The Importance Of Fate In The Tempest By William Shakespeare

The Tempest, as William Shakespeare 's final play, it carries forth many of the famous playwrights tropes and favorite themes, though some of these more traditional, and borrowed techniques are slightly altered within the play itself. Shakespeare was very noted for portraying himself in his writing, making the audience and players aware of his decisions as a storyteller. This is incredibly apparent and generally takes the form of fate, crossing nearly every one of his plays. Fate tends to the be the at the forefront of all conflict within Shakespeare’s plays and is portrayed in physical beings such as, Oberon, Puck, Ariel, Hecate and her witches. With these portrayals Shakespeare also invokes the idea of magic, or spiritual alchemy. With this …show more content…
Beyond the mysticism, Shakespeare does some more common writing tropes, such as character doubling, though he tends to take it step above by creating character feedback loops, spirals of corruption between two characters that can be the end of a hero, such as Hamlet, or the start of a villain like Macbeth. Courtly love is another exemplified theme that rears hints in each of the previously mentioned plays, as well as Midsummer Nights Dream. Each one of these elements has its place within specific plays, though, The Tempest not only brush with each of these key aspects, but uses them in a unique combination to create a play that is apart from the rest of his work. Ignoring the most prominent theme, fate and cosmic order, power dynamics and character loops are features that appear in a majority Shakespeare 's work. In The Tempest, the prominent power struggles all cross with Prospero, similar to the relationships within Hamlet, where virtually all other major players are out to ruin the hero. Respectively, as the former king of Milan, Prospero, finds his conflicts come from one of his slaves, Caliban, and his brother, Antonio, as for Hamlet, his are only really the king, Claudius, and Laertes. The …show more content…
There is no plain face of fate, but Shakespeare, as the playwright, creates these worlds, playing God and controlling the characters, making his control known to everyone who partakes in the enjoyment of all of these plays. While the a monolog directed towards the audience is present at the end of both A Midsummers Night and The Tempest, this is not how Shakespeare usually presents himself. For each play a balance between cosmic, and earthly is intricate, and if interrupted, will be corrected, which can be seen in both A Midsummer and Macbeth where as Oberon and Hecate dictate how to reprimand the situation.. In these roles they are both extensions of two things, a uniquely Shakespearian view of an Elizabethan view of holy order and how it happens, as well as the almighty hand of Shakespeare himself. The balance between earth and cosmos is usually beyond human control, and any attempts for humans to change the pre-decided fate for us ends in either one of two ways, a Hamlet, where every important person ends up dead (not including Horatio) or a Macbeth, where only the one changing fate dies (not including all the people he killed). With this Shakespeare draws a clear line between what the players could do, and what he will allow, saying meer defiance will lead to death, conspiracy against the “holy order” will lead to death, and rebellion, unless it is in the name of love, will also end up in death. Though with all these boundaries that he had created, the