This document compares William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" to Aime Cesaire's adaptation "A Tempest". Cesaire's version retains the main plot points but changes perspectives to focus on the characters of Caliban and Ariel from a post-colonial viewpoint. Significant differences include portraying Caliban and Ariel as representatives of black and mulatto people, increasing Caliban's aggression towards Prospero, and having Prospero decide to remain on the island to establish a relationship between whites and blacks.

1. Comparison of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and
Cesaire’s “A Tempest”
• Paper:- 11 The Postcolonial Literature
• Roll No:- 26
• M.A. Part ii Sem iii
• Year:- 2013-15
• Submitted to:- Smt. S.B.Gardi
Department of English
M.K.Bhavnagar University.
Prepared by: Sejal Chauhan
• Date: 3/10/2014

2. Tempest
The clash of knowledge system
The A
William Shakespeare Aime Cesaire
5 acts 3 acts
Blank verse and prose French prose
Native knowledge system Colonial v/s modernity

3. • Mediterranean island
The Tempest
• Twelve years ago Prospero lost the dukedom of Milan to
his scheming brother Antonio
• Was put out to sea with his 3 years daughter
• They live on an isolated island
• Two slaves, the spirit Ariel and the brutish Caliban
• Using his magic power
• Prospero causes the ship in which Antonio is travelling
with the king of Naples and his son to be wretched on the
island.

4. • The kings son Ferdinand encounters Prospero and falls in
love with Miranda
• Prospero orders him to commit menial tasks
• The king himself is about to be murdered by the
treacherous Antonio
• When Ariel intervenes and drives all the courtiers to
distraction
• Caliban meets with two sailors and together they plot the
downfall of Prospero
• Miranda and Ferdinand are entertained by a masque and
are reminded to remain chaste

5. • At last, Prospero takes his leave
of his magic powers
• Confronts and forgives the evil
courtiers
• Gives blessing to the marriage of Miranda and
Ferdinand
• Acknowledges Caliban as his and gives Ariel his
freedom
• He then prepares to return in the magically restored
ship to resume his rule in Milan.

6. The Tempest
Full of
enigmatic
meanings
Political
parable
Power
politics
Imaginativ
e creativity
Human
psyche
• The last play that Shakespeare wrote on his own, it is
his farewell to the stage: like
• Prospero he determines to bury his magic and no
longer create magical beings.

7. A Tempest
• It is really a “post colonial response to The Tempest”
• As such deals with the story from the point of view of
Caliban and Ariel
• This adaptation for a black theatre follows the main
lines of Shakespeare’s plot
• But there are significant changes
• The translation simplifies and shortens the original

8. A Tempest
Caliban Ariel
black mullatto
Close to Earth Airy intellect

9. • The dialogue on Caliban’s part is much more harsh and more
frequent.
• In saying,
“ I’ll impale you! And on a
stake that you’ve sharpened
yourself” You’ll have impaled
yourself!”
• Caliban’s aggression and hate towards prospero is a bit more
evident
• Specially written scene,
• Ariel and Caliban argue about modes of resistance:
• Ariel pleads for non-violence
• Caliban calls him an Uncle Tom and demands ‘ Freedom now!’
• Instead of Ariel appearing as the avenging Fury,

10. • He criticizes Prospero for using the courtiers hunger as a
means of punishing them
• In the Masque, the figure of Eshu, appears ‘ a god to his
friends, a devil to his enemies ‘ and sings an obscene song
• Despite Ariel’s warning, Prospero orders the arrest of
Caliban and his fellow conspirators
• Gonzalo attempts to convert Caliban to Christianity but
fails
• Caliban delivers an eloquent speech rejecting Prospero’s
colonialist domination and threatening revenge

11. • Prospero decides that his duty is to remain on the island
not to be master but ‘ the leader of the orchestra’ and to
counter Caliban’s violence with violence.
• At last,
• Prospero is a futile old man , ruler over a population of
one
• And fragments of Caliban’s song are heard in the distance
• Shakespeare’s The Tempest in order to debate colonial
politics
• Introducing the figure of Eshu and making Prospero’s
oppression more obviously racial

12. • The major change in the plot, that Prospero regards
it as his duty to remain behind on the island
• Suggest that however futile his gesture, whites and
blacks will have to develop some form of mutually
supportive relationship rather than remain
antagonists.

13. •Thank
you

14. • Reference:-
• ‘Oxford Guide to Plays’ By Michael Patterson
• Tempest A and Tempest The