Forgiveness and Reconciliation by Sidney Walker

The Tempest is the first of William Shakespeare’s writings that I have read. What am I to make of The Tempest? Is it a story of “Exploration?” Of “Forgiveness and Reconciliation?” “Magic and the Supernatural?” Or of “a Marriage?” I don’t know; but it seems to me I can arrive at almost any interpretation that I want. In his last play, the mature playwright was very successful in illustrating one of life’s most important and difficult lessons: forgiveness and reconciliation are vital to the human quest for happiness. Prospero, the protagonist and main character, who had been severely wronged by his brother and friends, overcomes his anger and resentment and is genuinely able to forgive them while teaching them that greed and treachery come to no good end and result in a life of misery and regret.

Prospero forgives:

You, brother mine …
Would here have killed your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art. (V. i. 82-86)

… I do forgive
Thy rankest fault, all of them … (V. i. 147-148)

At times, Mazursky’s film (Tempest 1982) seems a parody of Shakespeare’s play (The Tempest 1611). The scenes on board Alonzo’s yacht seem a little too comical and ridiculous. However, Phillip’s mid-life crisis, the catalyst of the film, seems especially real and poignant. Phillip’s discovery of a white chest hair causes him to face the reality of growing older, forcing him to examine his life. He feels threatened by his now recognized sense of eventual mortality, illustrated by the foreboding shipwreck dream. This causes him to seek a new exciting adventure, which he found in the person of Aretha, a young nymph-like free spirit who is in direct contrast to his familiar, aging wife from whom he had drifted due to their dissimilar interests and acquaintances. Aretha, as Ariel’s counterpart, is critical to the eventual denouement of the film. She appears adept in determining the needs of others and is especially sensitive to Miranda, often offering her solace and companionship. Although it is hard to believe that Phillip would relinquish his relationship with the amazingly beautiful Aretha (in the person of the talented Susan Sarandon—the highlight of the film to me), it is believable that the facts of their history together and the blossoming of Miranda would cause him to reconcile with Antonia, his wife and Miranda’s mother. This reconciliation is precipitated by Aretha who announces “It’s Time to Forgive,” and is largely due to Antonia’s willingness to forgive him when she is asked to do so. Antonia’s reply of, “I’ve always loved you,” is a common response of women whose husbands have strayed and thus reinforced the accepted theory that women are generally more forgiving than men. The forgiveness and reconciliation theme is further supported by the fact that Miranda and her mother kiss and make up, although in a somewhat hurried and artificial way, and more so by the reconciliation of Alonzo and Freddy in a more convincing scene between father and son, a historically difficult relationship.

As Shakespeare advised through Prospero in The Tempest, “There, sir, stop. Let us not burden our remembrance with a heaviness that’s gone” (V. i. 229-231).