The Tempest: Chosen Quote #1

Greetings all,

First, the Wiki is officially up and ready for editing at here (my apologies for ripping off the name of our professor's blog).

And that moves us to experiment number one. Of all of the beautiful parts of the Tempest, my favorite was the one that follows.

You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
As if you were dismayed. Be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air.
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself—
Yea, all which it inherit—shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vexed.
Bear with my weakness. My old brain is troubled.
Be not disturbed with my infirmity.
If you be pleased, retire into my cell
And there repose. A turn or two I’ll walk
To still my beating mind.

The writing is beautiful, to be sure, but in my mind what Shakespeare was trying to say here extends even beyond Shakespeare's works. The basic theme, one could say, is, "What happens when all this disappears?" It seems almost to have a bit of an existentialist ring to it. "All of this will dissolve, the actors and the parade we put on will all come to naught," Shakespeare seems to say.

Yet Shakespeare implies that this question as to what reality really is extends past the play itself to what Shakespeare does. The "Great Globe" could be a reference to the Globe Theater where many of Shakespeare's plays were shown. It's almost as if Shakespeare uses a character describing how much a play within a play seems to be temporary to express something about not only the play they're in, but plays in general, and far be it from me to be the English teacher that finds meaning when it's not there, but is this not about life in general?

Scripture seems to hint at this feeling at times.

I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our blives passed away like as it were unto us a dream (Jacob 7:26)

For now we see through a glass, darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Or to quote slightly less reputable sources...

"Is this real life?"


"Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy?"


This theme is one that is common throughout all sorts of media.