Tempest #

Context and Background #

Shakespeare’s World #

Shakespeare’s life spanned both Elizabethan and Jacobean England, a dynamic period of change, expansion, exploration and enlightenment, yet his view of the world (Weltanshaung) was quite different from ours.

Though Copernicus had died 21 years before Shakespeare’s birth and he was born in the same year as Galileo, his world view was still geocentric rather than heliocentric; that is most people still believed that the earth was the centre of the world with the sun and planets revolving around it.

His was a uniform, unanimous or monolithic world with one ruler – a monarch, one church – Anglo-Catholic/, one economic system – feudalism, and a conformist outlook in life.

His was a profoundly Christian society, believing in sin, an afterlife of heaven or hell, yet also easily influenced by pagan ideas of fortune, the stars and supernatural spirits, ghosts and goblins. Fortuna, the pagan goddess with her wheel of fortune is prominently referred to in his plays. Many of his plays are set in pagan eras, though some like Hamlet clearly show the conflicting ideologies such as revenge.

He believed in order; a place for everything and everything in its place, especially in matters of governance. The monarch is supreme and his plays are strongly critical of improper succession of monarchs which could give rise to chaos or anarchy. Shakespeare’s many history plays subtly mirror his society. Hamlet and Richard II warn about proper succession, while Lear could be a subtle warning to the new King about flatterers and sycophants in his court.

Society believed in hierarchy – the order of degrees in society, though already there is evidence of an emergent middle trading class striving for political power.

Finally he believed in the Great Chain of Being with God, the Angels, Man, Animals, Vegetable and last; the inanimate. Man exists in a state between the Angels and was capable of transcending to the level of Angels but also prone to descend to the level of animals.

Shakespeare embodies the moral relativism of the Post-Modernists.

One can never be sure whose side he is on. When Shylock denounces the Christians for their slave trading, he is giving back as good as he got for their abuse of his usury. Despite some leaning towards monarchy, the plays contain more than enough regicide and Bad Kings to satisfy the staunchest Republican.

We live in a Post-Modern world of subjective values, no absolute truths and a pluralistic world of varied cultures, beliefs and values.

The Western world has accepted empirical knowledge, egalitarianism, feminism and tolerates a wide, diverse form of life styles. To someone from Shakespeare’s time this would appear chaotic, confusing and distressing.

The Tempest was written circa 1511 and many believe the last play Shakespeare wrote on his own. It reveals the fascination of the English with sea exploration, shipwrecks, and the possibility of escape to idyllic remote islands.

Political The Tempest (c. 1610–11) is often read in light of England’s expanding awareness of the New World. Shakespeare drew on contemporary reports of voyages and shipwrecks in the Americas, and the play can be seen as both an imaginative response to these discoveries and a meditation on colonialism, power, and encounter with “the other.”

1. The New World Context

When The Tempest was first performed (likely in 1611 at court), England was becoming increasingly involved in the colonization of the Americas. The Virginia Company had been chartered in 1606, and the ill-fated voyage of the Sea Venture (1609) to Jamestown was widely discussed in London. The ship was wrecked in Bermuda, and accounts of the survivors circulated in pamphlets. Shakespeare almost certainly knew William Strachey’s A True Reportory of the Wracke, and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight (written 1610, circulated in manuscript) and Sylvester Jourdain’s A Discovery of the Barmudas (1610). Both described storms, shipwreck, survival, and a lush island environment.

Source: Vaughan, Alden T., and Virginia Mason Vaughan. Shakespeare’s Caliban: A Cultural History. Cambridge University Press, 1991.

2. The Island and the New World

The setting of The Tempest—a remote, “uninhabited” island—echoes early European descriptions of the Caribbean. The lush abundance of the island recalls reports of America’s resources, while its strangeness mirrors the travelers’ tales of exotic flora and fauna.

Caliban, in particular, has often been read as a figure shaped by the encounter between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Montaigne’s essay Of the Cannibals (translated by John Florio in 1603) was another likely source, emphasizing the “natural nobility” of the “savages” of Brazil. Shakespeare plays with this idea in Gonzalo’s utopian speech (Act II, scene i), which borrows directly from Montaigne.

Source: Greenblatt, Stephen. Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture. Routledge, 1990.

3. Colonization and Power

The dynamic between Prospero (the European “colonizer”) and Caliban (the native inhabitant) reflects early English anxieties and ambitions in America. Prospero claims ownership of the island through power and knowledge, echoing the European justification for colonization through “civilization” and “conversion.” Caliban, meanwhile, resents the loss of his land and status (“This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother” [1.2.331]). This makes The Tempest one of the earliest English plays to dramatize the ethics of colonization.

Source: Hulme, Peter, and William H. Sherman, eds. “The Tempest” and Its Travels. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.

4. The Sea and the Storm

The storm itself—the tempest—was almost certainly inspired by the Bermuda shipwreck. The Sea Venture disaster was notorious, and its miraculous survival story resonated with English audiences as proof of divine providence. Strachey’s vivid description of “the most dreadful tempest” anticipates Shakespeare’s stage-storm at the opening of the play.

Scene One - The deck of a ship, during a raging storm.

The master and the boatswain enter. The master warns to boatswain that the boat is about to run aground and exits. The boatswain instructs the mariners. Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, Gonzalo and court enter. The boatswain tries to convince them to stay in their cabins, that royal blood and little knowledge is of no use to him. He convinces Gonzalo of his authority in the situation. However, Gonzalo returns shortly with Sebastian and Antonio, who verbally attack the boatswain.

News comes that the ship is about to run aground, and the King and Prince are praying for safety. The boatswain leaves amid the curses of Antonio and Sebastian. Antonio and Sebastian go down to the King. Gonzalo longs for a death on land.

“What care these roarers for the name of king?” - Boatswain. “The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death.” - Gonzalo.

The King’s power is limited. King James I was renown for his Divine Right but it fails the King here. Even his prayers go unanswered.

Source: Smith, Virginia Mason. “Shipwreck, Storm, and the Sea Venture: Shakespeare’s Sources for The Tempest.” Shakespeare Quarterly 41, no. 4 (1990): 377–385.

5. Ambiguity and Aftermath

Shakespeare doesn’t give a simple answer about colonization. Instead, he dramatizes its complexities: the promise of new beginnings, the violence of conquest, and the human cost of encounter. The play stands at the intersection of Renaissance humanism and early modern imperialism.

Source: Kermode, Frank. Shakespeare: The Final Plays. Routledge, 1963.

In summary:

The discovery of America influenced The Tempest through shipwreck narratives (especially Bermuda), Montaigne’s reflections on “savages,” and the ideological debates about colonization. Shakespeare transformed these into a rich allegory about power, freedom, and encounter, making The Tempest one of his most politically resonant plays.