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    The document compares the plots of Shakespeare's The Tempest and Homer's Odyssey, noting several structural coincidences between the two works. Both stories feature witches who were banished to islands where they practiced magic. In The Tempest, Sycorax was exiled to an island, and in the Odyssey, Circe was sent to her island domain. Both witches exerted influence over spirits and men on their islands prior to the arrival of the main characters. The document then analyzes similarities and differences in how Prospero and Circe receive visitors to their islands and achieve reconciliation with enemies.

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    The document compares the plots of Shakespeare's The Tempest and Homer's Odyssey, noting several structural coincidences between the two works. Both stories feature witches who were banished to islands where they practiced magic. In The Tempest, Sycorax was exiled to an island, and in the Odyssey, Circe was sent to her island domain. Both witches exerted influence over spirits and men on their islands prior to the arrival of the main characters. The document then analyzes similarities and differences in how Prospero and Circe receive visitors to their islands and achieve reconciliation with enemies.

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    207 views2 pages

    Structural Coincidences Between The Plots of

    Uploaded by

    viralvarez
    The document compares the plots of Shakespeare's The Tempest and Homer's Odyssey, noting several structural coincidences between the two works. Both stories feature witches who were banished to islands where they practiced magic. In The Tempest, Sycorax was exiled to an island, and in the Odyssey, Circe was sent to her island domain. Both witches exerted influence over spirits and men on their islands prior to the arrival of the main characters. The document then analyzes similarities and differences in how Prospero and Circe receive visitors to their islands and achieve reconciliation with enemies.

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    Structural Coincidences between the Plots of The Tempest and Circes Myth

    After reading both masterpieces, I daresay both works share striking structural coincidences which are worth having a look at. Without attempting a detailed comparison between both plots, I will present some shared features of both works and I will put forward significant similarities. Firstly, it must be pointed out that in both plots there exist witches who practised sorcery and as consequence, they were banished from their homes to an island on which the stories would take place. In The Tempest, Sycorax was a foul witch from Algiers whom while pregnant with Caliban, was abandoned on an uninhabited island by sailors. In Homer's Odyssey, Circe was a goddess skilled in magic potions who was expelled by her subjects and placed by her father on the solitary island of Aeaea where she ruled a kingdom. Secondly, both sorcerers have an devilish influence on their respective islands, prior to the main character`s arrivals. In the Tempest, Sycorax enslaved and haunted spirits, among them we can find Ariel. In the Odyssey, Circe turned unlucky men who had shipwrecked at sea near her island, into tamed lions and wolves. Thirdly, in both stories there is an arrival of the main characters at their respective islands. However, in this point we can see an inversion of the plots in the sense that in The Tempest Prosperous awaited the arrival of those who had betrayed him so that he could punish them by making them undergo trials and suffering and therefore, take revenge. In the Odyssey, Circe awaited the arrival of sailors only to turn them into animals. Put into other words, in one play the main character awaits the antagonists to torment them and teach them a lesson, whereas in the other one the antagonist awaits the main character (Odysseus) to harm him and cast a spell on him and his crew. Fourthly, in both works of literature atonement takes place through magic. In The Tempest, Prosperous defeated Sycorax, enslaved her son Caliban and freed Ariel, the spirit whom he used as a servant to torment those who had betrayed her. In the Odyssey, after Circe turned half the crew into pigs, Odysseus managed to free his people by means of a magic brew God Hermes had provided him with. This sprig of Moly protected him from Circe's spells. Fifthly, atonement and reconciliation take place. In the Tempest, traitor to Prosperous, Alonso, repented of his crimes against the latter and restored his dukedom, at the same time asking for Prospero's pardon .The subsequent union between Alonso's son (Ferdinand) and Prospero's daughter (Miranda) is seen as the ultimate reconciliation between the two men as they look forward to the future through their children. This will mean harmony, restoration of order, and forgiveness. In the Odyssey, Cirse fell for Odysseus and she bore him three sons, among them Telegonus, who once elder enough set out in search of his absent father but killed him unknowingly. This may sound sad, however, in this story there is also a romantic union of enemies or sons of the enemies as later on Telegonus was back to his homeplace, together with Penelope (Odysseus' wife) and other son Telemachus, to Aeaea. Circe made them all inmortal and

    married Telemachus whereas Penelope married Telegonus. To put in a nutshell, in both stories there is reconciliation of the enemies through marriage. All in all, there seem to exist analogies between both literary works. Their shape or layoutseems very similar regardless the differences of the complexity of the plot and the message they bear. It looks to me as if Shakespeare had borrowed some aspects of place and sequence of events -islands, witches, undeserved harm, sorcery, magic, atonement and reconciliation- from The Odyssey and had tangled them with complex and assorted characters so that he could get a play worth performing. I cannot totally assure whether Shakespeare did make this association between both plays or if these similarities are just pure chance. Maybe plays in general deal with topics which have concerned men for ages, such as the fear of being harmed and isolated, the fear for the supernatural and not being able to face the danger a human being may be exposed to throughout his life. In both plays, however, the characters settle conflict and reach their goals successfully thus, it is this purgative catharsis which has turned these literature pieces into universal and successful ones.

    Virginia Loren Alvarez Octubre 2013 UNLA

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