Who’s Running This Operation?

I must say that I thought Davenant and Dryden's The Tempest was quite a bit easier to read than Shakespeare's, but with their "clarity" I found myself asking a lot more questions about what was happening. While I grew quite frustrated with all of the communication issues in the adaptation, I decided to focus this post on the question of who is running the show.

As we discussed, in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero seems to stand in as the playwright or director, controlling the magical goings-on from behind the scenes as they would the actual play. In the adaptation, it seems much less clear who has the ultimate power and where it comes from.

The beginning shows that Prospero does indeed have some form of magical powers when Miranda asks him to stop the storm if he started it “by [his] Art” (1.2.5) and when he very clearly sends her into a charmed sleep (1.2.95-96). But a few scenes later (Act 2, Scene 4), there are Devils singing to Antonio, Alonso, and Gonzalo. Prospero didn’t mention earlier that he was sending the Devils, and Ariel is not in the scene to lead them, so where did the Devils come from? The island? Antonio and Alonso’s consciences? Or maybe some hallucination due to dehydration? In this instance, there is some indication that Prospero may have had something to do with the apparitions when he tells Ariel that “[Ariel] and [Ariel’s] meaner fellows [their] last service did worthily perform,” but the praise comes about two and half scenes after the Devil incident in which, as I said previously, Ariel does not appear, so how can the audience be sure that was the service for which he is praising Ariel (3.2.130-131)?

I think one of the more surprising contests to Prospero’s absolute power, though, is Caliban’s admission that “[his] Mother left [him and his sister] in her Will a hundred Spirits to attend [them], Devils of all sorts, some great roaring Devils, and some little singing Sprights” (4.2.39-41). In Shakespeare’s Tempest, one of the arguments for Caliban’s submission to Prospero is that, though some interpretations of Caliban may show him to be physically superior, Prospero controls the spirits that make Caliban obey. But if Caliban has some Spirits in his control, why has he been made so submissive to Prospero? Were his Spirits defeated? Are they less powerful than Prospero’s Spirits? Why has Prospero allowed Caliban to keep the Spirits, or does he even know? Also, Caliban specifically calls some of his Spirits “Devils,” so could Caliban somehow be responsible for the Devils of Act 2? Actually, Caliban’s role and entertaining host in the “lower plot” seems to foretell Prospero’s ending role as entertaining host in the “high plot,” but that puts them on more equal levels and confuses the reasons for how Prospero usurped Caliban on the Island.

The next shocking confusion of the puppet master on the Island comes after Hippolito’s apparent death. Prospero angrily asks Ariel “Why did’st thou not prevent, at least foretel, this fatal action then?” and Ariel responds that “[Ariel] was forbidden by the ill Genius of Hipplito, Who came and threaten’d…to bind me in the bottom of the Sea” (4.3.47-48, 50-53). First of all, this calls to question everything Ariel can do. Ariel’s response to Prospero’s query about foretelling makes it seem as though Ariel could see the future, it’s just that Ariel was forbidden in this one instance. But if Ariel can see the future, why was Ariel ever imprisoned by Sycorax or made a slave by Prospero? And why can’t Ariel see when Prospero will set Ariel free from obligation? However, Ariel’s response also brings up the question of just how powerful Hippolito is. Ariel apparently has disobeyed or disappointed Prospero, who is supposedly the most powerful on the Island, but Ariel did this because she feared Hippolito’s reaction to her disobedience more. Ariel’s fear makes Hippolito seem like the most powerful person on the Island, but he was defeated by Ferdinand’s sword which, as Ariel and Prospero prove earlier, should not be able to stand up to magical charms. If Hippolito is powerful enough to make Ariel fear him, why doesn’t he think to use magic to take Miranda away from Ferdinand?

I’m not sure if I’m just being to finicky on the matter or if Dryden and Davenant were going for the Shakespeare standard of ambiguous and not succeeding, but I found the issues of power throughout the play unsatisfactorily unclear. Too many of the instances above felt more like poor planning, or inclusions to advance Dryden and Davenants’ focal plot (the innocence of Miranda, Dorinda, and Hippolito). I did enjoy moments of this version, but I also felt like the inconsistencies, particularly about the powerhouse on the Island kept interfering with the areas that Dryden and Davenant seemed to focus on.