Research Assignment Betrayal and Forgiveness in The Tempest (Research Paper Sample)

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Betrayal and Forgiveness in The Tempest
The Tempest is considered one of the last pieces of literature by William Shakespeare. The play’s prominent theme is a betrayal. In previous plays by Shakespeare, betrayal leads to revenge and even more violence than the betrayal caused. In Hamlet betrayal provokes Hamlet to kill so many people and for nothing actually. No one wins. However, Shakespeare changes his perspectives on betrayal in The Tempest. Instead of being influenced by a blind desire for revenge, the author gives an effective alternative to the typical theme of revenge. It is much more difficult to be able to forgive the betrayal rather than to obey the feeling of revenge. Prospero changes his vision of betrayal throughout the play and comes to a conclusion that forgiveness is more powerful than the revenge.
First of all, the begins with a strong tempest which is caused by Prospero’s magic. In fact, Prospero wants to kill everyone on the ship but he decides to torture the people on the ship before that. The reason behind his actions was his brother Antonio. Prospero says: “my trust, /Like a Good parent, did beget him/ A falsehood.” (Shakespeare). His brother was so jealous of power so he sent Prospero and his daughter without any supplies on a ship travel. “To what tune pleased his ear, that now he was/ The ivy which had hid my princely trunk/And sucked my verdure out on 't” (Shakespeare, 1.2.98-106). It is a natural response to respond with aggression to aggression, with violence to violence. Prospero is a human after all. Despite the fact that he survived and is now a powerful magician, he still is a human with a memory of being betrayed (Campos). Therefore, he is influenced by his emotions in order to torture and kill people who wanted to kill him. Prospero actually has a complicated plan to force his enemies to suffer in a way he did. Their ship is wrecked and they have to adapt to the island as Prospero did with his daughter.
In some way, Prospero is blinded by his revenge and he does not even understand his daughter during the tempest. He does not consider the opinion of Ariel, he does not think about the consequences of his desire for revenge. In other words, he is limited in some way to the simple torture and murder. There is not anything great or satisfying in the revenge as it does not provide any substantial change to the life of the betrayed person (Yu). However, Prospero does not understand that at all at the beginning of the play. The taste of possible revenge is too strong for Prospero.
Betrayal is a powerful event that changes the trust of a person radically. Prospero’s own brother betrays him and abandons him. It is possible to assume that Prospero does not learn how to do magic or how to become a powerful magician just because he wanted to change the world, to protect himself and his daughter Miranda. He actually wanted to prepare for a possible opportunity for revenge. Indeed, Prospero has a great knowledge of sorcery and he could easily kill Antonio. It is not enough for him, the greatest pleasure at this moment is to humiliate and torture Antonio, which Prospero does in some way, as he reveals that Antonio might be betrayed as well (Marx). This challenges Prospero’s vision of the situation; however, he does not transform his anger and his desire for revenge yet. What is more important is that Prospero starts to analyze the situation from a perspective of his brother. For sure, Antonio was jealous of Prospero but it did not give him any right to get rid of him. There was not any real motivation for Antonia to try and murder his brother apart from the personal gain of power (Marx). Being on the island for so long, Prospero understands that political power or a noble origin is nothing compared to the powers of magic and nature. He is in isolation, where money and politics do not play any role at all. Thus, he is able to reconsider the situation and to realize something. He still does not know what is the feeling is but he also wants to develop this idea. The relationships between Miranda and Ferdinand reveals something to Prospero. There is life after betrayal, especially in the world, where political power, money, and other issues are temporary, there is not anything eternal.
Prospero comes to the realization that the revenge is pointless after all. He would not return to earn his power back, he would not be a new ruler. Therefore, there is not anything that the revenge could bring to his life, apart from being the same as Antonio. He posses so much power that Prospero could do almost anything he wants in his life. In addition, he and Antonio are brothers, despite the past experience (Dahlgren). This though confuses Prospero but it gives him a relief. He finds a strength to forgive his brother and to find a mental peace of forgiveness. It is an interesting twist for Shakespeare, as he usually refers to the tragic end and the dark side of the characters, while in The Tempest he tries to emphasize the light side of the personality and how forgiveness could be even more powerful than the revenge. After the forgiveness person is left with something ins...