College final on THE TEMPEST with sources MLA

The island in the play The Tempest can give grant magical powers and twist men’s minds. It may be able to go further than that and plan events. Since the island has magic and can alter what a man sees, it is possible that the events that take place on the island are exactly what the island wants to happen.
The book opens with the storm that the play is named after. The storm is not a natural part of the world. Prospero is the one who wills the storm into being. Although it is Ariel who is the one who controls it and focuses what the storm does. The storm is a great example of how man tries to control the natural world around him. One person has a grand vision and then employs the middle men to take care of it. As a result some people suffer because of what has been done. In this instance it is the men in the boat. The power that was used to make this storm came from Ariel and Prospero.
In this story, the use of magic cuts down some of the restrictions that man would usually face when dealing with nature. Instead of having to rely heavily on machines and technology, the plot can move forward if a wizard does something such as manufacturing a storm. Indeed Prospero is a great wizard in the island, but the power does not come from within him but from his tools. His main tools are a staff, his books and his cloak. All three devices have been made from nature. The staff just a piece of wood, the books are either vellum of perhaps paper and the cloak cotton or animal skin. Without these instruments though, Prospero would not be able to use his magic. The way Prospero uses his staff and other magic implements portrays the feeling that it is okay to use nature for what we need to. That nature is not even considered when these are being used, they just are there for our use. It is true that none of the magic items are sentient so who gave Prospero the power to use them? The books and his cloak came with him from the old world and traveled on the boat with him and his daughter, but there is no mention of where the staff comes from. Perhaps it was the island that put forth the magical instruments for Prospero to use.
The magical staff, book and cloak that Prospero uses are not the only magical tools that are at Prospero’s disposal. Prospero also holds power over an airy spirit name Ariel. Ariel takes on the embodiment of nature at times throughout the story. Sometimes Ariel acts as air, fire, water and earth, but Ariel does not do this on his own behalf. Ariel does what Prospero commands him to do under threat of imprisonment in a tree. Prospero actually found Ariel imprisoned in a tree on the island and the island allowed Prospero the power to release Ariel. Prospero commanded Ariel to put on the show of a tempest, a giant storm at sea to make the sailors think that their boat was destroyed and all was lost. When Ariel was putting on the show of wrecking the ship, he changed into fire and thunder and became forces of nature. The way that Ariel can easily shift shape into types of nature makes Ariel the closest thing to a sentient part of nature besides humans on the island. Unless the island itself can be considered sentient. Austin Harris says ‘…there are two islands which are portrayed through the imagery and language Shakespeare uses.”
The island is a magical place, allowing magic and perhaps putting on shows of its own magic to the sentient beings who walk upon it. Prospero's magic has to come from somewhere. When Prospero arrived on the island he did not have magic. If he did, would he have allowed himself to be sent off from a place where he ruled in name at least? The book does not say how long it takes for Prospero to get his magic or if he need his tools to wield it, but from what is said, it sounds like certain conditions need to be met for Prospero to be able to perform any magic. Perhaps it is the magic of the island allowing him a bit of control of what the island possesses. When Prospero arrived on the island, it did not want Prospero to perish so it provided a guide to show Prospero how to live off the island. The guide's name is Caliban.
Caliban is another interesting tenant of the island. Caliban also knows a little bit of magic and needs no staff to use it. Caliban uses his words to curse and throw around what little magical power he has. Perhaps it is Caliban that is the representation of nature in the play, if he is, he shares it with Ariel. Suchismita Dutta refers to Caliban as a … “representative of nature in general.” Both characters are oppressed by Prospero who may represent humans in general, while Ariel and Caliban represent nature. Caliban shows Prospero where there is fresh water and food to eat, he gathers wood for Prospero and Miranda and does everything for the father and daughter that they do not do for themselves. For all of his work, Caliban is mistreated. There had been an attempt by Caliban to rape Prospero's daughter Miranda and that is supposedly the time that their relationship changed. The language that Prospero uses when talking to and about Caliban makes it seem like there is a hate that was always waiting to come out. Prospero enjoys torturing Caliban with cramps and pains more than he should. Is it Caliban's fault that he tried to rape Miranda? Perhaps it was in his nature to do so, the need to repopulate was great and he took action like an animal would. There is consent in nature, but still there are also seasons for breeding and animals do not say no just because they are not in love. This is not an argument for rape, just if looking at Caliban as a representation of nature it could be seen that he needed to ensure his lineage and tried to do so with the only other viable mate on the island. Perhaps it was the islands way of trying to reward Caliban for being a faithful servant and fulfilling his role.
If there is ownership of a place and that ownership comes from being at the location first and being able to say that this place is claimed in your name, Caliban would be the island's rightful owner. Prospero came to the island and basically overthrew Caliban, making him into a slave. This could easily go the route of Post-colonialism, but it is also in a sense survival of the fittest. It is the law that governs nature at its core. If you can kick out an opposing force whether member of your species or not and hold the area you want, it is yours. Not that might makes right, but in nature the fittest succeeds. The island makes it hard to define what would be considered the fittest.
