super
natural
element
universal belief in the supernatural. belief in magic and supernatural appearances, in ghosts and fairies actively interfering in human affairs and controlling the destinies of men was almost universal in the age of shakespeare. it was shared alike by the learned and ignorant. we are told that king james himself was much interested in demonology. some critics suppose that in the person of the royal magician, prospero, shakespeare pictures king james. the extent of this belief prevailing in shakespeare's age may be inferred from the treatment of the subject by marlowe in dr.fausius, by green in friar bacon and friar bungay and reginald scot's discoveries of witchcraft. it is not definitely known whether shakespeare himself believed in ghost and fairies, but it may be safely asserted that he had a profound belief in the mysterious. hence with so general a belief around him, he seized upon it to introduce the supernatural element in many of his plays, especially for the purpose of adding a note of mystery and a deep moral significance to his pictures of human life. the supernatural machinery thus plays an important part in a midsummer night's dream, julius caesar, hamlet, macbeth and in the tempest.
it is needless and out of place here to enter into discussion on the origin of this belief in ghosts and fairies. it is a relic of the pre-christian ideas of the people and was common among the ancient celts. teutons and graeco-romans.christianity could not destroy the belief and reconciled the ghosts and fairies to its system in an ingenious manner. in the middle ages it prevailed strongly and influenced the romances of the time. thus the belief has always existed; ghosts and fairies were always supposed to be a reality. though they no longer appeared. inspired my medival traditions. shakespeare's conception of the spirit world follows the popular medival tradition. as dr.johnson points out, the system seems to have been founded on the opinion that the fallen spirits have different degrees of guilt' had different habitation allotted to them at their expulsion, some being condemned to hell, some as hooker, who delivers the opinion of the poet's age, expresses it,' dispersed in air, some on earth, some in water, others in caves, dens and minerals under the earth. of these some were more malignant and mischievous than others. the earthly spirits seem to have been thought most depraved, and the aerial the least vitiated. the order of spirits and elves represented in the tempest exactly follows the hierarchy. ariel is the spirit of air, and after his task is done in the play prospero bids him 'to the elements be free'. he is a spirit too delicate and good to 'act abhorr'd commands, but who answered his best pleasure.' through this agency of ariel, prospero uses his power upon the inferior spirits of the fire, water and earth. ariel too partakes of the spirit of fire, for he makes the vessel of alonso" all a fire" with him. there are also other fiery spirits who in the form of a will-o-the wisp lead caliban, like a firebrand in the dark, out of his way(act ii,ii). the spirits of water comprise the sea nymphs and elves of brooks and standing lakes, the meaner spirits who perform the masque of juno, 'a vanity of mine art' as prospero says. the spirits of the earth are employed by prospero as instruments of punishment and torture. caliban knows them too well. as he says to stephano-
but they'll nor pinch fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me in the mire. later they appear 'in the shape of dogs and hounds' and hunt caliban and his fellow-plotters about the island. these are the nature and functions of the fairy beings. all the strange sounds and sweet airs of the island are the works of spirits. ariel himself is the mastersinger, whose songs add a rich lyrical element to the play. prospero the honored magician. prospero the master magician, has c command over the spirit world. he is no vulgar necromancer, who performs tricks like dr.faustus.he is a magician, a nab with giant's power which he uses like a god. he operates upon the elements through instrumentality of ariel, the familiar spirit. with his spirits he raises storms allays them, apparently wrecks the ship and saves it, exposes and defeats the criminals, drives the sinners home to contrition and lastly, brings about reconciliation and re-union. he is a sort of man-providence controlling and dominating the spirits. in this respect the theme of the tempest is a reversal of that of a midsummer night's dream. in the earlier part of the play man is the sport of the fairies. but in this mature play man is the master and not the slave of fairies and spirits. the source of this prenatural power of prospero resides in his books, which he prized above his dukedom. caliban is aware of this, and while laying out the conspiracy against the life his master he tells stephano that ere they attempted to destroy him they must first of all "possess his books, for without them he is but a sot, nor hath one spirit to command(act iii, ii,102). next to his books in importance stands his wand, with which he disarms ferdinand and makes his weapon drop(act i,ii). his magic robe, too, is another source of his power and with this he becomes invisible to mortal sight, and when he appears in his own person he "lays down his mantle"
