Shakespeare's The Tempest as a Romance

     The Tempest is interesting to critics for many reasons. Most noticeably, the fact that it is Shakespeare's last piece as well as the possibility that it may portray Shakespeare's intentions on his retirement. The debate over how to read and analyze the content of The Tempest, however, is second to the debate of its genre. Genre is ambiguous and, often more than not, a work can fall under multiple genres, so it doesn't seem like a big problem at first. Critics could just categorize The Tempest as another both, couldn't they? However the problems arise upon analyzing the conventions of both a typical Shakespearean Romance compared to a typical Shakespearean tragedy.
      According the three definitions of tragedy given, The Tempest exhibits characteristics of all three. As in Classical tragedy, "a protagonist of high estate...falls from prosperity to misery through a series of reversals and discoveries as a result of a "tragic flaw."" Prospero is usurped of his dukedom by his own negligence and naivety, abandoning his kingdom for his brother to administer as well as expecting his land would be the same and he could just return whenever he felt like it. The play also occurs in unity with place and time, a valued characteristic of Aristotlean Greek plays. As in a Medieval tragedy, again the Tempest exhibits a character who "falls from high to low estate as the Goddess Fortune spins her wheel." Goddess Fortune could be argued Prospero himself as he was the one to send the storm to shipwreck his betrayers to bring them punishment. To the ones on board, it certainly would seem like a feat of Fortune, however it'd be a bit of a stretch to say The Tempest was a Medieval tragedy. The same goes for The Tempest being categorized as a Classical tragedy, as we know that The Tempest does not occur in a twenty four hour time period adjacent to real time as many Aristotlean tragedies do.

     Unsurprisingly, The Tempest would likely be classified as a Renaissance tragedy. It is clearly Prospero's negligence that leads to his fall from high estate, and "unlike classical tragedy...it tends to include subplots and comic relief" such as the many scenes of Trinculo and Stephano. The subplot of Miranda and Ferdinand would also support the claim of The Tempest being a Renaissance tragedy. The frequent use of ghosts can also be seen in the stage directions for a spirit or ghost banquet: "Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance"(Shakespeare 94).

     However, the debate doesn't end with Shakespeare's The Tempest being classified as any sort of tragedy at all, but rather with the argument that it is a "tragi-comedy" as Shakespeare's contemporary John Fletcher put it (Schwartz 1). For one, unlike any of Shakespeare's flagship tragedies, think Hamlet and Macbeth, no one dies in the The Tempest. Whereas the majority of important characters in his other tragedies end up pushing daisies from the dirt down under, the play concludes without a significant amount of bloody violence or a single death. Professor Schwartz also analyzes that "tragedy is governed by a sense of Fate" and that "tragedies depict alienation and destruction, Romance, reconciliation and restoration"(Schwartz 2). As with my argument against Medieval tragedy, Fate does not play a large role, however the storm that caused Prospero to shipwreck with Miranda onto a deserted island before the play starts can be attributed to Fate, though nothing else might be so surely. The shipwreck would be a tragedy, with the characteristics of alienation of their being and destruction of their ship and lives. However, the shipwreck occurred before the time of the play itself and as Schwartz concludes, "romance is a natural step in describing human experience after tragedy" (Schwartz 2). Schwartz also notes that "Romance often has middle-aged and older protagonists" like Prospero, and that "Romance is unrealistic...[and has] supernatural elements abound" such as the many spiritual and magical occurrences in The Tempest, such as the existence of Ariel upon many others. Finally, Schwartz claims that "the action, serious in theme, subject matter and tone, seems to be leading to a tragic catastrophe until an unexpected trick brings the conflict to harmonious resolution" (Scwartz 3). This is evident in the deus ex machina before the conclusion that Ferdinand is alive and hooked up with Miranda. 

      As a result, I would categorize The Tempest as a romance. The true tragedy does not occur during the time period of the play itself, and although Prospero was alienated before, many people were on the island with them now, whether by their own will or not. Prospero finally gets to speak with his brother Antonio and Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love. Most importantly, I believe, no one really dies and no one really suffers all too much during the course of the play. And also the definitions of tragedy list many characteristics of different types of period tragedies, the essential element of tragedy will always be that is unfortunate and ends unfortunately. Therefore, Shakespeare's The Tempest seems best suited to be classified as Romance.

    

Works Cited

Schwartz, Debora B. "Romance (Tragi-comedy)." California Polytechnic State University, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Sparks eServer. PDF File. 13 Jan. 2015.