Literature entry week 8 and 9: Tempting
Hey hey!
So I thought I'd kinda blend my entries from weeks 8 and 9 since they are both on the same topic. To me, the Tempest is so many things blended into a single play. There is love, magic, adventure, treatchery. Can so many things be coherrant?!!!!! Well apparantly so because "The Tempest" at least in my mind works.
My Favourite character in this has got to be Gonzalo. Mostly becuase, through all the crazy happennings, he remains the same ole Gonzalo. Just making the most of his situation.
Ariel is also an awesome character. So full of energy.
But I've gotta say, that BBC version we watched, just didn't do it for me. Too wooden, too feminine, too needy. too... Gold. No. Just No.
Now this is an awesome ariel. hahahahaha! It shows an element of not being human.The colours, while slightly psychodelic, are still symbolic of the earth. The black also shows Ariel's allusive nature.
Here, Ariel looks slightly unkept, and childlike, spuradic and somewhat genderless. Which I kind of like. No thanks the Disney I have the tendency to associate Ariel with a female, Something which at first made sense to me, being quite feminine in the way he/she speak. And magic always seems slightly...... girly?
Is that the right word to use. hahahahaha! I know it's wrong but I cant help making that assumption.However, As I read the play I felt that having Ariel as a female character would be a poor representation of women in general. Subserviant
Ok. So now moving on to another character I can't help liking. Caliban. The smelly old savage. Bitter and cantancarous. But he has every right. He is a native to the land and the unwilling slave to Prospero. What I like most about Caliban is his language. While he can speak very coarse and harsh in some parts of the play, in others he is poetic and clear.
I'm gonna come back and do a creative entry. But now I must sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Yes, I am a grandma.
Ok so I'm back. But instead of a creative entry I thought I'd continue on looking at Caliban. I've been looking at the different interpretations that directors create of this character, here are a few images that I found odd.
So fair enough, directors have poetic licence to interpret characters how they like, but my problem is the fact that these portrayals DON'T LOOK HUMAN!!!!!! Sure Caliban is a little bit different in appearance to some of the other characters, but he is still a human, and portraying him as a monster in my mind creates an even bigger gap between himself and the other characters who already treat him like a slave, or less than human.
Even the characters who are not human; Ariel, Juno, Iris and Ceres, are portrayed in human form.....
I still haven't decided yet if the appearance that Caliban is given in many productions of 'The Tempest' as a grotesque being is a possitive or negative thing. Is he a "Bad Guy" or a noble savage?
Any ideas?
Bye for now,
Lyndal