The Renaissance Man - Essay Example

The Renaissance Man William Shakespeare is typically thought of today as a serious that requires extensive, sober study if one is to understand his works. Of his most well-known plays today, most are tragedies or histories, with a few that extend outside of these bounds. The original context for Shakespeare’s plays was the same as it is today – to provide an evening’s worth of entertainment to a paying audience with perhaps a small element of social commentary and some educational enlightenment passed along in the undercurrent. “Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed to an audience from different social classes and of varying levels of intellect. Thus they contain down-to-earth characters who appeal to the working classes, side-by-side with complexities of plot which would satisfy the appetites of the aristocrats among the audience” (Geraghty, 2002). The progress of mankind can be traced through numerous different venues, not the least of which is humankind’s identification with and understanding of what constitutes the supernatural. These ideas of the supernatural are reflected in the way in which the various characters of these works interact with the world of the supernatural as it relates to the self. At the same time, it has been suggested in a number of different ways and in a number of different cultures that the fundamental nature of the parent can be seen to some degree in the fundamental nature of the child. This nature can also be revealed to some extent in the various ways in which the parent relates to the child. Literature, in telling us stories of different people, can often reveal much more detail regarding what is meant when one refers to a particular character type such as the renaissance man by how this figure is revealed through his or her relationships with others, particularly those who are most dependent on them. To illustrate how this might occur, it is possible to look to the child-like characters in William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” to gain an understanding of the renaissance man as he is represented in the figure of Prospero. The term Renaissance Man is often thrown around as if it should be widely understood by those within hearing. It is used in statements such as “Jim is a true Renaissance Man,” and thus presented as self-explanatory. A film featuring the name “Renaissance Man” was created in 1994 that sheds some light on the term as the actor Danny DeVito struggles to teach relatively uneducated military recruits how to think by having them analyze Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” with him. Looking to define the term more clearly, one discovers it refers to “a person who is skilled in multiple fields or multiple disciplines, and who has a broad base of knowledge” (Ellis-Christensen, 2003). The term is said to have originated with the Italian Renaissance as it was exemplified by individuals such as Leonardo da Vinci who were able to work in a wide variety of fields and were often familiar with a number of different languages and disciplines. Leonardo, for example, was a painter, a sculptor, a natural scientist, an inventor, an engineer, an advisor and was knowledgeable in human anatomy at a time when this was still considered largely a taboo subject. Prior to the Renaissance, men who were thoroughly educated in this way were called ‘polymaths’ in the old Greek language. “Being a polymath was something to aspire to, and occasionally remains so … [Men] were expected to know several languages, understand philosophy and scientific teachings, appreciate literature and art, and further, to be deft sportsmen” (Ellis-Christensen, 2003). The degree to which individuals were seen to be Renaissance Men was often depicted as they were seen in relation to others. Danny DeVito is seen as a Renaissance Man in his film because of his emphasis on thinking as an end goal and his use of William Shakespeare’s text as a means of achieving that goal. Shakespeare himself also used this technique as can be seen in one of his more mature plays. In “The Tempest,” Shakespeare reveals Prospero’s Renaissance Man status as he is revealed through the actions and intelligence of the younger generation. According to Shakespearean expert Northrop Frye, “The Tempest” is, most probably, the last play Shakespeare wrote entirely alone. It has been referred to as “Shakespeare’s Play” because the character of Prospero seems to be coordinating the actions on the island in the same creative way that Shakespeare must have used to conduct the actors and the scenes on the stage (Frye, 1370). Within the contents of the play, it is made clear that Prospero was once the Duke of Milan at some point in the distant past, but he was overthrown by his brother, Antonio, who worked with Alonso, the King of Naples, to seize power of the Dukedom. Thanks to his friends, Prospero was able to escape Milan alive, taking with him his infant daughter in a small boat provisioned with some food, fresh water, clothing and Prospero’s treasured books. The books are what enable him to become a true Renaissance man. The books gave him the power he now wields over the elemental spirit Ariel and also over the brute force of Caliban once Prospero and his daughter land safely on the nearly uninhabited island of Sycorax. It is also how he ensures his daughter is sufficiently educated for her social position in the ‘real’ world when it finally comes time for them to return. “Prospero’s restoration of the natural order is accomplished partly by supernatural means, and the tendency has been to exaggerate the strangeness of these supernatural elements at the expense of their deeper significance in relation to the central theme. In ‘The Tempest’, more than in any other of Shakespeare’s