The Theme of Natural Order in "The Tempest"
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The Theme of Natural Order in "The Tempest" Lawrence E. Bowling College English, Vol. 12, No. 4. (Jan., 1951), pp. 203-209. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-0994%28195101%2912%3A4%3C203%3ATTONOI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I College English is currently published by National Council of Teachers of English. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/ncte.html. 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He is not interested literature is sterile and unprofitable. merely in a story, a fabrication-he is Once understood, however, the reader is interested in life. The Theme of Natural Order in "The Tempest" LAWRENCE E. BOWLING' THE temptation to see The Tempest as mance; but a close examination of the a romance is almost irresistible. Lytton play reveals that it is not at all devoid of Strachey has excellently summarized this meaning and common sense, that it is in aspect of the play: "In The Tempest, un- no way the "poetical dream" of a man reality has reached its apotheosis. Two bored with real people and real life. On of the principal characters are frankly the contrary, The Tempest is really one not human beings at all; and the whole of the most intellectual and ideological action passes, through a series of impos- of all Shakespeare's works, reflecting sible occurrences, in a place which can Renaissance ideals, and extremely ame- only by courtesy be said to exist. The nable to discussion and explanation. Enchanted Island, indeed, peopled, for a Among the last works of a mature and timeless moment, by this strange fantas- practical playwright, it is one of Shake- tic medley of persons and of things, has speare's most significant commentaries been cut adrift for ever from common upon the conduct of real human beings sense." Strachey concludes, therefore, and practical government in a modern that at the time this play was written civilized state. Shakespeare was "bored with people, To Shakespeare and his Elizabethan bored with real life, bored with drama, contemporaries, no question was more bored in fact with everything except fascinating or more important than poetry and poetical dreams." In like "What constitutes the natural order of manner, Dover Wilson remarks: "Is not things in the universe?" To many, the The Tempest of all Shakespeare's plays idea of the chain of being seemed the the most Mozartian, the least amenable best solution. That Shakespeare was fa- to discussion or explanation; a dramatic miliar with this philosophical concept poem in which the author seems to soar and was influenced by it is clear from the altogether clear of the world of meaning fact that he bases several of his plays and common sense." upon it and has the wisest of all the The surface appearance of The Tem- Greeks outline the idea in detail in pest does point in the direction of ro- Troilus and Cressida. After listening- to two long-winded harangues from Aga- I Visiting lecturer in English, University of Ken- tucky. Author of "The Thematic Framework of memnOnand concerning why the Romeo and Juliet," PMLA, March, 1949, "The Greeks have so long failed to defeat the Technique of Faulkner's The Sound and the FzL~Y," Trojans, Ulysses goes straight to the Kenyon Review, Autumn, 1948,and "What Is the Stream of Consciousness Technique?" PMLA, June, point in his characteristic manner and 1950. explains that Troy still stands, not be- 204 COLLEGE ENGLISH cause of the strength of the Trojans, unity and the married calm of states but because of the weakness of the restored; then and only then does the Greeks and that this weakness is due to play end. the fact that the Greeks have not heeded Almost every character in The Tempest the natural order of "degree." This is responsible for one or more infractions speech contains the key to the meaning of the natural order. The first person of The Tempest: guilty of interference, and the one there- Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, fore responsible for the later guilt of the And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a others, is none other than Prospero him- master, self. In the opinion of the Elizabethans, But for these instances: the first duty of a ruler was to rule. The specialty of rule hath been neglected; .............Prospero committed a serious infraction When that the general is not like the hive by forsaking his primary duty as a ruler To whom the foragers shall all repair, and putting his younger brother into his What honey is expected?Degree being vizarded, own position. In terms of the chain of Th' unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. being, Prospero was attempting to re- The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre move one of the prime links from the Observe degree, priority, and place, chain and shift a secondary link into that Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, position. By the time the play begins, Office, and custom, in all line of order: Prospero has become aware of his respon- .............sibility for his brother's guilt: But when the planets In evil mixture to disorder wander, The government I cast upon my brother, What plagues, and what portents, what mutiny, And to my state grew stranger, being trans- What raging of the sea, shaking of earth, ported Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, And rapt in secret studies. horrors, ............ Divert and crack, rend and deracinate I ...in my false brother The unity and married calm of states Awak'd an evil nature. Quite from their fixture! O! when degree is shak'd, Escaping to the island, Prospero be- Which is the ladder to all high designs, gins his twelve years of suffering and The enterprise is sick. How could communities, regeneration; but even here he commits Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, another infraction of the natural order, Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, The primogenitive and due of birth, which is fundamentally the same as his Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, first error. This is the unrealistic and But by degree, stand in authentic place? sentimental attitude which he takes Take but degree away, untune that string, toward Caliban. Instead of accepting And, hark! what discord follows! this half-beast as the subhuman that he In The Tempest we see what discord fol- is, Prospero attempts to elevate Caliban lows when the specialty of rule has been to the level of human beings by bringing neglected and various persons fail to ob- him into his own household, putting him serve degree, priority, and place. This on equal terms with Miranda, and try- state of discord and disorder prevails un- ing to educate him in the same manner til leadership has again been correctly as he does his own child. Prospero's un- reassumed and all individuals are willing due kindness to the half-fish reminds one to return to their proper places in the of the Fool's reference in King Lear to universal chain. Then and only then is the ignorant cockney who, "in pure kind- THE THEME OF ORDER IN "THE TEMPEST" 503 ness to his horse, buttered his hay." His begins with Gonzalo's admiration of the treatment of Caliban as a human being isle and his remarks concerning how he continues, until the subhuman, accept- would rule if he were king on it: ing the elevation of himself to the equal of Miranda, attempts to people the isle with little Calibans. The typical Eliza- Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, And were the king on't, what would I do? bethan view of the matter is the one I' the commonwealth I would by contraries which Prospero arrives at only after Execute all things; for no kind of traffic many years of trying to humanize the Would I admit; no name of magistrate; subhuman : And use of service, none; contract, succession, PROSPERO Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none; No occupation; all men idle, all; Thou most lying slave, And women too, but innocent and pure; Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have No sovereignty ,---- us'd thee, Filth as thou art, with human care; and lodg'd thee In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate Yet he would be king on't.