Outline
Thesis: The names of characters often have meaning, whether it means the opposite of how they act or if it describes the character and the names in Shakespeare's The Tempest are no exception. I. We try to see the meanings of the antagonist’s names and if they are relevant to their characters. A. The meanings are established, proving that most of the names mean the opposite of the character or personality of the person who has that name. B. There is no proof of whether or not these names are intentional or not, so we shall touch on this further when we explore the protagonist’s names. II. The meanings of the protagonist’s names and their back-stories are established. A. The names are a mixture of opposites and exacts, making us question whether Shakespeare intended for these names to have meaning. B. We delve further into the names to see if the meanings were known back in Shakespeare's time period to solve our great mystery of whether or not these names are intentional. III. Here we have come to the believe that while some of the names could be intentional, we sadly have no rock solid proof that these are facts. A. Miranda and Ferdinand's names both had known meanings at the time of The Tempest being written, so judging by their character we can assume that their names were intentional. B. Some of the meanings of the names are just plain crazy; for example Antonio's name meaning 'flower', so we can assume not all the names were intentional. Conclusion: Some of the names have been proven intentional, but a larger majority of the names have proven to have either crazy meanings or no meanings at all.
The Meanings of Names in Shakespeare: Intentional or Unintentional? I will be taking you on a wonderful learning journey into the fantastic world of names and their meanings. There we shall explore the meanings of our antagonist's names and discover some meanings that may be intentional, some that are possibly unintentional, and some that are just plain crazy. From there we shall move on to the protagonist's names, discovering the same things and maybe a moon or two or three. After we discover which of the names we have delved into the meaning of had known meanings in 1610, we shall see if they were intentional or not. Along our journey we will learn some Greek and Latin and discover the character's back- stories and personalities summarized in my own own words. The names of characters often have meaning, whether it means the opposite of how they act or if it describes the character and the names in Shakespeare's The Tempest are no exception. Here we begin with the meanings of the names of our wonderful antagonists. Before we state the meaning of their names, we should give you a little into their back-stories and sum up their personality for you. We shall begin with Caliban, then go to our new Duke of Milan, Antonio, and then end with our brother of the king, Sebastian. Caliban is the mangled, hideous half-animal son of the now-deceased witch, Sycorax. When Prospero killed the witch and after Caliban tried to rape Miranda, he pulled Caliban into his service as a slave to do all the work that required someone strong and ugly. Caliban happens to think the island belongs to him so he employs our two friendly drunks to help him and tries to get through to their alcohol soaked brains on all the beautiful things they could have if they help him. Caliban's name comes from a Spanish word for 'Cannibal', which is ironic considering the character's sometimes vicious and scary nature. As far as we are concerned though, Caliban is not a cannibal. Although we aren't entirely sure what would count as cannibalism with him, considering he is half-animal. All we know for sure is that he is an attempted rapist. Antonio is Prospero's completely and totally wicked brother. He betrayed his brother's trust and overthrew his dukedom twelve years before he ends up stuck on an island with him. Once they get onto the island, he wastes no time disguising his power-hungry and murderous nature with his Italian charm as he convinces [email protected] 2
Sebastian to help him kill Alonso so Sebastian can become king and Antonio can overthrow him too. After his plans are foiled and his brother appears in a magical cloud in front of them all, he decides that he is too wicked and cool to repent, so he does not. Prospero turns out to be a good brother and forgives him anyways. Antonio's name comes from 'Antonius' which means flower. Trust me, this guy is not a flower though unless he's a really thorny Italian rose. Sebastian is Alonso's wicked and deceitful brother who happens to be enthralled by Italian charm quite easily, just like his brother. Antonio enchants him just as easily as he had enchanted Alonso to help him overthrow Prospero. Although at first he thinks Antonio is crazy and asleep, (“Thou dost snore distinctly; There's meaning in thy snores.” (Sebastian,The Tempest, Act II, scene I, line 940)) Antonio's Italian charm eventually overtakes him and Sebastian agrees to help him kill his brother so he himself can be king. Until Antonio decides he wants Sebastian dead so there can be King Antonio of Naples. As they unsheathe their swords to chop off Alonso's head, Gonzalo awakens by some odd force of magic and asks them what the heck they are doing with their swords out like that. His loud talking also awakens Alonso from his kingly nap/magical Prospero-induced coma and our wicked duo miss out on their chance to be king. After Prospero is cool and uses his magic ability to forgive them all, Sebby still has no regrets for what he has done. Sebastian's name is derived from 'Sebasianus' which is Latin for 'From Sebaste' and 'Sebaste' means venerable in Greek. In case you, like me, have no idea what the heck venerable means, it means someone who has accorded a great deal of respect either through age or what they have done. Now that we have established the back-stories and meanings of our antagonist's names, we will be moving on to our