plays, the supernatural is used as a means of giving further amplification and extension to the natural” (Bowling 206). More than magic or supernatural events, it is Prospero’s knowledge and trained intelligence as a true renaissance man that enables him to return everything back to its appropriate place and restore society to its proper balance. Prospero and his child arrive at an island that was once inhabited by a woman called Sycorax and her child. When the old witch died sometime prior to Prospero’s arrival, her son Caliban, with some justification, considered the ownership (and rulership) of the island to have descended to him. “In the case of Sycorax, although she is dead and thus physically absent in the play, she is firmly present in the memories of Caliban and Prospero who repeatedly invoke her to forward their practical and ideological aims” (Lara 81). While Prospero continues to insist that Sycorax was evil, a witch considered “so strong / That [she] could control the Moon” (Shakespeare V, i), Caliban insists that she was no more cruel or wicked than Prospero. The comparison between Sycorax and Prospero begins with the beginning of the play as they both arrived ‘pregnant’ with a small child and are thus each illuminated through their children. Both characters manage to exert supernatural powers over other supernatural beings such as the sprite Ariel. However, where Prospero survives to pass his wisdom and knowledge down to his child, thus preserving some element of his accomplishments, Sycorax is removed before the play opens and removes with her any chance that Caliban might be able to fend for himself. “Sycorax dies before even teaching Caliban to speak; consequently, he lacks the knowledge to disprove Prospero’s slander” (Vadde, 2007). Although she proved able to imprison Ariel in the pine tree, she is unable to get him out of it again and he is thus forced to spend 12 agonizing years trapped within the wood until Prospero, with his similar but more extensive knowledge. Prospero continues to insist that Sycorax had unholy arcane knowledge which makes her an instrument of the devil but neglects to acknowledge that his own ideas are shaped by the same sources. Within the first act, it is possible to deduce that many of Prospero’s actions at this point are turned toward revenge against his usurping brother and the king that helped him. The action of the play doesn’t actually begin until Miranda has reached maturity and must begin considering marriage. It just so happens that around this time, Prospero’s old enemies, Alonso and Antonio, come within Prospero’s range. This seems to place him backward in society, within the traditional mold of the Middle Ages in which honor and retribution were everything (Jones 50). However, his philosophical stance begins to emerge even in the action of creating a storm to sink his brother’s ship as he includes the command that no one should suffer any serious harm as a result. He is still angry as he exclaims to Miranda “that a brother should / Be so perfidious” (Shakespeare I, ii, 67-68) and refers to him as “Thy false uncle” (76), but Prospero seems willing to accept part of the blame. He admits to Miranda that even when he was Duke, he had a tendency to hand the business end of things over to his brother because “Me (poor man) my library / Was dukedom large enough” (I, ii, 109-10). By bringing his brother back within his power by shipwrecking him on Prospero’s island, Prospero seems content to repair this relationship by granting an unasked for forgiveness and reclaiming his old title: “For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother / Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive / Thy rankest fault – all of them; and require / My dukedom of thee, which perforce I know / Thou must restore” (V, i, 130-134). The only things Antonio has to say after this is said much later. His statements at this point refer to Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban which seems to tacitly accept Prospero’s demands. Thus, through his relationship with his younger brother, Prospero is revealed to be a man with at least some degree of inner knowledge, the capacity to forgive and the intelligence to realize what is actually important to him. This image is, in many ways, different from the image received of this character through his relationship to his servants on the island. It is very clear at the beginning of the play that Caliban is an unwilling servant to Prospero. He is only kept in line because of his real fear of Prospero’s abilities and willingness to inflict pain and discomfort upon the defenseless son of Sycorax. Caliban is loyal because if he is not, “thou shalt have cramps / Side-stitches that shall pen they breath up; urchins / Shall, for that vast of night that they may work / All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinched / As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging / Than bees that made ‘em” (I, ii, 325-30). Although Caliban is turned from holding absolute sovereignty of an otherwise deserted island into the brutally exploited servant of castaways drifting on the whim of wave and wind, this is not his chief complaint. Upon his arrival on the island, it seems Prospero’s first inclination was to behave as a renaissance man might be expected to behave in attempting to elevate Caliban to a higher intellectual level. Caliban says, “When thou cam’st first, / Thou strok’st me and made much of me; wouldst give me / Water with berries in’t; and teach me how / To name the bigger light, and how the less, / That burn by day and night; and then I loved thee” (I, ii, 333-336). However, upon discovering the more primitive islander attempting to take advantage of Miranda, Prospero imprisons Caliban in a rock in much the same way that Ariel had been