Topic > European colonialism and imperialism in Shakespeare's work...

European colonialism and imperialism in Shakespeare's The Tempest William Shakespeare's play The Tempest reveals how ideologies of racial "otherness" served to legitimize hegemony European patriarchy in Elizabethan England. In the Elizabethan/Jacobean era of England there were many relevant ideologies related to this work. In examining the values ​​and ideologies that this text supports and challenges the society of the time (Elizabethan England) and knowledge of how it operated serves a great purpose in analyzing these relationships. As with many texts of this time, Shakespeare supports many ideologies of his time, and although many have labeled him ahead of his time in many respects in his writing, he essentially writes from the Elizabethan or Jacobean point of view and point of view. . The Tempest supports unjust relations between the races based on the belief in European superiority. The representation of race and ethnicity in The Tempest reveals a text awash in European imperialist ideologies. In a play where usurpation is a dominant theme, Shakespeare supports Prospero's appropriation of the island and its Aboriginal population. The portrayal of Caliban and his brother Sycorax reveals the extent to which racist and sexist ideologies function to keep the balance of power in the hands of a small ruling elite. Indeed, it should be noted that The Tempest is more than just a play. Rather, it is a complex and multilayered literary construction. Since it is not possible to reduce it to the racial issue alone, investigate the imbalance of power in the game. Attention must be paid to how patriarchal notions of gender inform racial representations in order to understand power imbalances i...... middle of paper ....... An investigation of power imbalance in he play reveals the ideologies of race and gender that drive the power dynamics of the show. The construction of the inferior nature of non-European characters is firmly rooted in imperialist, European and patriarchal values. The Tempest presents the appropriation of the island and its inhabitants by Prospero's imperial patriarchal regime as entirely natural and inevitable, based on the inherent inferiority of the non-European characters. the original population. In this way, the work is a precise repetition of imperialist rhetoric, which legitimizes European annexation of "other" lands and peoples to which they have no legitimate claim. Bibliography/Works Cited Shakespeare, W. The Tempest. Ed. Sutherland, JR (1990) G. Wilson Knight, (1932) The Shakespearean Tempest, OxfordB. Thompson, (1995) Notes on the Storm