In the upcoming argumentative essay multiple sources are required for my side and the opposite side. So for the opposite side I will use an article that I think is very reliable, coming from the Gale database, and can serve as a strong point of the “they say”. The source breaks down The Tempest and defends the claim of it being about revenge. The author uses the quote from Prospero, “The rarer action is virtue than in vengeance,” and states how it is ironic for Prospero since his name “suggests hope for the future (Pro-spero) rather than obsession with the past.” This implies that Shakespeare knowingly did this trying to make a play about revenge.
The article makes a claim that the play may be read as a “gloss on Donne’s luminous aphorism ‘the art of salvation, is but the art of memory‘.” The author is saying that the play resembles the quote throughout almost the entirety of the play. He goes on to explain the quote coming from a Sermon that is about the remembrance with the Holy Eucharist. This is then related to Caliban being welcomed by Stephano who uses the beer as a symbol of the Eucharist. Caliban joins Stephano in order to get back at Prospero after all those years. The author uses all these pieces to logically claim that The Tempest is a story of revenge.
In the article I can use multiple quotes from this article as it deeply considers the thought that Shakespeare put into the theme of revenge in the play. One specific quote I plan to use is “The result is that, in terms of revenge convention, the plotting is effectively confined to that part of the action in which the usurper confronts the past that has returned to punish him.” I believe this quote can be used to describe The Tempest extremely well. This article will be very useful in most of my “they say” with its variety of quality statements.
Neill, Michael. “Remembrance and Revenge: Hamlet, Macbeth and The Tempest.” Shakespearean Criticism, edited by Lynn M. Zott, vol. 68, Gale, 2003. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1420045753/LitRC?u=j043914&sid=LitRC&xid=b28d84a9. Accessed 17 Apr. 2020. Originally published in Jonson and Shakespeare, edited by Ian Donaldson, Macmillan Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, 1983, pp. 35-56.
Jamieson, Lee. “What to Know About Prospero From ‘Tempest’.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 20 Oct. 2019, http://www.thoughtco.com/prospero-in-the-tempest-2985277.
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