imprisoned in a tree, reminding the audience that despite his highly advanced mind, even Prospero is still human underneath. “The argument you tried to violate Miranda therefore you shall chop wood belongs to a non-rational mode of thinking. In spite of the various forms this attitude may take, it is primarily a justification of hatred on the grounds of sexual guilt” (Mannoni & Bloch 106). In other words, in spite of his advanced learning and access to magical powers that all define him as a renaissance man, Prospero is still subject to the basest elements of being a man. The only other being individual inhabiting the island at the opening of the play is the sprite Ariel, who was imprisoned in a pine tree and released by Prospero upon his arrival and then immediately forces Ariel to serve him under threat of re-imprisonment. Ariel is therefore also a somewhat unwilling servant to Prospero even though he is treated with a deal more respect. “Ariel is loyal because of his debt of gratitude to Prospero, and because he is a very high-class spirit … But even he has a short memory, and has to be periodically reminded what his debt of gratitude is” (Frye, 1370). Still more of a father/child relationship than what he shares with Caliban, Prospero’s torment of Ariel is again focused more upon the ideas of teaching. “Prospero is not just torturing Ariel, but educating him, forcing him to remember, to connect past and present, to see the difference between evil and good, Sycorax and himself” (Homan 110). This treatment reveals some of the ideas of how the renaissance man is made, through relentless pursuit of knowledge and education. In thus educating the sprite, Prospero reveals to the audience the answer to the question raised with Caliban. Although Sycorax’s son brings out the animal in Prospero when Miranda is under threat, Ariel causes Prospero to want to explain how his motives in causing Ariel to work for him are so much different. Under Sycorax, Ariel proved to be “a spirit too delicate to act her earthy and abhorred commands” (I, ii, 272-273) and so he is entrapped in the tree for all eternity as far as Sycorax is concerned. Prospero, on the other hand, only asks the sprite to do things within his normal range of powers and not completely against his nature. This is the difference between Prospero and the witch that Caliban can’t understand within his limited intellectual capacities but that Ariel can if he will just remember the details. That this is the case is made clear as Ariel is able to prove learning by using Prospero’s techniques on the master. Near the end of the play, it is noted that “Ariel is using Prospero’s own methods, invading his imagination, teaching him to see and feel” (Homan 111) as a human again rather than simply as a sorcerer. That Prospero learns this lesson quickly and with wonder again illustrates him as a renaissance man, a man who has much greater understanding than the average individual yet enough humility to understand there is always more to learn. Unsurprisingly, both of these servant characters spend the majority of their ‘free’ time seeking some means of attaining true freedom. Caliban longs for the rulership of the island that he had following his mother’s death and prior to Prospero’s arrival and Ariel seeks the freedom inherent to elemental spirits such as himself that had been stolen from him by Sycorax. It is as he strives to ‘justly’ punish Antonio and Alonso for their crimes against him that Prospero realizes that he will also need to face justice for his treatment of these servants. This idea is driven home to him as he learns of the plots that have been developed against him by his own servants in the name of justice. It is perhaps most heartbreaking to him to see this taking place in the heart of his own daughter as she turns to Ferdinand. Being able to see things from another’s perspective for the first time, Prospero again proves he is a Renaissance man in his ability to learn from others. Watching others come to grips with their own inherent failures – Alonso with the idea that he has brought destruction upon himself when he still believes Ferdinand drowned and Caliban in realizing he was willing to follow a drunken fool – Prospero is able to accept how he brought about the events that landed him on an island for twelve years. “Prospero himself, while symbolizing enlightened civilization, nevertheless (at least in the early part of the play) shows a remarkable lack of self-knowledge which is evident in his lack of consciousness of the part his negligence played in the usurpation of Antonio” (Lian, 1996). This leads finally to his Epilogue in which he begs for the forgiveness of his audience even as he has forgiven those he whom he perceived as having wronged him. Miranda perhaps provides the greatest illumination as to her father’s status as a Renaissance man as it is she who benefits most from his knowledge. As a very small child, she is the only companion to her father as he escapes to the island and thus he is the principle figure of her life and the only true influence. He has instructed her from the books he brought with him and thus provided her with an education likely to surpass the education of other young ladies of her class as it remained uncluttered with the frivolous concerns for fashion, hair styles and jewelry that so often filled the minds of young girls. In this alone, Prospero reveals himself to be a renaissance man because he is capable of understanding that his child’s gender didn’t necessarily mean she was incapable of developing more advanced levels of intellectual ability. In Elizabethan times, as in the later Victorian era, women were considered only slightly more intelligent than animals despite the fact that the country was ruled by a queen. Houston notes that “the idea