One common way to interpret Prospero, the protagonist of William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, is as a God figure. After all, Prospero reigns over the island and controls several characters. Most convincingly for this reading, he acts as the sole judge of the shipwrecked brethren he has not seen in twelve years. On the surface the reading is sound, but what might Shakespeare’s theologian contemporaries think about it, specifically the Protestant Reformers? On the Freedom of a Christian by Martin Luther and Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin are two of the most influential texts of early Protestantism. Both speak extensively on the subjects of humanity’s goodness (or lack thereof), redemption, and the importance (or
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These characters can also be viewed as believers in God, or those over whom God has power. Does Prospero’s relationship with the fellow residents of the island align with the way Calvin and Luther believe a follower of God should behave before God? As Calvin says, “pure and genuine religion [is], namely, confidence in God coupled with serious fear” (Calvin, 8), which certainly applies to the way Prospero manages his “followers” and the way the three practice devotion to Prospero. Part of this fear is to stem from uncertainty as to one’s salvation, a point Luther agrees with: “But you may ask: ‘What, then, is the word that gives such great grace, and how shall I use it?’ Answer: It is nothing other than the preaching of Christ as contained in the gospel, which should be, and indeed is, presented so that you hear your God speak to you, explaining how all of your life and works are nothing to God, but must, along with all that is within you, eternally perish” (Luther, 21). The philosophy is very dark, and the second scene of The Tempest’s first act demonstrates how Prospero enforces such a bleak and fear-reliant system of order. When Ariel requests his freedom (1.2.242-245), Prospero responds by threatening to “rend an oak/And peg [you] in his knotty entrails till/ Thou hast howled away twelve winters” (1.2.294-296). Meanwhile, …show more content…
In the words of Calvin, “[God] does not adopt all promiscuously to the hope of salvation, but gives to some what he denies to others” (Calvin, 24). Calvin also, in what appears to be a rather large contradiction, states that “though experience testifies that a seed of religion is divinely sown in all, scarcely one in a hundred is found who cherishes it in his heart and not one in whom it grows to maturity so far is it from yielding fruit in its season” (Calvin, 10). Yet one of Prospero’s monologues in The Tempest (5.1.58-87) manages to exemplify that contradiction and render it natural and reasonable for Prospero and those he judges. The piece occurs near the end of the play, as Prospero’s plot has been revealed and he gives character judgments of the group. This monologue reveals that Prospero might consider Gonzalo the “one in a hundred” of the group who is not totally depraved. Prospero tells him that “[his own] eyes, ev’n sociable to the show of thine,/Fall fellowly drops” (5.1.63-64) and promises he “will pay [Gonzalo’s] graces/Home both in word and deed” (6.1.70-71). Prospero does not deny grace in this instance, but ensures the audience knows he would have reason to do so, and he also affirms the “seed” of human goodness by using Gonzalo as an example -- something a Calvinist God
These characters can also be viewed as believers in God, or those over whom God has power. Does Prospero’s relationship with the fellow residents of the island align with the way Calvin and Luther believe a follower of God should behave before God? As Calvin says, “pure and genuine religion [is], namely, confidence in God coupled with serious fear” (Calvin, 8), which certainly applies to the way Prospero manages his “followers” and the way the three practice devotion to Prospero. Part of this fear is to stem from uncertainty as to one’s salvation, a point Luther agrees with: “But you may ask: ‘What, then, is the word that gives such great grace, and how shall I use it?’ Answer: It is nothing other than the preaching of Christ as contained in the gospel, which should be, and indeed is, presented so that you hear your God speak to you, explaining how all of your life and works are nothing to God, but must, along with all that is within you, eternally perish” (Luther, 21). The philosophy is very dark, and the second scene of The Tempest’s first act demonstrates how Prospero enforces such a bleak and fear-reliant system of order. When Ariel requests his freedom (1.2.242-245), Prospero responds by threatening to “rend an oak/And peg [you] in his knotty entrails till/ Thou hast howled away twelve winters” (1.2.294-296). Meanwhile, …show more content…
In the words of Calvin, “[God] does not adopt all promiscuously to the hope of salvation, but gives to some what he denies to others” (Calvin, 24). Calvin also, in what appears to be a rather large contradiction, states that “though experience testifies that a seed of religion is divinely sown in all, scarcely one in a hundred is found who cherishes it in his heart and not one in whom it grows to maturity so far is it from yielding fruit in its season” (Calvin, 10). Yet one of Prospero’s monologues in The Tempest (5.1.58-87) manages to exemplify that contradiction and render it natural and reasonable for Prospero and those he judges. The piece occurs near the end of the play, as Prospero’s plot has been revealed and he gives character judgments of the group. This monologue reveals that Prospero might consider Gonzalo the “one in a hundred” of the group who is not totally depraved. Prospero tells him that “[his own] eyes, ev’n sociable to the show of thine,/Fall fellowly drops” (5.1.63-64) and promises he “will pay [Gonzalo’s] graces/Home both in word and deed” (6.1.70-71). Prospero does not deny grace in this instance, but ensures the audience knows he would have reason to do so, and he also affirms the “seed” of human goodness by using Gonzalo as an example -- something a Calvinist God