A Tempest

Synopsis

Une Tempête (“A tempest”) is a 1969 play by Aimé Césaire. It is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest from a postcolonial perspective. The action in the play closely follows that of Shakespeare’s play, though Césaire emphasizes the importance of the people who inhabited the island before the arrival of Prospero and his daughter Miranda: Caliban and Ariel. Both have been enslaved by Prospero, though Caliban was the ruler of the island before Prospero’s arrival. Caliban and Ariel react differently to their situation. Caliban favors revolution over Ariel’s non-violence, and rejects his name as the imposition of Prospero’s colonizing language, desiring to be called X.[1][2] He complains stridently about his enslavement and regrets not being powerful enough to challenge the reign of Prospero. Ariel, meanwhile, contents himself with asking Prospero to consider giving him independence. At the end of the play, Prospero grants Ariel his freedom, but retains control of the island and of Caliban. This is a notable departure from Shakespeare’s version, in which Prospero leaves the island with his daughter and the men who were shipwrecked there at the beginning of the play.

Teacher Notes