was prevalent that in intellect women were the inferior sex, that in their case the purpose of education was to fit them for marriage and the home” (Houston 158). However, it is important to Prospero that his daughter be educated to the same degree he would educate a man in the subjects found within his books. At the same time, though, it is impossible to ignore the careful planning and subtle manipulation Prospero brings forward to ensure Miranda and Ferdinand fall in love as he intended. It isn’t completely obvious at the beginning of the play that Prospero intends for Miranda and Ferdinand to marry although it is presumed by the audience when his care in separating Ferdinand from the rest of the group is revealed. Despite the obvious suitability of the match between the two young people, Prospero seems to be completely against the idea. “Prospero … seeks to cool their passions by forcing Ferdinand to labor for him, asserting his power in order to ensure Miranda’s purity. Nevertheless, the enforced labors of Ferdinand are far from Herculean and serve, in relationship to the plot, to delay the lovers’ happiness until its appropriate moment at the play’s end” (Best, 2005). In celebrating his daughter’s discovery of a worthy suitor in the figure of Ferdinand, Prospero conjures up a suitable engagement feast for them complete with a performance he describes as “some vanity of mine art; it is my promise, / And they expect it from me” (IV, i, 41-42). His ability to create this kind of display in this scene makes it perhaps the epitome of his depiction as a renaissance man in relation to his daughter. It is first made possible only because of Prospero’s previous demonstrations of supreme knowledge and intellect in all of the actions that have led up to this point. Through his relationships with the various characters that are in some way subservient to him, Prospero is continuously proven to be a true renaissance man. Understanding that the renaissance man is a man who is very highly educated in a number of different subjects, Prospero immediately proves his status in the supernatural events he brings about. However, the definition of the renaissance man does not rely upon the supernatural in order to achieve recognition. Instead, the renaissance man depends upon the great deal of knowledge he’s gained as a mortal man in order to successfully manipulate the world around him and the people in it. Through his relationship with his younger brother and the hatred he’s fostered through the years, Prospero is able to demonstrate the renaissance man’s continued ability to learn and grow even when he seems to be the master of his domain. This growth comes about as a result of Prospero’s growing recognition of his own role in bringing about the events that led to his earlier banishment as a result of the revelations he receives during his relationships with the servants Caliban and Ariel. Representing either end of the spectrum between enlightened being and base-born creature, these two characters enable Prospero to demonstrate his natural inclination to educate those around him at the same time that they reveal some of his more glaring internal weaknesses. It remains his actual child Miranda, though, that truly brings the best of the renaissance man out in Prospero. This becomes clear as he carefully manipulates events to bring the man he’s selected to be her husband, a strategic alliance for the family, within her reach and in such a way that the two young people seem to have no other option but to fall in love. When he finally accepts their developing relationship, he does so in a way that showcases the tremendous abilities he’s developed at the same time that he seems to be retiring his position as sorcerer of the island and return to the world of the everyday. References Best, Michael. (2005). “Policy on Quality Content.” Internet Shakespeare Editions, University of Victoria, Available July 12, 2009 from . Bowling, Lawrence E. (January 1951). “The Theme of Natural Order in The Tempest.” College English. Vol. 12, N. 4: 203-209. Ellis-Christensen, Tricia. (2003). “What is a Renaissance Man?” WiseGeek. Available July 5, 2009 from < http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-renaissance-man.htm> Frye, Northrop. (1969). “Introduction to ‘The Tempest’.” The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Ed. Alfred Harbage. New York: Penguin Books. 1369-1372. Geraghty, Jenia. (November 2002). “William Shakespeare. Twelfth Night.” Literature Study Online. Available July 12, 2009 from < http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/twelfth-night.html> Homan, Sidney. (1988). Shakespeare and the Triple Play. Bucknell University Press. Houston, Gail Turley. (1994). Consuming Fictions: Gender, Class, and Hunger in Dickenss Novels. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Jokinen, Anniina. (December 2, 1996). “Heroes of the Middle Ages.” Luminarium. Available July 5, 2009 from Lara, Irene. (November 2007). “Beyond Caliban’s Curses: The Decolonial Feminist Literacy of Sycorax.” Journal of International Women’s Studies. Vol. 9, N. 1. Lian, Yeo Siew. (1996). “The Tempest – Ideas vs. Dramatic Principle.” Prospero’s Isle. Available July 5, 2009 from . Mannoni, Octave & Maurice Bloch. (1990). Prospero and Caliban. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Renaissance Man. Dir. Penny Marshall. Perf. Danny DeVito, Gregory Hines, James Remar and Ed Begley Jr. Cinergi Pictures Entertainment, 1994. Shakespeare, William. (1969). “The Tempest.” The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Ed. Alfred Harbage. New York: Penguin Books. 1373-1395. Vadde, Aarthi. (2007). “On the Absent Presence of Mothers in the Tempest.” Universal Journal. Available July 12, 2009 from < http://ayjw.org/articles.php?id=605901> Read More