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  • Essay / A look at the liminal space highlighted in The Tempest

    It seems that all comedies throughout all ages rely on the accuracy of its meta-commentary, all successful comedies inhabit an illusory world filled of flickering shadows of truth and mirrors filled with elements of human behavior. In many ways, comedy takes our human experience out of our sheltered reality and into a liminal space that accentuates how strange and, in many ways, crazy our lives are. The idea in question, then, is whether The Tempest conforms to this and other conventional laws in the way that standard comedy does. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Tempest blurs the lines of what is real and what is not, so easily and so quickly throughout Along the plot that it can be seen as a reversal however, from the metaphorical edge of reason towards a chaotic illusion, the comic structure holds the play together and prevents it from entering a genre closer to the Theater of the 'Absurd without classic resolution. To achieve this effect, Shakespeare first removes one of humanity's greatest frames: time. Although the play unfolds chronologically, no clocks are shown and no mention of the day by any of the characters when talking about the island, which takes the play away from our relatable world. Prospero mentions the time to Miranda when speaking of Naples, for he states that his usurpation was "at midnight" (i), although this is an ephemeral phrase which separates Naples and the Island, which separates our world from this new liminal space of The Island. . The element of time provides certainty when humans are confused about a series of events, and now that it is removed, nothing is provable and therefore cannot be considered real or ever happening. Throughout the plot there is also evidence that illusion is powerful on this island, for example the staged "the banquet disappears" (ii), which is contrary to anything that could actually happen. produce in the real world. Shakespeare then highlights the distance between The Island and our reality while Gonzalo asks: “If in Naples I were to report this now, would they believe me? »(iii) The answer is no, but the normal rules of physics do not apply to The Island or our reality. to all the liminal spaces in comedies; the island is on a membrane of physics. Many parallels can also be drawn between a dream and The Tempest because many of their characteristics are familiar; in a dream, ultimately nothing matters, in the same way that The Tempest follows the structure of exposition, complication, but ultimately the resolution which is the joyous event in which the characters end the play in a better mood than they were when they entered and therefore the characters have not really suffered. Throughout the play, Shakespeare allows the characters to enter and exit their consciousness according to Prospero's whims. At one point, there is a setting that commands “all sleep” (iv). Shakespeare's final speech also contains the lines "We are such things that dreams are made of" (v) This additional element of the dream only adds to the already distorted new indefinable reality found on the island. In Jacobean times this would have been very difficult. to achieve this effect of The Island being borderline, and much of how audiences interpreted the play would have depended on the staging techniques used by theater companies. However, Shakespeare takes into account thedifficulties involved in staging a storm that brings the characters into the realm of illusion and thus uses language to show the audience that they must now view the play without such certainties. A particularly effective technique is the dialogue at the very beginning of the play because the audience can clearly differentiate the social status of the characters on stage due to their clothing and the way they speak, the higher status characters speak in iambic pentameter, but then Shakespeare breaks down the foundations of hierarchy by making the boatswain's lines imposing and authoritarian, which is very unusual as they are towards the King of Naples, such as when he orders them to "" go to the cabin. Silence!" (vi). The audience can now understand that the island is not their reality because the working class workers command the kings and dukes. The antithesis between the boatswain and the king would be very clear on stage and, to some extent, amusing for the Jacobean audience Many critics have thought of The Tempest as a comedy or tragedy and as a tragicomedy because of the different elements that support each in the play. The idea of ​​a dark, eclipsing presence is materialized throughout by the constant plots of revenge and murder, notably Caliban, Sebastian and Antonio, and although the plots never come to fruition, one can always consider that an evil beneath -jacent surrounds the characters Therefore, the play also borders on genres because it contains multi-layered plots but does not maintain the law that in tragicomedies, the dominant characters are ugly at the time of. When The Tempest was released, no debate would have taken place because our modern audiences sympathize with Caliban. The slightly melancholy stage production “Exeunt Caliban” (vii) has sparked much discussion about whether Caliban would get his resolution, and if not, is the play a comedy? Similarly, modern audiences were left wondering after the performance whether Antonio and Sebastian would be punished further for their attempted murder or if they would attempt to overthrow Alonso again, evidence of which they will be can be found in the phrase "O' but a word" (viii) which suggests that Sebastian is so close to killing Gonzalo and has no moral wrangling to do, making modern audiences think that another usurpation is imminent. The interpretation of the Jacobean audience must also be taken into account, as they would say that the play does not border on the two genres as there is a clear resolution to the entire human character; they would go on to explain that Caliban is a stereotypical, one-dimensional native who belongs on the island so he gets his classic "happy ending." As a modern member of a modern audience, I respond differently to the Jacobean audience, and I maintain that Caliban was brought into the realm of humanity and education through Prospero. Shakespeare explicitly explains that Prospero did this in the lines "I have taken care to make thee speak" (ix) and because of this upbringing, Caliban is now trapped forever in liminal space where he cannot converse nor progress in his new education, through this it is clear that Caliban finds himself in a worse situation than he was in. This was before Prospero arrived, so he is a tragic character once again. , Jacobean audiences would find this view perplexing because for them, Caliban is an aesthetic of exaggeration and anti-humanism that appeals to them fundamentally and often humorously. We find him (Caliban) only ridiculously horrible and equally wonderful, although deep down, a 3, 54