Prospero’s Magic in Shakespeares The Tempest Essay

Prospero’s Magic in Shakespeares The Tempest In order to understand the full effect the character of Prospero, in Shakespeares The Tempest, would have had on the audience, it is important to understand how magic was regarded during the time. During the Tudor and early Stuart periods, interest in magic ran high, and attitudes toward magic were varied and complex. For instance, magic was to be avoided by God-fearing men, but God permitted magic partly to demonstrate, by its overthrow, his own miraculous powers, and partly as one of the pitfalls that appeared in the world as a result of original sin (Traister 3). Also, many scholars and philosophers were magicians, and it was difficult to draw a line between magic and science†¦show more content†¦Agrippa separated ceremonial magic into two parts: goetic and theurgic. The line between these is easily and often blurred: Goetic magic, the calling up of evil spirits, is truly commerce with the devil and is as reprehensible as the opponents of magic claim. Theurgy, on the other hand, is the calling of angelic or planetary spirits and, though dangerous, is very attractive (Traister 8). Theurgy was the kind of magic that was the safest of the two, but was still seen as a kind of necromancy. Men that practiced the theurgic kind of magic were often labeled as magi, and were regarded as men of great wisdom. The magus sought to gain spiritual knowledge and to reach the divine. The magus was a symbol for the infinite possibilities that then seemed open to man. Natural magic was a means of acquiring access to the divine through nature. Through magic, some felt, man could climb to God (granted divine grace, of course) rather than simply mark time waiting out a weary life on earth (Traister 11). So, with all of these magical theories abounding, dramatists could draw from philosophical theory and literary tradition in creating a magician. From 1570 to 1620, there were at least two dozen plays involving magicians. On stage, the magician was presented as both admirable and flawed, and became a symbol of mans ambiguous place in the universe: a creature supremely talented but doomed to fail (Traister 35). The audiences were probablyShow MoreRelated tempmagic Prosperos Magic in Shakespeares The Tempest Essay1410 Words   |  6 PagesProsperos Magic in The Tempest      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Shakespeares The Tempest, Prosperos magic is the means that Prospero teaches his lessons to the plays various characters. Whether or not those lessons were learned or not is irrelevant. The main issue is that Prosperos character is indeed a complex one, and one that deserves much attention. 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