The island seems to make people hallucinate, or at least see things differently than others do. When Antonio, and Sebastian start walking about the island they argue about what they are seeing. Saying that the island is supple and the air smells good, or it is brown and the air is terrible. The ground is lush or it is a desert. Throughout the tale the island changes, at times it is Ariel who helps these changes along, but it is like the island is alive, or at least manifests in each individuals mind as something that person wants or feels at that moment. To Caliban the island was a place that was home, then was invaded. To Prospero the island acts as a prison, then a way to free himself from the prison. It gives magic, or in fact the island is magic. In this way the island is like nature, it is what we project on it at the same time being exactly what it is, nature. It may also be the perspective of the character who is saying that the island is either too hard or to soft and wonder if the author is trying to make the reader think the person has a disposition towards looking at the glass as being half full or half empty. In this case, it is probably both.
Prospero puts events into motion on the island in order to get what he wants, his daughter married off to the prince so she can rule. In this way he is acting as an animal, not just the human animal. Every parent wants their kids to do better, and it doesn't really get much better for humans then being part of royalty. They also want a continuation of the species with the best possible pairing. Prospero exploits the magic on the island to make him the alpha among all who are on the island.
Caliban hides from the newcomers on the island when he hears them coming. He thinks that it is Prospero conjuring up snakes, apes or porcupine to come torture him with pricks. Caliban hides, not well, using his cloak to cover himself leaving his arms and legs exposed. Trinculo, is the first to find Caliban and begins to question what Caliban is. To start Caliban is a mix of an evil witch and human, he is accused of not looking very human. His looks and attitude can gain Caliban some sympathy, but may also make the reader think that he is closer to nature, or perhaps that he is a representative of nature due to his looks and him being the native on the island compared to the other inhabitants. As soon as Trinculo sees Caliban under the cloak, Trinculo has the idea to possibly make money off from Caliban. At first Trinculo thinks him a native or some animal that he can display in a museum or charge admittance to at a carnival freak show perhaps. Before even assessing that what before him is living or not, sentient or not, a human is assessing the value of an object. Perhaps it is a survival instinct to see if something has value or not when we first meet it or maybe we are a greedy lot who tries to put value on everything to see if anything can be gained by another? Perhaps it is the island that is playing into the hopes of men.
A storm comes along and Trinculo tries to hide from it by getting under the cloak with Caliban; still not realizing that it is a person under a cloak instead of a sea monster. Stephano stumbles on the scene and sees an eight limb creature on the ground and tries to get it drunk. Then Stephano births Trinculo from under the cloak which hid both Trinculo and Caliban. This is definitely some more magic from the island or a really ugly cloak. If the idea of Caliban being an unnatural creature is taken a step further, and a human is birthed from it. Perhaps we are just a step away from being our unnatural beastly selves.
The wedding scene stands apart in culture and easy to discuss through many different critical lenses. The speech that is given by Prospero about the maidenhead still being intact really goes back to lineage and guaranteeing that one’s blood line continues. It is one of the first questions that Ferdinand asks Miranda when meeting her and one of the things that could have ruined the relationship before it started. Miranda told Ferdinand that she was indeed a maid in the beginning of the play and it still had not changed a few hours later when they were going to get married. Prospero lays a lot of importance on the fact that the young couple not have pre-marital sex. In nature this would not be a question or something that comes up because there is no marriage, but still there are fights for breeding privilege. The two are married and the play is almost over, but Prospero has to do something more than marry off his daughter.
Prospero must give up his instruments of power. His staff he breaks in two and buries his books and does not mention what he does with his cloak. The fact that Prospero breaks what binds him to his magic is a big deal. Not only is it magic that Prospero is bound to, but the island and nature itself. By breaking his staff and getting rid of his books, Prospero is renouncing what power the island or nature has given him. Prospero is going to try and go back the world of man and make it for himself. The thing is, he may have left the island, but Prospero cannot out run nature.
The island itself is left to one person, Caliban. The one who is the possibly the representation of nature. That would make sense, with no humans left nature is left to itself, nature. Perhaps in time the island will provide for Caliban and there will be an island full of Calibans running around. Perhaps all the island wants is to be left alone and when Caliban dies it will be truly happy. Perhaps Shakespeare knew that his work was discussed and criticized and he planted a little seed of eco criticism in the Tempest for future readers. Todd Borlik thinks it is possible that Shakespeare had a grasp that his work would be reflected on eco critically saying “the playwright was also at least dimly aware of what we would now label the environmental issues of his era.

Citations

Harris, Austin. "This Thing of Darkness: Environmental Indulgence in The Tempest."
Dutta, Suchismita. "Man and the Wild: an ecocritical reading of Shakespeare’s the Tempest."
Borlik, Todd Andrew. "Caliban and the fen demons of Lincolnshire: the Englishness of Shakespeare's Tempest." Shakespeare 9.1 (2013): 21-51.