Hidden Utopianism in The Tempest
Vinisha Varughese 2012
When reading Shakespeare’s last play, The Tempest, we can see originality in the different plots and themes of the story. Shakespeare creates a world of imagination and illusion: a competition between the “real world” and the “new world”. Through this play an important idea can be seen and understood: Utopianism. Utopianism is seen in this play in many different levels. It can be looked at in a social and political level or in a religious level. Shakespeare uses the ideas of Thomas More and Plato in the underlying plots of The Tempest.
Utopianism derives from the book named Utopia written by Thomas More. It is a state of visionary schemes for producing perfection in social or political conditions. A Utopian society is basically a society, which has surpassed aggression, war, hate, and crime while establishing "peaceful" and orderly communities. A Utopian society could not exist with the individuality that nature has bestowed on the human race. As long as humans remain unique in their state of mind, utopia is a mere fantasy. Utopia is a nonexistent, but absolutely perfect place, as we can see from the book by Sir Thomas More. More was one of Henry VIII's main councilors. He fell out of favor with the king when he did not sign a letter urging the pope to divorce Henry and Catherine. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London because his going against the king was treason; he was beheaded. It is strange that a man with such a life, and such an end, was the creator of the perfect world as well as a commonly used word in our language. In his writings, utopia was a place of absolute perfection.
The “utopia” More talks about in his book is similar to the “utopia” that Gonzalo speaks of in The Tempest "All things in common nature should produce without sweat or endeavor. Treason, felony, Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need for any engine Would I not have; but nature should bring forth of its own kind, all foison, all abundance, to feed my innocent people." (The Necessary Shakespeare, pg. 861, lines 162-167) In The Tempest, Shakespeare allows the audience to appreciate the possibilities of utopian society and whatever this may possess. He shows the good and the bad so that they can see that problems can arise in such a society. The Tempest can be thus seen as a window into the dimensions of utopian societies. While his characters take on the role of the leaders of the utopian societies, Shakespeare uses his creation to portray the social questions and beliefs of society of how a utopian environment should be.
Essential to the discussion of this aspect of The Tempest is the definition of a "Utopia". For different characters this "utopia" means different things. First of all and maybe most important of all, as it is she who says it, Miranda's utopia consists of a populated world with many other human beings in it. This can be seen as created by the way she has been kept in relative isolation due to her father’s exile. Human beings, in whatever forms they come in are a fascination for her, and something that she longs to see. Prospero’s utopia consists of nothing and no one except for Miranda, Caliban and himself. There are no other human beings that could bring any possible corruption to his daughter. He sees this world of emptiness as the perfect place for him to bring up Miranda because there is nothing to distract her to lead her wayward. Antonio and Sebastian’s utopia don’t have anything to do with the primitive island they washed upon. In fact, their utopia consists of everything but what is on the island, the exact opposite. Caliban’s utopia consists of just him. It consists of the world without Prospero and his daughter, the way it was before they came along. Gonzalo’s utopia consists of everything he sees on the island. Gonzalo’s utopia is very much like the one described by More. Gonzalo says, “Would I admit; no name of magistrate; letters should not be known; riches, poverty, and use of service; none; contract; succession, bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none… no occupation; all men idle, all, and women too, but innocent and pure; no sovereignty.” (The Necessary Shakespeare, pg. 861, lines 150-159) Gonzalo’s utopia is has absence of status, property, and profession which assumes a unity and uniformity of humans.
Though all of the characters have a different image of “utopia”, two of these characters have an almost similar image of it. Gonzalo and Prospero both think of the island as their “utopia”. Prospero thinks of it as the place he is king and reigns over and has complete dominion over. Gonzalo thinks of it as a commonwealth where he crowns himself king also but later he sums up the reasoning of a stateless state in the phrase, “No sovereignty,” which means no one will have dominion over anyone else. Gonzalo corrects his outlines of a utopia and he allows himself to become the king over the island just long enough to abolish both kingship and sovereignty. Prospero only uses part of the guidelines for a utopian society. He doesn’t believe that everyone is equal, he think’s he is higher than everyone else. He doesn’t believe that there should be one religion because it is clearly seen that he uses magic throughout the whole play and then towards the end when he has failed in hurting everyone, he asks forgiveness and asks to be broken from the bonds of magic.
Gonzalo’s “utopia” has the dramatic effect of questioning Prospero’s “utopia” early in the play before the main conflicts have been fully developed. For example, in Gonzalo’s utopia there is no war or hate, so we ask ourselves, what about Prospero’s utopia? Prospero’s war against Sycorax was fought and won before the play begins therefore we can see that Prospero’s “utopia” offers the peace but not the democracy of Gonzalo’s utopia. In Prospero’s perfect ordered world anarchy, conspiracy and rebellion are so prevalent. Caliban, Antonio, Trinculo, Stephano and Sebastian are busily plotting murder right under Prospero’s nose. It can be obviously understood that Prospero does not have order on his island because he is too busy with his magical conspiracies against everyone else. Gonzalo would not have any these problems in his utopia because everyone would love eah other and have peace with each other. If anyone had a problem, they would talk it out and solve it. More than anything, Gonzalo’s utopia would not have a glimpse of evil unlike Prospero’s island where evil is lurking everywhere on his island and he is a part of it.
Prospero’s use of magic is also something that Gonzalo would be against. Prospero has no fear of God like he used to when he was a human living in the “real world”. He lost his dukedom because he spent too much time studying books and not enough time ruling his kingdom. To study books, Prospero disovers, is not in itself not enough, but from his books Prospero is able to gain the art, the patience, and the wisdom to control caliban. The magic that Prospero is able to perform seems to derive from not only the books he has, but his knowledge as well. From the knowledge Prospero has he has divine power to tell the near future. In the last act however, as the evil plots are stopped and Prospero gains full control over his enemies, a more Christian utopian act is seen. He goes towards the course of forgiveness and gives up the black magic that he was once binded to.
Shakespeare wrote this play to compare and contrast his Christian beliefs Shakespeare believed that the evils in a society stem from the evil within man and not from the corruption of manners. He also wrote this play to refute Thomas More who based their hopes for the improvement of society upon a return to primitive conditions which were supposed to bring out man’s natural innocence. The utopianism shown in this play through Gonzalo and Prospero did not succeed by the end of the play. Prospero changed and gave up his evil powers not because that’s what a utopian society would do but through the exercise of Christian virtue he learned when he was in the “real world”. Even though we don’t know what really happened at the end of The Tempest, Gonzalo’s utopia still has a chance to exist, but it can only work if all rebellion is gone and everyone forgives each other and agrees to live together in love and peace, a world of pure perfection and peace: utopia.
Works Cited
1. Ebner, Dean. "The Tempest: Rebellion and the Ideal State." Shakespeare Quarterly 16 (1965): 161-73. Print.
2. Logan, George M. The Meaning of More's "Utopia" Princeton: Princeton UP, 1983. Print.
3. M, Robert, trans. Utopia, Sir Thomas More. Toronto: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1975. Print.
4. Rockett, William. "Labor and Virtue in The Tempest." Shakespeare Quarterly 24.1 (1973): 77-84. Print.
5. Seiden, Melvin. "Utopianism in The Tempest." Modern Language Quarterly 31 (1970): 3-21. Print.