THE TEMPEST, made for comedy...made with nightmares

[SilentMadness]

Doing my research, I notice that the tempest is categorized as a comedy from shakespeare's works. But it is ironic that for a comedy, there is a great horror from a little girl named alessa that was scared by the image of caliban and ariel, the wind angel.
what's your thoughts on this?
If anyone that has read the book, explain the roles of caliban and ariel and why it frightens alessa. Is it just the imagery or is there something more deeper then that?

[Harrys_Girl]

I wondered the same thing.

I never read the Tempest, I opted to read the Illiad. ugh.. that was a great choice by a moron. Anyway, I had a friend who read it and she said that it was a dark comedy, but then again it was Shakespare... I would expect nothing less. She can not rememeber what Caliban abd Ariel looked like, but I am sure you could find it on video somewhere and watch it, or just google images of Caliban and Ariel from the Tempest and get something.

[Sionnan]

Comedies were defined differently in Shakespeare's day than now. The classification has to do with the Greek theater, not that the play is funny.

It's possible that the monster Caliban and Ariel sounded like the images of God she was taught.

[MisterGrey]

In Shakespeare's time, plays were classified according to how they ended. If a play had a happy ending, it was a comedy. If it had a sad ending, it was a tragedy.

That being said, people have had, just as with all of Shakespeare's other works, vastly different interpretations of The Tempest. Some productions do opt for a more comical overtone, with Caliban being played up as a merry trickster; others opt for a darker interpretation, with Caliban as a symbol for civilized humanity gone savage outside the constraints of society.

[SilentMadness]

Some productions do opt for a more comical overtone, with Caliban being played up as a merry trickster; others opt for a darker interpretation, with Caliban as a symbol for civilized humanity gone savage outside the constraints of society.

wow, great way explaining it to me, so now it makes sense why alessa would view it as scary.
I was just about to say that there are some parts of the story that was probably scary (like when they had that wolf from the "Neverending story", I remember they showed that at the daycare I was at and decided not to show it again because it scared the kiddies )
to a young girl, a caliban and ariel might seem evil just with their imagery. I'm not sure what their role is in the tempest, but imagery will go along way with first impressions if you get my drift

[MisterGrey]

In the tempest, Caliban is somewhat of an impotent villain... He tried to force himself upon the daughter of Prospero, the protagonist of the play, sometime before the start of the play, but Prospero stopped him and enslaved him with magic. At the start of the play, Caliban is one of Prospero's two servants, the other being Ariel, a wind spirit whom Prospero enslaved yet constantly promises to set free but never does, always prolonging the promised freedom to some other time. Over the course of the play, Caliban tries to betray Prospero by conspiring with two men of the shipwrecked Duke to overthrow him, but the plan fails miserably. As you can see, these characters have some leeway in how they can be portrayed-- Caliban as the aggressive, savage, would-be rapist, or just an incompetent schmuck who wants to bone everything he sees.

[mastermind]

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/t ... mmary.html

their is pictuers on wikpedia

this should also help with the plot of the tempest

[SilentMadness]

I bought the book during a trip to barnes n' noble with original text on the left side and the laymen's term on the right side. It's a good read. Reading it so far, caliban is sort of creature that is treated like shit because of his looks and he gives what the people deserve. Since Prospero gave him shit, he he would do anything to make sure Prospero gets what he deserves in calibans mind.

[Littlestardweller]

I think a more specific sort of description or analogy for the relationships between Caliban, Ariel - Prospero, Miranda would be the Colonized and the Colonizers. Though Caliban is skeezy and blech I don't think the situation is as black and white.

In a way, taking over the island, its inhabitants and having full reign in the power of "word/communication" (Prospero's magic) is a sort of colonial oppression over Caliban and Ariel......
Just Ariel is more docile than Caliban and does what Prospero wants for the most part.
Miranda is of course the daughter of Prospero... as she is more defenseless his actions are his attempts to retaliate (not approving of this but that's what I got out of it)... kind of paints him into even more of a savage. Though resistant and and brutish, Caliban is sort of a product of the take-over/colonization by Prospero... If I remember correctly, Caliban's mother was a sorceress who Prospero defeated.

Anyway, each character has their own reason (regardless of whether it's wrong, unjust or foolish) for responding/reacting the way they do to another character through the character relationships.

I think all of Shakespeare's comedies touch on dark things to extents... honestly, the Tempest has some funny stuff in it.

[SilentMadness]

that's basically it in a nutshell on my thoughts. I just didn't clarify well enough. True, there was some dark moments, but there is more of the "crude" humor I must say. Caliban is a character who feels he lost cointrol of the things he loves (like his mother synorax, and the island itself) so he wants to do anything in its power to gain control of that again. When the two characters the jester and the other guy (can't remember the names), caliban was in a vulnerable state looking for any type of help, which is why he was probably confused and saw one of them as a god (although ariel had his own agenda)

[put_here_2_feel_joy]

This is all starting to make sense. I can see why she wouldn't like Caliban at all. Though I slightly pity him. His mother was killed and now he's enslaved by her murderer... Ariel only does what he is told.
The only, minor thing that I don't get is; why is Ariel depicted as a female in the game? The monsters are little girls, or am I mistaken? At any rate, they're children. Maybe it's not important.

[SilentMadness]

The only, minor thing that I don't get is; why is Ariel depicted as a female in the game? The monsters are little girls, or am I mistaken? At any rate, they're children. Maybe it's not important.

When did they mention that? All it ever said, according to the documents was it was a wind spirit, most likely, light weight, "airy' if you will. that's why they used a puppet for the part to assimilate ariel's movement as free floating.

[put_here_2_feel_joy]

The only, minor thing that I don't get is; why is Ariel depicted as a female in the game? The monsters are little girls, or am I mistaken? At any rate, they're children. Maybe it's not important.

When did they mention that? All it ever said, according to the documents was it was a wind spirit, most likely, light weight, "airy' if you will. that's why they used a puppet for the part to assimilate ariel's movement as free floating.

This site says that Ariel is a male:

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/t ... mmary.html

Or at lease refers to the wind spirit as a boy. Maybe I just assumed that it was a girl because of the name "Ariel." Or maybe it has no gender at all. The puppets make me thing of girls. Am I the only one?

[SilentMadness]

meh, the puppets do have some girlish look to them, but I didn't delve into that. Basically all dolls, (even puppets) would have a girlish quality to them. Yes, Ariel is a male, he ain't no mermaid.

[AuraTwilight]

Spirits, even male ones, tend to have a feminine or androgynous appearance in mythology. It's no big deal.