"None that I more love than myself. You are a councilor. If you can command these elements to silence and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more. Use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. - Cheerly, good hearts! - Out of our way, I say." (4.1.18-24)
Scholars debate whether Shakespeare respected the existing socio-political hierarchy of his time.
The boatswain makes this speech in the midst of a violent storm at sea while on the verge of shipwreck. Among the passengers are the king of Naples, Alonso, the duke of Milan, Antonio, as well as the king's councillor, Gonzalo. Each one of these men tries to interfere with the command of the ship on the basis of his social position. Among the passengers are Prospero, a powerful sorcerer, and his assistant, Ariel, who created the tempest.
From this insubordinate outburst, Shakespeare undermines the social order as well as God being in charge. The boatswain begins to order and put the reality of the situation in perspective to Gonzalo. The boatswain sarcastically challenges Gonzalo to use his authority to stop the storm and then commands him to go below deck and stay out of the way. In a natural crisis of life and death, the true order becomes apparent. Shakespeare exposes social order as being fake and absurd; the idea of an inexperienced superior being in control of a competent subordinate in a life of death crisis is unnatural and goes against reason. With this speech, Shakespeare subverts the entire hierarchy of his time.
Hierarchy was considered apart of reality and nature. This was an unquestioned belief during this period. Everything was rightly ordered under God. Authority then proceeded from the Lord to religious authorities then the king. The social classes were established by nature in a natural order. The upper class were not only considered superior socially but also innately.
What made certain people from the Renaissance period decide not to conform to the social classes?
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
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