
2594?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=0d6de2185d58eed3b85ddaae887e03420233c296-1590491243-0-
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VUXdkCFTfSWJnpsczMk-MzCRW8eRaK9

5) https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/tempest/analysis