Saturday, July 26, 2014

How can you express the theme "Harmony after the Storm" in terms of pictures based on The Tempest?

You might want to approach this question by considering
the way that storms operate in both a literal and a symbolic way in this excellent play.
For example, it is clear that the opening storm that gives the play its name is quite
clearly real, as it brings Prospero's old enemies to his island so that he can get his
revenge upon them and have a chance to restore some of those relationships. However, in
many other places in Shakespeare, literal storms are also used symbolically to
represents metaphorical storms and tempests. For example, in King
Lear
, the storm on the heath where he wanders is used to represent the chaos
that has befallen the kingdom of Britain. Likewise in the Tempest, the storm is used to
point towards the theme of broken relationships and chaos. The "harmony after the storm"
that your question refers to could point towards the way that through the play, broken
relationships are healed and made whole again. Your pictures therefore might want to
include how this theme is played out and how characters are restored in their
relationships to one another and also to their own true identity. For example, the
character of Ariel is obviously very important in this context, as is the character of
Prospero. Thinking about how these characters change and transform from the beginning of
the play to the end might give you a very interesting basis for your
drawings.

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