Transformation: The Tempest and Don Quixote - Essay Example

Transformation: The Tempest and Don Quixote In the story of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, it started with a storm that tossed the boat which aboard the King of Naples, Alonso, his son Ferdinand, his brother Sebastian and a usurping Duke of Milan named Antonio. Together with the team are Adrian, Trinculo, Francisco and Stefano. A girl named Miranda was watching the ship at sea fighting the storm. With her was her father named Prospero. Magical Prospero actually sent his servant spirit, Ariel, to create the storm.

He explained to his daughter how they came to live on the island and why he ordered such task to Ariel. They were once part of Milan’s nobility. Prospero was a Duke and they once lived a life of extravagance and comfort. But his own brother, Antonio, removed his power and put him and Miranda in a boat and abandoned them at the sea. Because of this, Prospero asked Ariel to destroy the ship and dispersed the passengers across the island. He ordered Ariel to be invisible and spy on the passengers promising him to be freed soon.

In the story, there was a transformation of the character of Prospero. It can be observed that Shakespeare based the story on revenge. Prospero acted with revenge in the story. Because of the magic used by Prospero, the king and his comrades have gone mad in the story. Ariel pleaded for the sake of the passengers. In the end, Prospero was moved by Ariel’s plea and requests and showed them the mercy which they did not even give to him and his daughter years ago. He promised to renounce magic after he reinstates the sanity of his enemies.

Prospero also freed Ariel from his entire obligation. The king admitted and realized his mistakes and thereafter restored Prospero as Duke of Milan. Antonio was forgiven by Prospero but did not reunite with him. There was a good transformation in the characters of the story. Prospero let go of his revenge and forgave those who hurt and harmed him and his daughter. King Alonso also transformed and saw the wisdom and repented on his mistakes. He restored Prospero as the Duke. Prospero in return, promised to renounce his magic which symbolizes power.

Another story also showed transformation of characters in a different way. In Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, a noble gentleman named Quixada lived between Aragon and Castile. This dignified fellow went crazy over books about Knights. He spent everything in buying these books and filled his thinking with the enchantments, battles, challenges, giants, castles, captured princesses, rescues and impossible deeds. He decided to turn himself into a knight wanting to redress the wrongs and rescue captured maidens.

He decided to change his name to Don Quixote de la Mancha. But he was living in a fantasy. He went on an adventure with a deluded character. Because of reading too much tales about the knights, he ended up with a disintegrated reason, living his life as a knight in a tale. He had a lot of adventures involving him with lot of scratches, cracked bones and missing teeth. But this story showed us the fantasy with reality. The character of Don Quixote showed us how wrong and mad he is. But regardless of the pain in pursuit of that wrong, he continued to believe he is right.

In this story, we can observe the transformation of a very dignified gentleman. His pursuit and obsession of books showed how smart his character is. But in the end, he ended up being a fool who lived in a fantasy of being a knight. The two stories described two different kinds of transformation. The story of The Tempest by Shakespeare demonstrated the positive transformation. He illustrated the change of the character with revenge to someone who had forgiven his enemies in the end. On the other hand, Don Quixote displayed the negative transformation of a character.

From a very noble man Quixada, he transformed to a mad and foolish character of Don Quixote who lived in fantasy.