What is it about?
My essay argues that, in The Tempest, Shakespeare scrutinizes the "magic" of stage spectacle as an expression of the developing scientific knowledge of the day. The play features a number of biblical resonances by way of counterpointing and correcting the overly optimistic projections about the possibility of improving human nature and the human condition typical of those such as Bacon who championed the new learning.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The essay explores both biblical references in the play as well as a sustained parallel to a specific passage from the Gospel According to Luke as the underpinning for Shakespeare's dramatic meditation on the allure of power, its potential to be used for suspect ends, and the need for forgiveness as the antidote to human failings.
Perspectives
This essay was a labor of love that allowed me to revisit some longstanding conclusions about Shakespeare's debt to biblical echo and allusion and to combine it with new insights about the various levels on which Shakespeare's meditations on power and its temptations and dangers resonate within The Tempest, which I take to be his greatest and most definitive reflection on the themes of all of his preceding works.
Dr Donald T Carlson
Trinity Valley School
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: “'Tis New to Thee”: Power, Magic, and Early Science in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Ben Jonson Journal, May 2015, Edinburgh University Press,
DOI: 10.3366/bjj.2015.0119.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
