Your Voice: Get Lost in Shakespeare
Submitted by DarthVibbert
Here’s the story line of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest:
The sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, have been stranded for twelve years on an island, after Prospero’s jealous brother Antonio—helped by Alonso, the King of Naples—deposed him and set him adrift with the three-year-old Miranda. Prospero secretly sought the help of Gonzalo and their small and shoddy boat had secretly been upgraded to be more than sea worthy. It had been supplied with plenty of food and water, it had an excellent library, and it contained surviving material in case the boat capsized.
Possessed of magic powers due to his great learning and prodigious library, Prospero is reluctantly served by a spirit, Ariel, whom he had rescued from imprisonment in a tree. Ariel was trapped therein by the African witch Sycorax, who had been exiled to the island years before and died prior to Prospero’s arrival; Prospero maintains Ariel’s loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude, but continually defers that promise to a future date, namely at the end of the play. The witch’s son Caliban, a deformed monster and the only non-spiritual inhabitant before the arrival of Prospero, was initially adopted and raised by the Milanese sorcerer. He taught Prospero how to survive on the island, while Prospero and Miranda taught Caliban religion and their own language.
Following Caliban’s attempted rape of Miranda, he had been compelled by Prospero to serve as the sorcerer’s slave, carrying wood and gathering pig nuts. In slavery Caliban has come to view Prospero as a usurper, and grown to resent the magician and his daughter, feeling that they have betrayed his trust. Prospero and Miranda in turn view Caliban with contempt and disgust. The play opens as Prospero, having divined that his brother, Antonio, is on a ship passing close by the island (having returned from the nuptials of Alonso’s daughter Claribel with the King of Tunis), has raised a storm (the tempest of the title) which causes the ship to run aground. Also on the ship are Antonio’s friend and fellow conspirator, King Alonso, Alonso’s brother Sebastian, Alonso’s royal adviser Gonzalo, and Alonso’s son, Ferdinand. Prospero, by his spells, contrives to separate the survivors of the wreck into several groups and Alonso and Ferdinand are separated, and believe one another dead. Three plots then alternate through the play.
In one, Caliban falls in with Stephano and Trinculo, two drunken crew members, whom he believes to have come from the moon, and drunkenly attempts to raise a rebellion against Prospero (which ultimately fails). In another, Prospero works to establish a romantic relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda; the two fall immediately in love, but Prospero worries that "too light winning [may] make the prize light", and so compels Ferdinand to become his servant so that his affection for Miranda will be confirmed. He also decides that after his plan to exact vengeance on his betrayers has come to fruition, he will break and bury his staff, and "drown" his book of magic. In the third subplot, Antonio and Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and his adviser Gonzalo, so that Sebastian can become King. They are thwarted by Ariel, at Prospero’s command. Ariel appears to the three "men of sin" as a harpy, reprimanding them for their betrayal of Prospero. Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio are deeply affected while Gonzalo is unruffled.
Prospero manipulates the course of his enemies’ path through the island, drawing them closer and closer to him. In the conclusion, all the main characters are brought together before Prospero, who forgives Alonso (as well as his own brother’s betrayal, and warns Antonio and Sebastian about further attempts at betrayal) and finally uses his magic to ensure that everyone returns to Italy. Ariel (as his final task for Prospero) is charged to prepare the proper sailing weather to guide Alonso and his entourage back to the Royal fleet and then to Naples. Ariel is set free to the elements. Prospero pardons Caliban who is sent to prepare Prospero’s cell, to which Alonso and his party are invited for a final night before their departure. Prospero indicates he intends to entertain them with the story of his life on the island. In his epilogue, Prospero invites the audience to set him free from the island by their applause.
So, things in common with Lost:
- …Stranded on an Island
- …Prospero maintains Ariel’s loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude, but continually defers that promise to a future date. This is similar to Ben promising Juliet for a long period of time that he would let her leave the island, but always in the end keeping her there. Will he eventually let her leave?
- …Antonio, is on a ship passing close by the island, just like the Freighter Folk.
- …As raised a storm (the tempest of the title) which causes the ship to run aground. This could be similar to both the weird time cloud Desmond and Sayid went through and possibly the Black Rock.