protagonists and neutral characters. We shall start with our neutral characters of the wind spirit, Ariel, and the drunks, Stephano and Trinculo, then we shall move onto the magic Prospero, his beautiful beyond words daughter, Miranda, the daring prince she falls in love with, Ferdinand, the king, Alonso, and the honorable and kind Gonzalo. Ariel is a wind spirit who was imprisoned in a tree by the witch, Sycroax, for being an annoying brat. When Prospero arrives on the island, he frees Ariel and our wind spirit is indebted to be our magician's servant until Prospero frees him. He obeys every order Prospero gives him.. Ariel creates a storm, wrecks a ship, puts the king into a Prospero-induced coma, taunts the shipwrecked nobles with a feast, dances with some nymphs, and on top of all that, he does a lot of invisible [email protected] 3 spying. In the end Prospero decides to free Ariel so that he can go back to Milan and take back his rightful position. While Ariel's name has no known meaning, we've come to associate his name with The Little Mermaid, (Disney, 1989) although our friendly wind spirit does not have a tail, he probably doesn't have long red hair, and he most definitely did not lose his voice for some prince because he is a free spirit who does not need a man. Astronomers have named one of the moons of Uranus after him. Stephano and Trinculo are the two drunks that have been thrown in for some comic relief. Trinculo is a jester who was friends with Stephano on the ship. When the ship wrecked, Trinculo swam to shore, where he was reunited with Stephano who he thought had drowned. Stephano is the drunken butler who survived the shipwreck by floating on butts of wine strapped together. Once he got on shore, he cracked into those butts to celebrate being reunited with his friend, getting away from those noble jerks, and not drowning. Then Caliban sees them and thinks they are gods with celestial liquor. Caliban joins the drunken party in their drinking, where they refer to him as “A howling monster; a drunken monster!” (Trinculo, The Tempest, Act II, scene II, line 1266) After they have finished all the wine, they hatch a plan to overthrow Prospero and rule the island. The plan is never actually put in effect, all they do is discuss the nice clothes, food, and liquor they'll have while Caliban tries to get them to shut up and do something. Stephano's name comes from the Greek word 'Stephanos' meaning crown. Trinculo's name has no meaning and he has no moons named after him. Prospero is our main protagonist. Twelve years before our story begins, his brother Antonio usurped him with the help of the king, Alonso. Before they could kill him and his young daughter, Miranda, the good lord Gonzalo helped them escape to the island they now inhabit. Prospero spent those twelve years practicing his magic and raising his daughter. When he sees the ship with his old enemies in it, he orders Ariel to wreck it, but not to kill anyone on the ship. Ariel creates a tempest to wreck the ship. He kidnaps Ferdinand to cause Alonso distress, the thought that Miranda could fall in love him not crossing his mind. He then gives Ferdinand all of Caliban's tasks because Caliban had run away. Prospero is surprised when he catches Miranda helping Ferdinand with his tasks and declares that if they love each other so much and as long as Miranda remains a virgin, they can be married soon. In the end of the play, Prospero forgives everyone, decides that he's giving up magic and taking back his postion of Duke of Milan from Antonio. Although [email protected] 4 his name has no meaning either, another one of the moons of Uranus is named after Prospero. Miranda is the charming young maiden who falls immediately in love with Ferdinand. It distresses her that her father is making Ferdinand work so hard so she tells him to take a break while she helps him. Prospero catches her doing so and realizes that the young couple is in love and he gives the permission to marry. Her name is derived from the Latin word 'Mirandus' which means wonderful. She also has a moon of Uranus named after her. Ferdinand is the son of Alonso and our young hero who falls in love with the beautiful Miranda. In the end he is rewarded with her hand in holy matrimony on the one condition that Miranda keeps her virginity for a little while longer. He agrees to Prospero's conditions. His name just so happens to mean daring and brave. Alonso is our king with a wicked side. He helped usurp Prospero twelve years prior to our story’s beginning. As the play goes on and he becomes convinced that Ferdinand is dead, he comes to regret his actions. In the end he begs Prospero for forgiveness, which he receives because Prospero decides that hes held his grudge long enough. Alonso's name means noble and ready. It's definitely a name fit for a king. Gonzalo is the noble and kind lord who helps Prospero and Miranda escape from the plot against their lives. He also helps comfort Alonso over his possible loss of Ferdinand whilst putting up with Antonio and Sebastian's weak insults because he is cool like that. His name comes from a German word for war. While Miranda and Ferdinand's names both may have been intentional, we have no solid proof of it. Most of antagonist's names mean the opposite of what they are so we cannot be sure if they were intentional or not. Hopefully you feel smarter knowing some Greek and Latin now. You also have learned the meanings of some names that may possibly belong to you or one of your friends. Hopefully you have enjoyed the short summaries of all the characters in Shakespeare's The Tempest too. Perhaps you understand the play better now too. The names of characters often have meaning, whether it means the opposite of how they act or if it describes the character and the names in Shakespeare's The Tempest are no exception.
Works Cited http://www.behindthename.com/ Web. 2014 The Little Mermaid Disney, Walter Video 1989 The Tempest Shakespeare, William Print 1610-11