Historical Context - Thetempestcomplutense

While Shakespeare was writing The Tempest, a set of historical facts were taking place in the 17th century England. The Renaissance movement was invading the different scopes in the sociopolitical outlook with their corresponding characteristics.

The Tempest and Colonization

If we place ourselves in the year that The Tempest was written, 1611, we can easily deduce how much of an issue colonialism was during these times. Even though it had started way before these years with the discovery of America in 1492, the opening of new fronters and the domination of new lands was very much influencing Shakespeare’s mind. This play is considered a postcolonial play though, which we can find out mainly due to Caliban’s protest against Prospero and his resistance to colonial power using the language taught by the colonizer. Colonialism is probably one of the most important themes in The Tempest. If we take a look at the plot, we might see a representation of the Europeans through Prospero’s actions: he arrives at Sycorax’s island, subdues it and imposes his own culture to its inhabitants. In the same note, Sycorax’s island could be seen as a representation of America, which suffered the same impositions than the island did. As Europeans did with the Americans, Prospero takes the power away from Caliban and treats him as an evil, ugly and deformed being, a despicable entity, who, in his eyes, is not even a human. This belief of superiority was very usual in the European mind when the colonization was in vogue. During Shakespeare’s times and the writing of The Tempest, what we refer as “The First British Empire” was happening, in which most of the colonization of America and Africa and the slave trade occurred. Around the year 1611, the English were trying to establish themselves on different parts of America, which were slowly subduing to the British Empire. Even though The Tempest is considered a postcolonial play, it did happen in the middle of this colonial process and so Shakespeare could see first hand what was going on and react to it. In 1607 the English colonization in America had started, so four years previous to the release of the play. In those first years, the colonization was concentrated on the territories of New England and Virginia, whose expeditions were carried by commercial companies. Virginia was the first territory to be colonized and it all happened, as we previously said, contemporaneously to Shakespeare’s writing of The Tempest. Maybe Sycorax’s island was a representation of Virginia and, as we said, Prospero and Caliban and Ariel represented the colonizers and the colonized respectively. We could say that The Tempest was mainly a reaction to all this facts that were taking place and Shakespeare decided to choose a position with his opinion.

What was Shakespeare’s opinion about colonization?

There have been many theories about Shakespeare’s opinion shown through The Tempest. O’Toole has one of the most known theories about this topic in his work Shakespeare’s Natives: Ariel and Caliban in The Tempest in which he claims that in The Tempest, Shakespeare’s referring to colonization through his characters was a reaction to an essay made by a writer called Montaigne. In his essay, titled On Cannibals, the writer describes natives as cannibals and savages and argues that trying to tame them goes against Nature. Now, according to O’Toole, besides criticizing this belief, he also claims that colonization can benefit the colonized. Both of these opinions are shown through the characters of Ariel and Caliban. We do agree with these in the sense that Shakespeare, as member of the higher classes, believed that colonization could be necessary, but as a civilized man, he did agree that some of the colonization techniques had gone too far and could be rather negative for the colonized, who at the end of the day, where still human.

Historical Sources

What were the possible historical sources for Shakespeare to write The Tempest? After the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Colombus, the interest for the New World grew. This discovery constitutes one of the most important events of universal history which represents the encounter of two different worlds which had developed independently since the origin of humanity. The Queen Elisabeth I settled the basis of what with time became the British Empire in which England played a very important role concerning the development of many of the colonies in the New World. Jamestown and Virginia were founded just few years ago of Shakespeare´s first publication of The Tempest, considered by some critics as the last of Shakespeare´s plays. And although the plot is totally original the story draws on historical facts of his time when wrecks, expeditions and sailings became more popular due to the fact of the growing interest for the Americas. Many authors took ideas in order to write from his own historical background. In addition, many islands were discovered during Shakespeare´s lifetime and visited by English explorers around 1607. In this case, the English colonial project seems to be on Shakespeare´s mind throughout the play taking into account characters and the main setting which is an unnamed remote island which Shakespeare describes evasively and contradictorily. Some Shakespearean scholars have agreed that the island is not in the Mediterranean Sea, but in the Americas since Bermuda Islands are named in the play.

Apart from the literary sources of the play we have to mention some of the historical sources that could have inspired Shakespeare in order to write The Tempest. It is thought that one of the possible sources could be the fact that Shakespeare read reports and other documents written by the writer William Strachey. The report was called “A true repertory of the wrake” dated in 1610 that told how Sir Thomas Gates and Captain Christopher Newport among others sailed from Plymouth to Virginia to provide supplies in 1609, and how a storm destroyed the ship in which they sailed called “Sea Venture”, although the crew could reach to Bermudas and lived there for few months. Moreover, Shakespeare´s patron, Earl of Southampton, was a member of the Virginia´s Company, so he could have got much information about the panoramic context of the years. Bermuda Islands were discovered by Sylvester Jourdain.

Besides, Shakespeare seems also to have drawn on Montaigne’s essay Of the Cannibals, which was translated into English in 1603. The name of Prospero’s servant, Caliban, seems to come from the word “Cannibal.”

When picturing the storm in The Tempest, Shakespeare could have used another document entitled “A True Declaration of the Estate of the Colonie in Virginia” published in 1610 that talked about the story and adventures of some returned sailors from the Americas.

Other pamphlets were distributed in those ages related to the growing colonization of the New World. In the book dealing with travel “Raleigh´s Discovery of Guiana and Eden´s History of Travaile” it can be seen that some of the proper names in The Tempest are associated with those which appear in this one.

PREVAILING MONARCHIES AT THE TIME THE TEMPEST WAS BEING CONCEIVED

In the period William Shakespeare penned , a play full of tragedy despite its happy ending, English monarchy was immersed in change perspective. Tudor´s unconditional heir Elizabeth I, had reigned from 1530 to 1603 having marked a long and successful period in which the Sp

anish Armada was defeated. In religion, English population was witness of the returning of Protestantism. She refused to marry and devoted her whole life to her country. In 1583 Elizabeth I attended to the blossoming of the English theatre. She took a special interest in plays. In 1583 Queen Elizabeth´s Men Company was formed. And by the 1590s the company of Lord Chamberlain, whose writer and actor was William Shakespeare, was the dominant.

At the age of 69 Elizabeth I ‘the Virgin Queen’ died which supposed a drastic turning point in the life of England. In the year of 1567 a little thirteen-year-old James Stuart was crowned as a king of Scotland. He was the son of Elizabeth cousin´s Mary, who was behaved under the Elizabeth´s reign. James was brought up by a Presbyterian scholar known throughout Europe. His tutor taught James I that kings were not absolute and possessed of divine powers but when, in 1603, James was crowned, he had already written ‘Kings are called Gods, they are appointed by God and answerable only to God’ which meant that to act against him was to rebel against God. Religious terms got into a confusion since Protestantism “shared” ideals with Catholicism, therefore Puritans felt markedly outcast and the beginning of diasporas in the search of a better world barely sprouted, giving way to Colonialism. It is precisely the effects of Colonialism, the germ of one of the most outstanding last period plays including The Tempest that William Shakespeare wrote. Caliban can be reflected as a conquered person. Jacobean theatres emerged as an obsession with morality and the zeal of the audience for violent stories of treachery. Critics argue that King James I, in spite of patronising a leading playing company throughout his reign, was not musical and his taste focused more in satire drama and only Shakespeare´s wittiness was immediately captured by the monarch.

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