Skip to main content

What is autobiographical element in The Tempest by William Shakespeare?

There are strong links between The Tempest and William Shakespeare's own life. These revolve around the character of Prospero, his powers, and where he is in his "career" on the island.


Start with the basics: both are men of mature age. That's basic, but what follows is less basic.


Prospero is a wizard. On this island, people do what he says. They move according to his wishes. He organizes the drama early in the play, and the narrative twists and turns throughout it. At times, his magic makes them see things that aren't really there.


Shakespeare is a playwright, not a wizard, but on stage, people do what he says. Characters move according to his wishes. He structures the drama throughout his plays, and, when he moves into his poetic moments, like in the monologues, he makes us all see things that aren't there.


At the end of the play, Prospero sets his staff (his magic) aside. This furthers the comparison between Prospero and Shakespeare because The Tempest was Shakespeare's final play.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more