The Tempest: Nation Building By Shakespeare

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The Tempest: Nation building
Introduction
The Tempest, written approximately around 1611, conveys power struggles between individuals who wanted to a deserted island. William Shakespeare wrote the play at a time when England was developing into a colonial power to match other European powers such as along Portugal, France, and Spain. Through the various characters, The Tempest displays how power and magic were used to establish nations. However, it is the same power that makes close friends fight for leadership. Nevertheless, the establishment of nations and empires was mainly men oriented as women were deprived of opportunities. Consequently, this paper seeks to analyze Shakespeare’s ideas of nation building as presented in “The Tempest”
The Tempest presents power as the main element of building nations and empires. This is well illustrated when Prospero arrives to Sycorax’s island, conquers it, and rules it by imposing his own norms and thoughts on the natives of the land. He goes as far as making Caliban work for him as a servant and calls him a thing of darkness. As a result, The Tempest tries to assert the notion that in any nation there are people who dominate while others only exist to be dominated (Knight, p 13). This is true as every nation around the world has the wealthy that have the power to influence the running of the nation. Consequently, the poor are subjected to the rules set by the mighty inform of wages.
However, the act of building nations entails more than just acquiring power. Even though one may obtain power, he/she can never be sure of what his friends or relatives think. Prospero's brother conspired to banish Prospero from Milan. He incites Alonso's brother, Sebastian, to kill the sleeping king and become the ruler of Naples. On the other hand, although he is servant, Caliban keeps insisting that the island is his; “This islan...