Shakespeares’s The Tempest and John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007This essay will consider whether the poetry and drama of the early modern period is more concerned with transgression or with order. In reaching a conclusion Shakespeares’s The Tempest and John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV will be considered, taking into account genre, theme, form and conventions of the period.
The Tempest is probably Shakespeare’s last play, King Lear was his longest; the two plays both deal with family relationships, power, transgression and order. King Lear longs to be reunited with his daughter Cordelia even if in a prison cell, having lost everything because of the treachery of his two other daughters. The Tempest sees father and daughter marooned and exiled on an island, alone apart from beasts (which would include Caliban). It is the transgression of his brother that is the cause of his predicament. The storm that sees King Lear thrust into the darkness as an old and powerless man is echoed in The Tempest. The power of nature, to destroy the ordered world of man, is amply demonstrated in both plays. In The Tempest the storm is caused by the old man, who in adversity has acquired power, that of a sorcerer, from books, King Lear lost all power. The theme of fragility, inherent in human order when confronted by the power of nature, and thus god, is made clear by the Boatswain when he shouts “What cares these roarers for the name of king?” (1.1.16-17) The theme of fraternal envy is also repeated in The Tempest, Antonio has betrayed and usurped his brother Prospero. In King Lear Edmund, the bastard child of
The Tempest belongs to the class of plays commonly grouped as Shakespeare’s Late Romances: Pericles, Cymberline and The Winters Tale making up the quartet. In these plays, Shakespeare considers family relationships and reconciliation in a mythical and fantasy setting, elements of magic, mystery and nature are theatrical devices. The modern interpretation of “romance” refers to those with comic and tragic elements, developed and popularized by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher between 1607 and 1613. Philaster combines the tragic with the comic to deal with redemption and transgressions, it is a collaborative work, and Francis Beaumont’s Knight of the Burning Pestle is an example of farcical comedy. Comedies, like Twelfth Night and Knight of The Burning Pestle focus on youth and happy endings. Romance, like The Tempest often has middle-aged and older protagonists in central roles, Prospero, Antonio and Gonzalo. Ferdinand and Miranda are completely controlled by Prospero, like pawns, underlined by the game of chess they play, showing the audience that beneficent wielding of power is a prerequisite of order. The Tempest highlights community, using Kings, Princes and Nobles as characters inherently powerful and show order can be restored even in the midst of a tempest, albeit completely controlled and manipulated by Prospero. Romance emphasises the role and power of nature rather than human nature, the storm at the beginning of the play shows how fragile order imposed by men can be. In The Tempest characters experience events with a symbolic effect beyond rational understanding, requiring a suspension of belief and acceptance of the existence of magic, magical figures together with the ability of Prospero to create a storm, as a Sorcerer. Themes of order, transgression, atonement and subsequent redemption rather than punishment are constant throughout, symbolic of the forgiving nature of God rather than that of vengeance.
Knight of the Burning Pestle pokes fun at contemporary theatre, involving the audience to question clichéd literary devices in a farcical way. A precursor to what is now satire. The play shows us we all have idiosyncrasies, bad habits and our own perspectives, that may not reflect reality and our values could be of exaggerated importance. The message of the play is to ask us to reconsider the status quo, to reflect on order and how our sense of order is moulded by those around us and accepted conventions of behaviour. It actually transgresses the conventions of contemporary theatre and by implication criticises Shakespeare’s work as too fantastical and ordered.
Power, betrayal and treachery are recurring themes in The Tempest: Antonio betrays Prospero; Caliban accuses Prospero of betraying him, by gaining his trust and then taking the island; Sebastian conspires with Antonio to kill Alonso; Stephano and Caliban plot to kill Prospero and become “king o’the isle.” These themes of betrayal are portrayed as negative and as undermining order, Prospero was a good Duke but his brother by implication bad. Treachery is thus portrayed as sinful and to result in punishment, Judas betraying Jesus is an obvious example. Donne betraying Catholicism is another example, which he explores in Holy Sonnet XIV.
The Tempest presupposes that kingship is required, even a commonwealth, as Gonzalo describes it, needed a King[quote]. The play shows that hierarchical political superstructures ruled by a King, and Aristocracy, are a paradigm of social existence. We must not consider changing the order; merely consider that which makes a good King better. All of the characters are subject to beneficent control by Prospero. Power and order in all forms is considered. Prospero is symbolic of Statehood and the Divinity of Kings, exemplified by his mastery of Arts and his use of magical books and words to control and scrutinise events. Prospero’s manipulation of the other human characters and Caliban with the magical sprite Aerial, together with his power to control the weather with Art, symbolises political control and manipulation of people, facilitated by a superior knowledge, gained from magic books. The mystery encompassed in books Prospero “valued above my Dukedom” is central in The Tempest. The power of knowledge, gained from reading, is portrayed as magical, this knowledge is used by Prospero to wield power and manipulate events to restore power to himself and order in the aftermath of the storm. Superficially he uses power for benevolent purposes eventually reconciling his differences with old adversaries and restoring the status quo. His apparent benevolence is questioned in his treatment of Caliban. However Caliban is portrayed as a stupid drunk, casting doubt on his version of events that is also contradicted by Prospero. In Caliban the morality of colonialism and the imposition of order upon the savage native is explored, alternative views of the
“… the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.”
The importance of conformity is underlined when Prospero orders Ferdinand and Miranda to be temperate in their love, and for Ferdinand, unlike Adam to avoid temptation, warning him harshly :
“If thou dost break her virgin knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister’d
Sour-ey’d disdain, and discord, shall bestrew
The union of your bed”.
