Magic in the Tempest

The Tempest, written in 1611, was one of William Shakespeares last plays. It has a conspiracy of superb characters, interesting settings, and a good plot line--all held in concert by the running theme of whoremonger, and its ever-present importance. A close set(predicate) examination of the magic in The Tempest, and the publics view of magic at the time, will give insight as to Shakespeares choice of magic as a theme, and why it has made the play so successful and timeless.

        

Magic presented itself to Shakespeare as a controversial topic, as it had been the persecution of those believed to serve black magic, (witches) that had been at the forefront of societal concerns since 1050. However, after 500 years of witch-hunts, a turning point occurred in 1584, at the subject of Reginald Scots The Discouerie of Witchcrafte (The Discovery of Witchcraft). This book was the first major book to rat witch-hunts and their ringleaders, and unquestionable the first book in English to genuinely hypothesize about the methods of these so-called witches. It contained one chapter of approximately 20 pages describing what we talent view as unsophisticated, old-time magic tricks.

         1 would assume that it was this text, and texts succeeding this (The Art of Juggling, written by Samuel Ridd in 1610 also presented a few how-tos of magic) were probably not besides what suggested the idea of using magic as a them to Shakespeare, besides in addition, provided methods as to how the magic in the play might be accomplished.

        Despite the fact that in retrospective summary it is fairly clear that witches were nothing more that magicians with a slightly different presentation, audiences were not always aware of -and those that were, were rarely convinced(p) by--the two aforementioned texts. Witches were still persecuted and witch-hunts did not actually learn until...

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