Teddy Purnell
1/29/09
Mr.Salsich
Room 2
Confined in Servitude
An Essay About Confinement and Servitude in “The Tempest”
The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, is about a magician named Prospero who has been stranded on an Island with his daughter after being outcast from his kingdom. The island was once home to an evil sorceress named Sycorax. Prospero now controls Caliban, Sycorax's deformed son, and Ariel, a spirit, who was once Sycorax's slave. Although Caliban and Ariel hate each other, they may have more in common than they think.
In The Tempest, Ariel has been confined and forced into servitude by Sycorax. On page 18, William Shakespeare writes about how Ariel, as a slave of Sycorax, “wast a spirit too delicate to act her earthy and abhorr'd commands”. Ariel refused to do Sycorax's bidding, “Refusing her grand hests”. For twelve years, Ariel was confined in a pine tree by Sycorax. While she was, Sycorax gave birth and also died. When Prospero comes to the island he releases Ariel, and Ariel serves him. Now, both Ariel and Caliban, the son of Sycorax, are Prospero's slaves.
Caliban is confined and forced into servitude by Prospero. Caliban is confined to live in a cave by Prospero after Caliban tries to rape Prospero's daughter, Miranda. Caliban tells Prospero that if he didn't interfere, he would have “peopled else this isle with Calibans.” For trying to rape his daughter, Prospero doesn't let Caliban see the rest of the island. Caliban is also threatened by Prospero that if he disobeys Prospero's commands, Prospero will “rack thee with old cramps, fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar that beasts shall tremble at thy din.” Everywhere Caliban goes, Prospero sends Ariel after him and if Caliban does anything he shouldn't, Ariel will torment him, invisible to all but Prospero. Caliban is hated by Ariel, probably because of the cruelness of his mother. Caliban and Ariel may not know it, but they have something in common: they are both slaves of Prospero.
If they really wanted to be free from Prospero, Ariel and Caliban could work together. They may not want to admit it, but they are each other's only hope. To get away from their confinement and servitude, they must put aside their differences and work together. In the end, I think that they will escape from Prospero.
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2 comments:
Teddy,
When you say "while she was" in the first body paragraph what are you referring to? Ariel being stuck in the tree or to Sycorax? Someone might just get a little confused about that. And just in the closing paragraph you say Ariel and Caliban are each others only hope, but didn't Prospero say he would "discharge" Ariel? I love how you ended your essay with the possibility of Ariel and Caliban working together against Prospero!
Teddy,
I really liked your second quote in the first paragraph,it really helped that chunk. A couple things you could work on would be grabbing the attention of the reader more, and saying more. I felt like most of the essay was just summarizing the reading, and not so much about saying anything about it. If you just worked on this, it would improve your writing exponentially.
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