- …Also on the ship are Antonio’s friend and fellow conspirator, just as Ben has a spy on the boat.
- …Prospero separates the survivors of the wreck into several groups, ala Team Jack and Team Locke
- …Prospero invites the audience to set him free from the island by their applause. At times Prospero could be seen as Jacob. Could this be why he asks Locke to help him by giving him "applause"?
What do you guys think, anyone catch any other similarities?
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Very impressive that you found all that. However, I’ve always been a firm believer that character names and sight names on the show are simply a red herring that we get so much of on this show. I DO see the similarities though.
I wanted to re-post this. I think that my posts get lost in the shuffle with all the replies, and I was hoping to get a few thoughts.
First of all, I absolutely believe that Michael is Ben’s man on the boat. While it is difficult to explain how he’s been accepted by them, or how he became in total cahoots with Benjamin is almost irrelevant. It can be nobody else. Mikhail would have no reason to open the door for Sayid and Desmond in “The Constant”. My assumption is that he’s faked his name with some Benjamin-issued fake ID. He’s probably assuming the name that we sort of caught in the obituary that sends Jack over the edge. Nobody would be at Michael’s funeral, because nobody would know he exists. Michael Dawson was a casualty of the crash of Oceanic 815. But his new ID has slipped back into the system with nobody to know that he survived. He’s not a member of the Oceanic 815, but he’s going to make it off the island, and he IS the guy on the boat.
I can’t seem to wrap my head around the time-traveling. However, I’ve become convinced that Richard Alpert is a time traveler and possibly a passenger of the Black Rock. I think our expectations are so high for what the true mystery of the island is, that we’re neglecting the fact that this show COULD be based around time-traveling more heavily than we’re giving it credit. It’s possible that Jacob is also involved in time-traveling somehow. I’d dare say it’s probable that Harper has mastered it as well.
I think Harper telling Juliet that Benjamin is “exactly where he wants to be” is very telling. It could mean that Ben is perfectly content with grooming Locke to be the “special” leader that he’s meant to be. Let’s not forget that nobody has done a better job at protecting the island than Locke has. Whether Ben has manipulated these events or Locke has done them for other reasons, he has been the island’s greatest source of defense. It could also mean, since she may be able to time travel, that she knows that Ben’s survival is because of where he is. This could all be a bit of a stretch.
Josefk81 commented that Juliet reminds Ben of his mother. I tend to agree. I think that Juliet looks strikingly similar to his mother.
Oh, and whatever the heck Farraday and Charlotte were messing with at the end of the show, that’s obviously what Ben used to wipe out the Dharma Initiative. Clearly, he’s a sick dude and wanted to personally murder his father.
Oh, and is it possible that Charlie has mastered the art of time-traveling?? He mentioned when speaking with Hurley in the Season opener that “I’m here. But I’m not.” Is it possible that he can travel into the future, but there are complications in how long or how far he can go due to the fact that he dies in 2004?
Comment by Showstop — March 10, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
No, all of that is incorrect
Comment by Ben — March 10, 2008 @ 2:34 pm
I however am a firm believer in the fact that names on this show mean something and are not chosen at random. Charlotte Lewis as a tribute to CS Lewis, for instance. Jack Sheppard being a sort of shepherd for the survivors, that sort of thing.
I would find the fact that Juliet reminds Ben of his mother even creepier than some of the other things about Ben. His feelings for Juliet and his actions seem to indicate that he is sexually and emotionally obsessed with her and if he felt that way about his mother….just eeeuw. I suggest that she “looks just like” Annie. After Annie grew up, of course. I think Annie meant a great deal to Ben. Perhaps she died in the Dharma purge; perhaps she left the island for some reason or died in some other manner. At any rate, I would rather think Ben’s overwrought about Juliet for that reason more than his mother.
I doubt Charlie is time travelling. Charlie is dead. He even said he was.
To go into the Tempest stuff: Though all of these similarities are interesting I’m not of the opinion that they have anything at all to do with LOST. If I did, I would put Jacob into the position of Ariel and Ben as Prospero.
Comment by Vampry — March 11, 2008 @ 3:56 pm