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Summary: Great introduction to Shakespeare for Children
Review: "Hell is empty and all the devils are here." Not only is this story appropriate for children, it has fairy tale like qualities which also include a happily ever after conclusion. While Shakespeare painted his scenery with words, this book has been beautifully illustrated by Elena Livanova. This story is based on the Animated Tales as seen on HBO and is abridged especially for children. Not only was it prepared under the direction of Shakespearean scholars, it contains an introduction to the play, information about Shakespeare?s life and interesting description of the theater in Shakespeare?s time. "The Tempest" is a rather mysterious play filled with monsters, spirits, clowns, lovers and villans. It starts with a magical tempest and ends happily. It is a magical love story between Miranda and Ferdinand filled with adventure and humor. This story was written when Shakespeare was about forty-seven and was his last completed play. Strangely enough this book helped me understand a book by Henry David Thoreau. He was talking about a "harpy" and there is a picture of one in this book. The companion video is available separately from Random House Home Video. Also look for: Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night?s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night. A readable volume for kids of all ages. Love the pictures...
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Summary: Shakespeare's 'intellectual' play
Review: 'The Tempest' was the last of Shakespeare's plays and contains all of the finest elements of his comedies, tragedies and histories. Indeed, one wonders as to the autobiographical makeup of Prospero, 'The Tempest' coming across as a signatory piece.
The play deals with a shipwreck on an island inhabited by three people - the 'sorcerous' Prospero, his daughter Miranda and the 'beast' Caliban.
As such the play is probably the most thematic of all Shakespeare's plays, there being sub-themes of revenge (Prospero was banished from Milan), slavery (Ariel and Caliban), ridiculous material gain (Trinculo and and Stephano) whilst the main themes are those of innocence, baseness of character and intellectual impartment. Each of these comes into contact with 'civilisation' in the form of the princely shipwreckees with the inevitable innocent Miranda being seduced by Ferdinand and Prospero both separating and sending off the various parties around the island to manipulate the desired outcome. He gets it of course, but the primary focus is on his relationsip to his two 'slaves' Ariel the spirit and Caliban, the beast. The relationships are markedly different, the former being ethereal, intangible; the latter earthy and brutal.
This is certainly Shakespeare's finest play, if not the most poular, simply because it is a microcosm of everything that has gone before. It has romance, brutality, comedy, history, tragedy, pyschology, despair, laughter, the sublime, the ridiculous. None of the rest of the plays are as complete and, to echo George Eliot, you could say that 'The Tempest' was 'performed with [his] own best blood'.
Sure, Macbeth, King Lear or Hamlet - greatest tragedy, A Midsummer's Night Dream or Romeo and Juliet - greatest romance, Two Gentlemen of Verona or The Merchant of Venice - greatest comedy, Henry V or Richard III - greatest history ; I am sure there are many arguments for all of his plays to be classed as the greatest in the individual genres.
But, 'The Tempest' was his last play, the one that blends all of the above, and as such, when you really study it, it has to be his finest.
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Summary: Virgina Vaughan offers her authority over a complex text
Review: All of the previous reviews of The Tempest are well taken. However, no one seems to comment on Virgina Mason-Vaughan eloquence in her introduction. Vaughan wrenches enlightenment and discovery from Shakespeare's masterpiece, and yet allows the play to stand on it's own as a work of art. Her respect for the play is evident, as well as her talent in her discussion on it. I greatly enjoyed Vaughan's scholarly remarks and insights into The Tempest, and applauded her detail in describing the play in performance. She has the unique ability to render Shakespeare's work into a lucid and coherent tale, rather than a simply worshipped act of genius.
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Summary: Best of the Best!
