Essay on the Setting in Shakespeares The Tempest -- Tempest essays

Importance of Setting in The storm Shakespeares enchanted island in The violent storm is a restorative pastoral setting, a place where no man was his own and a place that offers endless possibilities to the people that arrive on its shores. Although the actual location of the island is not known, the worlds of Seneca aptly describe its significance to the play it represents the bounds of things, the remotest shores of the world. On the boundary of creation, the island partakes of both the natural and elfin both the imaginative and the real. It allows the exploration of both mans potential and his limitations, his capacity for reform through art and his affinity for political and social realities. It is constructing this antagonist between art and reality and in giving Shakespeares romance the freedom to explore mankind free from the concerns of everyday life that the setting of The Tempest is crucial to its overall dramatic design. The only scene in the play that does not tak e place on the island is the opening tempest scene. It is in itself an important use of setting. It hints at the fact that the characters social assumptions will capitulate when exposed to adversity we have the boatswain apparently inappropriately comment no(prenominal) aboard the ship that I love more than myself. In fact, quite the reverse is true. In the court scene we are presented with the characters Antonio and Sebastian who are interested in political gain despite the predicament in which they find themselves. In this respect the setting functions to present the idea that our social conditioning transcends time and place. The inference is that if political clambering can take place on an enchanted island in the middle of now... ...gic and music. The contrast between the representative characters and the magic art of the island does not sever itself, rather, it leaves the audience in what Russ McDonald called a marginal condition between expectation and understanding, aff irmation and skepticism, comedy and tragedy. The setting functions to present the worlds of both art and reality in order to affirm the transcendent human desire for power and order, as well as affirm the world of art as a means of dealing with reality. Bibliography/ Works Cited Meller, A., Moon, G.T. Literary Shakespeare (1993) Sydney Canon Publications Lecture on The Tempest (1988) C. Holmes Shakespeare, W. The Tempest. Ed. Sutherland, J.R. (1990) Mikhail M. Morozor, (1989)The Individualization of Shakespeares Characters through Imagery, Shakespeare Survey.