In Barbara Fuchs’ Conquering Islands: Contextualizing The Tempest, the writer discusses the modern interpretations of The Tempest by William Shakespeare is Americanized in that its readers believe The Tempest to be a representation of the European conquest on America; however, Fuchs believes that, although this belief keeps The Tempest relevant, it is a representation of English colonization in Ireland. Fuchs states that Prospero’s island and Elizabethan Ireland have strong correlations (pg. 46). She provides a quote from The Commitments to start her next section of the report which says,” The Irish are the nixxers of Europe, lads.” (pg. 46). Fuchs’ then describes similar struggles of African Americans in the United States during slavery and the Irish in Shakespeare’s time. She then compares this similarity to Trinculo and Caliban in The Tempest by saying they would take Caliban back home to sell for money, which refers to slavery (pg. 48). Fuchs then further emphasizes the hate portrayed towards the Irish saying that the English tried everything they could to refrain connection to the Irish by avoiding their way of dress and she connects it back to the discussion of Caliban’s cloak. Ariel is the hope of the Irish escaping the entrapment of the English in that Ariel escaped from Sycorax’s rule and into Prospero’s; Fuchs contradicts, however, is Ariel really being freed if she’s being rules by Prospero? Fuchs then ends this section of the paper saying she is not denying the fact that there is correlation between America’s struggle and the struggle in The Tempest but that Ireland should be the main source of discussion because they endured it first.
In the next section of the paper, Fuchs discusses the importance of Alonso marrying his daughter to the king of Tunis. She concludes that Alonso may have married off his daughter to prevent Islamic attacks on Naples (pg. 59). She connects the marrying of Alonso’s daughter to the play’s use of gender as an attempt at imperialism rather than discovery (pg. 60) which is another strategy of colonialism. She concludes her essay saying the main purpose was to help the current discussions of The Tempest stray away from America.
In this essay, Fuchs proves her points by using the history between England and Ireland. She goes into depth about the history between England and Ireland by providing the ways they acted towards each other, mainly England acting towards Ireland. She provides quotes from what notable figures have said to ensure credibility. On page 45, Fuchs reveals her main methodology in approaching to argue her point saying,” My aim is, at first, to provide descriptions of the contemporary colonial contexts in both Ireland and the Mediterranean, which I believe shed light on the play, and, second, to suggest the advantages for political criticism of considering all relevant colonial contexts simultaneously.” In this sentence, Fuchs reveals to the audience what her goal is and her methodology in doing so.
A quote Fuchs argues that very well represents her stance is on page 46,” The general absence of Ireland from discussions of colonialism in the play is troubling, particularly since the devastation of native population and its culture was more deliberate and vicious in England’s first plantation than in its later ventures in Virginia.” This quote shows her stance on the dilemma. It tells us what the main point of the paper is, which is to persuade the audience to believe Ireland should be considered in the discussions of the Tempest. Another quote that represents her argument well is the first sentence of the second paragraph which states “My purpose in this essay is not to refute the American readings of The Tempest; I agree with Peter Hulme that placing New World colonialism at the center of the play has made it a fundamentally more interesting and, at least for twentieth-century readers a more relevant text.” This sentence tells us that she is not disagreeing with the American perspective of The Tempest and that she is simply adding to the equation.
I enjoyed this reading about colonialism in The Tempest. The paper stimulated me, giving me different perspectives of The Tempest which I haven’t noticed and seen before. I found the analysis of Ariel’s escape from Sycorax into Prospero’s control particularly illuminating. I found it contradictory in Ariel’s beliefs how she was trying to escape Sycorax’s control but eventually found her way into someone else’s command. I found the history of England and Ireland particularly interesting and surprising. I was unaware of the conflicts between the two. When reading the history of Ireland and England and connecting it to the experiences of African Americans of the United States, I was shocked. I also found the connection between the experiences of African Americans in the United States and the experiences of the Irish from the English to the experiences on Prospero’s island interesting. I found it interesting because Shakespeare wrote the play with so much symbolism and hidden meaning behind the characters, who also represent his country and the struggles between countries at his time. I enjoyed Fuchs’ analysis of this the most because it all connected and flowed very well. This was the most compelling part of the essay. I found all parts of this essay incredibly compelling because they all fit hand in hand with each other. Overall, I enjoyed this reading because of the historical context it provided. I enjoyed the fact that the history of the world correlated to what Shakespeare wrote.
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