the tempest henry fuseli, the enchanted island: before the cell of prospero (1797)

The Tempest

Henry Fuseli, The Enchanted Island: Before the Cell of Prospero (1797)

The Conditions of Early Modernity

• Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production


Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production:

The ideal society of the Utopians is essentially an urban society, with a rationally organized production and service economy

In Book I of Utopia, Raphael criticizes enclosures of public lands for grazing sheep to produce wool. He observes that, in England, the sheep have grown so wild and greedy that they eat men.


• Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production • Shift from local barter economies to international mercantile capitalism


Shift from local barter economies to international mercantile capitalism:

The Utopians have a communist economy in which money has been abolished; this implies a critique of the emerging capitalism of EnglishSociety

Gonzalo’s speech describing an ideal society in Act I, scene ii of The Tempest projects a paradise without money or work


• Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production • Shift from local barter economies to international mercantile capitalism• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by the centralized "nation-state"

The Conditions of Early ModernityReplacement of the feudal manorial estate by the centralized "nation-state“ with a divine-right monarch:

Utopia is a republic, but it is established by a benevolent monarch, King Utopus, rather than by a popular revolution)

In Gonzalo’s vision of an ideal state there would be “no name of magistrate” and “no sovereignty, ”

Yet, as Sebastian wrily comments, “he [Gonzalo] would be king on’t”


• Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production • Shift from local barter economies to international mercantile capitalism• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by the centralized "nation-state“ with a divine-right monarch• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence of democratic- republican government


Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence of democratic-republican government:

Utopia is a republic, though it has slavery

Gonzalo’s paradise seems to be an anarchy, with no government at all


• Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production • Shift from local barter economies to international mercantile capitalism• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by the centralized "nation-state“ with a divine-right monarch• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence of democratic- republican government• The emergence of colonialism

The Conditions of Early ModernityThe emergence of colonialism:

Utopians practice colonialism; when a Utopian city has too many inhabitants, some of them colonize (uninhabited?) areas nearby

The Tempest explores many different aspects of colonialism:

Europeans’ appropriation of and exploitation of foreign territoriesEuropeans’ subordination and co-optation of indigenous populations (cf the different treatment of Caliban and Ariel)Europeans’ claims that they are colonizing to bring Christianity and civilization (cf Prospero’s taking credit for the fact that he has taught Caliban how to speak and the fact that he has liberated Ariel)Europeans’ use of colonialism as a way to let off pressure from their own social conflicts (cf Prospero’s exile on Caliban’s island after he has been deposed by Sebastian; Gonzalo’s vision of an island society that would correct all of the bad things about Europe; lower-class men like Stephano and Trinculo seeking to exploit Caliban and set themselves up as rulers of the colonized space)


• Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production • Shift from local barter economies to international mercantile capitalism• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by the centralized "nation-state“ with a divine-right monarch• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence of democratic- republican government• The emergence of colonialism• Shift from rigid social hierarchy to self-directed, egalitarian individualism

The Conditions of Early ModernityShift from rigid social hierarchy to self-directed, egalitarian individualism:

Utopia is egalitarian, but, it doesn’t seem to encourage individualism

In The Tempest, Trinculo and Stephano imagine themselves as rising in social status, but their aspirations are curtailed by reality (or magic)


• Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production • Shift from local barter economies to international mercantile capitalism• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by the centralized "nation-state“ with a divine-right monarch• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence of democratic- republican government• The emergence of colonialism• Shift from rigid social hierarchy to self-directed, egalitarian individualism• Protestant Reformation's challenge to the Roman Catholic Church

The Conditions of Early ModernityProtestant Reformation's challenge to the Roman Catholic Church:

Utopians have religious freedom and religious tolerance


• Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production • Shift from local barter economies to international mercantile capitalism• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by the centralized "nation-state“ with a divine-right monarch• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence of democratic- republican government• The emergence of colonialism• Shift from rigid social hierarchy to self-directed, egalitarian individualism• Protestant Reformation's challenge to the Roman Catholic Church• Scientific Rationalism (humans can control their own affairs)

The Conditions of Early ModernityScientific Rationalism (humans can control their own affairs):

This view is the over-riding concept of Utopian society

In The Tempest, Prospero’s “magic” can be seen as a kind of “science”—he learns it out of books—but it an ambivalent representation of science, since it is irrational.

Prospero’s “science” seems especially irrational to Caliban, since he doesn’t understand it.

In this, he is like many modern people, who don’t understand science, and sort of take it on faith that science is “good.”

In The Tempest, the “Boatswain” might be seen as a better representative of the modern faith in rational knowledge. In the Boatswain’s conversation with Gonzalo during the storm, the Boatswain asserts his faith in the practical knowledge of experienced sailors, rather than the “authority” of aristocrats


• Shift from subsistence agricultural production to urban factory production • Shift from local barter economies to international mercantile capitalism• Replacement of the feudal manorial estate by the centralized "nation-state“ with a divine-right monarch• Eventual decline of monarchy and emergence of democratic- republican government• The emergence of colonialism• Shift from rigid social hierarchy to self-directed, egalitarian individualism• Protestant Reformation's challenge to the Roman Catholic Church• Scientific Rationalism (humans can control their own affairs)• Replacement of a pessimistic, fatalist view of history by an optimistic, progress-oriented view

The Conditions of Early ModernityReplacement of a pessimistic, fatalist view of history by an optimistic,progress-oriented view:

Utopia might be seen as an expression of optimism for the futureOn the other hand, Utopia seems to exist “outside” of European history

In The Tempest, the marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand and the restoration of Prospero’s crown might be seen as expressions of hope for the future

The Conditions of Early Modernity The "Introduction" to the "Early Modern Period" in the Longman Anthology describes the transformation of the economic system and its effect on class relations in England during the sixteenth century as follows:

As much as an older world was being reborn [in the rediscovery of classical Greek and Roman cultures], a modern world was being born, and it is in this sense that we can speak of these centuries not only as the Renaissance but also as the "early modern period." Its modernity was registered in various ways, many of them having to do with systems of quantification. Instruments for measuring time and space provided a knowledge of physical nature and its control. . . . Sailing to the new world in 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh made use of Mercator's projection [map], published in 1568. . . . Means were devised to compute the wealth that was being created by manufacture and trade. . . . Money was used in new and complex ways, its flow managed through such innovations as double-entry bookkeeping and letters of exchange that registered debt and credit in inter-regional markets. The capital that accumulated as a result of these kinds of

The Conditions of Early Modernitytransactions fueled merchant banks, joint-stock companies, and—notably in England—trading companies that sponsored colonies abroad. Heralded with enthusiasm by William Drayton in 1606, the Virginia colony was reflected in a more muted fashion five years later in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. . . .

In England, especially, wealth was increasingly based not on land but on money, and the change encouraged a social mobility that reflected but also exploited the old hierarchy. . . .

Urban life flourished in conditions increasingly hospitable to commerce; rural existence because precarious as small farms failed. During the [fifteenth] century, the nobility had begun to enlarge their estates by the incorporation or “enclosing” of what had formerly been public or common land. They sought to profit from the newest kind of farming: sheep. As Sir Thomas More’s Utopia illustrates, thousands of men and women who had worked the land on modest estates lost their livelihood as a result.

Longman Anthology, p. 670

the tempest henry fuseli, the enchanted island: before the cell of prospero (1797)

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