Where Prospero Pulls the Strings

The Tempest by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've never seen this play staged, but I think it would be a lot of fun. And I think, with all the spectacle in the story, it'd especially be entertaining to a 16th or 17th century audience.

But IMO it would have been way better if there had been a plot. Any plot. How did I not notice this?

I last read this at ASU back in the 80s in Professor Doebler's class. (I see he died in the 90s. A shame--he was a fun teacher, actually, and he was a true Shakespeare scholar.) And I didn't really understand yet how to approach reading a Shakespeare play. Thought I did. I didn't.

Well, I halfway understood the play then, and I'm maybe 3/4 of the way now, and this is my opinion: some of it is funny, and some of it is cruel (poor Caliban), and the story arc is actually pretty awesome--Prospero gets a little revenge and gets his place back, all while providing a decent husband for his sweet daughter--but the play itself has almost no significant action or plot. It's rather like A Midsummer Night's Dream, where a bunch of stuff happens, but it's not very important, because nobody is confronting a genuine conflict and fighting through it. Everything is made to turn out. A plot generally needs the outcome to be in doubt, and we don't get that here.

If we had seen Prospero fight to survive on the island and perfect his art, and if we saw him use his power to create the tempest in the title that brought his enemies into his power, it would approximate modern storytelling. But all of that happens even before the first line. In the actual play, though, Prospero is entirely in control; he's in no danger, the result is mapped out, and nothing is left to chance. He's basically putting on a little play for himself, using Ariel to move the characters around the stage. As a result, there's no real dramatic tension at all.

(Mind, I offer these thoughts more as a matter of interest than criticism. I'm not here to enforce rules. Shakespeare has somehow succeeded without my notes!)

Of course, story is not the only aspect worth talking about. This has some fine language and some interesting themes to follow through the acts and scenes. There are reasons why we still study and stage these plays. I just find it interesting that some of what I didn't understand as a teenager or assumed I overlooked somehow turns out to be stuff that is mostly absent. It's like looking for Waldo on a painting that never had a Waldo. No wonder I couldn't make sense of it... :)

I can see how it would still be cool to watch. Imagine all the magic in the various scenes, and Ariel behaving as if invisible, and spirits wandering about, blowing people's minds. Pretty fun. I can see how it would work.

Speaking for myself again, it was fun to return to this and improve my acquaintance with the play. I may even revisit it before too long so that I can linger over some of the finer language and some of the more quotable lines. Shakespeare did remember to include that for us.

Recommended for interested readers. Probably a good one to start with, in fact.

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