Discussion Topic

The Tempest as a play within a play and an example of metatheatre

Summary:

The Tempest is considered a play within a play and an example of metatheatre because it features a self-referential structure where characters are aware of their roles in a story. Prospero, the main character, orchestrates events on the island like a director, blurring the lines between reality and performance, and inviting the audience to reflect on the nature of theater itself.

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In what way is The Tempest a play within a play?

The play within a play comes about because Prospero uses his magic to stage manage a drama on the island. This starts with him, through Ariel, creating the tempest that shipwrecks his enemies on the island. He then has Ariel scatter them around the island.

Prospero has Ariel inform Ferdinand that his father has drowned, which is not true, and makes sure Ferdinand sees Miranda, so he can fall in love. But Prospero also stage manages events so that Ferdinand can't win Miranda too quickly. He is the director of almost all (or at least much) that happens.

Prospero creates a dramatic banquet, and also stage-manages the denouement, where the various scattered shipwrecked souls are brought together and where they are forgiven their treacheries.

The action of the play is highly theatrical because it is so carefully choreographed by Prospero to follow the narrative line he wants to enact....

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Little happens by chance.

Most dramatically, when the wedding masque ends, Prospero gives a famous speech which is a commentary both about the drama he has orchestrated and the larger play itself in which he is only an actor, saying the lines penned by Shakespeare:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

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The Tempest can be said to be a play within a play in that Prospero not only could be said to represent Shakespeare, but that the character of Prospero is quite deliberately directing all the action that is taking place on his island. He has set the scene for the action by causing the illusion of a shipwreck, just as a director of a play has to create the illusion of real action on stage. He directs all the players, from Ariel, to the Italian nobles, to his own daughter Miranda, practically feeding them their lines as a good prompter. He brings the characters together, and brings the show to a satisfying climax in true Shakespearean fashion.

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Explain how The Tempest is described as "metatheatre," a play within a play.

The Tempest is generally thought to be Shakespeare's most metatheatrical play in that it shows its protagonist as a creator, a dramatist like Shakespeare himself. In his capacity as magician Prospero conjures up the dramatic storm that brings his VIP guests to his enchanted island. He also exerts power over Ariel and Caliban in much the same way that a dramatist would. Ariel and Caliban are like characters in Prospero's own little play. He orders them about so that they will play the part he's written for them.

For instance, Prospero orders Ariel to dress up in a sea nymph costume. When Ariel duly obliges his master, Prospero lavishes fulsome praise on his performance. Ariel, like all the characters on stage, is starring in a play within a play. In this way, they stand in similarity to the characters in other examples of Shakespearean metatheatre, most notably A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Prospero, as the dramatist behind this play within a play, goes on to arrange a theatrical performance for Miranda and Ferdinand's forthcoming nuptials. This "vanity of mine art", as Prospero calls it is a further example of metatheatre at work. It reinforces the general consensus that this, Shakespeare's last published play, is also his most intensely personal. It relates extensively to the exercise of Shakespeare's own dramatic talent.

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