The similarities and differences between Aime' Cesaire's ATempest and William Shakespeare's The Tempest gives the reader an idea that it is a political response. From the way that both of the titles of these works of literature differ, an idea of concept is offered. They share a similar story line yet, after some one has read A Tempest : a different perspective is gained. A Tempest is actually considered a post colonial period piece of writing and one can acquire and prove this by the forms in which Aime' Cesaire portrays the characters and switches around their personalities and their traits,the time periods and the acquisition of language, and the ways power is used reveals that it is indeed a political response from a post colonial perspective.
Shakespeare's The Tempest and Cesaire's A Tempest differ in the way it is expressed. From the words, the and a the whole concept of tempest is changed completely. The definition of the word tempest could mean two things, a violent windstorm, frequently accompanied by rain,snow,or hail and/or a furiosus agitation, commotion,or tumult; an uproar. Shakespeare's The Tempest is correlated with the first definition while Cesaire's A Tempest associates more with the second one. Shakespeare's The Tempest starts of with a storm and on a ship [A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard] (Shakespeare 1667-69) while Cesaire's begins with Caliban shouting, "Uhuru!" (Cesaire 1721) which means freedom. Those examples gives us the concept of the storm and an a uproar.
The time period in which The Tempest was written is the age of exploration is within the time frame of the mid 1400's towards the late 1500's. The discovery and colonization of far off lands, these years were filled with pronounced advancements in cartography and navigational instruments, along with other advances in the study of anatomy and optics. The visual arts responded to scientific and technological developments with new ideas about the representation of man and his place in the world. The Tempest explores the anxieties that accompanied England's belated foray into a New World already occupied by Spanish plantations to the south and French missionaries to the north, not to mention the native peoples themselves. (David 1665)
On the other hand, A Tempest was written in 1969 which was with in the period of African American Civil Rights Movement. It strikes significant the ideals of Malcolm x, the modern english and the way language is used. The reader can identify more with Caliban then in The Tempest.
In Shakespeare's play, Ariel is considered a spirit while Caliban is half human, and half beast. On the contrast in Cesaire's version of The Tempest, Ariel is a mulatto slave while Caliban is a black one. The political analysis in Cesaire's A Tempest, is the color standard which is proposed. It is a known fact that lighter slaves were primarily house slaves while darker slaves worked in the fields. It is seen how Ariel is...
