The Island by Kirsten Bjorn

Paul Mazursky’s 1982 film Tempest, based William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, tells of a man, Phillip, who flees the island of chaotic Manhattan to an unpopulated island off of the coast of Greece. Along with his youthful daughter Miranda, they run to this island to escape from the harsh realities of the real world. To Phillip, the island is his escape—not necessarily for freedom, but from his life. It seems as though he is having a mid-life crisis, and he is separating from his wife. Miranda chooses to leave with her father to escape from her mother, who is friendly with another man (who happens to be Phillip’s old, as in age and as in until most recently, boss).

As they leave the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, they find what they think is paradise, where Phillip believes that “this is the only place you can learn how to do things (the old fashioned way).” A woman named Aretha also accompanies Phillip and Miranda on the island as Phillip’s female friend and mother figure to Miranda. But even though they grow to love the island, paradise turns out to be more of a prison for Miranda and Aretha. Besides their servant Kalibanos, they are the only people on the island and havie no connection to the outside world. Miranda is a young teenager longing for experience with boys, shopping trips, and new music and movies. Phillip thinks he’s doing right by running away from his problems, but in the end they inevitably keep finding him (his wife and former boss locate him on the island).

Shakespeare’s Prospero was forced, along with his daughter, out of Milan to a magical island. Alonso, King of Naples, helped Prospero’s brother Antonio, oust Prospero from his position as King of Milan so he could take his brother’s throne. Prospero encounters Ariel, who becomes his air-spirit, and Caliban, whose mother once ruled the island until she died and Prospero made Caliban his slave. Prospero wants revenge for being put on this island, and he creates a storm using the magical powers he developed during his 12-year exile on the island. Despite Prospero’s anger toward his brother and Alonso, he is consumed with the only thing he has: his daughter Miranda. He is able to watch her grow from just a young girl to young lady, and he watches her suddenly becoming interested in men, such as Fernando.

Prospero was unwillingly forced to go to the island, but Phillip went voluntarily and enjoyed his freedom from the daily routine. Prospero never thought of the island as paradise, but rather as a prison. He was put there against his wishes. Phillip (not Miranda and Athena) loved calling the island home “paradise.” As Phillip’s wife Antonia stumbles upon him on the island, he finally realizes that his only true paradise is with his wife and daughter. Family is paradise.