The theme of chastity is continued at the masque, which features Juno, who is the Greek goddess of marriage and home; Prospero specifically excludes Venus and Cupid, goddesses of beauty and love. The need to follow rules and the perils of transgressions are replete throughout the play. Stephano and Trinculo, portrayed as hopeless drunks are brought to justice and Caliban tortured for attempting to rape Miranda. Prospero is himself intemperate “with anger so distemper’d”, but eventually controls it, clearing the sky of the tempest and forgiving his adversaries, for the sake of future order. The themes of transgression and redemption are powerfully explored in Holy Sonnet XIV.
The Petrarchan sonnet form, that Donne utilised, consists of an octet, which puts forward an idea, obstacle or scenario, followed by a sestet that provides a solution or commentary. Iambic pentameter is required to adhere to the form and the rhyme scheme should be abbaabba or abbacddc followed by xyzxyz or other variations using two or three rhyme sounds.
While Donne utilised the form in Holy Sonnet XIV he incorporated enjambment, running one line into another and half rhyme in lines 10 and 12. Taking the half rhyme into account the rhyme order is abbacddc efefgg, on the face of it conforming to the rhyme order. Poetic form and the strictures imposed thereby inform the poem, the structure becomes part of the language, the pattern of which may influence the meaning. The half rhyme highlights the words “enemie” and “I”, this emphasises that the narrator is a sinner and also counteracts the use of “you” in the poem to focus the reader’s attention on the narrator. These transgressions of form thus convey meaning and shift emphasis. He also transgresses acceptable norms in his vivid depiction of sexuality within a religious sonnet. But for the fact hat the poem is included within the Holy Sonnets it would be possible to interpret it as an erotic poem with subtle references to Christianity, the title Holy Sonnet XIV reverses this conception. Petrarchan sonnets were usually concerned with love of a man for a woman. The use of this form in the genre with such sexually charged language transgresses the accepted rules of form and convention to produce a powerful effect. Freeing the poem from the meditative form of traditional religious poetry of the time is the use of irregular metre and random caesuras,
The opening line utilises enjambment and is a mixture of trochees and iambs. “Batter my heat” can be read as two spondees or a trochee and iamb. The provocative nature of the poem is enhanced by the use of the word heart, which was common slang for vagina. The congruence of rape and Godly redemption within an explicitly violent sexual poem would trouble many Christian readers. Donne converted to Anglicanism, betraying his Catholic faith. The anger at this transgression is vividly portrayed metaphorically as a bereft lover who craves his lover’s touch even if this is forced masculine sexual violence.
The Tempest in form is written in lyrical iambic pentameter, utilising rhyme and blank verse. It is a romance consisting of five Acts. The themes running though the play deal with chaos and order, power and pain, transgression and redemption. The structure does not transgress conventions of form; the substance shows us that transgression will always be countered by the power of order. Transgressions in this setting are both punished and forgiven and occur in equal measure. The play is not more interested in order or transgression but shows us one cannot exist without the other. Holy Sonnet XIV challenges the conventions of the sonnet form and makes the reader consider God in an erotic context. This deviation from accepted form and convention of the time deals with Donne’s conversion and is symbolic of the chaos caused in his psyche because of it. It invites the reader to experience a questioning of religious belief and the conception of it in a raw and powerful appeal to base emotions. It is the transgressive form that makes the poem so powerful. To that extent the poem is concerned with transgressing order. The poetry and drama of the early modern period is equally concerned is equally concerned with transgression and order
Donne, John. “Batter my heart, three personed God…” The Norton Introduction to Poetry.
Ed. J. Paul Hunter.
Guibbory, Achsah. The
Ed. Thomas N. Corns.
Kerrigan, William. “The Fearful Accommodations of John Donne.” English Literary Renaissance.
4(1974): 337-363.
Marotti, Arthur F. Critical Essays on John Donne.
Publishing Co, 1994.
Payne, Craig. “Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV.” Explicator. v54 (1996) 209-213
Steig, Michael. “Donne’s Divine Rapist: Unconscious Fantasy in Holy Sonnet XIV.”
Studies in Literature: A Journal of Interdisciplinary
Criticism. 491972):52-58. Wanninger, Mary Tenney. “Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV.” Explicator 28(1969): Item 37.
Bibliography
Jung, C. G. Man and His Symbols (also von Franz, Henderson, Jacobi, Jaffe London: Picador, 1964.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Synchronicity – An Acausal Connecting
Palmer, D. J. (Editor) The Tempest – A Selection of Critical Essays
Shakespeare, The Tempest (the play with textual notes and commentaries)
Tillyard, E. M. Shakespeare’s Last Plays
Traversi, Derek Shakespeare: The Last Phase
Also: John Wilders’ lecture on The Tempest given at
Also: Paul Rickard’s Thinking Points and other handouts and class discussions.
Donne, John. “Batter my heart, three personed God…” The Norton Introduction to Poetry.
Ed. J. Paul Hunter.
Guibbory, Achsah. The
Ed. Thomas N. Corns.
Kerrigan, William. “The Fearful Accommodations of John Donne.” English Literary Renaissance.
4(1974): 337-363.
Marotti, Arthur F. Critical Essays on John Donne.
Publishing Co, 1994.
Payne, Craig. “Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV.” Explicator. v54 (1996) 209-213
Steig, Michael. “Donne’s Divine Rapist: Unconscious Fantasy in Holy Sonnet XIV.”
Studies in Literature: A Journal of Interdisciplinary
Criticism. 491972):52-58. Wanninger, Mary Tenney. “Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV.” Explicator 28(1969): Item 37.