Review: Book Review For The Tempest, by Shakespeare The Tempest is a play like no other works of Shakespeare. The play starts out with an array of colorful characters, which are easy to loathe or become friendly with through out the play. Page after page of reading, you find out more about the characters lives and roles in the play. The play has, in the beginning, almost all of the characters trapped on a boat in the middle of a tempest (a storm)-hence the name of the play. This being Shakespeare's last play, he hid some messages in the speeches of Prospero. One of these speeches is in the epilogue. The other is in a speech that Prospero recites from a play which Shakespeare took from the famous Greek playwright, Ovid. Shakespeare shows this by saying that he will, "Drown his book" and, " Break his staff" as well as, " Let your indulgence set me free" to hint of Shakespeare's retirement as a playwright. Prospero was my favorite character in the play. He had shown a large display of trickery, genius, and brainpower, to be able to set up the whole scenario of placing the people on the island in such strategic places. I recommend this play because it is one of my favorites, of all the works of Shakespeare. The Tempest is a wonderful play for people of all ages to read, act out, or to just have some fun. By Andrew Katz, Grade 9
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Summary: Magic, Power, and Conspiracy on a Remote Island
Review: Comedy, in the strictest sense, is concerned with ultimate forgiveness and reconciliation. In Shakespeare's play, "The Tempest," the protagonist, Prospero, must come to terms with his brother Antonio, who conspired to have him driven from his duchy in Milan, and with the world of social interaction in general. Magic, Power, and Conspiracy are the foundational thematic elements through which Shakespeare effects Prospero's reintegration into human society. Thrown into a boat with his infant daughter Miranda, Prospero comes to live on a nearly deserted island in the Mediterranean Sea. Prospero's concentration on developing his proficiency in Magic caused him to become alienated from his political and social responsibilities in Milan, leading to his expulsion. His brother Antonio conspired with Alonso, king of Naples, and seized the power Prospero forsook for book-learning. Prospero hears of a sea voyage undertaken by his enemies, and, using his Magic, whips up a storm, a great tempest, which causes his enemies to be shipwrecked on his island. On the island, Prospero exercises total power - over the education of his daughter, his slave, the deformed Caliban, and now over his enemies. He engages Ariel, a sprite, to orchestrate the division of the traveling party, and to put them through various trials to exact vengeance and ultimately, submission from them. "The Tempest" is a fine effort from Shakespeare, but the power relations in the play are problematic. Prospero's insistent dominance over the action of the play is extremely troubling. Although he is presented as a benevolent character, Prospero's relationships with Miranda, Caliban, and Ferdinand, King Alonso's son, complicate his overall worth as a man and an authority figure. The dynamic between the slave Caliban and the drunks, Trinculo and Stephano, is also very unsettling. Overall, "The Tempest" remains a whimsical flight of imagination, while exploring intriguing themes of education, political intrigue, and romance. Certainly, it is still a well-constructed and entertaining play after nearly four hundred years.
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Summary: Mystical literary journey that parallels Shakespeare's life
Review: Compared to some other works of William Shakespeare, "The Tempest" may be the deepest in meaning. To Shakespeare's credit, this play is also, unlike many of his others, largely original and of his creation. The characters are bloody well developed and the interloping themes bring you into the play. It is also amazing to follow the metaphorical parallelisms in the character of Prospero that reflect on Shakespeare himself. Essentially, Shakespeare announces the end to his writing days in this play. Read how Shakespeare went out like a champ! "The Tempest" is a universal story and its ideals can be placed in our contemporary society and culture.
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Summary: "The Tempest":
Review: First off, let's clarify one thing: when rating Shakespeare, I'm rating it as opposed to other Shakespeare. Otherwise, the consistent "5 stars" wouldn't tell you much. So when I rate this play five stars, I'm saying it's one of Shakespeare's absolute best. It's a real shame that the language has changed so much since Shakespeare wrote that his plays are no longer accessable to the masses, because that's who Shakespeare was writing for, largely. (Especially in his comedies.) Granted, there is enough serious philosophizing to satisfy the intelligensia, but the action and bawdy humor would surely satisfy any connouiseur of modern hit movies, if only they understood it. Unfortunately, while the plots are good enough to be lifted and reworked into modern movies (and they frequently are, sometimes more subtly than others) once you change the language, it's no longer Shakespeare, until and unless the rewriter can be found who has as much genius for the modern language as Shakespeare had for his own. So far, that hasn't happened, and I don't expect it to any time soon. As Shakespearean plays go, "The Tempest" is a fairly easy read. There are a few places where the footnotes are absolutely essential, and a few others where the main thrust can be grasped without them, but a double-entendre might be missed. But by and large, the play is readable for the literate modern reader. Granted, the romance element is as shallow as it usually is in Shakespeare, and there really isn't much drama: there's never any real doubt that Prospero and Ariel have matters well in hand. Still, it's an amusing comic romp, and that's all it was ever really intended to be. Don't try to read too many levels of symbolism and allegory into this play (or any other of Shakespeare's comedies, for that matter). You might as well do serious, in-depth analysis of the deeper meaning of "Men In Black II".
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Summary: My Favourite Shakespeare
Review: I couldn't tell you how much I love this play. I believe it truly embodies everything that Shakespeare was 2 and 1/2 beautiful hours. I have studied it extensively for several years and am very knowledgable on the play . . . and yet every time I read it, it seems fresh to me. Any questions about the Tempest? email me! :-)
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Summary: The Tempest Review
Review: I found the Tempest to be very difficult to read. Even the introduction, which was not written by Shakespeare, was a hard read. It took me hours to get through those 100 or so pages, though I am a fast reader. The actual play was difficult because of the language and the complex line structure. The plot was interesting, but it was hard to follow as I read. I was forced to read a bit, then sit back and translate it. The main theme of the novel was re-evaluation of the soul and reconciliation.
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Summary: I totally didn't understand this book
Review: I hated it because I didn't understand it. It was those old kinds of English that people used to talk a way long time ago.
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