Word of the Day:
sup·pres·sion
[suh-presh-uh
n] noun
3. Psychoanalysis . conscious inhibition of an impulse.
4. Botany . the absence of parts normally or usually present due to the action of frost, disease, or insects.
5.Radio, Electronics. the elimination of a component of a varying emission, as the elimination of a frequency or group of frequencies from a signal.
"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights"
- Gloria Steinem
Feminism is a tale as old as time, as well as a doubled edged sword. From the infamous Joan of Arch, to the women's suffrage movement; Fallowing all the way to bra-burners of the 70's to the women of Political stature today.
For the dawn of the amazonian women who had conquered the earth in the legends of Africa all the way to the Ladies of Adonis from Greece: Women have been bound to the history books, yet we are constantly ripping out the chains that define us and creating our own meanings.
Or in turn (Women) say that there is no need for meaning and we just be.
These few whom have changed the world for women have been labeled: Feminists. Fighters, freedom extremists. They carry the torch to burn down the social formalities and corporal opinions.
That's Nice and All... But How Does This Reflect Onto The Tempest?
Although William Shakespeare's: The Tempest was written at a point where a "liberal agenda" did not exist: it is one of the most interesting plays when talking about the touchy subject of 'femenism'.
Tempest only has one female role... and it's feminist?
Indeed, that is what makes it truly a feminist play. Miranda, being the only 'female' character (minus the directorial option of making Ariel a woman... in the original text Ariel is gender neutral), is not only treated as an item of physical usage but is constantly reminded of her place.
The entire plot of the play serves the needs of Prospero, the usurped Duke of Milan. Through his plight he constantly uses his daughter, Miranda, as a sexual lure and prize to obtain his goal of revenge.
It is indeed he (Prospero) that arranges the love affair between Miranda and Ferdinand (unbeknown to the two). Prospero is in control of her fate, and although he is a fatherly figure he constantly objectifies his daughter's sexual purpose.
Contradicting to what I have just finished stated, Miranda is also the object of forbidden fruit. Prospero boasts openly about the sexuality of his daughter to Ferdinand once he decides to allow the two to wed, he then retracts his comments by claiming his daughter to be of holy innocence and how Caliban wronged the world by attempting to rape his daughter.
Although I am not an advocate for rape, the fact that Prospero is willing to openly talk about Miranda in the third person while she is present is as if to offer her naked to the behold. Discussing her "virgin knot" in the open to others as if it were table talk not only subjectifies her to mischievous imaginations of the men but it also leaves her victim to the possibility on them acting upon their dirty dreams. (Just as Caliban, the moon-calf slave monster did).
Yet it is not just the supposed rape of Miranda that is troublesome of the play. It is the fact that it was in terms, the social "norm". The era in which this play was written, women indeed were items of sexuality and not individuals.
HOWEVER, in the original text Miranda openly defies her status as a woman.
It has been lost in translation overtime but many productions of The Tempest has given Miranda text to uphold her end of the conversation, that is when the topic is her innocence:
"Abhorred slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in't which
good natures
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved more than a prison".
Yet this text has been bestowed unto her father, Prospero, due to an audience believing that because he is the father of the rape victim, he should be the one to speak about it.
YET (again) this status quo has been a fish flopped onto land: as it constantly switches back and forth on the subject matter. It is very western for a women to speak for herself which Miranda does so when asking Ferdinand if he loves her.
YET (again again) this is out of her control for the original catalyst for this question was Prospero setting up a barrier between the soon-to-be lovers... for every parent knows that a child will want what they cannot have.
YET (last one, I promise) she is declared Ferdinand's at the end of the play once handed down by her father. This being normal for it's date of original creation is normal. However due to many Shakespearean plays being modernized, it is categorized a "daring move on Miranda's part" because it was her that proposed to Ferdinand. (but not really).
MIRANDA-CEPTION
Miranda is the item of obsession in many cases: first and foremost, the original play.
Many thesis' center around Miranda and her feminist qualities (or inqualities if you prefer the negative view). Here are just a few:
Lorie Jerrell Leininiger's The Miranda Trap: Sexism and Racism in The Tempest
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LeslieRodriguez/007969.html
Feminists Reading The Tempest (a group of essay writers: link below)
http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/9452.html
Live Journal's analyzing of The Tempest (Link below)
http://bibliopolis.livejournal.com/8872.html
Laura E. Donaldson's The Miranda Complex: Colonialism and the Question of Feminist Reading
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/465255?uid=3739808&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101791788941
In Conclusion:
Miranda is a simple complex character, where her complexity leis in the hands of other characters. Many see her as a strong amazonian woman who has never "seen a glass faire than mien own reflection", while others see her as a spineless tool used in the mastermind plot of Prospero.
It is up to you to decide what Miranda really is... and maybe even find a personal truth.
So in short:
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings" (Cheris Kramarae).