bridging the real and unreal: psychological treatment of the supernatural. with what a psychological truth and delicacy has shakespeare handled the supernatural in the play! as prof.moulton has observed: "enchantment is a thing wholly outside our experience, it has no associations of memory interweaved with it, nor has it ever appealed to our sympathies in real life. the dramatist who dramatizes a super natural story is perpetually facing the practical difficulty- how to bridge the gulf between the supernatural matter and the experiences of his hearers and readers. there are three modes of treatment open to a dramatist, by which he may meet such a difficulty. first he may derationalise or remove as far as possible from common place experience, the general surroundings amidst which the supernatural is to appear. secondly he may rationalize the supernatural element itself, that is, give it as many as points of contact as possible with thought and experience. thirdly he may give further support to the supernatural element by uniting with it as much as possible of what is nearest akin to it in the world of reality.al three modes of treatment are combined in shakespeare's handling of enchantment in the present play" thus the scene of play has been completely insulated from the world of our common place experience. it is a far-off island, where the atmosphere is electrical with enchanctment.the inhabitants themselves are untouched by social influences and are the very products of nature and magic. as the play progresses our sense of reality is suspended and we accept
the unnatural things as quite natural. when at last the persons of our ordinary work-a-day world are introduced into the island, they too wholly fall under the mysterious influence and their realism only emphasizes the supernatural. it is with a perfect art that shakespeare blends the natural and supernatural. the transition from one to other is effected in a subtle process. by means of music which is the" only gate through which we pass into the world of enchantment." besides, some of the main situation of the drama, though eventually brought about by the magic of prospero, are in their essence quite natural. the love between ferdinand and miranda is an example in this point. they fall in love at first sight and are ready to sacrifice their all for the sake of love. though prospero says that his charms works on them, we know that boys and girls in love act in this manner and it requires no magic or whisper of fairies to guide them.caliban retains his savage nature to the last and all prospero's power to regenerate him fail. antonio the hardened villain is seized with no contrition till the end, while alonso, the novice in crime, is driven to repentance by his loss and sufferings. all this remains strictly within the confines of nature, though a supernatural influence is brought to bear upon them by prospero's magic. hence we may rightly say that the supernatural in the play blends and harmonizes with what is real and natural and produces no jarring effect on us. super natural versus natural magic. caliban's mother, though associated with reports of devil-worship and witchcraft in the new world, belongs to the old. she is a powerful witch, deliberately endowed with many of the qualities of classical witches, but also possessing a clearly defined place in the contemporary demonological scheme. she is a practitioner of "natural" magic, a goetist who exploited the universal sympathies, but whose power is limited by the fact that she could command, as a rule, only devils and the lowest order of spirits'. prospero, on the other hand, is a theurgist, his art is to achieve supremacy over the natural world by holy magic. the neo-platonic mage studies the harmonic relationship of the elementary, celestial, and intellectual worlds, and conceives it, "no way irrational that it should be possible for us to ascend by the same degrees through each world to the same very original world itself. the maker of all things, and first cause, from whence all things are, and proceed\u2026". his art is super natural; the spirits he commands are the daemons of neo-platonism, the criterion of whose goodness is not the christian one of adherence to, or defection from, god, but of immateriality or submersion in matter. he deals with spirits high in the scale of goodness, and if lesser spirits ("weak masters") are required, the superior daemon controls them on his behalf.
his art, being the art of supernatural virtue which belongs to the redeemed world of civility and learning, is the antithesis of the black magic of sycorax. caliban's deformity is the result of evil natural magic, and it stands as a natural criterion by which we measure the world of art, represented by prospero's divine magic and the supernaturally sanctioned beauty of miranda and ferdinand. the dramatic purpose of the supernatural the supernatural is this play is not without a certain dramatic purpose. while the controlling influence of supernatural machinery greatly reduces the element of suspense in the play, it does not entirely rob the human characters of their wills and their individualities. for instance, ferdinand and miranda do not fall in love with each other under the influences of prospero's magic. prospero's magic only brings
them together. their falling in love is spontaneous. likewise, it is not prospero's magic, but inherent wickedness of antonio and sebastian, which makes these two men conspire against alonso's life. thus while many of the situation are contrived by prospero's art, the characters behave in accordance with their natural inclinations and of their own accord. even the repentance of alonso is not brought by magic; it results naturally from the course of events. in short, the use of the supernatural in this play does not convert the human characters into mere puppets