Signed,
Performance Dates: March 14, 15, 16, 21, 22
112 Rues Lane East Brunswick, NJ
Tickets can be purchased by Students of MCVTS School of The Arts and or at the door
"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights"
- Gloria Steinem
Feminism is a tale as old as time, as well as a doubled edged sword. From the infamous Joan of Arch, to the women's suffrage movement; Fallowing all the way to bra-burners of the 70's to the women of Political stature today.
For the dawn of the amazonian women who had conquered the earth in the legends of Africa all the way to the Ladies of Adonis from Greece: Women have been bound to the history books, yet we are constantly ripping out the chains that define us and creating our own meanings.
Or in turn (Women) say that there is no need for meaning and we just be.
These few whom have changed the world for women have been labeled: Feminists. Fighters, freedom extremists. They carry the torch to burn down the social formalities and corporal opinions.
That's Nice and All... But How Does This Reflect Onto The Tempest?
Although William Shakespeare's: The Tempest was written at a point where a "liberal agenda" did not exist: it is one of the most interesting plays when talking about the touchy subject of 'femenism'.
Tempest only has one female role... and it's feminist?
Indeed, that is what makes it truly a feminist play. Miranda, being the only 'female' character (minus the directorial option of making Ariel a woman... in the original text Ariel is gender neutral), is not only treated as an item of physical usage but is constantly reminded of her place.
The entire plot of the play serves the needs of Prospero, the usurped Duke of Milan. Through his plight he constantly uses his daughter, Miranda, as a sexual lure and prize to obtain his goal of revenge.
It is indeed he (Prospero) that arranges the love affair between Miranda and Ferdinand (unbeknown to the two). Prospero is in control of her fate, and although he is a fatherly figure he constantly objectifies his daughter's sexual purpose.
Contradicting to what I have just finished stated, Miranda is also the object of forbidden fruit. Prospero boasts openly about the sexuality of his daughter to Ferdinand once he decides to allow the two to wed, he then retracts his comments by claiming his daughter to be of holy innocence and how Caliban wronged the world by attempting to rape his daughter.
Although I am not an advocate for rape, the fact that Prospero is willing to openly talk about Miranda in the third person while she is present is as if to offer her naked to the behold. Discussing her "virgin knot" in the open to others as if it were table talk not only subjectifies her to mischievous imaginations of the men but it also leaves her victim to the possibility on them acting upon their dirty dreams. (Just as Caliban, the moon-calf slave monster did).
Yet it is not just the supposed rape of Miranda that is troublesome of the play. It is the fact that it was in terms, the social "norm". The era in which this play was written, women indeed were items of sexuality and not individuals.
HOWEVER, in the original text Miranda openly defies her status as a woman.
It has been lost in translation overtime but many productions of The Tempest has given Miranda text to uphold her end of the conversation, that is when the topic is her innocence:
"Abhorred slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in't which
good natures
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved more than a prison".
Yet this text has been bestowed unto her father, Prospero, due to an audience believing that because he is the father of the rape victim, he should be the one to speak about it.
YET (again) this status quo has been a fish flopped onto land: as it constantly switches back and forth on the subject matter. It is very western for a women to speak for herself which Miranda does so when asking Ferdinand if he loves her.
YET (again again) this is out of her control for the original catalyst for this question was Prospero setting up a barrier between the soon-to-be lovers... for every parent knows that a child will want what they cannot have.
YET (last one, I promise) she is declared Ferdinand's at the end of the play once handed down by her father. This being normal for it's date of original creation is normal. However due to many Shakespearean plays being modernized, it is categorized a "daring move on Miranda's part" because it was her that proposed to Ferdinand. (but not really).
MIRANDA-CEPTION
Miranda is the item of obsession in many cases: first and foremost, the original play.
Many thesis' center around Miranda and her feminist qualities (or inqualities if you prefer the negative view). Here are just a few:
Lorie Jerrell Leininiger's The Miranda Trap: Sexism and Racism in The Tempest
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LeslieRodriguez/007969.html
Feminists Reading The Tempest (a group of essay writers: link below)
http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/9452.html
Live Journal's analyzing of The Tempest (Link below)
http://bibliopolis.livejournal.com/8872.html
Laura E. Donaldson's The Miranda Complex: Colonialism and the Question of Feminist Reading
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/465255?uid=3739808&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101791788941
In Conclusion:
Miranda is a simple complex character, where her complexity leis in the hands of other characters. Many see her as a strong amazonian woman who has never "seen a glass faire than mien own reflection", while others see her as a spineless tool used in the mastermind plot of Prospero.
It is up to you to decide what Miranda really is... and maybe even find a personal truth.
So in short:
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings" (Cheris Kramarae).
Signed,
Performance Dates: March 14, 15, 16, 21, 22
112 Rues Lane East Brunswick, NJ
Tickets can be purchased by Students of MCVTS School of The Arts and or at the door
PS:
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY
